Tall Ships in Duluth!

Saturday, Duane and I drove to Duluth to see the "tall ships" in the harbor. It was QUITE a sight...three, old, wooden, fully rigged sailing ships (the Brig Niagara, the Madeleine, and the Pride of Baltimore II), anchored near the Lake Superior aquarium.

We stopped at a few antique stores on the way TO Duluth, and arrived around 1:00 (we also stopped at Tobie's for caramel rolls, which is a MUST if you are heading north of the cities on Interstate 35!).

It was a GORGEOUS day, and the tall ships were there as part of the Duluth Maritime Festival. There were a TON of people (one newspaper reported that it was the MOST people to attend any event in Duluth...EVER!).

We decided NOT to take the tour of the three ships, as the line was about TWENTY BLOCKS LONG!!! Instead, we walked ALONG the row of ships, read the signs about the boats, and then headed across the foot bridge to the canal street area...a GORGEOUS redevelopment of the pier and lighthouse part of the city...trendy boutiques, a TON of hotels, antique stores, restaurants...all KINDS of touristy crap!

We had lunch at Belissio's (see previous entry entitled "Bad Restaurant Karma" for details!), then shopped the pier area for awhile. After looking in a couple of galleries and a couple of antique stores, we headed to the lift bridge (WAY cool) to watch it go up and down as boats came in and out of the harbor. We walked across the bridge, and even walked on the beach a bit before heading back across the bridge to check out the lighthouse. VERY cool area.

After the lighthouse, we went into "downtown Duluth" proper. You can DEFINITELY tell that all of the "hoity toity" businesses have moved to the Canal Street area. Downtown was a little seedy, and kind of scary...a "gentlemen's club", a store that advertised pills that can "clean urine" (??!!), seedy antique stores, litter, and I think I saw a PROSTITUTE (probably not, but she sure needed SOME SORT of "Extreme Makeover" guidance...)!!!!

After our "adventure" downtown, we headed to Leif Erikson park to look at the roses. Leif Erikson park is probably the most BEAUTIFUL place in Duluth. A gazebo (in which an evening wedding was commencing), a footbridge/path to a rocky part of the bay, a "stage" area facing a huge open lawn, with turrets, and a huge stone stage (on which they MUST do Shakespeare in the park during the summer!), huge beds of roses and other summer flowers, and GORGEOUS green lawns.







We spent QUITE awhile at the gardens, then got back in the car and headed back to the cities. Before we left, though, we noticed that ONE of the ships was sailing out into the lake, so we drove back down to the aquarium, parked the car, and ran to the "docking site" for a couple more pictures...the lift bridge was up as FAR as it could go for the ship to sail under it...very cool!

For additional pictures of the ships coming into the harbor, at anchor, etc., go to the following link: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/photography/includes/gallery.cfm?id=657.

We finally got back to Eagan (after a stop at hardee's for a sourdough bacon cheeseburger...which I had TOTALLY forgotten was AMAZINGLY TASTY!), and I absolutely COLLAPSED into bed from exhaustion. I'm getting old...I SERIOUSLY didn't think I'd make it up the stairs to my new, fabulous, wonderful apartment. I was ABOUT ready to ask Duane to just throw a blanket down the stairs for me to throw over myself! Oy!

Hope YOUR weekend was fun!