Duluth, Minn: Top Things to Do for Holiday Fun

Bentleyville lights up Duluth's Bayfront Park. Photo by Lisa MeClintick

Duluth, Minnesota, with the magical backdrop of Lake Superior, has always been a favorite summer and fall getaway for Twin Cities residents and others across the state.

If you need another enticement to head north, here are the top things to do for the holidays in Duluth. It’s a winning weekend getaway with its own Christmas train, a superb Christmas light show with Bentleyville, excellent shopping and the always scenic allure of Lake Superior. Here's a run-down of Duluth's best holiday events:

1.    Stroll through Bentleyville Tour of Lights.

“Five…four…three…two…ONE!”

With a visual whoosh, Bentleyville Tour of Lights lights up as a waiting crowd cheers. Three million lights in a carnival of colors transform damp foggy December evening at Duluth’s Bayfront Festival Park into a festive wonderland.

Duluth Christmas lights with Up North themes

Volunteers pass out cups of cocoa and cookies, and crowds amble forward through tunnels of lights to gaze at the 12-story tree that looms above Bentleyville. It occasionally flashed in patterns, pulsing to holiday music that ranges from acoustic guitar carols to Jimmy Durante’s “Frosty the Snowman.”

The Bentleyville light displays outgrew founder Nathan Bentley’s Esko home and debuted in Duluth in 2009. It takes more than 900 volunteers almost two months to set up decorations that fill nine semi-trailers.

Displays range from dinosaurs and erupting volcanoes to the Nativity scene and Noah’s Ark. There’s a distinctive Northern flair, as well, with Santa on snowmobile, ore tankers and tall ships, a dogsled team that seems to surge forward, fish and frogs that appear to jump from lakes and a moose and an elf that portage a canoe.

Nice surprise--halfway through Bentleyville you can roast marshmallows while wrapped in the warmth and wood smoke from several bonfires.

Duluth's shipping celebrated at Bentleyville.

Bentleyville opens the week of Thanksgiving and runs nightly through Dec. 26. It takes about 45 minutes to see the displays, but you’ll need at least an hour if you have kids under 10 who want to visit Santa. The first 15,000 kids receive free knit Bentleyville hats. Admission is free (including cookies, cocoa, popcorn and marshmallows), but monetary donations are welcome, as well as food or unwrapped toys. Nearby parking is $5.

2. Ride the holiday train

Duluth's 2012's Polar Express pulled into Fitger's.

A conductor yells “All Aboard!” and kids (sometimes in pajamas) scramble to climb into the illuminated train cars of North Shore Scenic Railroad. The event has been known as the Polar Express in the past few years, but includes a new story as the Christmas City Express in 2013. The journey begins with boarding at the landing below Fitger’s where you can hear Lake Superior’s waves. The train then rumbles to Duluth’s 1892 Depot. Inside the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, a Lionel model train set whirs to action and a full-size steam engine chugs to life, spewing smoke and blowing its whistle as kids gather for an interactive reading of the book, “The Christmas City Express.”

Each child gets to visit with Santa before heading back to cookies and cocoa at Fitger’s ($16/person; 1-800-423-1273; www.northshorescenicrailroad.com).

North Shore Scenic Railroad also runs trains from Fitger’s to Bentleyville several times a night for $6/person.

3. Kick off season with a parade

Duluth’s holiday events kick off with a Christmas City of the North Parade the Friday before Thanksgiving. The illuminated parade with about 70 units begins around 6:20 p.m. and heads up Lake Avenue.

A.G. Thomson House, Duluth.

4. Duluth mansions dress up for the holidays

December may be the best time to admire Duluth’s many mansions, a legacy of boom years when it claimed more millionaires per capita than anyplace in the United States. If you’re traveling without kids, you can stay in one of seven historic homes operating as Duluth's bed and breakfasts.

Each has its own charm and characteristics, but among our favorites are the Firelight Inn for its fireplace and spacious porch; A. G.Thomson House for its overall charm and hospitality and Olcott House for its unique music room. Solglimt offers another spectacular option with modern, artsy décor and fantastic location along the lake just past the Aerial Lift Bridge on Park Point Drive.

