hayward-bayfield-duluth

we took our first little family vacation over the weekend and it was lots of fun. Traveling with a baby does take more work and flexibility, but i'd say it was a success overall. we went to hayward and bayfield, which are both in wisconsin and also to duluth, mn to visit my friend, dani. 

we left thursday night right after work and drove to hayward. we stopped at a dairy queen along the way for dinner. i changed azalea's diaper on the car seat at a gas station and put her pajamas on, hoping she would fall asleep for the night. well, she did fall asleep, but promptly woke up when we arrived at our hotel at 9:30pm. we all ended up staying up until 11:00 that night. oh well! 

azalea woke us up around 7am on friday morning. we all got ready and headed out to explore the town.

we found a little coffee shop where we ate breakfast and i found the cutest baby boutique, where i wanted to buy everything, but somehow made it out of there with just a gift and nothing for azalea. :)

we hit the road again in the late morning to head towards bayfield, stopping in ashland along the way. it was a cute town on lake superior and we ate lunch at a brew pub on the main street. azalea slept most of the time, which was nice.

we made it to bayfield in the late afternoon and ended up running into our neighbors from home, who were in town for a wedding. we saw them a few other times during our stay, which was pretty funny. bayfield was also really nice. thatcher had been there as a kid, but i never had. our hotel was right on lake superior (although our room faced the street).
 

we decided to check out a pizza place up the street for dinner, but it was really crowded when we got there, so we opted to order our pizzas to go and went and sat on the benches down by the water.

that night we retired to the hotel room pretty early and all went to bed at the same time. we put azalea down when she was wide awake and she didn't make a peep. what a good baby! 

saturday morning azalea woke us up at 6:15, so we decided to get ready and on with our day. she fell back asleep at 7:15. it was quite comical. we had breakfast at the hotel (super boring continental breakfast. toast, toast, and more toast). we decided to take the ferry over to madeline island. you have the option to take your car over, but it was pretty expensive, so we decided to just ride as passengers (and a stroller). azalea fussed most of the way over, but i think she was just tired.

we walked around the island while azalea slept in the stroller. we were only there for a little over an hour, but it was fun to explore. we ended up catching an extra boat back to bayfield with hardly anyone on it. and azalea was a happy girl, so we were happy too :) we left bayfield in the early afternoon to drive to duluth. we arrived in duluth and went straight to my friend dani's house. she is having a baby in january and got an exersaucer from from a friend, so we put azalea in there for a while. she loved it! it was beautiful out, so we decided to go for a walk on the lakewalk. we walked a long ways and dani and i even got some pre-dinner ice cream :)

that night we went to burrito union for dinner, which is one of my favorite duluth restaurants. i had a raspberry margarita. yum! we went back to dani's and made brownies (calories don't count on vacation) and watched a movie. that was the only night azalea went to bed before us. 

sunday thatcher took azalea on a drive up the shore to get smoked salmon, so dani and i could have a little shopping date. it was so nice! i loved that they got to have special daddy/daughter time and i got some mama time!

dani and i had a great time at the mall and a cute baby boutique up called sproutlings. we both got stuff for ourselves and our babies. thatcher and azalea met up with us for lunch at buffalo wild wings and soon after that, it was time to head home. the drive from duluth is normally only 2.5 hours, but yesterday we hit horrible construction traffic and it took over 4 hours. azalea was pretty cranky (read: screaming) for most of the ride, so needless to say it was not pleasant. finally we got home, but it was much later than i anticipated, so i only unpacked last night, we didn't make it to the grocery store or anything. 

we really lucked out with the weather this weekend, it was gorgeous every day! i loved getting away with my family. i can't believe i'm actually old enough to be saying that. it scares me a little. i hope we have many more trips in the future! next on our list is florida in february. i'm sure flying will be a whole 'nother experience!