Despite getting up bright and early it still seemed to take us a long time to get ready to get on the road. It has to be because we are seniors. The motel provided a wonderful hot breakfast so we did sit and enjoy before starting out for Duluth.
As we arrived at the outskirts of Duluth we had a wonderful view of the lake but there was a real haze over it that was the cold water and the hot sun combining—it did feel so nice to have the cooler air from the water and it did make the drive today much nicer. Duluth is an inland port on Lake Superior—it has 49 miles of dock line with grain elevators, ore docks and shipyards. We did walk along the lakewalk close to the harbour and right along the shipping canal. One of the major tankers had just left and another was not due for at least 2 hours which was a surprise to us as our tour book indicated that the aerial bridge lifts 25-30 times daily during the shipping season for an average of 5,500 lifts in total. Duluth certainly deserved more of our time and is another city built up the long steep hill from the water. There were many museums and galleries for us to see but we decided to leave it until our return trip.
We proceeded up the North Shore—a much more interesting and scenic tour than the drive from Kenora to Thunder Bay. We stopped at Two Harbours and had lunch at a small cafe where the food was delicious (Vanilla Bean Cafe and Bakery). Their pecan,caramel bread pudding was well worth all the carbs. This is a small town with a very busy harbour—it looked like they had room to load 6 tankers. Their lighthouse is the last of the working lighthouses in Minnesota.
Our next stop was Finland—Ron had his picture taken with the town sign. Finland is about 6 miles off the main hwy and because it was this far from the lake it was not settled until the early 1900’s. They did have a heritage centre that the Finnish society is preserving. We were fortunate to find it and then to have the place to ourselves with our own guide. The lady who looks after the centre lives in her trailer for the summer on the grounds and then goes to Texas for the winter. She was not Finnish but did know a lot of the history, particularly the history of the buildings on the site—a house, a sauna and a school. We had expected Finland to be a little livelier from the descriptions in the tour guide but there were a few homes, a coop store and a pub. I had even tried to persuade Ron to stay there rather than pushing on to Thunder Bay. Ah well, it was an interesting stop and a much needed rest from the car. Many of the town signs indicate the population of the particular town—some as few as 50.
WE did stop on the north shore in Grand Marais—it is a bustling little town with plenty of places to stay and set right on the lake. It is well known as an arts community and our walk this evening showed this to be true. Unfortunately many of the shops and galleries were closed. We are not far from Thunder Bay but we lose another hour once we cross the border so I did convince Ron that it would be good to stop and have some time off rather than push on. It was a good move as we were both tired and this is a delightful spot.
Our motel is interesting—likely one of the original in town—we have one of the two rooms. There are also cabins as part of the complex. It is very basic but has everything we need including the frig, tv and indoor facilities. The owner made his own sauna and invited Ron to use it if he wished—Ron did wish and found it an interesting set up. It is wood heated with a sauna bucket nailed to the wall and a line with a valve to control the flow of water onto the rocks. It worked like a charm. He also had a radio available for your listening pleasure.
No comments:
Post a Comment