We were a little dismayed when we woke to grey skies and rain this morning, but it wasn’t long before the clouds started to break up and the sunshine peeked through – we’ve really be pretty lucky with the weather so far on this trip. Breakfast was a very low-key offering this morning, the hotel offered juice, coffee and yoghurt, so we supplemented that with our own breakfast bars and tightened our belts. To be honest, my waist-line will be gratefull for a more modest start to the day – I’ve had trouble resisting the breakfast pastries up til now!
We set off west across the south shore of Lake Superior and passed one of the multitude of “Historical markers” that we’ve seen in our travels. They are all in the same style, a brown background with white writing and, generally quite interesting information. This one was about the expansion of the local schools when there was an influx of immigrants to the area.
A little further on we stopped at a wayside where we could see the effect of the local red sands in the lake. There’s a lot of deterioration of the lakeshore here- I figure Lake Superior must be getting a little bigger every year!
As we approached Duluth we made a brief stop to see a local historical sight – Davidson’s Windmill,built by a Finnish immigrant to the area and used from 1905 until 1926. There were a lot of Finns who came to the far north of the USA. Having seen the woods and waterways of the Turku Archipeligo last year in Finland, I can see why the northern Great Lakes appealed to the Finns.
Finally we were driving through the town of Superior, which sits on the Eastern side of the mouth of the St Louis River in Wisconsin. A couple of spectacular bridges cross the river to take you into Duluth, and Minnesota. So we saw another Welcome to Minnesota sign here and said goodbye finally to Wisconsin. We’ve meandered between the two states quite a bit over the last week.
Our main destination in Duluth was the Lake Superior Marine Museum and Aerial Lift Bridge. It connects the “mainland” with Minnesota (or Park) Point, a five mile long sandbar. The bridge is operated 24 hours a day, it’s raised and lowered for iron ore and cement ships, sailboats, and excursion tour boats. In the busy seasons of spring and summer, the bridge averages 26 lifts a day. Decades ago, pedestrians were able to ride on the bridge when it was raised. But, this was outlawed in the early 1980s after a horrible accident that claimed the life of a woman when she was crushed by the steel bridge.
We were able to watch the bridge raise a small way for a small fishing boat. The north and south piers of the bridge canal each have a nifty lighthouse but only one of them had its light on while we were there.
We stopped in to see the information in the Maritime Museum which was also a tribute to the Army Corp of Engineers who had built the bridge. It was a great little museum.
The city have a walkway that from the bridge all the way to the downtown area and it was pretty popular with the tourists even though the wind was a bit chilly.
Our next stop was up the hill in a slightly seedy area, Bob Dylan’s Childhood Home
They’re very proud of Dylan in Duluth, in May 2006, the City of Duluth designated a cultural pathway in honor of Duluth’s native son, Bob Dylan, to commemorate his 65th birthday. Since then, a group of citizens has raised private dollars to create and install 30 street signs to mark the pathway.
At Fitger’s Brewery we stopped to see one of the plaques that mark the way, for the record ( and I know my family will tease me about this) I’m perfectly happy to listen to Bob Dylan, just so long as he’s not singing Christmas carols!
We set off along the North Shore of the bay, passing some lovely houses along the way. We stopped at a wayside park to have our lunch.
Along the way we passed a few quirky spots. We’d seen a guy selling “Chainsaw Art” elsewhere too, it seem’s to be a “thing” in the North woods!
Finally we reached Illgen City where we turned eastward and away from the lake. This was pretty much my last view of a Great Lake…until next year!
We visited Finland last year…but today we drove through Finland…Minnesota!
It was an hour of winding road through lots of woods before we finally arrived in Ely, a vacation resort town in the woods. They call it a four sason resort, in the summer there’s fun swimming and hiking but in the winter the action turns to snowmobiles and ice fishing. I’d booked us into the Grand Ely Lodge whch has it’s own lake for year-round fun – except today when the high winds meant we wouldn’t be going pedal-boating on the lake!
We walked across the road to take a lok at the old Pioneer Mine site, which is now of the national register of historic places.
back in the hotel we relaxed for a while in the room before heading down to the Antlers Bar. We had a few drinks, some appetizers and a delicious pasta dish while watching one of the final NFL pre-season games, the Minnesota Vikings V the Buffalo Bills. As I type the game is still going!
We have lots to see here in Ely tomorrow!