LateNightHacking Louis Journal

Auth

This morning, Mom and I checked out of the hotel in Plymouth. We had breakfast at Caribou Coffee, and then hit the road headed for Duluth.

When we got to Duluth, we headed for the tourist area by the ship canal. We crossed the arial bridge and stopped at a small beach on the far side to stick our feet in the water.

We went back and parked. We got a copy of the shipping news. Other than a ship schedulued to arive at "12:30 or later," the rest of the ships that day weren't due in until evening. We walked out to the lighthouse at the entrance of the canal. We explored the Maritime Museum, which was a very good little museum. We watch the bridge go up and down a few times for small boats, so we did get to see it raise and lower.

We went to Dairy Queen for a little lunch, then went on the tour of the big ore boat called the William Irvin. (Mom was looking for the oar boat, thinking maybe it was a Viking ship or something.) The boat was neat. I liked seeing the big engines, the industrial, tilt-proof kitchen, and of course the huge hold.

Next we continued north to Split Rock Lighthouse. We had a very good tour there too. We got to see the huge Fresnel lens and the mechanism that made the light rotate. The keeper's home was neat too because it had a lot of antiques. They even played a really old grammaphone (the docent called it something like an "amberola") - it was the kind that played cylinders rather than discs.

We headed south and stopped at Gooseberry Falls. We walked the look trail and saw all three falls. There was a lot of water! We talked to the docent at the visitor center, and she said that there was a lot of water, but we should have seen it in October. Then she showed us a picture with so much water that it was even cascading down the stairs on the walking trail! Mom got some cute dangly dragonfly earrings and a cute t-shirt with a loon carrying a baby loon on its back. I got a cute raccon pin for my hat.

We stopped for dinner at Betty's Pies. Mom had a chicken pastie, and I had a smoked salmon wrap. We shared a piece of blackberry peach crumble pie for dessert.

We continued south on the North Shore Scenic Drive back to Duluth. Interesting things I saw along the way were a big blue official highway sign that said "Yarn Store", and a stegasaurus breathing fire at a T-Rex.

We stayed the night in a hotel at the south end of Duluth.