Whiteley Creek Homestead

Lupines along the roadside from just north of Duluth all the way to Grand Portage… Miss Rumphius must have been here.

 
Miss Rumphius is the title of a children's book by Barbara Cooney. It is based upon a true story of a little girl named Alice who lived in a city by the sea. Her grandfather had come to America on a large ship. He told her stories of faraway places. She told her grandfather that when she grew up, she wanted to travel to see faraway places, too, and then come home to live beside the sea. Her grandfather said there was one more thing she must do. "What is that?" asked Alice. "You must do something to make the world more beautiful," said her grandfather. "All right," said Alice. But she did not know what that could be… until she was quite old and hit upon an idea.

One thing that I wanted to do when I grew up was to visit the farthest point in northeast Minnesota where the state comes to a point. That is just what Dick and I did on our North Shore trip. We travelled north of Grand Portage to Hat Point Marina where Dick's friend, Elmer, has a charter fishing boat moored. Elmer took us out on Lake Superior and I drove the boat! Well… I sat behind the wheel and I was, for a moment, a fishing boat captain.

We returned to Grand Marais to our campground to stay a second night. That night, we attended a play depicting Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island performed by local community members. How fitting to end our day in such a manner.