June 20, 2019 Thursday Day 32
We got up early enough to observe the sunrise from our BnB and ate our fruit, nuts and yogurt breakfast.
Then packed up, unplugged the car (we got 42 electric miles) and headed off for the Franconia Sculpture Park. Immediately took a wrong turn, but quickly righted myself and retraced our steps through Taylor Falls and south, not far, toward Minneapolis. This is an amazing and cool place. 43 acres of outdoor sculptures, wildflowers and a small forest, plus the opportunity to watch and speak with sculptors in action. It is a non-profit that provides workshops for artists and has an artist in residence program. It was hot, but there is a self service refrigerator with cold water and frezzie pops that operates on the honor system. There were lots of sculptures to view as we meandered through the Park on graveled paths. A beautiful and engaging place.
Those are only a small sample of the sculptures. The only downside was that there were some mosquitos that really bothered my spouse, so while I ate lunch at the picnic table in the Park, she ate in the car.
After spending a few hours at the Sculpture Park we headed north through Taylor and Souix Falls one last time and headed north on state route 87. We took a gasoline pit stop at Bass Lake near Cushing and then continued north on state route 48 and then east on route 70 through lots of flat agricultural land to the Burnett Dairy Co-op in Alpha. This appeared to be a large dairy operation, lots of large milk tanks, and a large retail store that sold all things dairy, plus wine and related items, e.g. bread. They had free, cold milk, regular and chocolate and lots of bread and cheese samples. One could make a meal out of it. We ate some ice cream and purchased some real Wisconsen wine and cheese.
Then we drove to Siren. There was a charging station there behind the police station. I just intended to walk around the town and stretch our legs while we got a little electric charge for the car, but we found a going out of business sale at Peggy's Fashion Rack and Gifts. Under Peggy the store had been open for 30 years, but she said that she was getting tired and wanted to retire. She had the store up for sale for 2 years, but had not attracted any buyers so she was just closing it down. It was sort of a little department store with a lot of cold weather items. We purchased some gloves, hats, scarves, pants and suspenders, walked back to the car and resumed our trip north on state route 35.
We passed more flat agricultural land that gave way to forests as we passed over the St. Croix River again and then into Douglas County, the most northwestern county in the state. Stopping at a state park we learned that the county was named for Stephen Douglas, the famed Little Giant whose debates with Abraham Lincoln primarily about the future of slavery in the US in 1858 in the Illinois Senate race. Douglas won the election, but the texts of the debates were publicized throughout the nation and helped to launch Lincoln to the presidency. I do not know why the county was named after Douglas, but I was told by a park user that in 1952 in the republican senate primary Douglas was one of only 2 counties that voted against Senator Joseph McCarthy. He also said that the last republican presidential candidate to win the county before Trump was Herbert Hoover.
The Ojibwa Indians, who themselves were transplants from the east, were present when a French voyager showed up sailing around the south shore of Lake Superior in 1618. He was followed by fur traders from French, English and lastly American fur trading companies who established trading posts. In the mid 19th century immigrants, primarily from Northern Europe flowed into the territory to farm, work in the mines and cut down trees, which they and their employers were incredibly efficient.
We coasted into and through Superior, the county seat. It seemed kind of worn out and tired. We traversed a large bridge spanning the Duluth Superior harbor into Duluth MN. Then we drove along the shoreline and skirted Duluth's downtown, over the Aerial Lift Bridge and onto Minnesota Point, which along with Wisconsen Point make up the largest freshwater sand bar in the world. That is the location of our hotel, the Park Point Marine Inn which lies right on the bay. A nice, relatively new place and a spacious room with a view of the marina.
We walked back up Minnesota Point to Canal Park near the aerial bridge. From here you got a view of some of the 49 miles of the harbor shoreline and the scores of elevators and docks that surrounded the harbor. Millions of tons of grain, ore, coal and lumber annually pass through one of the world's largest inland seaports. It was sunny, but cool and there were wind driven white caps on the lake that ran up to a narrow beach. The piers that lined the shipping canal into the Duluth harbor each had a lighthouse on the lake end.
The aerial lift Bridge was built in 1905 and continues to lift to permit passage of over 1000 boats, ranging in size from sailboats to 1000 ft freighters into the harbor. We watched it lift a few times. We walked over the bridge and encountered many runners. Turns out this is the weekend of Grandma's Marathon, along with several shorter races, one of the largest marathons in the Midwest. We stopped to speak with several groups of runners who were either out jogging or picking up their race packets. One was a group of young public school teachers from the area. They were from the Duluth area and although they had gone away to college, they had returned. They characterized Duluth as the air conditioned city since it was never hot. The always cool to cold waters of Lake Superior cooled the lake in the summer and surprisingly moderated the cold in the winter. They claimed that it usually did not go below zero in the city in the winter due to the lake effect, but areas just outside the city frequently experienced below zero temperatures. They were intrigued by our trip and California and we talked about running training regimes. They were entered in the half and full marathons.
Wishing them good luck we walked into the commercial and entertainment district. We stopped by a whiskey distillery and sampled some product. The museums were closed and after inspecting several potential eateries, we settled for Grandmas Salon and Grill, the sponsor of the races. It was a large place that is decorated with an eclectic assortment of signs and objects. I had a very good Walleye fish dinner. After dinner we walked back over the Aerial Lift Bridge and back to the hotel.
