We wanted to share some of our garden photos with you on this quick post to give you an idea of what is in bloom. The lilacs have ended, but the peonies are in full bloom with the hydrangeas not far behind.  And the many, many annuals that we have planted and potted are absolutely stunning on the grand veranda.  The perfect place to enjoy a cup of coffee as the sun rises, or a glass of wine while the sun sets!

We are very excited to have been asked to be one of the gardens on 2011 Garden Tour put on by WDSE/WRPT local PBS station.  We will be enjoying avid gardeners as they tour the grounds on July 17th. We hope to share with you some of the video that will be taken of the grounds and gardens while they visit.

A great summer continues at the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast, we will continue to share our gardens as they progress on our Facebook page, so be sure to sign up to “Like” us and join the over 1300 that already have.  And we hope to see you on your next visit to Duluth!

Enjoy this little photo tour and then catch more photos on our Facebook page…

“Angie & Tim, Thank you so much for everything.  It is obvious why you have such great ratings.  We thoroughly enjoyed everything about our stay. You worked with Ben so well keeping this all a surprise.  What a perfect birthday treat!  The breakfast was scrumptious and service excellent.  What for the senses!  We appreciate all the extra added touches and will have great memories of our stay!!” (B & J, Little Falls, MN but formerly from Duluth!)

So if you are thinking of that perfect gift for your significant other, whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, or just because you deserve a quiet, peaceful, romantic getaway,  do we have the room for you!

The spectacular Lake Superior Suite! The ideal room for your next retreat!

As always, Duluth will be full of attractions and events this year.  A recent bit of great news is that a small group of Tall Ships will be once again gracing our port in July. It will not be on the grand scale of last summer, but will be a nice surprise for the season. This May the newly remodeled DECC will be hosting a couple of superstars, Elton John and Sheryl Crow.  Then later this summer at Bayfront Park we will have the great honor of Willie Nelson performing.

The Visit Fleet will be setting sail and begin their dinner cruises on May 7^th with the regular sightseeing tours beginning May 13^th!  The Glensheen Mansion will be opened daily (just weekends now) beginning on May 27^th, and the William A. Irvin has already begun limited tours.

Of course this is just a small sampling of the multitude of things to do in Duluth and along the North Shore.  A favorite stop is always Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse, but don’t forget about Tettegouche State Park and Palisade Head further up the North Shore.  Plus so much more!  We have a ton of information for you and can always help you plan your stay.

Finally, we are very excited to start our summer with some great recognition from one of the Midwest’s premier magazines, Midwest Living.  In April, we learned we were chosen as a “Best Bed and Breakfast” in the North Shore for the 2011 Midwest Living Travel Guide.  This guide provides travelers a list of the very best places to stay.  We were then incredibly honored to be chosen in their top 30 “Best B&B’s” in the May/June 2011 issue of Midwest Living.  We are the only Bed and Breakfast chosen for our North Shore region, and quite honored to be selected when realizing that the magazine covers and includes an entire 12 state region.  Midwest Living is also one of the rare publications that actually send its writers to stay at the places they endorse!

Thank you to the amazing travel writers and editors of Midwest Living magazine for taking time to visit us, and for choosing our Inn as a “Best B&B” in both issues!  We’re looking forward to another great year in our gorgeous port city; and to welcoming old and new friends as we embark on the season that is THE reason we love Duluth!!

Tickets for the concert will be going on sale this Valentine’s Day, February 14^th, via Ticketmaster.  So, what a great Valentine’s Day gift for that special someone who loves the legend that is Elton John.  Purchase the tickets, and then book your weekend stay at the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast for a wonderful, fun-filled, romantic weekend in Duluth.  With a city full of fantastic dining options, a great concert and concert venue, and the #1 Bed and Breakfast in Minnesota – it sounds like the perfect getaway!  

I can remember attending an Elton John concert a very long time ago when he had multiple, spectacular wardrobe changes.  It was a great concert then, and I can only imagine how wonderful it will be now! 

So order your tickets, then book your stay at the AG Thomson House, a Duluth Bed and Breakfast, and look forward to spring, great music, and the warmth and comfort of our Inn!

