This is Shawn’s third Lutsen 99er mountainbike race and our third time camping for the race. We camped in a tent in 2016 shortly after Breck was born, but he hardly slept due to the cold. I also remember having to leave the tent late at night in the cold to go warm a bottle. At that point, with our young family, I realized we were not ready to get back into ‘real’ camping yet. The following year, we camped in the RV and continued to do that kind of camping for the past couple of years.
Pop-up camping earlier this month was a nice transition, and then on this trip, we had our first night with the whole family in a tent since that 2016 event weekend.
It went pretty well. The 50 degree overnight temps that were tough on an infant were just fine for a 3 year old. The only thing that was tough this year was getting them all to fall asleep next to each other in the daylight.
I was excited to sneak out of the tent after everyone eventually fell asleep to capture this shot of our first night in our new tent and this [hopefully] transition back to tent camping for our family.
I propped my manual camera on the cooler and set the shutter to stay open for 20 seconds. Fun to capture the glow of our tent and the clear starry night sky above. Also fun not to be worried about grizzlies roaming around in the dark like out west :)
Other than forgetting his clip-in bike shoes and having some trouble with his water supply, Shawn had a good race. He rode the 69 mile course this year after having done the 39 mile course for the first two years.
During the race, the boys and I spent most of the day hanging out with neighbors whose dad / husband was also racing. The kids swam together at their pool all morning. We all celebrated together at the finish.
We had dinner in Grand Marais at the Wunderbar and Glamground, enjoying the beautiful summer weather and some live acoustic guitar.
Checking out the scene of the crime from a couple weeks ago...(Ryder’s stitches)
We took advantage of Sunday to enjoy every last minute of vacation, starting with a hike down to the lake at our Temperance River campground...
Coaching his little brother through the rocks
Can’t get enough of this shoreline...
Brecken with his ‘ski poles’
A waterfall hike at the Temperance River State Park (across the street)...
A stop at Castle Danger Brewing...
A visit to Continental Ski Shop in Duluth to return some borrowed shoes...
A hike at Chester Bowl and some time at the Chester playground...
Fast asleep after those late nights in the tent and no naps...
A visit to Bent Paddle Brewing...
And a stop at Taco Arcade (a random find) for dinner and old school arcade games :)
Around 7pm, we decided to call it a wrap and head home for the night :) Was a great weekend up north, enjoying 60-70 degree temps instead of the 90’s back in the cities!
