Labor Day Voyage

Last weekend David and I took advantage of the long weekend and headed North to Duluth and the North Shore.

On Friday we got to Duluth and enjoyed going in and out of the shops in Canal Park right on the shore.    We loved a new store called Fizzy Waters which had old candy from the good ole days and lots and lots of cokes (sodas) to choose from.

We were there when a few small boats were going under the bridge, so we got to see the Lift Bridge raise.  The weather was beautiful, it was really windy and almost chilly.

We ate dinner at a new brewery in Canal Park. We ate outside by the shore and then walked back to our hotel.  Saturday morning we ate breakfast down on the shore and then went into a few more stores. We loaded up the car and headed up Highway 61 which goes along the coast of Lake Superior all the way to Canada.

We drove about an hour and stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse.   Our tour guide informed us about the life of the 3 families that operated the Lighthouse back in the day.  Three men lived in their houses next to the Lighthouse by themselves in the Winter and then their wives and children would take a boat from Duluth up to Split Rock to be with their husbands for the Summer.  It was an interesting tour and unbelievable how rough of life it was.

 The building on the left is where the foghorn was housed.  You could hear the horn for 5 miles, so if the boats heard it they knew they needed to change course fast because they were too close to the shore.  The light from the lighthouse was seen 22 miles into Lake Superior and Wisconsin is 25 miles across the Lake.

These stairs are where the tram used to be when the boats would bring supplies to the lighthouse workers.

We got back in the car and kept driving for a couple hours until we got to Grand Portage, MN, which is 6 miles south of the Canadian border.  It is on an Indian Reservation and the only hotel there is the Grand Portage Casino Resort.  We stayed there that night and in the morning headed to the National Monument which is in Grand Portage.

This was a really cool part of our trip.  We enjoyed learning about Grand Portage and why it was important back in the 1700's.   I'll summarize:

The French were trying to find a way to the Pacific through the Americas and canoed through the Great Lakes to Lake Superior and landed at Grand Portage to trade goods from Europe with the Ojibwe tribe whom were bringing fur to the French.  From the 'port' in Grand Portage, the French 'Voyageurs' walked an 8 mile trail called the Grand Portage to meet Ojibwe and others to get fur from the Pacific Northwest.

David in the National Monument museum.

Grand Portage became the busiest trading post west of Montreal and the beaver fur was the most important fur the French and Europeans wanted because they made beaver felt hats (like Mr. Darcy wears) out of the beaver skin.  The French and Ojibwe had a great relationship and the place we were visiting had set up a house, kitchen, trading post, and some teepees and wigwams like it would have been back in the day.

Then of course, the American Revolution happened and the French and British could no longer come to Grand Portage on 'American Soil' so they had to make the American/Canadian border which moved 6 miles north of Grand Portage and made the Ojibwe people lose all their trading and completely took away the need for Grand Portage.  The fur trade moved 30 miles north to  Thunder Bay, Canada.

After leaving the monument we drove 6 miles North into Ontario and took a walk down to Lake Superior.

We got back in the car and stopped at the State Park in Grand Portage to see the highest waterfall in Minnesota.

We then headed back South on 61 to Grand Marais, and ate lunch at a yummy pizza place.  Then we stopped in Lutsen at the ski resort there and went down the Alpine slide.

That's Lake Superior in the background

On our way back home we stopped in Duluth for some ice cream then made it home Sunday night just in time to enjoy Labor Day by not doing a thing!

That's all!