Duluth

Off to Duluth! Join us on our adventure in a most northern town of Minnesota!!

We drove here and there and everywhere. We drove here and there and everywhere. And yet again, we drove here and there and everywhere. Duluth is SERIOUSLY under construction. We tried to get somewhere only to find out that the exit was closed or that we past it two exits ago. We drove to or from the rest area three times. I think the only thing we KNOW how to find 100% is the rest stop!
It was very bright out that day. None of the boys could keep their eyes open long enough for a picture. The river was very pretty from on top of the hill (at the rest stop). There was a wonderful map showing the different island names and river names that was very useful. I should have taken a picture of them.
You can just see one of the big bridges in the background. This is the best picture of maybe 10 pictures I took trying to get everyone to look at the camera. Sigh.
This bridge was SOOO cool. It is called the Aerial Lift Bridge. This is from one of the streets. It went up when the ships wanted to pass underneath. The boys got a kick out of it. Later we walked under the bridge while the traffic was driving over us. Too fun!
We stopped by the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center. The kids enjoyed seeing the exhibits especially the hands-on ones. We watched a short movie on the how they load the large freighters. Next to the movie was this display case showing how it works.
This display case was showing the different products that are or were shipped on the Great Lakes to and from the Duluth area.

Blase is telling the shipping to stop.

While Stephen is determining its direction. I'm not sure this ship is safe with Blase controlling the speed and Stephen deciding where to go!

My sweet Cormac spying on the people outside the museum.

They were watching the boats out on the lake. Stephen was looking for the lighthouse, but never found it. I have a feeling he didn't get much time with that many brothers wanting to see.

An EXTREMELY neat map of the Great Lakes. It was fun to locate Duluth and then where our house is. They spent quite a bit of time looking at it.

The boys each took turns learning about how the locks work. There was a boat to move between the locks as well as water level buttons. A nice hands-on learning experience.

And finally we got to see the bridge lift up for a cruise ship. We weren't there when any of the big freighters were suppose to come to the area. If you would like to see the arrivals and departures from that area go to this website.

I spy a bridge.

Do you think this anchor is big enough???

A much smaller, but still impressive, anchor.

PUSH, PUSH, PUSH! (It does not move, but they still gave it their best shot!)

No good sightseeing trip is complete without a break for ice cream. Chocolate ice cream is so good...

even down to the last possible drop.

He prefers strawberry.

And this one likes vanilla ALL BY HIMSELF thank you very much.

We decided to take a tour on the USS William A. Irvin. It was the flag ship of US Steel from 1938 until 1975. Here we are in the engine room. It was very impressive because it has brass handrails throughout the engine room. You can see one by Darren's arm. This is because this ship was built not only to haul materials, but also to haul people. The company would give important clients and officials the full experience by allowing them to take a round trip during the summer months. A round trip was usually 7 days. The visitors were given tours of the boat, so the brass handrails were there to impress them.
This picture was taken in the crew's kitchen. There were 30some crew members that were working on the ship at one time. There was a separate kitchen for the guest quarters. I liked the way the stove had guards so food wouldn't fall off in bad weather. There was a dining room and also some fairly nice crew quarters. I expected worse conditions. I guess they ate very well too. The tour guide said that food was considered part of the pay, so the more you ate the more you were getting paid.Here is everyone (but me of course) posing near the hatch crane (with the name on it) and one of the eighteen hatches. The William A. Irvin hauled taconite or raw iron ore most of the time. It could carry about 14,000 tons. If you want to know more about the William A. Irvin you can visit this webpage.They are walking toward the guest quarters, captain's rooms and guest kitchen. We climbed up or down 18 flights of stairs. Some of them were QUITE steep and a bit hard to conquer with a baby in my arms. Usually I went first with either Gianna or Brech, then all the boys one at a time, followed by Darren and which ever youngest he had. We made quite a parade. We tried to be the last ones down or up as we took SOO long. The guest kitchen and dining room were located in the white room with the round window you can see next to the lady's shoulder. It was where the second cargo hatch would have gone. The rooms where one hatch away under the pilot house.
This is a picture of the guest dining room and kitchen off to the side. There was lovely wood panelling throughout the room and examples of place settings. The tour guide said that the captain was not allowed in the guest quarters or dining room unless invited by the guests and the other crew members were never allowed in there (except housekeeping of course). She said that one of the tour guides used to work on the William A. Irvin for many years. He had not been in the guest quarters or dining room until becoming a tour guide. I guess they were very serious about that rule!
They had electric fireplaces in the guest quarters. There were two floors of rooms with two rooms on each side. Each room slept two guests and had its own bathroom. The rooms on the first floor were not as nice as the rooms on the second floor. The third floor was for the pilot house. The pictures I took are of the first floor with the not as nice rooms.
The rooms were very spacious and had chairs for sitting down. It also had built in dressers. One of the rooms on the second level had a pink mirror so that if someone was feeling sea sick they could look in the mirror and feel better. The captain's rooms were located next to a guest lounge. There was a button in the lounge that they pushed that alerted a kitchen worker to bring ice up. The view was incredible from the lounge.
The top floor was the pilot house. Stephen is at the controls again. Do you think he is a typical boy who is attracted to anything that moves?? Buttons?? The usual.We are waiting for our chance to go down in the cargo hold. They were setting up for a haunted house tour in October, but you still got the idea of how big it was. And that concludes our tour of Duluth.
On our way out of town we saw some of the ports for unloading and loading materials.
Once we were in Wisconsin and away from the industrial filth, we stopped to put our feet in that side of Lake Superior. The boys had a great time. Its amazing how something so simple as putting your feet in water is one of the best things about a trip. They were sad to leave so soon and wanted to play.
Is this like Duck, Duck, Goose? Only instead it would be Butt, Butt, Butt, Butt, Belly, Butt.
Gianna stayed in the van and had a quick snack. This is what we saw.
Oh what can it be?? Can we take home this rock? NO. Can we take home this rock? NO. Can we take home...NO NO. Don't ask again!

I wanted to know - how were we going to get everyone from point A to point B (being the van) and not create a major mess?
Dad to the rescue! He washed off their feet, hoisted them on his shoulder and away they went. You can't tell it, but Blase is getting a fake spanking. They were told to NOT play in the sand with their hands (less mess right) but you can just see the start of a dam in the bottom corner of the picture...that would be Blase and Rex's. So they were getting fake spankings all the way back to the van. It was a fun time, even the fake spankings caused laughter.

We drove and drove and finally reached home about 11:30 that night. What a CRAZY long Monday. Darren went right back to work on Tuesday and we slept in. Poor Darren.