Cavity free and north bound!

At 7 bells Friday morning, I was in the dentist chair getting my teeth cleaned. I haven't been in Omaha long enough to find a new dentist so I squeezed an appointment in while I was back in Minnesota. I don't know what it is about the dentist chair but anytime that the chair starts reclining, I can NOT keep my eyes open. I struggle to stay awake through the whole appointment. People probably think I'm crazy, but even though I've had my fair share of cavities/dental work, going to the dentist and sitting through a cleaning or a cavity filling doesn't bother me. This past Friday was nothing out of the ordinary for me other than I closed my eyes for the whole appointment, only talked when the hygienist asked me questions {which was the entire length of the appointment, she was rather chatting, but that's ok} and I had zero {!!!} cavities. I think this marks two years since my last cavity. I thought for sure I was going to have a bad report card as my, umm, dental hygiene has been a little lacking this past month {cough, cough}. Let's hope my cavity-free streak continues for many years to come!

After the dentist, it was back to my parents house to pick up Ryan and help load of the cars to head up to Two Harbors for Hill's wedding.  Ryan drove the whole way up while I sleep on and off. It feels so good to sleep! Yay for sleep!!

I love getting to the cities and seeing the skyline. I really like Minneapolis' skyline. Seeing it this time around was kind of bittersweet. It made me really miss my time in the Twin Cities. I miss my classmates. I miss being in Minnesota :(

 Luckily we got an early enough start so driving through the cities wasn't bad at all. I wish I would have 1) been driving through the cities when my friends weren't at work so that I could have stopped to see them and 2) had more time to actually stop and see them. I think I'm going through medical school withdrawal. The first two years of med school, countless hours were spent in the classroom with the same people day in and day out. Then the last two years, we were all rotating around the twin cities and even though we didn't see each other everyday, we still saw each other {and I lived with two classmates for the last year of med school}. Now that I am out of the state, I miss the ability to just call them up and be able to hang out. I'm sure as time continues in Omaha, I'll become closer friends with people here, but that will never replace the friendships I made in medical school. Here's to old friends and new friends.

There is part of the drive up north, between the cities and actually being "up north" which doesn't lend itself to being the most interesting in regards to scenery. But once you get up north, I LOVE it! I love the pine trees. I just love the feeling of being up north. It is gorgeous!

Getting up north. Starting to see pine trees! {This doesn't really show the beauty of the north but it was the only one I took on my cellphone camera during the drive up I guess...oh well.}

This is my favorite part of the drive up north. It is just as you are getting to Duluth. You head up this hill and just as you come over the top of the hill, the view opens up and you look out over the City of Duluth and Lake Superior. It is such a calming sight.

Heading into Duluth - what a cluster of bridges {and then add in construction on top of it}.

 Ryan and I had some time before we were able to check into our room in Two Harbors so we met Kristin and Dave down in Canal Park. Kristin and Dave were out by the lighthouse and believe it or not, even though I lived in Duluth for two years and went to Canal Park several times, I had never actually been out to the lighthouse.

The Duluth lift bridge. Unfortunately, there were no big ships coming through to the harbor while we were there.

The lighthouse.

The view over Lake Superior from the end of the pier.

Ryan and I at the lighthouse.

In front of the lift bridge {something must have been funny}.

 It was really warm in Duluth on Friday. REALLY warm. In fact, I don't remember it even being that hot when I lived in Duluth. There was no wind coming off the lake like there usually is. Once we got in from the pier, we decided to get ice cream comes. Ryan LOVES ice cream, so he was fully game and when he saw that the "two scoop" cone was only 50 cents more than a "one scoop" cone, he went for the two scoop {score!!}. Well, these babies were HUGE. Check out Ryan's "two scoop."

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that there was about a quart of ice cream on the cone!

It was hard to keep on top of the cone since it was so hot outside. There was dripping ice cream everywhere!

Ryan was determined to finish his cone. The cone in the plastic cup that he is holding is what was left of my one scoop cone that I couldn't finish.

Good til the last bite. Ryan never lets ice cream go to waste.

With lots of family headed up north for the big wedding, we ran into a couple relatives down in Canal Park. I love Duluth. It's a bigger city with a small town feel. Once the ice cream cones were all finished, we headed back to our cars and continued our drive north to Two Harbors. Once we got to Superior Shores, we checked in and headed to our room. Our room was perfect. Heaven.

Here's the view from our room. Seriously perfect! The lake was so calm on Friday. Calm = no wind = hot day.

I love the north shore. It is so beautiful. I could live up here forever. And Lake Superior, ahhh, gorgeous!

~Ashley