Firelight Inn B&B in Duluth.

5. Glensheen holiday tours

Glensheen Historic Estate, Duluth’s most famous mansion, opens for holiday tours through Jan. 5 with volunteers in period costumes and a self-guided tour that recreates a guest’s holiday visit to Glensheen in 1912. There’s a photo area also set up for families who want a memorable portrait and good excuse to wear fancy Christmas dresses.

6. Savor scenic slopes

Overlooking the city and the lake, Spirit Mountain offers 22 downhill ski runs and claims the Midwest’s largest terrain park. The resort also grooms 22 km of Nordic ski trails and tubing runs and operates the Timber Twister alpine coaster and double-seat Timber Flyer zipline year-round. Just be aware of the windchill.

Bentleyville

7. Hit the Edgewater Waterpark

Edgewater Resort and Waterparkprovides free bus shuttles to Bentleyville, and you also can board the Bentleyville train here. All rooms include passes to the tiki-themed activity pool, lazy river and slides, and you can pay extra for lakeside suites with balconies.

 8. Shop at Fitger’s and Canal Park

The easiest place to stay if you’re riding the train is Fitger’s Inn, a converted brewery above the tracks and overlooking the lake. The Fitger’s complex includes a few levels of boutique shopping, including a toy and book store, outdoorsy gear stores and women’s fashions. You’ll find more shops and a handful of impressive galleries at Canal Park, as well.

9. Learn about shipping

Ore tanker, Duluth, MN

If the lake hasn’t iced up—and chances are it won’t by early December—you can watch for iron ore tankers heading east from the Duluth Harbor. Let kids get behind the wheel in a pilothouse and explore the rich legacy of shipping at the free U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Maritime Museum.

10. Check out the new children’s museum

Check out the new location for the Duluth Children’s Museum, which moved from its location at the historic Depot to Clyde Park in 2012. It’s an up-and-coming area of the city with funky converted warehouses and lots of space for colorful, hands-on learning.

For more information and details, check out Visit Duluth.

St. Cloud-based Lisa Meyers McClintick wrote the guidebook “Day Trips from the Twin Cities” and “Minnesota Lake Vacations” mobile travel app.

Best Midwest ice cream shops keep you cool

Enjoy the Midwest's tastiest ice cream

Barb at Pumphouse Creamery

One of the best parts of summer is seeking out the Midwest's best ice cream stand, shop, parlor or drive-in. Grab a crispy, crunchy cone, pile it high with dense, sweet ice cream or tangy, refreshing sorbet. It's one of the most luscious (and cool) ways to savor seasonal fruits and flavors. 

Here are my top picks and tips for enjoying the best ice cream in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest: 

Pumphouse Creamery
4754 Chicago Ave., Mpls., 612-825-2021

The local farmers who make this ice cream shop a possibility are featured on the walls. The care shows as owner Barb Zapzalka scoops up sea salt caramel, handcrafted strawberry, blueberry buttermilk and local wild black raspberry at this little Twin Cities ice cream store. Just as good: the handmade Minnesota harvested multigrain cones. 

If you've got your dog along, you can get special cups just for him or her in vanilla or peanut butter with less sugar. Word of advice: Check their Facebook page to find out when seasonal flavors are available so you don't miss them.

Sebastian Joe’s Ice Cream Café
Among the first to up the ice cream ante, Minneapolis's Sebastian Joe's has been scooping its exquisite raspberry chocolate chip and more than 100 other flavors since 1984. You can pick from about 24 daily choices, but we never seem to get past the raspberry. It's that good.

Other temptations: Pavarotti (banana, caramel, and chocolate chips), Immaculate Confection (vanilla, honey, ginger and strudel), white licorice with freshly ground anise, and hilariously named Nicollet Avenue Pothole and Praline Home Companion. Among their sorbets, you'll find ultra refreshing and unique tastes such as orange basil, mint pink grapefruit and red papaya. 4321 Upton Ave. S., Mpls., 612-926-7916; 1007 Franklin Ave. W., Mpls., 612 870-0065

Madison's Chocolate Shoppe ice cream.

 Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream

With nationally lauded dairy program at Madison's University of Wisconsin, you know there has to be good ice cream. Babcock Hall Dairy Store, where the university makes its own ice cream (and you can see the process) has a fiercely loyal following. They do have good flavors, such as orange chocolate, but I prefer the denser, super premium Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, another Madison creation. 

Best flavor bets: strawberry lemonade (this summer's new flavor), Door County cherry, dark and rich Zanzibar chocolate, and fat Elvis (banana, chocolate, peanut butter). Some other unique options among their 110 flavors include honey ginger and horchata (a sweet Mexican rice milk). Customers also can find non-fat yogurt, soy ice cream, no-sugar ice cream and sorbets for anyone on special diets.

You can Chocolate Shoppe ice cream at its three Madison stores or in other locations such as Kalahari Resort's Sweet Shop at Wisconsin Dells, one of our family's favorite treat stops. 

Why here? Besides the ice cream, the sweets are picture-perfect and wonderfully creative whether it's candied apples or playful, googly-eyed chocolate creations. Plus you can eat your ice cream in the African-themed lobby where you might see a live tiger cub snoozing or playing.

In Minnesota, you can get Chocolate Shoppe ice cream at the The Creamery in Rushford along the Root River Trail in southeastern bluff country. It's one of my favorite areas of the state, and if you bike there from the charming hub of Lanesboro, you've more than earned a huge cone.

Ella's Deli  & Ice Cream Parlor

Another Chocolate Shoppe ice cream outlet worth mentioning is the whimsically eclectic Ella's Deli in Madison--one of the best places to dine with kids. This place is part restaurant, part toy museum and part ice cream parlor (remember the heydays of those in the 1970s?). 

Grilled pound cake a la mode.

There are moving toys and flying objects overhead (think superheroes and Harry Potter), games under glass at each table, and a bizarre, but fascinating collection of automatons including mechanical bare feet that sing. Really. There’s also a merry-go-round outside. Besides serving Chocolate Shoppe ice cream cones, they heap it onto grilled pound cake for dessert. Yep. Grilled pound cake with lots of whipped cream, too. Take a few friends or kids to help you eat it.

Michigan's divine tart cherry sorbet and ice cream

Cherry Republic's tangy-sweet cherry pie ice cream.

Across Lake Michigan, Traverse City has taunted my taste buds for years. Truly. I got hooked on its tart cherry sorbet in 2005, and finally got back for another round in June. Tangy, sweet and utterly refreshing. 

As the tart cherry capital of the country, the variations on cherry ice cream is mind-boggling. We'll take the vanilla with real chunks of cherry pie blended in, thank you very much.

Favorite ice cream destinations: The cheeky and beautifully landscaped Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor and family-run Moomer's dairy just outside Traverse City.

Grab a fresh berry shake at the family-run Peppermint Twist in Delano, Minn.

Find a drive-in

If you can't hit the road--and it's not easy with gas prices where they are--look for local drive-ins that  are as comfy and delightful as a meatloaf dinner served by Grandma. I love The Drive-In in Minnesota's Taylor's Falls with its giant root beer mug and homemade root beer. The playful pink Peppermint Twist in Delano, Minn., is just as fun and wedges into the memories of children who love its kid-friendly play and picnic areas. Best bet: fresh berry shakes.

Graeter's blackberry chocolate

Troll your local freezer cases

If you haven't trolled the freezer cases of upscale grocers such as Minnesota's Lund's or Byerly's lately, that's another sweet hotspot for cooling off. Cincinnati's hometown favorite, Graeter's ice cream, hit the cases earlier this year. They make small batches and stir in melted chocolate so it blends in as big irregular hunks you can fight over. 

I tried its trademark blackberry chocolate at its Cincinnati shop years ago, and it was as good as I remembered when I tried the pint in the freezer case. Graeter's mint ice cream is divine, as is the strawberry.

