Minnesota

Minnesota

The land of 10,000 lakes and man was I impressed by the number of lakes there were. I think that Minnesota is actually a very underrated state; it is really pretty and there are quite a few things to do there! For this trip, we just visited Minnesota by itself in September of 2024. We left on a Thursday and got back on a Sunday. We flew into Minneapolis, picked up a rental car, and grabbed lunch at Culver’s (had to get that Midwest food in the Midwest). After that, we drove to the town of Two Harbors, a little north of Duluth, which had a really good pie shop called Betty’s Pies. Next, we continued our drive to Lutsen, Minnesota. Lutsen is a small town with a ski resort but there is a larger town 15 minutes north called Grand Marais that has a bunch of shops and restaurants. We stayed at a VRBO that I highly recommend staying at. It was 20 minutes off the main road and was kind of remote but it had a STUNNING view of a lake and trees that were in fall foliage. It was a two bedroom one bathroom with a small kitchen and living room and then there was a large indoor porch with a view of the lake. The VRBO is called Caribou Lake Lookout, but it may not be available for booking anymore.

On Friday, we went to the ski resort and rode to the top of the mountain on a gondola, had lunch at the top, and did a short hike. Afterwards, we went to Grand Marais and had dinner at a place called Voyageur Brewing Company. If you go there you MUST get the pretzel! After dinner, we had custard at a place called Sydney’s Frozen Custard and Wood-Fired Pizza and it was delicious. On Saturday we had breakfast at a place called World’s Best Donuts - this is a must eat and was probably my favorite breakfast of the trip. I don’t know if I would say they are the best in the world but they were pretty good. We then drove to a remote resort about an hour away that was within the Boundary Waters Wilderness and bordered Canada. We were going to do a ropes course but it was closed due to strong winds, so we just sat and enjoyed the lake for a little bit. We then had lunch at a place called Poplar Haus, which had a nice (and different) lake view and I got delicious mac n cheese. We drove back and arrived at Grand Marias at about 3 in the afternoon and did some shopping in the town and dipped our feet in the water. We grabbed a pizza and brought it back to our VRBO before we went to bed and woke up at 6am in the morning to get back to Minneapolis for our flight out.

Awards

Best Food: Voyageur Brewing Company

Favorite Activity: Gondola at Lusten

Prettiest Sight: Sunset on the lake from our cabin