Well, we just wrapped up Edie’s first family vacation!

For all those interested, we took a quick road trip up to Duluth so we could explore the north shore.

This was the first time Edie got to ride in a car for more than an hour at a time.

To Duluth from our place is about three hours of drive time. Both ways we stopped at least once to stretch our legs, fuel up, snack, whatever, and Edie was very unimpressed at being stuffed back in her carseat again and again.

The payoff was well worth it for her though.

What a lucky baby.

Our first stop once we got into Duluth was our sweet Airbnb apartment up the hill.

What a nice little pad Sam found.

A comfy little place in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, close to just about everything we were gonna do, plus is was fully furnished with a kitchen. It even had a nice, clean pack ‘n play for Edie to do some sleeping.

I was recently at the dentist for a regular checkup, and at my request, my hygienist provided a restaurant recommendation.

There’s a relatively new place in Duluth called OMC Smokehouse. It stands for oink, moo, cluck. Funny name, I know. What wasn’t funny, though, was how good the smoked meats were at this place. I would suggest stopping here if you are up on the Duluth area.

We have some friends that tell us that that every time they are in the north shore area, they stop at Betty’s Pies. We gave it a shot and what do you know, we were stuffed from dessert in the middle of the afternoon. It didn’t help us lose any weight, but duh. It’s vacation, leave us alone.

We hit up Burrito Union as our last stop on our way outta town. A weathered looking place with a communist theme and decor, they claim to be Minnesota’s most inauthentic Mexican joint. They may be right. Being that Samantha and I are heavily invested in Mexican food (Bravo Burritos), we love to try Mexican restaurants whenever we get the chance.

Not to mention our diet is pretty much burritos, even when we vacation. Like, we go through withdrawals if we don’t get what we need.

Enough about food though, I’m not a food critic.

We have one of those running strollers with the large wheels for Edie.

You can tell by looking at us that we are not runners.

But we do like hiking, and we hope Edie will be into it also.

So we headed up the north shore to tour the Split Rock Lighthouse and stroll along some off-road trails a bit.

It amazes me sometimes what a baby can sleep through.

Edie drank some milk after some sightseeing and promptly was out like a light. It’s not like we were on paved trails either.

Roots, rocks, radical.

Mind. Blown.

Before our precious vacation time was up, we had to hit up a few unique shops and visited an old friend.

My pal Berto has been living in the Duluth area for a number of years and it’s certainly been a couple since we last caught up. Good news, the timing worked out for us to meet.

Him and I played a lotta punk music together in our teenage years and it’s good to know that he’s still making music in his spare time.

Not only making music, but his band has a recent release on vinyl.

Jealous? You know I am.

Anyway, the Electric Fetus in Duluth is still alive and kicking, so I was able to scope his record there, plus a pile of other wax since I’m a total 33 rpm sucker.

That about wrapped up our available time in Duluth. Edie handled the long car rides pretty well, although by hour two of the drive home she was getting a bit sick of the car seat.

We had a ton of fun and got a well needed summer respite but, as always, back to the old rat race.

I took a ton of pics so even if Edie is too young to remember her first vacation, she will be able to see what she was up to on her first family trip.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, please take a moment to sign up for my mailing list, and if you are gonna do any shopping online, click on the amazon the banner on my homepage. Doing so will help me keep my blog going, and it will soothe your (relatively normal) shopping obsession.