TORREZ TRAVELS

We woke up in Duluth, Minnesota. It was in the 50s, and raining. Luckily the hotel we were at had an exercise room. We spent 30 mins on treadmills, then took showers, packed everything up, and headed to the oil changers.

We had driven so many miles that it was already time to get an oil change. We had to wait about an hour in line for it, but we were inside a comfortable car, reading stuff on our phones. The poor workers were trying to run three bays at a time, and getting rained on. They were under a roof, but their garage doors were open to allow cars to drive in and out, and the storm was pretty wet and windy. After that was done, we went to a mall, to get some walking in. The malls I’ve been in recently in the west seem to be dying. There are many empty storefronts, and few visitors. That is not the case in Duluth. There were some empty storefronts, but not many, and there were lots of people shopping. We walked around for a bit more than an hour, when I couldn’t take it anymore and had to go look at a pair of cute pants that was 50% off. Turned out they still cost too much! But then we went into a bookstore. (What fun!) After that we checked out a sporting goods store. It was fun, but everything cost more than we thought it should. Then we started driving to our next stop.

First I wanted to show you a couple pics of downtown Duluth. It is a pretty city.

We didn’t see much, while we were close to Lake Superior it was very foggy. I’ve never been in so much fog, in fact. It made it hard to see where we were driving.

The most obvious sites were all the trees! Like I told you yesterday, we chose to travel east at the north end of Lake Michigan, so we drove through a small part of Wisconsin, and into Michigan. This area is separated from the rest of Michigan by the lake, so it is called the upper peninsula, or UP by locals.

This area is one of the most forest rich regions in the US. It’s really beautiful! Here are some pics.

I’ve seen white-barked trees in cities all my life, but this is where they grow naturally! And not just one kind! The Paper Birch, the Quaking Aspen, The Bigtooth Aspen, and the Balsam Poplar all have whitish bark. The quaking Aspen are easy to recognize because their leaves flick back and forth, with one side being a brighter color than the other. It’s beautiful to see! Also there are pine, spruce, fir, cedar. They are all darker green and contrast nicely with the deciduous trees. Sadly I wont be here when autumn comes to see the fall colors. More pics of TREES!

Tomorrow we are headed to Marquette, MI. Sterling is hoping for more than trees!