Summer Vacation - Day One

We started our long awaited family vacation today. As anyone close to or family knows, we all love to travel and explore new places. We have done many big road trips over the past 5 years. This year, since we are still new to the state of Minnesota we decided to spend this years trip exploring one the states most scenic areas, the North Shore. The North Shore, or is the marketing folks around here call it "America's North Coast" is an area that extends from the port city of Duluth MN northeast to the Canadian border. The area is a mix of scenic beauty and Great Lakes shipping with several towns along the shore serving as harbors for the monster ore carrying ships that carry cargo from the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota to the steel mills in Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Our first days destination was Duluth. We spent the day exploring an area downtown called Canal Park. They have done a nice job of renovating this small peninsula of land that touches Lake Superior, the shipping canal and Duluth harbor. Points of interest include the Aerial lift bridge, the Lake Superior Marine Museum and the Floating Museum ship the S.S. William A. Irvin Ore Boat Museum.

Canal Park also has miles of walking paths along the water, lots of good hotels, restaurants, and shops to explore. We spent all afternoon here checking out the sites at the lift bridge and the marine museum, teaching the kids how to skip stones on the water, enjoyed a yummy Mexican dinner (in Duluth, who knew!?) and watching the sun set as large ore ships make there way under the bridge to Lake Superior.