DUH!!! I forgot to put in the title "Seven days in Minnesota." I apologize.

You really need to head north of Duluth on Hwy. 61 to see the beauty. The North Shore is an incredible stretch of country.

You can spend a night in the harbor area of Duluth and take a nice trip to Grand Marais.

http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/11185/

Thank you so much for the response - and the link!

Stop at Betty's Pies between Duluth and Grand Marais. Seven days is quite alot - you may want to consider extending your drive to Thunder Bay. There is some amazing scenery on the way.
I'd suggest stopping to do the alpine slide at Lutsen - it's perfectly safe and even a grandmother would enjoy the ride (well a young-at-heart grandmother).
I'd also stop at High Falls Park at the MN - Canada border - really beautiful.
Then in Thunder Bay, I'd do Old Fort William (a recreated Hudson Bay trading post) and Kakabeka Falls is awesome.

Or another fun spot if you want a pre-Duluth trip is Stillwater. It's a great little Victorian town full of lumber baron homes and shops of all kinds. Taylor Falls is about an hour east of the Twin Cities and it is also beautiful.

Other spots to check out in the Twin Cities include the 50th and France area of Edina and Grand Avenue in St. Paul - lots of fun little boutique shops, Minnehaha Falls (sounds like I have a thing for waterfalls, but it *is* Minnesota ...), the MN Zoo, a walk or drive around the lakes (Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, Lake Nokomis).

Enjoy and let us know what you did while there.

www.exploreminnesota.com has lots of good info but you can also request brochures and maps-- I did and I got them in like 3 days tops-- THANKS Minnesota for the quick response--

Mpls. to Duluth is about 2.5 hrs. Duluth to the Mississippi headwaters (Itasca State Park) is about 3.5 hrs. Itasca back to Mpls about 4 hours. Definitely able to be done in 7 days.

I would suggest trying to get reservations at a hotel on the canal in Duluth. There are several hotels: Inn on Lake Superior, Hampton Inn, & Comfort Suites are three. They all are right next to Lake Superior and you can watch the HUGE freighters coming into port. (We love the Inn).

At Itasca State Park, you can try to reserve a room at several in-park locations. Go to www.stayatmnparks.com to make reservations.

If you have time, you could continue your exploration of the mighty Mississippi and stop at Fort Snelling State Park. At the tip of Pike Island the Mississippi and the Minnesota rivers converge. Nice park and lots of history.

What time of year would you be visiting?

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I did go to the website and two of the three brochures already arived. Awesome!

Shouldercat, we are visiting next August...I know, I am planning a year away. I am just super excited since this is my first roadtrip with my daughter and mother and I want to make it super special and be very prepared since my daughter will be only 1.5 years old at that time.

Sorry for butting in on your thread, mygehrig. But I just wanted to pop in and thank repete for that link because we're going to the North Shore in a little over a week.

Hope you all have a nice trip.

The reference to Betty's Pie is a good rec. I also liked to stop at Kendall's Smoked Fish House.

Here's another interesting link, but I can't vouch for the food because it's been quite a while ....

http://www.naniboujou.com/