After planning for a year, we are off to Minnesota! There was a heat advisory on the opening day for the Minnesota state fair in 2023, so we took it easy once we landed. By the time we got our “juicy lucy” burger and fries at 5-8 club, it was a late lunch (accounting for an hour time zone difference) and my goodness, it was a delicious mouth-melting meal!!

To walk off the food coma, we visited the giant Mall of America with tons of shops, restaurants, and amusement rides. We visited the M&M, Lego stores and found some Gudetama plushies! Then it was time to check into a suite for 3 nights to get our food tour before heading north.

We watched YouTube videos and subscribed to the Minnesota state fair emails for latest updates on food vendors, entertainment schedule, etc. Apparently, we visited the Minnesota state fair on the highest volume day (Friday) and it was packed! We parked by the Dept of education lot and decided to walk 1.5 miles to the park instead of waiting for the free “bus”.

It was brutally hot and humid that day! There was a long line to enter the fairgrounds but once you’re in, there was plenty of places to wander and rest. We started with some coconut water and tried to top off our water bottles at fountains, but I still struggled to stay hydrated all day. Once the headache appears, I’m miserable and want to lay down.  We visited most of the sections (no rides) and watched two artists on bars and sat through a dog show in the heat. We tried a bunch of staple food items (no drinks as it would further make dehydration worse) and met up with a coworker’s family before heading back to the hotel. We walked A LOT of steps, no wonder my body was exhausted!

I’ve rated our favorites in the food we tried, there’s only so much stomach space for a full day!

1. Everything croissant
2. Cheese curds
3. Nordic waffle and pickle drink
4. Fresh dipped butter corn
5. Ice cream and mini pie
6. Fresh mini choco chip cookies

We already bought tickets online for a visit to the Minnesota Renn Fest but we still had to wait in line to enter the area. We decided to skip the park and bus (20 min away) and paid for closer parking $10 so we could just walk over. We spent about 6 hours there, started at 930a with some drinks and ate a bunch of food around the shops.

We wandered around to watch shows and regular folks fling things in the fields per themed weekend, Highland Fling. We left after watching the corgis (dog race) in the jousting field, it was getting hot again and headache was creeping back.

We visited a restaurant, Tin Shed, for an early dinner and tried some heavy comfort food of MN (tater tot hotdish), that was mentioned by Sunny from Best Food Review Show. We also shared a small pizza! It was time to wrap up our time in the city and head north to the parks. We needed to walk off all these food for the rest of our trip!

We visited several “largest” models of raspberry, spoon/cherry, walleye, hockey, and floating loon (a type of bird, but we actually saw him at the MN state fair, so he wasn’t in the normal lake he lives!

We stopped by Lake Kabetogama Visitor Center to chat with the ranger and grab my stamp. She talked about these “insects” that come out during a short period, and they were EVERYWHERE! We checked in to a family-owned lodge, Voyageur Park Lodge (1st floor suite), for 3 nights.

We started off with breakfast at the Chocolate Moose restaurant since the suite didn’t have a place to cook. There’s limited food options in the area since it’s off season and very quiet/slow while we were there.

The next step was to visit the Rainy Lake Visitor Center – small little store and friendly staff. Our 2-hr Discovery Cruise with Voyageurs National Park Tours was cancelled last minute due to the boat needing repaired after hitting some rocks.

We took time to explore the trails around the area, using this booklet to collect different prints with pencil etching on these metal poles. One trail was extra buggy – we could hear the mosquitoes by our ears! They stung us through Buffs and pants 🙁 We stocked up at the local store before retiring early for the night.

The next day we explored the Ash River Visitor Center and hiked Blind ash bay trail (~3 miles roundtrip) and Kabetogama Lake overlook trail. It was very shaded and buggy. We enjoyed the open space and overlooking the water. The trail we really liked for the best view was the Sullivan’s Bay snow trail (short distance to oversee the lake from a rock spot). We wrapped up with a beaver pond overlook and Voyageur park overlook.

We stopped by the only food establishment nearby at Rocky Ledge restaurant. We ordered an extra large pizza that was TOO cheesy and ended up with so much leftovers. The lady did warn us about it so we should listen to the establishment next time!

Off to the next destination, we drove through Duluth to pick up a smoked fish sandwich at Northern Waters Smokehaus.

We parked at Lakeshore trailhead (3 sections) to do a 4.8 mile roundtrip with water and cliff views the whole time. It was a gorgeous day to be among the trees. We rested at section two – the Bowl and trekked back to the parking lot. We grabbed some stamps and brochures at the national lakeshore visitor center afterwards.

The Bayfield visitor center was closed so I grabbed some stamps at the Bayfield chamber. We didn’t have time to stop by Benoit Cheese Haus since we still got some more driving for the night.

The Northern Great Lakes visitor center had a nice tower and lots of stamps! We stopped in at Taste of Wisconsin to view all the types of cheese.

Our dinner was at Culver’s, a delicious burger and fries. I’ve only had their custard from my Epic trips to Verona, WI. We retired for the night at Americinn (first time with this brand) since it was the closest one in these small towns between these parks and lakeshores.