If January is any indication of what the year ahead will bring, we are very excited about the experiences and people we will meet in 2011.  This January has proven to be the best the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast has had since it’s opening in 2000; and more importantly since our caretaking began in 2007.    We have started and completed projects on the “Honey do” list, we have more to work on, and then we will be back in the heart of our busy season before we know it. 

The projects have been relatively mild so far; primarily painting updates for now.  We have some greater ambitions in mind as we head toward the spring, but we will have to take it a project at a time!  You can check out the changes going on at the Inn by going to the AG Thomson House Bed & Breakfast Facebook page and taking a look.  Don’t forget to “like us” while you’re there, and post your comments and thoughts – we would love to hear from you!   As always, we will continue to improve upon this spectacular home, and our efforts will be focused on making it an experience and environment where you, our guests, feel welcome, at home, comfortable, and rejuvenated. 

We are also very proud to announce that the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast has been selected and awarded some very prestigious industry awards.  We have been selected as a “Top Ten Romantic Inn” by the renowned Bed and Breakfast website iLoveInns.com.  It is a great honor to be representing Duluth among other wonderful regions across North America, including Hawaii, British Columbia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and more!  This selection comes from a choice of over 30,000 Inns across the United States and Canada.  The AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast was carefully selected by iLoveInns.com for overall romantic attributes–scenic setting and location, interior beauty and design, heartfelt hospitality, pampering amenities and creative activities. 

We also learned that we have been awarded “BEST AMENITIES” by LanierBB.com; one of the industry’s leading Bed and Breakfast websites.  Winners of this prestigious award have been voted the best in their category by LanierBB online readers and voted for the AG Thomson House from a selection of over 8,500 Inns across the country.  We are very proud; and very thankful to all of our guests who chose our Inn for this award!  We continue to be grateful, humble and will never forget why we are here…for you!! 

Finally, it is time once again to vote in the 2011 Duluth~Superior Magazine “Best Of” Poll in the Twin Ports area.  Last year our guests helped us by voting the AG Thomson House the “Best Bed and Breakfast”, “Best Hotel Rooms”, and “Best In-room dining.”  We would be most appreciative of your support in this years’ poll once again in some of the categories listed such as “Best Bed and Breakfast”, “Best Romantic Getaway”, “Best Breakfast”, “Best Rooms”, “Best Amenities”, etc.  Just click on the link at the beginning of this paragraph, enter your email address (one vote per email address), enter your favorites in the categories listed, and then click “vote” after each entry.  You don’t have to vote for every category, but chances are if you love Duluth, you have a few favorites you would like to help out in this year’s poll.  We are always thankful for your support!  

In this first blog entry of 2011, we want to wish you a very Happy New Year!  We look forward to greeting old friends and making new. We take to heart the sign we have hanging in our living room…”Enter as strangers, leave as friends.” and we look forward to another fantastic year at the beautiful AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast!

The city of Duluth is alive with wonderful holiday events taking place; too numerous to mention in this post.  One event that must be mentioned is the participation of the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast and the six other Inns of Duluth, MN in the Historic Bed and Breakfast Inns of Duluth Holiday Tour!  All seven of the Duluth, MN Bed and Breakfast Inns are opening our doors on Sunday, December 12^th from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm.  Tickets are $20 in advance; $25 at the door.  And to enhance the holiday season of giving, we will be collecting toys for the Salvation Army Toyland Express Toy Drive.  An unwrapped gift valued at $15 brought to any Inn will give you a chance to win a night’s stay at any one of our Inns!  For more great seasonal events, check out our Events page for a full list of ways to enjoy Duluth Minnesota this holiday season. 

In preparation for the Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast tour, the AG Thomson House has officially completed its holiday decorating; and there is a lot of it!  This year we are proud to have “greened” it up around the Inn.  We have converted our exterior C-9 lights to LED’s of the same size and it is gorgeous!  We could not be happier with the decision to convert on an aesthetic level, but are even happier with the environmental impact it will have.  Instead of using over 2975 watts of electricity on the illumination of the exterior, this conversion reduces our usage to just 79 watts!  Which encompasses lighting up the Main House, the Carriage House, and the garage (yes, we definitely deck the halls and even the garages at holiday time!)  This is a reduction in energy use by over 98%!  It’s gratifying on so many levels to be “green”; and an ongoing, day to day effort at our Inn! 