Even better: check the freezer cases of your local co-ops. They'll often carry the best locally made ice cream and sorbets.

 Please chime in with your favorites, too!

 

Take the kids on a farm stay vacation

Mary Veraguth helps our girls collect fresh eggs for breakfast.

Story & Photos by Lisa Meyers McClintick

Join in with farm chores and fun at Wisconsin's Room to Roam

Want to hear your kids shriek with joy? Let them run loose at Room to Roam, a working farm perched along the picturesque Mississippi River bluffs near Fountain City, Wis. 

Katie and her favorite kitty.

You can wear them out the old-fashioned way: chasing chickens, scampering after farm cats and dogs, weeding and raiding the garden, picking berries and giving goats a fresh green stalk of corn.

We enjoyed their down-home hospitality on our son's 8th birthday a few years ago. It was one of our most memorable trips ever. In an era of waterparks and fancy resorts, it's easy to forget the freedom and magic of a simple place in the country.

Farm expands to haycation fun
Guests are free to do what they want, but some are up at 5 a.m. when farm kitchen’s bird clock chirps and announces the day’s first milking. They can head down the dirt road to owner Jess and Mary Veraguth’s farm, where they milk about 50 cows, four at a time for two to three hours. 

Jess shows us how to feed calves.

Veraguths have farmed on this land above the Mississippi River Valley for four generations. When they expanded to 300 acres about 15 years ago, they opened the adjacent farmhouse to guests. It became the Room to Roam experience, which bales together a field trip, farmer’s market and country vacation.

Step back in time
The guest house feels like a time warp with crocheted knick-knacks and bright flowered wallpaper in the kitchen. And it wasn't just the farm-inspired fun that made them shriek. The house's crickets did, too--the one part of country life that rattled our city kids. They wouldn't sleep on the floor, so they passed out in a pile of three on the bed.

Piled together, safe from crickets.

After morning chores and a break for breakfast, Jess Veraguth takes guests on a hayride, bumping through the fields past lush stalks of corn to the edge of the bluff and a breathtaking view of the river valley. It’s only a few minute’s drive to Winona, Minn., or the small town of Fountain City where you can grab an ice cream cone and enjoy meandering along the Mississippi.


Feed calves, collect freshly laid eggs

When evening rolls around, families hold on to two-quart bottles of milk that hungry calves greedily empty in minutes. Then it’s time to collect a bucket of eggs from Black Star hens. 

We loved the brilliant yellow eggs for breakfast.

Guests are welcome to raid the garden, too. Our girls would eat the sun-warmed tomatoes like apples while our son climbed the super-sized round bales of hay.

The peaceful country setting and heavy dose of nostalgia keeps several families coming back regularly. For others, the farm offers a rare chance for kids to roam free, feel connected to the land and to learn about farming in an era when the county’s number of dairy farms has dwindled from 50 to a handful.

“I do this for the kids,” says Jess Veraguth. “The things we’re doing now are almost part of the past. This is like a trip back in time.”

Room to Roam's guest house.

Read more about it
 For more information, you can call Jess and Mary at 608-687-8575. No e-mail. Remember, they do things the old-fashioned way.
You can also watch KARE-11's recent Gopher Getaway on the farm or go to Farmstays.us.com for more information. If you want a farm experience for your family, read the entries at Farmstays.us.com carefully. Many places run more like a B&B and do not allow kids under 12.

Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, SD, has onsite camping

More farm vacation experiences for families

South Dakota also has two excellent farm experiences for families. The bonus? They let kids follow in the footsteps of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

You'll need to be a camping family or game for sleeping in converted sheep wagons at the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, S.D. Sleeping in the wagons are on my wish list, especially with the gorgeous wide-open prairie views. You could see a storm roll in for miles or watch a fabulous sunset. 

Sisters get in the spirit of DeSmet's Wilder Pageant.

