Labor Day Weekend

What a great weekend, the best in recent history. I mean, talk about perfect weather.
We left for Duluth on Thursday night to cut our drive in half. I worked from the hotel on Friday, Nicole went for a nice run along Lake Superior. I finished work around 2:00 p.m. and we headed north to Ely, MN for Nicole's uncle Joe's wedding. We have driven the route along Hwy 53 from Duluth to Virginia many times over the last year. So we decided to mix it up this weekend and drove to Two Harbors from Duluth and then taking Hwy 2 up to Ely. You are on Hwy 2 for about 50 miles and then move to Hwy 1 for another 30 miles. Honestly, Hwy 1 is the coolest drive I have ever been on anywhere in the world. Of course I haven't driven in many places, but it is for sure the coolest road I have driven in MN. This is the ideal road for sports cars who love to test the way their car handles. By no means do we have a sports car, but the Saab handles very well in tight corners and this road was perfect for that. We met a lot of motorcycle riders who probably had the same idea. It is not recommended at night or in the winter, but on a perfectly dry summer day it was a lot of fun. I couldn't wait to do it again on our drive home. Nicole said I could drive as fast as I wanted, as long as I was in control. I slowed down when she turned green and had to roll down the window for some air. She got a little car sick.
Once we arrived in Ely, the festivities began. We checked in and immediately went to the rehearsal for the wedding. Nicole was a reader in the wedding. Then we went to the Groom's Dinner. The wedding was Saturday afternoon, right on the lake. It was a perfect day, I mean you could not have asked for better weather for an outdoor weekend. People went fishing, boating, tossed horse shoes, had campfires, smores, everything you could ask for at the lake. The service was very nice and Nicole did a nice job reading. She was nervous, but she did well.
On Monday we went kayaking down the Kinnikinic River, which is a small tributary to the St. Croix River. We had 4 couples who made the journey, the Wards, Wilsons, Gagnes, and Thompsons. It was about 4 hours and again the weather was great. Nicole and I went up to the park last night at sunset and enjoyed a bottle of wine and talked about how great the weekend was.
The only negative of the weekend was I dropped my phone in the lake. George and I were putting the bumpers between Joe's boat and the dock and I reached down to grab the bumper and my phone fell out of my front pocket of my shirt. There was literally 1 inch of space between the boat and the dock and the phone went perfectly through it. Fortunately I have insurance on my phone that gets me a new phone at no charge, WHEW!
I hope everyone enjoyed Labor Day 2009!