Beautiful City

I have never thought of Duluth as a "fall colors" destination. I actually kind of thought the fall colors in Missouri or Ohio would be better then Duluth because there were less pines and more trees that would change to orange and red instead of just yellow. This is the first fall I have spent in Duluth in who knows how long. 6 years? 10 years? And I have to say, I was horribly wrong. Duluth's fall colors far surpass anything I saw in Ohio or Missouri, and I think the real reason they do is the sheer volume of trees here. This is a city of trees. You can hardly tell that my neighborhood is there at all. Over the past week my morning commute has been take-my-breath away beautiful. I mean, my day always includes beauty, but with the fall colors it has just been awe inspiring. Especially since fall colors are my favorite. I am leaning towards decorating our bedroom in fall colors and wish there was a way to just photograph the city and have it turned into fabrics etc. But I digress.

I have been contemplating doing a "day in the life" photo post, with pictures of how my normal day looks and goes. Walking into daycare, the daycare lady holding Benjamin, my morning commute, my desk, the mother's room at work, etc. I still may do this sometime, but for now you just get a couple ideas of how my day has natural beauty in it. I borrowed my father's nice camera so I could stop and take nice pictures on my way to and from work. Here are the results.

My daycare rents its space from a Nursing home (hence the building being so big). I park in the lot and walk down this path, towards Lake Superior, to the Day Care entrance.

I love seeing the lake every morning! It has so many personalities. The day I took these pictures it was glassy, smooth, calm pastels.

I leave daycare right around sunrise. The sun lights up the clouds over the nursing home and pine trees.

This is actually one of my favorite moments of the day lately and this picture does NOT do it justice. After dropping Benjamin off I head up the hill, and this road is approaching the hill. The colors on the hill are just so gorgeously blended, and lit up by the rising sun.

Then I head up the hill! I admit this photo, and the ones like it, are not actually taken from where I drive. Its not the safest place to stop, but this is a close approximation to the view I have as I crest the hill.

If I could look back over my shoulder while I was driving up the hill, I would see the sunrise over the lake. Again, this was not taken from the road I was on, but I cannot resist including it. This is my beautiful city. I could stop at this overlook every morning to take a gander for a couple of minutes and not be late to work. I should to it more often.

After that, my drive is up on top of the hill, more inland. The fall colors are quite beautiful even on the busiest road I take (this is Arrowhead).

So that is how my morning is beautiful. Its pretty great I have to say. I love it. And Autumn is the best season for so many reasons... this being one of them. I also stopped at the overlook on my way home, and here are some of the best pictures:

Orange is approximate location of our house, pink is daycare. This entire area pictured is a residential neighborhood with about typical suburban lot sizes or smaller, yet you hardly see any buildings because of all the trees.

The plant in the foreground is Sumac. You can make wine out of those berries, or eat them straight though they are fuzzy and not very good. They grow along the roads in many places in the city (on the rocky hill) and add a flare of red to the fall colors.

Once again, down at the bottom of the hill is a residential neighborhood... but all you see is trees!

And that is a brief look at the beauty of my city, that I get to breathe in every single day. I probably will have posts like this periodically - about the cities geography and natural beauty, hope you all don't mind!