Up North Adventures

Hello! Hope you are all enjoying your weekends! I just got home from being "up north" for a family get-together. For us Minnesotans, up north means anything north of St. Paul/Minneapolis. We happened to go up north to Grand Rapids, MN. Haven't heard of it? Not surprised ; ) Think "North Country"- the movie with Charlize Theron where they work in the mines and the women sue for sexual harassment. That's where I was, ladies; The Iron Range. What a glamorous life I lead...

So first things first, Friday we get to our hotel, the Timberlake Lodge. It's nothing fancy; rustic but nice...

Our room

Cool Bar

The HUGE bathroom. It was much larger than it appears in this photo. I was lovin' it

Happy me. I approve.

 Saturday we soaked up everything Grand Rapids had to offer (I hope you're sensing my sarcasm here). In addition to being famous for it's Iron Ore, Grand Rapids happens to be the birth place of Judy Garland.

Naturally, we took a tour of the Judy Garland Museum, which includes the house she was born in, clothing and jewelry that belonged to Judy and artifacts from "The Wizard of Oz", which happens to be one of my favorite movies! I'm lucky my boyfriend is so easy going!

Here's her house:

It was actually really cute and fun to see! Here are some of the other gems of the tour:

The carriage from "The Wizard of Oz"

Me and Dorothy's dress from "The Wizard of Oz"! I was excited.

Now back to hotels. Saturday there was a little mishap with our hotel reservation and we had to find another hotel to stay in. No big deal, right. WRONG! Ladies, what I am about to show you may be a bit disturbing. Don't say I didn't warn you. This is what I saw when I walked into the room at "The Sawmill Inn" (no joke, that is what it's called)...

The room had not been updated since about 1970 and had a very southwestern vibe, if you will. I was horrified- I felt like I had just stepped into a scene from "No Country For Old Men" and that Javier Bardiem was around the corner with that airgun. My boyfriend was a good sport and posed for some pics so you can really get the full effect:

Needless to say, I was happy to pull into my driveway today. Dorothy was right-there really is no place like home.