We took our daughter and headed out of town for a long fall weekend up north. The annual 'MEA Weekend' trip will be our last one as she is a senior and will be on to other things next fall. For those of you not familiar with the Minnesota school tradition, the third week in October is a short school week here. The teachers union holds a conference at the end of the week so no school on the 3rd Thurs & Fri of October.

It's pretty common for Minnesotans to flock out of town for one last trip before the snow flies. Judging by the traffic we hit coming back home on Sunday, most of the state was on the North Shore!

I have come to the conclusion that I will never get my act together enough to write a true trip report but here's a link to my Facebook album of photos from the weekend. It should be a public folder so you don't need a Facebook account to view it. We had a great time and came away contemplating a Superior Hiking Trail trip in our future.


MEA Weekend at Tettegouche State Park

Nice!

Very Cool. Thanks for sharing. We were very close to you. Stayed in Silver Bay Wed. night and then 3 nights in Grand Marais. Moose Madness one day and then a drive to the end of the Gunflint Trail hiking the Centenial Trail and dinner at the Trail Center on the way back to town. The ducklings are 9 and 11 and this was our 7th year spending MEA up there. They say it is their favorite family tradition and look forward to it all year. I'm looking forward to many more years.

Love Tettegouche State Park. Great photo's Twins.

Facebook Login required to view. It sounds like you had a good time though.

quote DuluthPak: "Facwbook Login required to view. It sounds like you had a good time though."

Sorry it didn't work for you. In theory it is supposed to be available to the public, meaning anyone even if you don't have a Facebook account. But I am not an expert about such things and I know that it doesn't always work the way it is supposed to. I know others with Facebook accounts that I am not connected with on FB have been able to view it.

Perhaps it's a good motivator for me to do a real trip report next time around!

quote ducks: "Very Cool. Thanks for sharing. We were very close to you. Stayed in Silver Bay Wed. night and then 3 nights in Grand Marais. Moose Madness one day and then a drive to the end of the Gunflint Trail hiking the Centenial Trail and dinner at the Trail Center on the way back to town. The ducklings are 9 and 11 and this was our 7th year spending MEA up there. They say it is their favorite family tradition and look forward to it all year. I'm looking forward to many more years."

I probably should've checked to see if anyone else was going to be in the area but didn't think to!

We have spent our MEA weekends all over the place.. sometimes up north... sometimes other areas of the state. And sometimes visiting good friends in Chicago. It will be odd to plan a fall getaway next year that isn't tied to the third weekend in October but we are hoping to plan a long weekend next fall that gives us an opportunity to see fall color at its peak up north.

Cool Teardrop camper! What is the brand? And if you don't mind me asking, what was the cost?

quote mc2mens: "Cool Teardrop camper! What is the brand? And if you don't mind me asking, what was the cost?"

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing them! Is that the teardrop camper that's made in Rib Mountain, WI (Wausau area)? We've been thinking about one of those ourselves and would love to hear your thoughts too? If this is the same ones, mc2mwns, here's a link:
TC Teardrops

quote ozarkpaddler: "

quote mc2mens: "Cool Teardrop camper! What is the brand? And if you don't mind me asking, what was the cost?"

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing them! Is that the teardrop camper that's made in Rib Mountain, WI (Wausau area)? We've been thinking about one of those ourselves and would love to hear your thoughts too? If this is the same ones, mc2mwns, here's a link:
TC Teardrops "

We LOVE our Teardrop. We purchased it from RetroRide Teardrop Trailers in Plover, WI (near Stevens Point, WI)

RetroRide Teardrops


We paid just under $8000 for a 5 x 10 that we customized a bit. That was one of the reasons we were so drawn to it... very affordable base price with not a lot of bells and whistles. Compared to some that we looked at online that started at $10K or $15K with a lot of fancy features that weren't necessary for us.

We've had it since June - taken it on 5 weekend trips so far and really love it. it's perfect for us. I prefer to camp outside but I have a job that requires me to work until nearly 9 pm most Friday nights so it's hard to get away for a weekend of camping without taking vacation time. This has been perfect... take off after work.. pull in late at night... level it and go to sleep. In our younger years we would take off and go tent camping but the times of setting up a tent at midnight are long past me. We stopped doing that once we had young kids, it just wasn't worth it.

Happy to answer any other questions about it... just don't want to bore you with my endless gushing ;-) We found it through another board member - Old Scout bought one summer before last. We really liked his when we saw it so we ended up getting one as well.

Thanks so much. Will probably bore you with questions later?

OP and Twins - thanks for the links!

Very cool pictures - favorite time of year on the north shore. Fun park with lots to see and do.

But I went south for MEA with my senior, lol. Drove straight through to Pensacola Beach Florida. Nice to have just my eldest for a trip.

You will be done with MEA next year, but I've a few more birds to fly the coop before I'm done. I think it's a great time of year for a getaway, but the travel industry and airlines milk it for all they can get!!!

I love that Teardrop of yours! The heater would be worth it's weight in gold most MEA weekends.

quote luft: "I love that Teardrop of yours! The heater would be worth it's weight in gold most MEA weekends. "

We love it too - it was hard to store it away a couple of weekends ago. Will be anxious to bust it out in early springtime.

And the mini electirc heater we used was worth it's weight in gold. We spent a lot of time outdoors all day long but it got chilly quickly after sundown. And as you know, our daughter is a total freeze box so she headed in for the night - and fired up the heater - much earlier than we did. Meant it was toasty warm inside when we retired for the night. We had no problem turning it off and leaving it off for the entire night. Stayed warm even with windows cracked for airflow. The middle "sardine" sleeper was nearly always hot.