Benziger babes

Auntie, Evie and I at Gooseberry Falls Mommy and I made a quick trip to Minnesota last weekend so she could interview at some of the region's top hospitals for jobs starting next year. Our first stop was a quick 25-minute flight from the Twin Cities to Duluth, Minnesota. Auntie Annie, Grandma Jojo and cousin Evie drove up to meet us. We got a MustSeeDuluth pass ($34pp) and spent the weekend exploring the city. On Saturday, we took the Vista Fleet Harbor Cruise to learn about the Port of Duluth-Superior, the largest and busiest port in the Great Lakes and the farthest inland freshwater seaport in North America, averaging over 38 million short tons of cargo and over 1000 vessel visits each year. It ranks in the top 20 by tonnage in the US - just ahead of Seattle (#30) and Tacoma (#28) - and does so in only 9 months! Tugboats and Coast Guard icebreakers keep the shipping channels open as long as possible but big winter storms can be devastating for these heavy ships, as was the...

Evie and Marit holding hands on the rainforest walk The Olympic National Park is home to the only temperate rainforest in the United States. We were fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa Pastorius and Auntie Annie and cousin Evie come visit us over Labor Day. The kids left early on Friday with Grandma and Auntie to beat the traffic. Grandpa was bumped off his flight but he eventually arrived; however, his baggage somehow ended up in Texas. We made a quick trip to the nearby Target before headed to the very rural and very remote Olympic National Park for the weekend.  We arrived at the "Valley of the Rain Forest Giants" and the historic Lake Quinault Lodge late on Friday night. Lake Quinault Lodge, built in 1926 Lake Quinault is on the western side of the Olympic peninsula and the surrounding valley gets its name because of the record number and size of tree species located there, including the largest Western Red Cedar, Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, Alaskan Cede...