Day one of Duluth Trip, 2025

This year has been among the most difficult I've endured. I've watched cherished connections slip away—

friendships that once anchored me, opportunities I'd hoped would define my path, and even the bonds of family I thought immutable fade away.

Though summer brought the gift of exploration and travel, these experiences couldn't quite fill the hollowness that had settled within me.

Perhaps it's selfish to feel this way when I've been granted such privileges, and I recognize that I too easily lose sight of what's important and dear to me.

--

This October, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Northern Minnesota on a road trip with my family.

Family is the most important thing to me, I don't think anything could ever come before it. I would never choose anything over my family - and my family has helped guide me through some of the most darkest moments of my life.

Anyways, today we went on a road trip to Duluth, Minnesota, and this is my blog on it: a

Northern Minnesota is the epitome of peak freedom - pure, raw, and untamed. If there is one important thing about me, it would have to be my unfiltered affection for nature's beauty.

We traveled to Duluth originally from the Twin Cities, and it was a pretty wild ride, around 2-3 hour drive but that's okay. I had a portable charger, and plenty of Sopranos episodes to catch up on.

I was the one responsible for planning the trip's agenda and here was my plan:

Morning:

- Arrive in Duluth, check into hotel

Lunch:

- Phoholic Taste of Vietnam

Afternoon:

- Duluth Downtown Sightseeing

Late Afternoon:

- Spirit Mountain Alpine Ride

Evening:

- Duluth Lake Superior Boardwalk

Dessert:

- Love Creamery

When we finally arrived in Downtown Duluth, Minnesota - we quickly prepared and gathered for lunch at one of the best Pho spots in Duluth: "PhoHolic Taste of Vietnam"

There are 2 PhoHolic Taste of Vietnam locations in Vietnam, and this was the newer location located in Downtown, Duluth. It's original location was located far far up north, atop the main slop in Duluth - however the main difference between this spot and it's original one is that this new spot actually has decent parking.

We came in that day, and I ordered my usual to go Pho dish of Lean beef Pho. I usually add plenty of fish sauce, and hoison, and everything into my Pho - and the broth at this spot wasn't too bad actually. Decent is needed for travelling, and this pho was alright.

The first agenda on the list was to visit Spirit Mountain, which is this recreation area located in Duluth, Minnesota. It's owned by the city of Duluth and sits on a hillside overlooking the city and Lake Superior.

It's primarily known as a ski and snowboard hill during winter, featuring downhill slopes and terrain parks.

But in the warmer months, it transforms into a summer / Fall recreation destination with activities like mountain biking trails, an alpine slide, scenic chairlift rides, and ziplines

I found this spot actually on TikTok. I watched a reel of someone riding on the alpine coaster that the spot had, and I thought that that was super cool, so, I just had to go out and try it out for myself.

We bought our tickets for the Alpine Coaster, which is this giant downhill roller coaster that zips through the Duluth Forrest, and the Scenic Chairlift, which is, essentially, a reused ski chairlift "rebranding" as something more than it's not, that takes people up and down the main hill.

The Tickets weren't too expensive, but the bad thing was that these were only good for the day only. That meant we had to hurry it up with riding the attractions because the spot closed at 5:30 pm (But it wasn't like we didn't have the time, we arrived sometime around noon).

First, we wanted to try out the coaster because that seemed to be the attraction that would be most fun.

We went to the spot, and luckily, the line there wasn't too long.

When I got onto my coaster, it was more cramped that I originally thought. The coaster had a seatbelt, and a lever to accelerate, and another lever to break.

The associate warned me not to go too fast, and to keep my limbs in-side, and items in-tact at all times if I wanted to "keep them."

The ride was actually pretty amazing, and very fun to ride. It was exceptionally very fast, and the surrounding sight of the autumn colors and wilderness was also very beautiful. But because the coaster was accelerating so quickly, I wasn't able to snag any photos of the ride in action.

The ride started at the top of the hill, and accelerated downhill through the Duluth Wilderness. The ride twisted and turned viciously, and was very euphoric.

Once I reached the bottom of the hill, the coaster ended, and it was automatically pulled by a pulley system uphill back towards the top of the hill.

It was slow at this point, and but the ride was relaxing. I was able to take a pic this time;

Once at the top, an associate assisted me in getting off, and I waited atop the exit of the coaster for my family which followed close behind.

After the ride concluded, we walked to the next attraction: the scenic chairlift.

