Of the multitude of reasons to visit Duluth and our port city located ideally along the shores of magnificent Lake Superior, the Tall Ships event scheduled for this year will be one of the largest ever, and the perfect reason to make your plans now.  This stunning, beautiful, and majestic event will be including an armada of 8 Tall Sailing ships, with the possibility of more to be added.  It is difficult to really describe this event if you have not seen it, but it is truly spectacular.  It is also a rare chance to catch a glimpse; step aboard, and even set sail on some of the grandest ships of yesteryear.

In addition to being able to take on-board tours, visitors will be offered the opportunity to sail on Lake Superior aboard the Privateer Lynx, S/V Denis Sullivan and the Schooner Hindu. Each vessel will sail several times daily beginning Friday, July 26, providing not only an educational glimpse into daily life aboard a tall ship, but also the grandeur of experiencing Lake Superior under sail.  It is an experience like no other.

Tickets will be going on sale for this event beginning April 1^st, 2013 beginning at 10:00 am and can be purchased online by going to www.visitduluth.com or calling 877-4FLY-TIX (435-9849).

Book your room at the AG Thomson House Duluth Bed and Breakfast; then order your tickets to take a tour!  Duluth is a very busy summer destination, and this event will be just one more excuse to treat yourself to a getaway of pure beauty and relaxation at our Inn! We have a handful of rooms still available for the week of the event, so check out our availability and let us help enhance what will be an already extraordinarily wonderful and unique experience in our Port City!

It is also a month where we are in kind of a sports “holding” pattern with not much going on so our significant others may not be distracted, and we are getting somewhat tired of the weather and looking forward to spring.  So February is the perfect time to escape the day to day life and get rejuvenated with a short, convenient escape to the North Shore!

And Duluth is the perfect place to break up the monotony of the season. Yes, we have snow and yes, it is chilly and yes, you will not be inundated with doing this and doing that or MOMMY and DADDY!!!…you can just be!  You can have an uninterrupted dinner conversation, you can take a nap, you can watch a movie that is NOT animated, and you can REST!

Duluth is full of wonderful February events and the perfect constant of gorgeous Lake Superior during this beautiful season.  And here at the AG Thomson House Duluth Bed and Breakfast, we have created the environment for our guests to cuddle, snuggle, relax, nap, reconnect, and just be!  Let us be the break you need!

Once again this year, our wonderful Duluth Bed and Breakfast Association will be hosting a fun-filled Holiday Tour.  The Tour will be held on December 9^th, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm.  All seven of Duluth’s Bed and Breakfasts will be on holiday display offering visitors a tour of the Inn, light refreshments and beverages, holiday music, and the very best way to get in the mood for the season that is winter in Duluth!  Tickets are $25 in advance, and $30 at the door.  Call us at 218-341-0140 or send an email to info@thomsonhouse.biz.

As last year, our tour will be to help raise funds for our local Food Bank; Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank.  And here’s a fun and new surprise that we have added to this year’s tour – a raffle to win a FREE one night stay at any Duluth Bed and Breakfast of your choice, PLUS a $50 certificate to Blackwoods Restaurant or Lounge!  Here’s how it will work…with your purchase of a ticket to attend the Holiday tour, in advance or the day of the tour, we will be accepting a tax deductible contribution of $100 or more made directly to Second Harvest.  With this $100 or more donation to Second Harvest, your name will then be entered into a drawing to win a free stay at any one of our gorgeous Duluth Inns!  This is a phenomenal way to help Second Harvest and your odds will be VERY good to win a free one-night stay at any Inn.  Your donation will be tax deductible, you will be helping so many people, and best of all you will have a wonderful time!!!!

Other wonderful events happening in Duluth to get you in the mood include the Spirit of the North Parade taking place this Friday, November 16^th, and of course, Bentleyville Tour of Lights.  The Nutcracker will be performed, Mannheim Steamroller will be getting us all in the mood with a concert performance, the Glensheen Mansion will be holding a Holiday Tea, and the Zinema 2 will be showing the classic holiday film, “Fanny and Alexander” along with serving a grand smorgasbord  during intermission!  This and so much more in our beautiful port city of Duluth is just a bonus reason to treat yourself to a Duluth visit and the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast! 

Get ready…get packed…and we will see you soon!!!!

Each year Trip Advisor selects Travelers’ Choice Award winners in a number of different hospitality areas and destinations. Trip Advisor has become the most prestigious travel website offering travelers an honest, unbiased look into the potential destinations they may want to visit with reviews posted by you, the traveler or guest. Well, because of you, we could not be more proud to announce that the AG Thomson House Duluth Bed and Breakfast was selected by this prestigious organization as the #1 Bed and Breakfast in the United States for 2012!!!

We were, and still are, in absolute shock, and cannot thank all of you who felt your experience at our Duluth MN Bed and Breakfast was worth sharing with others.  It means the world to us that you not only had a wonderful and memorable experience at our Bed and Breakfast, which is our ultimate goal for you when you walk through our doors, but that you felt others should know about it!

