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Our day started out with a trip to the shopping district at Canal Park, near the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth. Amazing display of architecture. The driving surface of the bridge lifts up to allow floating passage underneath, not your average every day type of bridge. It was originally built in 1905 as an aerial ferry, but updated in 1930 to include the lift for the transport of cars. The bridge spans about 390 feet, and rises and lowers up to 30 times a day during the busy shipping season. The lift is just right above the top of the buildings in the photo below.
©320photography Canon G10 ISO 80 f/4 18mm 1/1250th sec
After spending the morning shopping we had one last road trip, with a lunch stop on the way.
©320photography Canon G10 ISO 80 f/4 1/400th sec
And low and behold, a name familiar to just about anyone who has seen the pop culture film (as raunchy as it is).
©320photography Canon G10 ISO 80 f/4 6mm 1/640th sec
Nothing says adventure like a stop along a random highway for road food. Pretty good burger, great onion rings.
©320photography Canon G10 ISO80 f/4 6mm 1/500th sec
Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes…the name Minnesota actually comes from the Dakota word for “sky tinted water”. It is very fitting. The childhood story about the lakes tells us that Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox footprints are the origins of all the lakes. Actually all of the lakes (actually over 11,000 lakes) were formed when four glaciers melted and filled in the depressions in the land.
We landed in Duluth and stopped at a nearby mall for some quick shopping and lunch before heading to our ultimate destination for the day. We ate at a local hamburger place and I had one of the most sinful patty melts I think I have ever had. On pumpernickel bread, it was topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions, cheddar cheese, blue cheese crumbles and french dressing. Evil food at its best.
©320photography Canon G10 ISO 400 f/2.8 6.1mm 1/8th sec Macro mode
After lunch we started our trek on remote, tree lined highways to begin our adventure; spending several days in the Iron Range, the areas surrounding the towns of Virgina, Hibbing and Chisholm. We spent our first day in the Virginia area, Hoyt Lakes to be specific. Hoyt Lakes is a small town that was created mostly to support the Iron Ore industry, which was booming several years ago. Hoyt Lakes now describes itself as a family oriented resort destination. The town is bordered by two lakes and has a popular campground at Fisherman’s Point. This location is not only a pleasant area for camping, but it offers several walking trails as well. Listening to the water come ashore, the sea gulls discussing the latest catch and the families enjoying water sports is a great way to end the day.
©320photography Canon G10 ISO 80 f/4.0 6mm 1/800th sec
I have been in Las Vegas over 10 years now and feel pretty acclimated to the climate. I used to kid people and give them a hard time when it was 40 something outside and they would say it was cold. I was born and raised in Minnesota, it truly gets cold there. My favorite story to demonstrate that is when my daughter was two weeks old my mom called me and told me that we should get out of the house that day – as it was going to get warmer, up to zero degrees. Warm up to zero.
But, really it is all relative. For instance, in Minneapolis in the fall the temps fall from 70s and 80s in the summer to 40s in the fall….and even down to 20s and 30s as winter approaches. That is a 50 to 60 degree difference. Down into the 20s and 30s people start to say it is getting cold. Las Vegas is 100s in the summer, cools down to the 90s, 80s and 70s (about a week of each it seems) and then we get down into the 50s…and over the last week only in the 40s for highs (20s in the morning). That is a 60 degree difference as well….so it is cold to us who live here in the desert.
This weekend we have a storm pushing through, it has been raining on and off for the last three days. We here in Las Vegas get really happy and excited when it rains, because it just doesn’t happen that often. This week is a one year anniversary to one of the biggest storms I have ever seen here. On my son’s birthday last year in snowed. Las Vegas does usually see a snow event each year, but last year it snowed many inches really fast. The southeast suburb of Henderson saw 8 inches that day. My house on the west side saw 3 to 4 inches. The picture below was taken in my back yard. School was canceled for the next day – snow drifts existed for months (those in the shade).
It was a heavy wet snow, and it took us an hour to pick up my husband from work to go out to dinner for my son’s birthday. A normally 15-20 minute drive took an hour….the roads were awful, and of course people here don’t know really what to do in a snow storm. Some drive to fast and spin out (we saw more than a dozen of such folk on the side of the road because they had damaged their car in the spin). Some drive really slow – which by the way Las Vegas folks is what everyone else does when it snows. It was weird driving in such snow again, I flashed back to several snow storms that I drove through as part of my daily commute there. I remember the Halloween storm in Minnesota in the 1990s – it snowed 36 inches in two days. But, it is all relative – 4-8 inches of snow here (where there is no road equipment to handle it) is comparable to 36 inches in Minnesota.