We decided not to take a seaplane or boat to visit the actual island of Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. There are lodging on the island or you may backpack across the entire island (~30 miles). Since we did a seaplane recently in FL to Tortugas, we didn’t have the time to visit at this time.

We got to see the boat parked by the Houghton visitor center. There are two ways to get to this park, from Minnesota or Michigan. We stopped by the Jampot bakery at Eagle Harbor, which is affiliated with a monastery. The area was getting crowded with cyclists coming in for an event.

We drove through Brockway Mountain and stopped at the overlook. Then we drove to the very beginning of road 41 in Copper Harbor on the Keweenaw Peninsula. It’s the northern terminus of the 279-mile Michigan segment of the highway, that connects the Upper Peninsula to Miami, FL!

We stopped by the Keweenaw National Historical Park to learn more about the history of the people and cooper in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

On the way to our Airbnb above Roy’s Pasties & Bakery, we grabbed some pasties for dinner, they were hefty hot pockets (12 or 16-oz sizes). The people used to eat these in the mines as they were hearty and sustainable.

Since we decided to skip Isle Royale, we spent extra day at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore as they had more “trails” to hike on. We drove to Pictured Rocks and explored the Miners Falls (short trail, 1.2 mile roundtrip) to see the Miner’s castle (3 overlooks).

We explored a few other places at Lake Superior, Hurricane beach, and Log Slide Overlooks (what a grand sand dune view!). I never knew the lake could look so blue and beautiful.

We stopped by Grand Sable visitor center for more stamps and then swung by the Sable Falls/Dunes. Then it was an hour drive back into town where we checked in another AmericInn in Munising.

We started off bright and early at 7a at the Chapel Falls trail (6 miles round trip) as we took one route in to see the famous tree on the state quarter. The chapel tree is hanging on for dear life with a few roots! It was a gloomy day and buggy by the shores, so we didn’t get to rest much. We kept walking past campsites and trees back to the car. The parking lot was packed by the time we got back.

We grabbed lunch at the Cap’n Ron’s fish & chips truck and grabbed pasties for dinner at Muldoons Pasties & Gifts. 

We went back to the hotel to rest until our almost sunset Pictured Rocks cruise from 430-630 pm. It was quite windy but it was a scenic ride with many picture opportunities. We saw the famous chapel tree from afar where we visited just that morning!

Another few hours drive to the lower peninsula to visit the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes Visitor Center and grabbed a quick sandwich lunch at the Shipwreck Cafe. We did the popular Empire Bluff (1.5 miles roundtrip) and it was mind-blowing in person. Sand dunes are such a struggle to walk through but the views were great at all angles.

We drove through the 7-mile Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and lots of people were climbing down this steep dune. What goes done must come up. There were warning and fines if you needed a rescue. We didn’t attempt it and I made the mistake of switching back to normal shoes, so sand got in everywhere.

We stayed at another hotel brand, Tru by Hilton in Traverse City because there wasn’t a Marriott close by. Since there wasn’t a microwave in the room, we nuked some frozen fruit and quinoa to eat with rotisserie chicken for dinner.

We started bright and early at 7am to do the sand dune climb (3.5 mile roundtrip) with 7 dunes, up and down was a workout! The end of the trail ended at the shores of Lake Michigan. Again, the water was just as clear but not as blue as Lake Supreme.

We could spot the two Manitou Islands, where the story of twin bear cubs swam to escape a fire but drowned near the Michigan shore. The Sleeping Bear Dune is the resting place for the sad mother. The hike back to the car was brutal, 2 steps up and 3 steps back when I’m going up a hill. 

We drove to Glen Haven and walked around a restored village to learn about the port history. We stopped by the visitor center for a special 50th sleeping bear stamp and bought a sticker too!

We stopped by the Cherry Hut for a quick lunch, turkey cranberry harvati sandwich and cherry pie a la mode. It was delicious but hefty.

It took us 4 hours to get to Indiana Dunes national park and it didn’t feel as grand as the last dunes we visited in Michigan. This was changed to a park status from a national lakeshore in 2019, so I needed to buy a pin to add to my park poster since it didn’t include the new parks in the last decade.

We checked out the east side of the park but Mount Baldy was closed so we stopped by Portage lakefront & riverwalk. It was not very pleasant seeing the smoggy Chicago city line in the horizon.

We did a little hike on the west side to complete the dune succession loop #1. Sand hikes are not my favorite, but I came, saw and checked off another park. We stayed another night so grabbed dinner at Culver’s. I had custard before in Wisconsin but this is the first time we tried their burgers!

We slept in a bit and grabbed a personal deep dish at Lou Mainati’s Pizzeria for lunch before heading back home.

It was a long 2 weeks on the road, we were craving home cooked food and our own bed. Here are some lesson learned:

• Have a backup plan if weather is bad or excursions get cancelled
• Try the local foods of the region
• Save money by buying ready to eat meals at the lodgings
• Know your energy level with driving 2 vs 8 hours a day
• Schedule some time to explore once you get to your destinations