Finally, we are incredibly proud and honored to have been featured in the December/January issue of Lake Superior Magazine, this region’s premier magazine.  The article highlights the AG Thomson House Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast decked out for the holiday season, as well as some history behind the journey that we have been on to bring back the warmth and beauty of this incredible home.    Check out one of our accomplishments, the before and after of our kitchen – the heart and soul of a bed and breakfast! 

We thank all of our family, friends, past guests and future guests for the support you have offered us in this very speedy year of 2010, and we look forward to another successful and fun 2011!  Our best and warmest wishes to all of you during this holiday season and throughout the year!

When the US Air Force sent us to Duluth 5 years ago, we immediately fell in love with this spectacular Lake Superior port city.  Sitting along the shores of Lake Superior, Duluth had everything you would hope for from dining, shopping, arts & theatre; and of course an unlimited resource for all outdoor activities in an area of breathtaking beauty. 

Since 2005, we have watched and participated in the exciting growth and new additions that have taken place in Duluth.  What draws you to Duluth is the indescribable beauty that Lake Superior and the North Shore offer, but additionally what keeps you coming back are the award winning restaurants like the New Scenic Cafe, cutting edge arts and theater like the Teatro Zuccone and Zinema 2; and new, thrilling activities like the Timber Twister at Spirit Mountain – the only Alpine Coaster located in the Midwest.  The renovation and reopening of the Pickwick brings a fresh new look, along with incredible food back to this historic restaurant.  The Zeitgeist Arts Café, a place to dine then catch a movie or theater performance within the same building.  Mexico Lindo, a long standing restaurant in the area, now located in the Fitger’s Complex offers patrons authentic Mexican food while enjoying the outdoor deck overlooking Lake Superior.  And Clyde Iron Works, a renovated Ironworks warehouse now offering casual dining, along with popular musical performances like Minnesota’s GB Leighton, for example.  And that’s just a small list… 

Those of you who have stayed with us and followed us here at the AG Thomson House, are aware of all of the new, and up to date additions, amenities, and packages that we have added to the Inn, and awards received – all with our guests comfort and relaxation in mind.  Like in-room breakfast delivery to all of our rooms, new flat screen HDTV/DVD’s, more rooms with king size beds; and that’s just a small sampling. We encourage you to peruse our website, “Like” us on Facebook where we continually update, post photos, and comment about the “goings on” around the Inn and Duluth; and of course, Stay with Us!  As Trip Advisor’s #1 Bed and Breakfast in Duluth and Minnesota, we are here for you!  Duluth is not just a summer destination, Duluth is a year-round destination and we encourage you to embrace all that our Lake Superior Port City offers, and embrace your new destination of the AG Thomson House Historic Bed and Breakfast Inn, your Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast!

The most obvious is the recent launch of our new website!  This process began some time ago with design ideas and has come to fruition to be what we believe one of the nicest sites around.  We have improved the size of the pictures so guests can really see what our rooms look like with no “make-up.” We have added additional pages and kept the navigation easy, but beautiful.  One additionwe are particularly proud of is our “Plan Your Stay” page.  We spent a great deal of time working on putting this page together.  It offers guests an in-depth list of things to see and do around Duluth, no matter what the season.  We have established sample itineraries for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter because there is always something to do in Duluth – no matter what the season or the weather!!  We know we will continue to improve and tweak the site, but we couldn’t be more proud to offer our guests this great new venue!

Other things keeping us busy this year, besides our wonderful guests that have passed through our doors, are the new Hickory wood floors in the North Shore Retreat and Brule River Retreat.  It’s a truly amazing transformation of these two cozy rooms, among their other wonderful amenities.

All of our rooms have received new Flat Screen TV updates, with the most dramatic in our unbelievable Lake Superior Suite!  The Lake Superior Suite now has a new 40″ High Definition Flat Screen TV – perfect for watching any of our over 500 DVD’s in our movie library, or that baseball, basketball, football game – or whatever your favorite sport may be! 

