Road Trip! Part 1 of 2

"Nicollet Mall on a Saturday Morning"
Photo taken by Bobak Ha'Eri on 05/19/2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicollet_Mall
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

~Prologue~

On Valentine's Day, my friend Musette the Mistress of Mischief hosted her Midnight Muse Presents! dinner and burlesque show at the Wicked Moose Bar & Grill in Rochester, Minnesota, and it was my pleasure to attend in the company of my friend Nicolette Moll.  We both thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and the show, and we engaged in captivating conversation throughout the course of the evening.

After driving the ninety miles back to the Twin Cities and dropping Ms Moll off at her residence, I went to the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in Saint Paul to see if the Duluth Dolls were still at the venue after having appeared in a show there that night.    It was my fortune to meet Ella Jim, who advised me of their show on the 16th - only two nights (and 140 miles) away.

I started to give the matter some serious thought....  In a blog entry dated November 26, 2012, I wrote about my affinity for mermaids, and it just so happened  that my friend Mermaid Ayla has recently made an arrangement with the Radisson hotel to swim in their pool.  If I could meet her - assuming she was agreeable to it - and go to The Four Seasons Masquerade Ball to see the Duluth Dolls, it was on!  And on, dear reader, it was.

My Odometer at 123,456.7 Miles
I also have photos of 100,000 and 121,212.1
I'm cool like that.

Since the plan was to go up there and return all in the same day, my Mom wanted to make sure that there was someone with me who would help keep me awake, particularly on the ride home, and who better than herself?  When I told this to one of my friends, she reacted with some puzzlement - "You're going to take your Mom to a burlesque show?"  Of course not.  In fact, I didn't even specify the exact nature of my evening plans to my Mom, and since Black Bear Casino was relatively nearby, we would eat dinner at the buffet there, and she could stay at the casino and gamble while I went to the Masquerade Ball.

Incidentally, I knew that my odometer would reach 123,456.7 miles during this trip, and I was fortunate enough to be able to pull off into a gas station in Rush City to capture a photo of that and not have to stop on the shoulder.

~The Drive to Duluth~

February in Minnesota can mean bad weather, cold temperatures, and icy roads, but we were fortunate to have a sunny day and good traffic - with no construction!  As indicated above, the trip is about 140 miles one way.

The trip to Duluth is one of my lifelong favorite pastimes, and with it usually comes a few mandatory stops: Tobie's Restaurant and Bakery in Hinckley, with their world-famous caramel rolls (and other baked goods); Sturgeon Lake, to drive past the property that had once been the site of my paternal grandparents' summer cabin; and Moose Lake, to see relatives on my Mom's side of the family.  Unfortunately, only Tobie's made the cut that day, as adding a new stop along the way took precedence over tradition.

The Little Mermaid Cafe at the Pine County Historical Museum
https://www.facebook.com/Thelittlemermaidcafe
https://www.facebook.com/PineCountyHistoricalMuseum
Photo Credit:  Matthew Morse

Since I was going to spend some time with a mermaid during the afternoon, why not turn it into a full-on mermaid geek-out day?  There was no better place to do that than The Little Mermaid Cafe at the Pine County Historical Museum in Askov!  They had a menu with a lot of variety, the portion sizes were good, and the prices were reasonable.  Our server was a young woman to whom I later referred as "the very accurately named Joy," who took care of us very well.  In addition to the good food and service, there was a fair amount of mermaid decor, as well as old-timey photos of the main streets of local towns - the same towns that I had visited whenever my family went to my grandparents' cabin.  I hope to return there this summer and have the opportunity to spend more time in the cafe, museum, and in the small town of just under 400 people.

"Duluth Summer 2004"
http://www.lighthousefortheblind-duluth.org/....
No Copyright Infringement Intended

After lunch, it was Duluth or bust!  After an uneventful drive, we arrived, and there were Duluth and Lake Superior displayed in all of their winter glory.  It can sometimes be anti-climactic to arrive at that point of the drive, because there are occasions when fog blankets the harbor and the town, but not this time.  It was absolutely beautiful.

After a quick spin up Superior Street to confirm the location of the Masquerade Ball, we parked the car and walked a  few blocks to the beautiful Radisson hotel to meet a real live mermaid and see her swim!

Please read my entry entitled Road Trip! Part 2 of 2 to learn how the rest of the day went!