Katie the Wonder-Planner

Katie and I have been together our entire adult lives. We’ve accomplished a lot together since the day I proposed to her in Canal Park, Duluth, MN. Really, anything good I’ve ever done I owe in no small part to her. And I feel like I’ve contributed to her happiness as well. As folks here in Minnesota say when they are truly happy about something - that’s not too bad.

Yes, Katie and I make a pretty darn good team. That teamwork has been honed over 17 years of marriage, so making travel plans with her is so seamless at this point that I have to say it is one of the things I look forward to more than most anything else in my life. For example, our most recent trip was a Minnesota North Shore excursion with 18 members of our extended family. One of the biggest challenges facing us was feeding that many people on the road affordably and palatably - we didn’t want to go to McDonald’s twice every day. Katie took on the food challenge with zeal. With a little help from our favorite recipe books written by Ree Drummond, aka “The Pioneer Woman”, all 18 travelers had their wants and needs met. In other words, we were all fat and happy.

Here was the menu for the trip. The plan was to meet in Duluth, MN after lunch on day one.

Day 1: Canal Park, Duluth, MN

Dinner - Walking Tacos at our hotel.

Day 2: Travel day to our cabin in Lutsen, MN

Breakfast - Free Hotel Continental breakfast (one of the kids' favorites)

Lunch - Pre-packed brown bag lunch in the lobby of The Great Lakes Aquarium

Dinner - Chicken Spaghetti for the kids and Grilled Chicken for the adults at the cabin

Bag Lunch in the Great Lakes Aquarium lobby helped save time and money.

Day 3: Lutsen

Breakfast - Pancake Mini-Muffins and Individual Sausage Casseroles

Lunch - Homemade Pizza with Foolproof Pizza Dough

Dinner - Baked Ziti for kids and Pork Chops for adults

Day 4: Lutsen

Breakfast - Pancake Mini-Muffins and Individual Sausage Casseroles

Lunch - Pasta Leftovers

Dinner - Chicken Breasts, Hot Dogs and Hamburgers on the Grill

Day 5: Travel Day

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs and bacon

Lunch - Family lunch at Pickwick Restaurant in Duluth (we were able to secure a private room which allowed the opportunity for all 18 of us to share our favorite memories of the trip)

That’s not too bad, huh? What I left out were all the snacks and healthy sides including veggies that we picked up from Zup’s Grocery in Silver Bay on our way to the cabin. Also, those of us not on a diet ate pie for dessert every night which we pre-ordered from the famous Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors, MN and picked up on our way to the cabin.

With a little planning, Katie was able to create a menu with options for everybody and we were able to avoid having to try to figure out what we were going to eat every day. That planning allowed us more time to do what we came to do - explore the world with family.

Happy (and well-fed) Explorers