Science Museum...

 Taking a break from the posts of our Cook County trip for a bit...but yesterday we went to the Science Museum for the first time since winter.  The museum opened last weekend and this weekend for members only, before opening for the public in September.  Lots of changes that can be expected...but it was still the museum...

When we walked in, the said "hey, we just saw that!"  Of course, when we were at Itasca, both couldn't remember seeing this sign before...

Lukie has always liked trying to be a riverboat captain...

And putting their masked face on the giant astronaut...

The tornado machine is still working...

Lex did read the sign at the gravity well, but I'm pretty sure she enjoyed watching the balls go around more...

Yep...stay 1 velociraptor apart...

Lukie raced the T-Rex...he lost, but it was closer than it's ever been...

Lex also raced the T-Rex (and cheated by starting early)...

She lost too...

They tested their jumping skills...

Lukie compared his shot to Lindsay Whalen's...

Apparently, Lukie is almost 5 feet tall...

Just playing with colors...

Good to know the triceratops is well...

We saw an awesome omnitheater film...very limited seating, the entire room is disinfected between shows...

And played on the musical stairs...

The T-Rex is doing it's part...

Lukie and I have been taking this picture for years...he's getting harder to lift...

It was a good day...

Superior Hiking Trail...

 After visiting Grand Portage State Park, we detoured off Highway 61 to take a hike on the Superior Hiking Trail (I still have to post a on a 7 mile hike that we did on the SHT in June) to it's northern terminus.  From the trailhead, it was a 1.2 mile hike (so a 2.4 mile hike out and back)...

This portion of the trail is shared with the Border Route Trail that runs east/west through the BWCA along the Canadian border...

Most of the trail was in pretty decent shape, it apparently gets a lot of hikers (even though we only saw 2)...

After 1.2 miles, you get to a 270 degree overlook...it was a great view...

And a good spot for lunch...

Just below the overlook is where the SHT officially ends...

It was another great day.

Grand Portage State Park...

 One of the day trips we took from Judge Magney state park was to the border with Canada at Grand Portage State Park.  We've been there before, but it was a short drive to see the highest waterfall in Minnesota (of course we share it with Canada)...

The high falls of the Pigeon River...

Lex figured she needed some pictures...

And the requisite selfie...

This is below the falls...the river flows over the resistant diabase and erodes the slate beneath (creating the falls).  Here, we're well below the falls and can see the slate itself...

A short distance away is an overlook where you can see Isle Royale (part of Michigan). Lex is taking a picture and Lukie is looking through binoculars to see a lighthouse on one of the islands of Isle Royale...

It was a nice, short day trip to the area...

Judge CR Magney State Park...

 Over a week ago, we took off for Cook County in far Northeastern Minnesota.  Eventually heading for the Gunflint Trail, but we first spent two nights at Judge Magney State Park (15 miles north of Grand Marais)...

It's a park we've been to before, so we didn't spend a lot of time at the park.  After setting up camp on the first night, it was rest time (apparently, the naps during the drive weren't enough) in the hammocks...you might see Lex off in the distance...

After the rest, it was time to geocached...and this cache was quite a hike to find...

The card they got was a river otter...

Before dark, we took a short walk down to the bridge over the Brule river...we'd repeat this the next day and go much farther...

Then Lex got down to busy roasting marshmallows...

When she had her fill, she went into the tent to read...she had already finished the Harry Potter series once this summer, but she started it again on this trip (she's read ~5,000 pages this summer alone)...

No reading for Lukie...just sleep in the hammock...

After a busy day outside the park on day two, we took the hiking club trail up to Devil's Kettle and it passes a series of water falls along the way...

The Devil's Kettle...

Half of the Brule river plunges into the pothole on the left and for a long time, it was unsure where the water went.

Some people hypothesized that there was a lava tube connecting this portion of the river valley with Lake Superior.  But lava tubes don't form in rhyolitic lava flows, they form in basaltic lava flows (like those found in Hawaii).  It's been determined that fractures in the rock allow the water to emerge somewhere in the downstream river valley or out in the lake directly...

After the hike to Devil's Kettle, it was back to reading for Lex...

I'll follow with another post or two of what we did outside this park before we left for the Gunflint Trail...