Ely for a small north woods town, has an amazing library. It has a good variety of classics and…read morecurrent bestsellers available for local residents to check-out and enjoy. They also have a computer room available, for residents to utilize. During our visit, we used our own laptops and just took advantage of their Wi-Fi. My biggest surprise, was the charging station in the parking lot for electric cars.

We loved our little visit of Dorothy's museum. We thought it would be just a kitschy, niche little…read morelocal experience, maybe like visiting Paul and Babe, but it was so much more than that. We didn't do any formal tours but opted to explore the cabins on our own. You could really get to know the kind of person Dorothy was through her purposeful misspellings and quirky home decor. As we finished looking through the first cabin, it really sunk in with us that Dorothy had become a pillar of her community and the communities in and around the BWCA. She served such a unique role as the last non-Indigenous person to live in the Boundary Waters, offering emergency medical care when needed due to her nursing background or offering lodging or root beer to those passing through. I can tell you we did not expect to be crying at the Root Beer Lady's museum, but the eulogies for her hit us right in the heart. I aspire to be such a firecracker and build that beloved of a community. If you're humble, work hard, and share your gifts and fortunes, the world will be a better place. As we imagine our own futures and purpose, we will definitely ask ourselves, what would Dorothy do?

Considering my maiden name is Molter, I am a little partial. :)…read moreMy family and I enjoy taking trips to visit & pick up root beer every few years. Every single time, we look over everything & read it all again as if it were the first time. We truly enjoy it & even submitted some magazines and photos the last time we were there. We had to leave the items with the museum to make copies and entrust them to return them to us, and they absolutely did. Jess is wonderful and our family is super thankful for her.

If size matters, the post office is Ely, MN is huge…read more Seriously, for a small town in the North Woods, this post office was bigger then some branch post offices I've seen in major cities. Big or small, the Ely post office was a great place to mail post cards back home from my vacation. The staff on duty were typical small friendly, which made it a pleasant experience.