april fools day...and are we ever.

Spring Break on the North Shore, 2014.

Miz Susan felt the need to get away during her richly deserved Spring Break from the St. Paul Public Schools.  As much as she adores her bosses, both in her building and down the street at district headquarters, and as tempted as she was to volunteer 10 hours a day during her break to pitch in on some deep cleaning at Monroe, she recognized the value of a change of scenery and a little away-time.  Even if the price of that included being stuck in a small motel room or a small car with me for two and a half straight days.  We booked two nights at Blue Fin on the cheap (referred to, euphemistically on www.bluefinbay.com, as a hillside view though, in our case, actually a parking lot and Highway 61 view.  but what the hell, we could catch sight of a little sliver of the lake out the bathroom window if we were willing to kneel on top of the toilet tank.) and away we went on Sunday morning.

Weather forecasts had St. Paul penciled in for pushing the first 60° reading of the season.  How much worse than that could it possibly be a mere 225 miles north by northeast?

On Sunday, not bad at all.  Temps in Tofte in the 40s, some nice sunshine, scenic wind-jammed piles of ice sheets out on the lake.  Miz Susan snapped some great pics including one of me whining when she wouldn't play tether-ball with me.  You can check those out on her Facebook site.

Monday morning, however, was much more cold and raw.  A stiff breeze from the northeast picked up and God only knows what happened to the sun.  I forced Susan to check out some of the shops on the side of the highway that we'd seen seen only in passing by at 60 mph during previous North Shore trips.  She was unimpressed and couldn't get back to the room fast enough for another nap.  She wouldn't even take me up on my offer to check out one or two of the liquor stores which dot the roadside every six to eight miles.

By early evening, the sullen gray clouds opened up for a couple of hours of stinging rain with a noticeable sideways directional component.  It was a good thing that we'd opted for the hotel room at Blue Fin rather than a first try at winter camping.  We'd cooked food ahead and dragged it along with us.  Saved us a few bucks and kept us from braving the elements for an overpriced burger at the restaurant.  My signature seafood mac and cheese (well, OK, Martha Stewart's signature seafood mac and cheese) was great as was a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc which we chilled in a snowbank outside our unit's front door.  The stinging rain let up and we started figuring that we'd dodged the bullet that was splashed all over the WeatherNation channel which had Minnesota getting hammered by blizzard conditions all up and down the Dakota borders.  Are we a couple of idiot tourists or what?

The near-horizontal rain returned by about 7 the next morning but colder; cold enough to coat most of the Camry with a quarter inch of ice within the next hour or so.  I suppose that this kiss from the heavens pretty much qualified as a textbook example of freezing rain.  And if it coated most of the Camry with ice, it also did a damn efficient job of coating most of the other surfaces unlucky enough to be outside.  One of which was the entire stretch of Highway 61 from Tofte down to Duluth.

Being cooped up in a small car with me for several hours is definitely not Miz Susan's idea of a good time but, even more, she despises being cooped up in a small car with me in dicey driving conditions.  Which can stretch those several hours into several more hours.  I'll give her credit though.  She managed to keep her uneasiness under control and didn't try to snatch the steering wheel out of my hands more than two or three times during the drive home.  She contented herself with a running commentary and tally of the dead deer which dotted the roadside every six to eight miles.

Despite our ability to turn a sunny spring break road trip into an exercise in white-knuckled and muttered-curses road rage, we made it home safe and sound.  Susan reserved her worst complaints for the potholes on Hamline Avenue between I-94 and Marshall.  All in all, it was another in a long string of dream vacations. I'd go back in a minute although I'd need to figure out what hot dish to cook up this time.  Maybe my signature cheeseburger chili mac.  Alright, alright.  Rachael Ray's signature cheeseburger chili mac.