Arinze, and their daughter Cinderella were excellent hosts and tour guides
as I explored the land of 10,000 lakes.
As much as I wanted this vacation to be an escape from the chaos that is Las Vegas, I quickly discovered that Minnesota is much more than trees, lakes, and people with really cool accents. It seemed that every time I went out, I managed to uncover the dark side of Duluth. The side that the locals adamantly deny even exists.
Well Duluthians, it's time the truth be told.
The first run-in with some of the more nefarious population was at the end of a stroll along the favorite "Lakewalk".
The walk along the edge of Lake Superior was absolutely beautiful. We had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we looked at old boats that have washed ashore,
walked out to a lighthouse,
and ate some squeaky cheese.
On the way back we noticed two large men acting rather suspicious along the boardwalk. Erica and I didn't say anything to each other, but we both obviously sensed something was awry because we nearly doubled our speed as we passed them. I quickly realized that they were following us. It must be all the girl's camp training on how you should make yourself look as big as possible (which I recognize is rather difficult in my case) if you run into a wild animal because I found myself walking with my shoulders squared, eyes forward, and fists at my side ready to attack. I was very glad when the footsteps subsided and I didn't have to keep planning how to protect my pregnant friend and her year-old daughter.
When we related this experience to other Duluthians they all gave the same response: the men must be visitors because no one from this city would do something like that.
The next day we were having lunch at Grizzlies, a favorite dining spot for the locals. Our lunch was abruptly interrupted when we heard a lady yelling at another family sitting at a table in the middle of the restaurant. She was mad that she couldn't get her stroller past a chair at this other family's table. "My husband told you three times to move your chair", she began to scream at this family. The family apologetically explained that they weren't aware of the problem. The lady then felt the best way to solve this problem was to yell "SHUT UP! You don't even want to mess with me today!" All of a sudden I thought I was back in Vegas . I was just glad no one started scrappin'.
Again, the locals would not admit that this lady was from around these parts.
There has been a recent crime spree of large lawn statues being broken and stolen. One lady at church told me that she once went to jail for beating up a drunk 90-year-old. This is just more proof that something fishy is going on around here.
So Duluth, it's time to accept the truth. Something's rotten in the state of Minnesota.
However, I would return to this gorgeous part of country in a heartbeat!
2 comments:
Too bad you couldn't write out the funny way they say things. Who knew that Minnesotans could be so freaky, well, I guess they were out-of-towners. So I guess those Canadians (wink, wink), are a little freaky.
Erika, you need to stop takin' all of your violent behavior out on other people. Don't try to deny that you were the crazy lady in the restaurant. I know the truth!
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