Doth quoth the DaveM

Duluth

After our our visit to the North West Company Fur Post, we headed towards Duluth, arriving late in the afternoon. While I might have liked to stay in one of the hotels in the Canal Park area, they were full (we should have called ahead). So we ended up at the Radisson Hotel Duluth Harborview and paid a little extra to actually get the harbor view. This turned out well, as Karen wasn't feeling well and wanted to stay in the room while I took the boys down to the canal to do some site seeing. Karen got to see some of the big boats go through the canal and she said it was a nice view.

I took Sam and Nick to the Canal Park area, and they had a good time chasing sea gulls, dodging waves in the small rocky beach area next to the canal, watching the Aerial Lift Bridge go up and down, and we got to see a big 1000 foot ore tanker go out from the harbor into the lake through the canal. We also went inside to the Army Corps of Engineers facility there to get some information about the canal. There was a nice museum in there, but we were running out of time. We also walked down the trail along the lake towards another beach. And we saw a pedestrian draw bridge, and made a note to go see the floating maritime museum the next morning.

So, the next morning, after checking out of the hotel and a stop at Caribou Coffee, we visited the Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum. This consists of the S.S. William A. Irvin and the US Coast Guard Cutter Sundew. The Irvin was the flagship of the U.S. Steel fleet when it was built in 1938, and was 600 feet long. It was retired about 40 years later, as it couldn't compete with the 1000 foot ships that were out at that time. We had a good tour from a retired ship hand. The Sundew was used for about 60 years before being retired, and had, amongst other things, buoy duty, i.e. tending to the shipping lane buoys in Lake Superior. It was also and icebreaker, and that sure looked like cold work!

Our final stops in Duluth were a visit to Duluth Pack to pick up something we saw in the window that we thought would be great for a friend, and a brief visit to the Grandma's Marathon store front, where I picked up a brochure. While I'm not so thrilled with running marathons these days, they also have a half marathon, and running along the lake looks pretty good to me. As for Duluth Pack, I used Duluth pack as a kid and counselor at YMCA Camp Ihduhapi, especially on canoe trips. So the store definitely brought back memories. Also, we had seen the forehead strap used by the voyageurs at the North West Company Fur Post the day before, and I hadn't realized the idea of the forehead strap went so far back in time.

What didn't we see? Lots. The Glensheen Mansion is a place Karen and I have visited in the past, but we figured the kids wouldn't appreciate it. There's also a zoo and other sites we just couldn't fit in, as we were on our way up the north shore of Lake Superior.

Posted at 12:08PM Aug 16, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life  |