We are also deeply proud to represent our stunning port city of Duluth, but also the Bed and Breakfast industry in general.  Bed and Breakfast’s across the country are still fighting many unfair stereotypes, and we are continually striving to “de-bunk” those stereotypes by providing guests at the AG Thomson House Duluth Bed and Breakfast with wonderfully comfortable modern amenities, while still providing the warmth, comfort, genuine hospitality, and privacy of a historic home that guests are looking for when choosing a Bed and Breakfast.  

This #1 ranking also placed us as the #11 Bed and Breakfast in the World!!  We are deeply grateful, and also very proud to represent not only the Bed and Breakfast industry, but our gorgeous port city of Duluth!!!

If you haven’t had a chance to share your experience yet, you can just click on this Trip Advisor review link and share your wonderful experience at our Duluth Bed and Breakfast with others!

Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL!!!

It truly has been an amazing year for us – our best so far thanks to you!  And now we are preparing for another one of our favorite times of the year at the AG Thomson House and in Duluth.  The city of Duluth takes on a beauty during the winter season that is extraordinary.  The shops, restaurants, and attractions are a little less crowded, so it’s a great time to enjoy the season without the wait!

One of the fantastic events to take advantage of this December includes the Historic Bed and Breakfast Inn Holiday Tour.  This year’s tour takes place on Sunday, December 11^th from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm, and offers visitors the opportunity to see all seven of Duluth Bed and Breakfast Inns dressed in their holiday glory.  And believe me, the AG Thomson House Duluth Bed and Breakfast, is “dressed, dressed, dressed”!  We have always loved decorating our homes for the holidays, and now we can share it with so many tour visitors and our own Duluth Bed and Breakfast guests alike.

So whether you can get away for the Holiday tour, or you are planning your winter getaway to Duluth, take advantage of some of our amazing specials and packages that we are offering right now, we will look forward to sharing our home with all of you!!

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…

I have just started working on these maps, and am happy to report that we now have a Google map for the Duluth and Twin Ports “Dives, Diners, and Drive-Ins”, as well as a Google map to the region’s colleges and universities.  Both maps should be useful and convenient for guests looking for a “celebrity” restaurant and for parents whose kids are attending one of our local colleges.  The A G Thomson House Bed and Breakfast is located near our two major schools; the University of Minnesota – Duluth and the College of St. Scholastica.  

So to give you a preview of these cool maps, I have included the links in this blog post for you to take a look at.  Spread the word, and look for more Google maps of area attractions in the future.  My next project will be Canal Park, and some of our major and gorgeous North Shore sites!

“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!!

We have enjoyed an unusually busy year so far at our Duluth Bed and Breakfast.  If the first quarter of 2011 is any indication of how the rest of the year will be, we better hold on tight!  We are deeply grateful to all of our guests, past and future, for choosing to spend their valuable time and resources with us.  We are excited to see many of you again, and look forward to making new friends!

We have managed to complete some projects we had planned; here is a quick update!  Painting has been the project of the year so far with the grand entry way of the Inn getting a beautiful new color on its walls; a welcoming and warm Benjamin Moore “Mineral Alloy.”  The dining room also has been updated, along with the Salyards Room.  The entry way of the Carriage House has a new trim and wall color, and the North Shore Retreat is now complete with new trim and wall paint.  Good thing Tim’s a very, very good painter!!

You can follow all of our projects, and get updates and photos by “Liking” us on Facebook and following us on Twitter too!  We hope to complete a few more projects before the whirlwind of the season begins.  We are very excited about some outdoor additions and changes we will be making once the weather allows!  Keep posted!

We were incredibly excited to learn we were chosen for several prestigious awards and recognitions in 2011.  We are grateful and humbled by the recognition, and know that we could not have accomplished what we have without the support of our wonderful guests, friends, family and colleagues!  We love Duluth, and are very much aware of how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful destination area that allows us to share our home with you!

Here is a brief update of what your support has helped us realize this year:

• LanierBB.com awarded the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast with the “Best Amenities” honor
• iLoveInns.com selected the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast as a “Top Ten Romantic Inn in North America”
• Duluth~Superior Magazine’s “Best of” poll for 2011 awarded the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast in five categories: “Best Bed and Breakfast” (second year in a row), “Best Amenities”, “Best Romantic Getaway”, “Best In-Room Dining” (second year in a row),  and “Best Hotel Rooms” (second year in a row).  And we came in second place for “Best Hotel.”  Wow!  We thank you all for taking the time to vote for us.  We were told that over 700 votes came in for the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast! Simply amazing!
• Midwest Living magazine puts out a Travel Guide each year and the AG Thomson House Bed and Breakfast was named a “Best of the Midwest” in their 2011 issue.  We are the only Bed and Breakfast in our North Shore region to receive this honor.  

We will continue to keep you updated via our Blog, Facebook, and Twitter so be sure to bookmark these pages. You can also become a subscriber to our You Tube channel, and check out our Flickr page.  And don’t forget, to become a subscriber to our quarterly newsletter too!

Happy Spring to all of you!