Oh, zero day. How I love thee. Today consisted of a nice blend of chores and enjoyment. We had a luxurious breakfast at the Blue Water Café before moving our stuff over to the other hotel for the night, laundry, resupply, catching up on journaling and social media, and finally some shopping.

This town has so much gorgeous art. In one gallery we found lamps made of rocks from Lake Superior and now I desperately want a Lake Superior rock lamp because that is my vibe one million percent. One nice side effect of thru hiking, however, is that you cannot carry much, and mailing things home is an expensive pain, so I was able to resist fairly easily. Instead I very practically picked up a third pair of hiking socks (two is not it in this mud) and some cute stickers and magnets. The SHT logo is so aesthetically pleasing to me and I want it on every surface, thanks.

We got pizza carry out for dinner from Sven and Ole’s and ate it in the room like trash pandas. Then we went to the absolutely beautiful, glorious, Roman bath-esque hot tub that is the “plus” in this Best Western Plus. It was enormous, with so many places to sit. It had a waterfall. It was so clean. There were no children. I considered just staying there instead of finishing my thru hike. (Ha ha just kidding.) (Or am I?)

It was chucking it down today, and every time we went out it was also frigid. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to be out on the trail today. Possibly near hypothermic since we wouldn’t have been able to dry out. A zero was definitely the move, and Grand Marais was the perfect place to do it.