It’s been a cold and snowy winter in the upper Midwest and we have been feeling the seasonal epidemic of “cabin fever” pretty hard. My boyfriend and I have fallen into an unfortunate routine of staying inside every weekend to watch TV. We hunker down on the couch and spend daaaayssss watching hours and hours of TV, reading books, and playing a board game or two. Only occasionally pausing for food. We are active, adventurous people and this bout of cabin fever was really starting to get to us.

To shake things up a bit, my boyfriend suggested we head out of town for a weekend. I was excited at the idea of a change of scenery. In my mind I began to list all the fun places we could go within a reasonable drive from home in Eastern Wisconsin. Being winter, the list is more limited than usual. As I brainstormed ideas of what we could do in Minneapolis or Chicago, my fella had another idea – Duluth!

 

Duluth? I was confused. What is in Duluth?

 

Apparently, there is SO MUCH to do in Duluth.

 

I let my guy take the lead in planning everything for the weekend, and I must say he did a stellar job. For the short time we spent in Duluth, we had an action-packed weekend and found a few “gems” that I would definitely go back and see again.

Road Trip

From where we live, Duluth is about a 5 hour drive. Yes, we were committed to this adventure! It’s little farther than we would normally travel for a weekend, but it was totally worth it. We cut out of work early on Friday so that we would miss the busy Friday rush hour traffic of northern Wisconsin. (Guys, this is a joke…have you been to northern Wisconsin?! Haha…)

We arrived at our hotel around 9pm and crashed immediately. Zzzz…

Duluth in One Day

Saturday morning we woke up early to begin our Duluth adventure. Our first item on the To Do List was, of course, breakfast. Whenever I travel, I like to find the best local restaurants for an authentic experience. Via my Pinterest browsing I found recommendations for the Duluth Grill, which was not far from our hotel.

Duluth Grill

This place was so good we actually ate breakfast here both mornings of our trip! The building is a cute little diner filled with booths and counter seating. We were impressed that the little building could seat so many people. Outside the building, you can find the diner’s own garden, which at the time we visited (February) was lovingly covered due to the cold temps. The menu at the Duluth Grill is organic and locally grown, straight from that garden on site. They serve breakfast all day, which immediately ranks them high on my list. However, we arrived before 9am on a Saturday, just beating the breakfast rush.

I ordered the Farmer’s Breakfast which was what I think of as your standard diner breakfast of eggs with everything. However this dish was better than pretty much every other breakfast I’ve ever had.

I chose two organic eggs over easy, red flannel hash (a combination of sweet potatoes, peppers, carrots and a few other root veggies), cherry wood smoked bacon, followed by a cinnamon role the size of my face. Perfection!

My fella chose the “Chicken and Whaaaat” (ß how it is actually spelled on their menu). This was a hearty dish of buttermilk friend chicken, a giant house made pancake laced with bacon, corn, and green onion, topped with goat cheese and spicy maple bacon coffee syrup. So good!

Our meals were so delicious and filling, we actually forgot to eat lunch on Saturday!

Glensheen

After breakfast, we signed up for a tour of the Glensheen mansion. Glensheen is a historic 20,000 square foot mansion which overlooks Lake Superior. The mansion was built in 1908 and is currently decorated with the original pieces from the period. If you are a history buff, you will love this tour.

In total, the tour of the full house lasted about 90 minutes. However, there are different kinds of tours you can choose from. On the tour we learned about the Congdon family who built the estate with money earned from the iron industry and other endeavors.

The house itself was beautiful. We toured the many bedrooms, each decorated in furniture and art belonging to each of the Congdon family members. If you are a Downton Abbey buff, you will love walking through this mansion built in the early 1900s.

After the tour, we spent some time wandering around the grounds. The backside of the house opens to Lake Superior and the family’s own boathouse where they would dock their yachts. The boathouse still stands even after 100-plus years of waves crashing into it. The view was amazing, even on the snow-covered winter day we were there. I can’t imagine what it would look like in the summer.

Train Depot

We took a coffee break mid-day and wandered through downtown Duluth to the train museum. Duluth was, and still is, a major port city on the Great Lakes. The railroad is just as important as the shipping industry in this town. For a little more history, we headed to the train depot.

Whether you’re a train buff or not, this museum is rather fascinating. We walked through rooms showing the history of immigrants in Duluth. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many immigrants continued their journey by rail throughout the U.S. after being processed through Ellis Island in New York.

The museum displays several different types of trains dating back to the 1840s. You are even allowed the walk through some of the trains!!! I don’t know about you, but the only trains I’ve ever been on have been underground and attached to a subway system, so this was pretty cool.

We had just as much fun playing on the trains as the little kids, who I’m sure some of the trains were truly meant for.

Canal Park

We still had a lot of daylight left after our two tours, so we ventured outside to visit Canal Park. In the summer, Canal Park is where you can watch the large ships sail in to port. In the winter, you can still take in the beauty of Lake Superior. The ice chunks on the water’s edge were pretty neat for someone who doesn’t live near water. And, the lighthouse was pretty majestic.

Canal Park is also the local tourist area with blocks of cute shops, restaurants, and hotels. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the shops and picked up some discounted Valentine’s Day candy as a souvenir.

Fitger’s

For dinner, we wanted to try another local restaurant we’d heard so much about – Fitger’s. Fitger’s is a local Duluth brewery that also serves delicious food. The restaurant is housed within an old brewery building, which is also home to many shops and businesses.

The restaurant itself seemed to be split into a few of the shop spaces in the building. We saw servers cross the open hallway between both groups of rooms. There was an upstairs eating area, a room with a stage for live music, and at least two bars. This unique set up made for a very cool atmosphere.

I tried an Apricot Wheat beer and a smoked fish wrap – it was divine. We also shared the best artichoke dip with pita bread and veggies. Even on a weekend away, a handful of raw veggies will make my heart so happy. J

Unfortunately, we were ravenous at dinner and there is no photo evidence of our meal.

Casino

After dinner, we started to feel sleepy but wanted to keep the adventurous day going. All day we joked about visiting the Fond Du Luth Casino in the heart of downtown. You can’t miss the sign. We are not casino people. We are not late night people. We are fall-asleep-at-9pm-people. So, to cap off our day of exploring we wandered through the casino and tried our luck on a few machines.

A few days before the trip I happened to find $10 in the pocket of some old jeans. Disastrously lost my $10 within the first few minutes. My boyfriend, however, found a few slot machines he thought were hilarious looking and had a bit of luck winning a few bucks.

Ultimately, we lost about $25. However, we realized as we walked out of the casino, we did not have to pay for parking all day! So in the end the whole day was a win 😉

Sunday

We ended our weekend with one last stop at the Duluth Grill. We got to the restaurant later on Sunday and ran into the brunch crowd. However, no fear, the adorable diner has counter seating when the booths are full.

I ate the best Huevos Rancheros EVERRRR! I can’t even describe how much we loved this place. My next trip to Duluth will for sure include at least one meal at the Duluth Grill.

After breakfast, we headed out of town to beat the forecasted snowstorm. In my mind, a trip to northern Minnesota in the winter is not complete without some extra snow.

We had the best weekend in Duluth and will definitely plan another trip soon, maybe in the summer months. I’d love to see the ships come in at Canal Park.

Have you been to Duluth? What are your favorite sights to see?

 

Comment below!