We got up early enough to observe the sunrise from our BnB and ate our fruit, nuts and yogurt breakfast.
Then packed up, unplugged the car (we got 42 electric miles) and headed off for the Franconia Sculpture Park. Immediately took a wrong turn, but quickly righted myself and retraced our steps through Taylor Falls and south, not far, toward Minneapolis. This is an amazing and cool place. 43 acres of outdoor sculptures, wildflowers and a small forest, plus the opportunity to watch and speak with sculptors in action. It is a non-profit that provides workshops for artists and has an artist in residence program. It was hot, but there is a self service refrigerator with cold water and frezzie pops that operates on the honor system. There were lots of sculptures to view as we meandered through the Park on graveled paths. A beautiful and engaging place.
Those are only a small sample of the sculptures. The only downside was that there were some mosquitos that really bothered my spouse, so while I ate lunch at the picnic table in the Park, she ate in the car.
After spending a few hours at the Sculpture Park we headed north through Taylor and Souix Falls one last time and headed north on state route 87. We took a gasoline pit stop at Bass Lake near Cushing and then continued north on state route 48 and then east on route 70 through lots of flat agricultural land to the Burnett Dairy Co-op in Alpha. This appeared to be a large dairy operation, lots of large milk tanks, and a large retail store that sold all things dairy, plus wine and related items, e.g. bread. They had free, cold milk, regular and chocolate and lots of bread and cheese samples. One could make a meal out of it. We ate some ice cream and purchased some real Wisconsen wine and cheese.
Then we drove to Siren. There was a charging station there behind the police station. I just intended to walk around the town and stretch our legs while we got a little electric charge for the car, but we found a going out of business sale at Peggy's Fashion Rack and Gifts. Under Peggy the store had been open for 30 years, but she said that she was getting tired and wanted to retire. She had the store up for sale for 2 years, but had not attracted any buyers so she was just closing it down. It was sort of a little department store with a lot of cold weather items. We purchased some gloves, hats, scarves, pants and suspenders, walked back to the car and resumed our trip north on state route 35.
We passed more flat agricultural land that gave way to forests as we passed over the St. Croix River again and then into Douglas County, the most northwestern county in the state. Stopping at a state park we learned that the county was named for Stephen Douglas, the famed Little Giant whose debates with Abraham Lincoln primarily about the future of slavery in the US in 1858 in the Illinois Senate race. Douglas won the election, but the texts of the debates were publicized throughout the nation and helped to launch Lincoln to the presidency. I do not know why the county was named after Douglas, but I was told by a park user that in 1952 in the republican senate primary Douglas was one of only 2 counties that voted against Senator Joseph McCarthy. He also said that the last republican presidential candidate to win the county before Trump was Herbert Hoover.
The Ojibwa Indians, who themselves were transplants from the east, were present when a French voyager showed up sailing around the south shore of Lake Superior in 1618. He was followed by fur traders from French, English and lastly American fur trading companies who established trading posts. In the mid 19th century immigrants, primarily from Northern Europe flowed into the territory to farm, work in the mines and cut down trees, which they and their employers were incredibly efficient.
We coasted into and through Superior, the county seat. It seemed kind of worn out and tired. We traversed a large bridge spanning the Duluth Superior harbor into Duluth MN. Then we drove along the shoreline and skirted Duluth's downtown, over the Aerial Lift Bridge and onto Minnesota Point, which along with Wisconsen Point make up the largest freshwater sand bar in the world. That is the location of our hotel, the Park Point Marine Inn which lies right on the bay. A nice, relatively new place and a spacious room with a view of the marina.
We walked back up Minnesota Point to Canal Park near the aerial bridge. From here you got a view of some of the 49 miles of the harbor shoreline and the scores of elevators and docks that surrounded the harbor. Millions of tons of grain, ore, coal and lumber annually pass through one of the world's largest inland seaports. It was sunny, but cool and there were wind driven white caps on the lake that ran up to a narrow beach. The piers that lined the shipping canal into the Duluth harbor each had a lighthouse on the lake end.
The aerial lift Bridge was built in 1905 and continues to lift to permit passage of over 1000 boats, ranging in size from sailboats to 1000 ft freighters into the harbor. We watched it lift a few times. We walked over the bridge and encountered many runners. Turns out this is the weekend of Grandma's Marathon, along with several shorter races, one of the largest marathons in the Midwest. We stopped to speak with several groups of runners who were either out jogging or picking up their race packets. One was a group of young public school teachers from the area. They were from the Duluth area and although they had gone away to college, they had returned. They characterized Duluth as the air conditioned city since it was never hot. The always cool to cold waters of Lake Superior cooled the lake in the summer and surprisingly moderated the cold in the winter. They claimed that it usually did not go below zero in the city in the winter due to the lake effect, but areas just outside the city frequently experienced below zero temperatures. They were intrigued by our trip and California and we talked about running training regimes. They were entered in the half and full marathons.
Wishing them good luck we walked into the commercial and entertainment district. We stopped by a whiskey distillery and sampled some product. The museums were closed and after inspecting several potential eateries, we settled for Grandmas Salon and Grill, the sponsor of the races. It was a large place that is decorated with an eclectic assortment of signs and objects. I had a very good Walleye fish dinner. After dinner we walked back over the Aerial Lift Bridge and back to the hotel.
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