Little House on the Prairie

Of course, you don't have to spend the night to enjoy this magical place. It's open all day to visitors who come to see the horses and colts, ride in a horse-drawn buggy, see a sod house, play with kittens and visit a one-room schoolhouse. There are more Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in town, along with two B&Bs. Prairie House Manor B&B does a delightful job with children, even making special pancakes from "Little House in the Big Woods."

Camp in a wagon at the Homestead.

For a non-camping farm experience, it's about 25 miles to Possibility Farm B&B in Carpenter, South Dakota. It has many of the same experiences as Room to Roam, but it's more of a ranch atmosphere. 

If you're looking for more inspiration for hands-on, unique "Trips You'll Talk About," check out the feature in Midwest Living.

Jelly Belly jelly bean art opens at Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Jelly Belly jelly bean artistry on exhibit at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

Princess Elizabeth at Jelly Belly in Wisconsin.

A challenge: Before you let the kids (or yourself) snarf through Easter Basket jelly beans, delay the sugar high with edible art work. Slap some sticky frosting onto a paper plate or graham cracker and see what funky work you can do.
Even better: Give them frosted cupcakes as a canvas and enter the Jelly Belly cupcake challenge for a chance to win $10,000. You have until July to submit winning entries.

Fortunately, there is amazing inspiration for jelly bean art at both the Jelly Belly Candy Company visitor center in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., and at a special Jelly Belly art exhibit that opened this month at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

A rainbow of jelly bean color
The timing of the new exhibit feels timely with Easter upon us, but Jelly Belly has commissioned serious works of jelly bean art since the 1980s. That's when the late Peter Rocha created the first bean portrait. Appropriately, it was of Ronald Reagan, Jelly Belly's most famous fan.

With 50 core flavors (and colors and/or patterns to distinguish them), a palette of jelly beans is better than a super-sized box of colored pencils. You'll get everything from deep blueberry (perfect for vivid Van Gogh landscapes) or flesh tones of peach or pina colada for portraits ("Girl in Jelly Belly Pearl Earring" anyone?)

Van Gogh's "Starry Night" gets beaned.

Jelly Belly works of art
Masterpieces of Jelly Bean Art opened April 9 at Indianapolis' children's museum and runs through June. After seeing it, you may never look at Easter candy the same way again (or you'll find yourself wondering what could be done with M&Ms and malted milk mini-eggs).

The Jelly Belly exhibit includes sweet twists on Van Gogh's Starry Night, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Grant Wood's American Gothic, and more.

Here's a brain teaser: Ask the kids to guess how many beans go into each portrait. (9,000 to 12,000 jelly beans). If they're really good, they'll decipher chocolate pudding eyes, coconut teeth, very cherry headscarves and green apple dresses. It's like a whole 'nother version of paint-by-number.

Girl with a Pearl Earring in Indianapolis.

Feeling inspired? Read about the museum's artist in residence and his thoughts on creating your own jelly bean portrait.

If you can't make it in time for the exhibit, it's still worth a road trip. It's arguably the best and most engaging children's museum in the country.

And if you're traveling from Minnesota, the Dakotas or Wisconsin to get there, guess what's on the way?

Yep, Jelly Belly. It's a virtual factory tour, a train ride and a chance to see jelly bean art year-round for free.  

Read more on this sugary family field trip.


Looking for other family-friendly educational trips? St. Paul's Science Museum glitters with gold and treasures from King Tut's tomb.

--Lisa Meyers McClintick

Minnesota travel app makes planning lake vacations easy

Spin through entries with the filter wheel page.

Minnesota tips from an expert
Melting snow means means it's time to plan summer lake vacations in Minnesota. Why here? This is the place to do it. With more than 11,000 lakes, Minnesota boasts most coastline than California.

Are you a fanatic angler? Happy camper? Or more into happy hour and pontoon cruises? No matter your vacation style, you'll find more than 120 of the best lake resorts, restaurants and attractions in the Minnesota Lake Vacations app.

Yes, this is a shameless promotional pitch. But at $1.99 for those of you with an iPhone/iPad/iTouch, this travel app is close to free and the best vacation investment you can make.

Why? Let me count the ways.

An example of an entry.

