Lake Superior Duluth, MN

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Guess what guys? It's raining! HA! We arrived here on Wednesday and it was a beautiful day. Sunny, clear, no humidity and NO BUGS! It was great and we were in heaven. The camp host said that this was pretty much the norm and that they hadn't had a whole lot of rain this summer so we thought we should be in the clear. Well, this storm came through today (Friday). Although it has been very minor it has brought the humidity but we still love it here. I think this is my favorite city so far on the trip. Duluth is a beautiful city that sits right on the shores of Lake Superior. As you know, this is the Greatest of the Great Lakes and if it's entire surface were to freeze over (which has happened only twice) there would be room for every person on earth to spread out a 12'x12' picnic blanket. Now that's big!

The downtown area has semi-tall old buildings that front the waterfront and there is a great "lakewalk" that goes the full length of the town with parks, shops and restaurants that line the walk so that you can stroll at your leisure and just enjoy the boats, water, people, and area around you. They have done a great job at packaging it all together. There is a lift bridge that goes up when the big ships come through which happens 25-30 times a day. We happened to be here during the Great Lakes United Tall Ships Challenge 2010. These are a fleet of 8 international vessels racing to 6 cities in the U.S. and Canada. These tall ships are amazing as you will see by the pictures. We were there on Thursday for the Parade of Sail. It is when they do their grand entry through the canal for the opening ceremony. It was quite spectacular. We then took a drive up the Scenic 61. It goes to Canada and it kind of reminds me of Highway 1. It meanders along Lake Superior and goes through tiny towns on a 2 lane road. It is very beautiful. Some of the houses along this road were amazing.

We also ate at 3 DDD's while we were here. We counted up how many we have been to over the years and we have been to 11. (Bring it on Georgie!) There aren't any along our route in Wisconsin but we do have some mapped out in Michigan.

All in all we had a great time and if it weren't so far away we would definitely make this a place to visit on a regular basis as I feel there is a lot more to see and do. For those of you who are looking for a place to visit, put this on your list. We are back on the road tomorrow heading into Wisconsin.

Miss you all!

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Photos

Coming into Duluth
This is coming down the hill from the suburb of Lincoln Park into downtown Duluth. The picture doesn't do it justice but the view was beautiful. There are houses on each side of us. Do they have a view or what?

Downtown Duluth
This was taken from the truck at a stoplight. This was mainstreet in downtown. See how the buildings aren't real tall but they are old. Very quaint.

Big ship on Superior 4
This was one of the ships that was heading to downtown Duluth. We took this when we were on our Scenic 61 drive.

The Bridge
This is the drawbridge and if you look closely you can see that it is coming down. This was right after the ships came through.

Tall Ship
This is one of the Tall Ships in the opening parade. It had just gone under the drawbridge.

Tall Ship 3
This is another Tall Ship that was in the parade after it went through the drawbridge.

Tall Ship 1
This Tall Ship is coming into the harbor.

Tall ships in Dock
These are a few of the ships after they docked.

Karlie Lake Superior 1
Little Miss Karlie gets to go swimming in Lake Superior. See how clear that water is?

Lake Superior
This is the scenery looking down the coastline of Lake Superior. Silly me, I didn't see those 2 girls standing there when I took the picture. Oh well.....

DDD Northern Water Smokehouse
This is Don in a DDD's place. Notice Guy painted on the wall behind him? Good sandwich place.

DDD's Duluth Grill
Here is the 2nd DDD's we went to. We actually ate breakfast here and it was so good that we went back there for dinner tonight. Do we get to count it twice then Georgie????

DDD's Gordy's Hi Hat Grill
This was a hamburger joint in Cloquet, MN. It was just featured on the show on July 26th. It was good but In-n-Out is just as good by me. The old guy at the counter is Gordy and he is 82!

Gordy's Onion's
I had to take this picture because one of the specialities at Gordy's is the onion rings. Of course we got them and they were good and as we were walking out we saw their bags of onions on the porch. Look where they are from! No wonder they are so good.

Comments

[Nicki Chandler]

You are ahead of us ...
but not by much! We are at 9.George said that even though you went two times, you are counting places that you visited. Thank you comish! Loved Karlie in the water! Keep those blogs coming!