It was a bit of a walk, but honestly, I enjoyed it. The day was very sunny, and beautiful, and the breeze felt calming. The impact of the crisp autumn infiltrated my lungs, and I breathed in the pure Duluth oxygen.

The chairlift was essentially just a re-used ski lift, but it was still very fun. The view was immaculate, and the press of the October sky wrapped my skin with it's cool breeze.

The chairlift started from atop the Hill, and rode down towards the base of the hill.

But since we were still so high, we were given a beautiful view of the Duluth skyline and Lake Superior.

I also took a picture of the ride from behind as well.

After the ride had completed, we went to downtown Duluth to go sightsee, and check out some of the shops that Duluth had to offer.

The spots here were really cool, but my family was too occupied with shopping and I didn't want to have to constantly wait on them, so I decided to take a walk to the Duluth esplanade and shipyard.

The lake breeze felt nice, and the view was quiet, and calming.

I walked further down the esplanade and slowly saw the rising view of Lake Superior enter my gaze. The milky colors of the sun painted the sky with a warm texture, and the breeze from the wind gently wrapped around me. I felt a soothing sensation, a calm, mellow, and relaxing feeling while walking towards the sunset.

Traveling deeper down the walk way, the Lake view become larger, and larger (no homo). I continued to walk further down so that I could get a decent glimpse of the Aerial Lift Bridge.

After walking quite a distance, I managed to get this magnificent perspective of the bridge and snipped this Photo:

Some quick facts about this bridge:\

The Aerial Lift Bridge is an iconic landmark in Duluth, Minnesota. It's a vertical lift bridge that spans the Duluth Ship Canal, connecting the mainland to Minnesota Point.

The bridge's central span rises vertically to allow ships to pass through into Duluth's harbor. Originally built in 1905 as a transfer bridge and converted to a lift bridge in 1929-1930, it's one of only a few operational aerial lift bridges in the world.

After taking this picture, I walked back towards downtown to regroup with my family, but before I did that, I took a pic of this sign:

I figured since I was there, I might as well take a picture of what the events Duluth Canal Park neighborhood has to offer.

After that, I found my family shopping within the DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace, which is this giant building full of a bunch of cute little mom and pop shops.

My family always seems to shop here for some odd reason.

I took the liberty of walking to the top floor of the building, since the building had 3 floors, and took this picture from the top floor balcony:

After that, we decided to leave, and luckily we were nearby the Ice Cream shop that I wanted to visit: Love Creamery.

Love Creamery is this super unique artisan ice cream spot that doesn't serve traditional ice cream flavors, but instead, has a selection of unique, home-made flavors that people get to choose from.

A lot of these flavors are sourced from locally grown fauna, such as Sherbet ice-cream made from local Duluth fauna and berries.

The spot even was the Minnesota Best 2025 GOLD Medal Winner in the Frozen Treat/Ice Cream Category.

When I was there, there were a plethora of flavors that I wanted to choose. I ended up choosing three flavors:

- Apple Crisp

• Mint Choc Chip

- Berry Sorbet

I chose these flavors because I love love love sorbet ice cream, and mint choc chip. I ended up getting all three of these on a waffle cone, and the servers there gave me a huge cone.

I had to place it into a cup to prevent the Ice cream from slipping out of the cone;

After that, we went on a relaxing walk towards the Duluth scenic overlook directly adjacent to Lake Superior.

While there, we decided to make our way to the Duluth Harbor North Pier Lighthouse, a lighthouse located at the end of the north pier in Duluth Harbor, positioned near the Aerial Lift Bridge. Built in 1910, this red-painted lighthouse marks the entrance to the Duluth-Superior Harbor from Lake Superior.

Before we went though, I took this spectacular photo capturing the Duluth coast line, with the October crepuscule.

When we went to the pier leading to the lighthouse, it was actually pretty crowded. But here's a pic. Me and my family took a bunch of personal pictures here though.

and I took another picture of Lake Superior from this perspective:

When walking back from the pier, I managed to snag a picture of Downtown Duluth from this angle.

When walking backwards on the pier, the sunset looked absolutely magnificient, espeically with the bridge in the view.

As we walked closer and closer, I snagged this picture of the bridge again, but from this angle.

Finally, we got into the car, and headed back to the Hotel.

I snagged this final picture of downtown.

After that, we went to bed, and prepared for the fun stuff for the next day.

Thanks for reading this blog about day one of my trip to Duluth.

- Devv