Adventure North, part 2

After our hiking trip to Madeline Island, we first did a little shopping in the nearby city of Bayfield. There are many cute shops and art galleries to explore. We saw an old fisherman standing guard outside of one shop.

And we saw a BIG bear in a another shop.

Jerry and Ben wondered why the bear was not moving, but then they were rushed out of the store so that we had time to get to our next destination (...it's really best that little bears don't know everything).

We then traveled to the big port city of Duluth Minnesota where we got to spend the night at a nice hotel after a big day of hiking.

Jerry says that Duluth is a deep water port, so to allow the HUGE ships that travel all the way through the Great Lakes and through the 350-mile wide Lake Superior to reach Duluth, that a special bridge was needed.

It is a big Lift Bridge; the center portion lifts up to allow boats to pass under it.

Ben was pleased to see that there is a great deal of French heritage in this area, for right near the bridge he found the following plaque:

After exploring Duluth, we traveling north to visit one of our favorite sites in Minnesota, Split Rock Lighthouse.

It's built on top of a big cliff, and the light can be seen by ships for many, many miles.

Isn't it beautiful?!?

Well, that's a summary of our trip up north.

Vacation Up North, part 1

Jerry and Ben set off on a short vacation to northern Minnesota, up near Canada--that's wear our pal Sandy lives! On the way, we stopped in the city of Duluth to visit the Glensheen historic mansion.

Glensheen, built by one of Minnesota's most influential families, is a thirty-nine room 1908 mansion on Lake Superior. "Itz beary big houze!" noted Jerry. Oh, and we took our photo (below) when we first arrived and it was cloudy, but after our tour of the inside of the mansion, the clouds were gone and there was a beautiful blue sky!

There are seven acres of formal gardens and a real vegetable garden (below). "An thar iz a klay tenus kourt and bowleeng lawn too!" added Ben. The little house below is the carriage house. "That iz where all the horzes lived, and the men servants lived upstairs" continued Ben.

Inside of the beautiful house were rooms full of beautiful furniture, paintings, and unique items from the turn of the century, or what Jerry calls "lotz of old stuff." Jerry wasn't so interested in the "old stuff".

We also saw these beautiful windows in the breakfast room that looked like oak trees.

We had a great time visiting Glensheen on the first day of our vacation. Stay tuned for part 2!