The family drove up to visit an Aunt who made it past the century mark last August. The snow had melted and we decided to make a run up to Duluth from Des Moines. I left work early on Thursday. We left early in the afternoon and stayed the night in Minneapolis. On the way to IKEA we drove by the Timber Lodge Steakhouse. It looked good so we stopped for great food. There just so happened to be a cache nearby so we stopped and made the find. After shopping at IKEA, we went back the hotel and then set off towards the North in the morning. In the morning, it was snowing large wet flakes (up to 2 inches). They were like mini flat snow balls pelting us. We have stopped at Hinkley, MN, each trip prior so why buck the trend. After filling up, we drove down to the The Great Hinkley Fire monument for a cache. The monument shows how quickly and deadly a forest fire can be. Between 3 and 5 pm on September 1st, 1894, the fire swept over 400 square miles, killing over 418 people. After arriving in Duluth (Hermantown actually) we stopped for a late lunch at Grizzlies. The place had a rotisserie under a wood fire smoking/cooking chickens. The food was great. I could just sit outside and breath in the smoky food smells all day. Then it was on to visit the centurion. She perked right up and was happy to see her niece (my non-geocaching other half.) After the visit, it was on to Chinaflyer’s house at Fish Lake Dam. The next day we ran downtown and visited some shops, including Duluth Pack. I found the Mouse Cave geocache outside the store. Later that afternoon, back at the Fish Lake Dam house, we had some time to kill so I took Chinaflyer to find her first cache. She actually made the find in the woods at Alphabet Soup #22. Apparently she cross country skis one of the trails nearby and new the area. On the way back from the cache we spotted a wolf print in the mud. It was the first I had seen being from further south. Then we were off to down the street to hunt down the FishLKDam cache. There was a note that the cache needed a new container. We couldn't find a big one, so we settled for a pill bottle. We placed the bottle in the old cache with a new log. Hopefully this will work until the owner can get out there to replace it. We took the rust soaked logs out and disposed of the mush. Chinaflyer started her in prompt to CITO on the way back picking up garage. FishLKDam was her second find. I also rescued a waterlogged wooden travel bug.