Another addition to our breakfast is the option to receive a full breakfast delivered to your room – just like room service!  This new addition proudly won us the Best In-Room Dining in the Duluth~Superior Magazine poll this Spring!  It has proven to be a great amenity for our guests!

The Ryerson Suite received another new update with the addition of an outrageously comfortable King Size Bed, making this our third room to offer a King Size bed as an option – very rare in the Bed and Breakfast world!

And last, but not least in our ongoing efforts to make the A.G. Thomson House your home away from home, we have added a new raised bed garden so we can grow and use fresh herbs in our already tasty breakfast dishes.  I’ve already been cutting!  And as we do each year, we have added more beautiful flowers and plants to our perennial gardens all around the Inn, two new fountains, and added more potted annuals around the Veranda than ever before.

One thing is for sure, we will never stop improving the A.G. Thomson House!  We invite you to visit our site, peruse our photo gallery, and even join us on Facebook where we continually add updates, pictures, and information.  And if you are thinking of staying here, book soon!  Our advance bookings are way up this year.  So pick out that perfect room and join us this summer, fall, winter or spring at the AG Thomson House!

We began by driving up Scenic Highway 61 along the shores of Lake Superior with our ultimate destination of Tettegouche State Park. One of our first stops was Palisade Head, a rugged lakeside cliff rising nearly 300 ft up from the shores of Lake Superior.  This is a great spot to soak up the sun, have a picnic, and be inspired by the pure natural beauty and view of Lake Superior.  We continued further along the north shore, and did a little hiking along the Temperance River Gorge.

The trail stretches along side the rushing river, and is alive with waterfalls pouring through the gorges – simply spectacular and a must see!  On our return home, we stopped in at Split Rock Lighthouse, a spot we haven’t been in quite awhile, and spent some time walking the grounds and taking in the view.  The lighthouse will be open for tours in just a couple of weeks, but you can enjoy the grounds and the trails nearby now.  A short distance from Split Rock Lighthouse is Gooseberry Falls – a must see along the North Shore.  We walked around the upper and lower falls, which is a nice relaxing trail. But if you want to spend the day at Gooseberry State Park, you will find some great trails of nearly 18 miles; part of the Superior Hiking Trail & several small spur trails to waterfalls, overlooks, up the river and down to Lake Superior.

As we were heading home to our Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast, we were so happy to have been able to take the time to enjoy an absolutely beautiful, sun filled day along the North Shore!  We are now even more informed about these great spots to share with our guests!

]]> http://thomsonhouse.biz/blog/2010/04/tourists-for-a-day/feed/ 0 http://thomsonhouse.biz/blog/2010/03/a-g-thomson-house-named-best-bed-and-breakfast-by-duluthsuperior-magazine/ http://thomsonhouse.biz/blog/2010/03/a-g-thomson-house-named-best-bed-and-breakfast-by-duluthsuperior-magazine/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:32:48 +0000 Angie Allen http://www.thomsonhouse.biz/blog/?p=158 We couldn’t be more pleased to announce that we have been named the winner in three (3) different categories from a recent Duluth~Superior Magazine “Best of Duluth~Superior” issue. The “Best of” poll offered readers the opportunity to select their favorite businesses and attractions in the Twin Ports area.

The categories we were named and recognized as the “Best of” are: 

1) Best Bed and Breakfast

2) Best Hotel Rooms

3) Best Hotel In-Room Dining

The April issue of Duluth~Superior Magazine hits newsstands by March 31^st, and will be online by April 1^st.

We are grateful to all of you who voted for our Inn!  We are proud and humbled with an invigorated sense of purpose – to continue to exceed our guests’ expectations each time they choose our Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast to spend their valuable time and resources.

We have worked very hard to bring back the beauty of this incredible home and the reputation of the Inn as well as the genuine hospitality that our guests deserve each time they step through our doors!  And we thank you for acknowledging our passion and desire to be the best Innkeepers we possibly can – because we believe you deserve it! Thank you, thank you!