The next generation of travel guides

1. The term "app" feels as overused as the word "like" in a teen's conversation. Worse, anyone can regurgitate information from the web and claim they have a "travel app." Like websites and blogs, not all are created equal.

Minnesota Lake Vacations app is part of Sutro Media's library of travel apps, which use an ingenuous, interactive setup to launch a whole new generation of travel guides. They've tapped the country's best authors and travel writers, too. Each of their travel apps has as much written expertise as traditional travel books, as many maps as GPS, as much essential info as a web site, and more photos than you'll find anywhere. Check out this demo.

If you're worried I'm biased, Sutro travel apps also made Outside Magazine's Hot List for 2011.

Voyageurs Nat'l Park

Apps fit in your hands

2. Use an iPad if you like big screens, iTouch/iPhone if you like pocket-sized (and need an excuse to upgrade your Verizon phone). No need to have brochures, maps and pamphlets spilling across the car floor or crowding your purse (although I may never full break that habit). 

Photos galore
3. As a visual person, I need need to see destinations before investing my time and money into them. Minnesota Lake Vacations has close to 800 photos of restaurants, accommodations and things to do.

Expertise
4. As a journalist for more than 20 years and professional travel writer for the last 10, I know how to dig into each destination and find the best, most unique attractions.

As a Minnesotan, I know where to find the best of each season and great ways to celebrate the quirks of its culture.

And, as a mother of three children and someone often on a budget, you will find excellent tips for saving money and keeping the kids happy.

Save yourself time
5. You could go to the individual web sites for all 120 or so entries on restaurants, lodging and attractions, but do you have that much time? It's easier to scroll through these. One flick of the thumb on the so-called filter wheel pages, and photos fly past like fruit on a slot machine.

You can speed-sort information by region (Brainerd Lakes, Glacial Lakes, Headwaters, Iron Range & Ely) and category (dining, camping, hidden gems, get outdoors, take the kids, etc.).


Help for the directionally challenged
6. Sure, you can use maps and GPS, but these colorful, pocket-sized Google maps are fantastic. No need to refold maps or keep flipping to those in visitors guides. Download the app before your trip, and you'll have all the destinations ready to go without having to type the next restaurant, state park or roadside attraction into your GPS.

Speedy, easy reservations
7. If you like what you see with interior and exterior shots of Minnesota Lake Vacations lodging or start drooling at food descriptions, simply click on the contact information, and you'll be dialing the destination and getting your reservation set up. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.


Even locals can benefit
8. Global travelers will likely key on opportunities to ice fish, sleep in historic lodges, see black bears in the wild or head into the world-class Boundary Waters canoe area. But even locals who are well-versed in what Minnesota offers have told me many times--with great surprise--that they never knew Minnesota had [fill in the blank]. Make sure you're not missing anything, whether it's sleeping in a Viking ship that hangs from a ceiling (Nordic Brew B&B) to fantastic ethnic foods on the Iron Range.

Invest in your vacation
9. In a world where so much is free, there are folks who balk at paying $1.99 or $2.99 for a travel app. But, really, this isn't just an app. It's a tour guide. Where else were you going to spend that change from the couch? On half a bundle of wood while camping? That iced tea at a lakeside restaurant? Or more Silly Bandz for the kids?

Disagree or can't wait to share something?
10. Each entry has a place to add comments. If you just went snowshoeing by a full moon and want to recommend it, please do! If you didn't like the walleye sandwich, pipe up. This is more than a guide--it's a conversation.


A gift that keeps on giving

Yep, it does. As I continue to hit the road this year, I'll be adding even more restaurants, cabins and lodges and attractions along the way. Look for a new category that highlights golf courses and the best holes, too. Want to stay updated? Like the Minnesota Lake Vacations page on Facebook.

If you've bought Minnesota Lakes Vacations, you'll be able to download FREE updates each year. 

That's almost as sweet as a quiet dock, a steaming cup of coffee and a technicolor sunrise.

Summer's coming. Get planning.

Attention: North Shore fans
Watch for Minnesota's North Shore later this year. This will be a second app that exclusively covers Duluth, the North Shore and the Gunflint Trail.

