I Was Part of My Friend's Christmas Present

Thanks to all who made this possible.

For Christmas, my friend's children gave her an all-expense paid overnight getaway in Duluth with two friends. I was blessed to be one of those friends and we finally got away two weeks ago. Our only instructions were to laugh and have a good time and take a picture with the leis my husband sent along.

We went to Applebees, Engers Tower, Canal Park, Omnimax, Olive Garden, the Maritime Museum, Grandma's Restaurant, watched Curling (the sport), swam at the hotel, ate WAFFLES (my favorite!!) in the morning, walked for miles on the Lake Walk, toured Glensheen Mansion, and went shopping.

My friend was reluctant to have her
picture taken, saying that's what kids do.

We told her anyone could take silly pictures
and then proceeded to demonstrate:

A Karate Kid pose by Enger's Tower overlooking Duluth

This moose just begged for someone to take its
picture. That's my story and I'm sticking with that.

A Viking bicycle rack

Yours Truly

But we could only get two people...

in a picture unless...

...we asked someone to take our picture.

Down by the Lake Superior Lake Walk, a man offered to take our picture. Without planning we had all worn blue coats. After careful thought we named ourselves the Blue Bunny Club.

Finally we boldly asked a (gasp) total stranger jogging on the Lake Walk to take our picture. She laughed and said she's asked that all the time. Whew! That was easy.

This picture has a story I'm not allowed to tell. It's so hard to resist that I fear it might accidentally slip out. She said we weren't supposed to tell anyone, but she didn't want us to lie so if someone asked specifically if she hurt her leg doing a cartwheel by Enger Tower then we could say yes. But you didn't hear it here.

Okay, now she's relaxed and getting
the hang of taking silly pictures.

This next photo was a bit more challenging. We were in the Omnimax Theatre waiting for the movie to start. Who to ask to take the picture? Were the people sitting in front of us good sports? They didn't look friendly from the back but we took our chances. They turned out to be much more friendly from the front than they were from the back.

And now for the grand finale. We still hadn't taken a picture with the leis. At our last stop, the friend who originally was reluctant to take pictures said, "I've got the hang of this now," and she asked a guy loading his car to take our picture.

We told him he might be wondering what this was all about.

He smiled real big and said, "I don't need to know." He snapped this photo and drove away smiling.

This trip was such a treat. Our kids are friends. Our husbands are friends. But it was really nice to get away for a day with just us Moms. We had so much fun that we told our friend to suggest to her kids that next year we want to go to Mackinac Island. Wonder if it's okay to do cartwheels there. Oops, I didn't say that.