"Narnia" wonderland on Minnesota sleigh ride

Mark Patten with Duke and Captain at Okontoe's sleigh rides. Photos by Lisa Meyers McClintick.

Take a winter ride through lantern-lit forest

By Lisa Meyers McClintick

Remember the magic of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" movie as Lucy steps into the hushed winter wonderland of Narnia?

We've found it here in Minnesota, where people from more than 50 countries and almost every state have found their way to Okontoe Sleigh Rides, a wonderful discovery on the Gunflint Trail.

Our son jokingly wanted to know if our driver, Mark Patten, was Santa. He did, after all, drive a sleigh, and have a rather commanding (yet nurturing) presence. He also lived somewhere that looks a lot like a heavily forested North Pole.

How north is north? If you had on enough warm clothes to plow four miles through the woods, you'd hit Canada.

Just to clarify, The Gunflint Trail isn't as rustic as it sounds. It's fully paved and deservedly considered one of Minnesota's Scenic Byways as it climbs up from the Lake Superior shore from the pretty harbor at Grand Marais and into the thickly flocked fir forest.

Bob and I, along with friends Kasey and Beth and our three kids, kept warily watching our mini-van's thermometer on the way. We groaned as it hit 8 below and cheered when it once (briefly) went to 5 below zero. Were we nuts for driving more than an hour from Lutsen Resort and flinging our overtired kids into subzero cold?

Thankfully not.

They immediately and delightedly ran up to Duke and Captain, the maple-furred Belgians who were pulling our sleigh that night. With the cold temps, though, we didn't dawdle long before squishing close together for warmth and welcoming the quilts the family piled upon us. Then it was off along the trails, gliding through the trees, past the amber lanterns and along the hushed expanse of Bow Lake with a steady jingle of bells.

Carols & history lessons

It was the most fitting setting we've ever had for breaking into a round of "Jingle Bells" and a few other songs that romanticize sleigh rides. For us, it was adventure and fun and novelty. Educational, too.

Mark had the kids imagine how wickedly cold and uncomfortable it would have been to be a turn-of-the-century teacher who had to spend two days making the trip from Duluth to Grand Marais in a sleigh. We knew how numb our fingers were getting, and we had only logged about 35 minutes and had the comfort of Thinsulate, down filling, and hand warmers.

That led to a great discussion of how lumberjacks survived with meager clothing and long days in the forest.

There's plenty of time to ponder life in a sleigh whether it's past and present, earthly or celestial. We admired the moon (not quite full but plenty bright) and constellations of Orion the Warrior and the Seven Sisters. We paused at an outdoor chapel and rustic camp and giggled at the designated Kissin' Tree. It encourages guests--especially couples--to pucker up. Small wonder the tree has witnessed its share of engagements. A sleigh ride for two ranks way up on the romance-o-meter.

Despite all the quilts and hand-warmers, we did get chilled and cut the ride short by five minutes. No matter. It made the post-sleigh ride welcome at the Pattens' historic 1907 Finnish homestead that much warmer. With lanterns and candles lit, Nancy ladeled out homemade hot chocolate as the kids spooned in mounds of marshmallows. A perfect way to wind down the evening.

Gunflint Trail, moose and wolves

The sleigh rides are especially ideal if you're staying on the Gunflint Trail. Gunflint Lodge and Bearskin Lodge are two that are convenient and open year-round. Bearskin is the closest and has lovely cabins on a spacious lake. Gunflint is larger and has lovely dining in the log lodge with deer roaming throughout the property.

If you don't want to base yourself that far north or in Grand Marais, it's do-able to make an evening outing of the sleigh ride from Lutsen.

On our drive back down the Gunflint Trail, we startled two moose. (Good to know: They like getting out of the deep snow and walking along the roads--especially with road salt to lick.)

If you get really lucky, you might even spot a wolf along the way. We saw a lone wolf along the Gunflint Trail a few years ago--a fleeting and thrilling experience on another unforgettable winter night.