"Tall Ships" in Duluth, Aug. 1-3
It's been a week since Eve & I went to Duluth for the day to see some "tall ships"! :) It was so much fun! We got a late start because, well, it's us. And that's how we roll. But the beauty of the situation is, it doesn't matter! We rolled into town about 1:00ish (or 2:00???) and went to the DECC to get our "passports" for the
Duluth Maritime Festival. As we were driving into town, the line was out to the main road! Yikes! We asked at the ticket window (where the line was about 3 deep) if there was one line for all 3 ships, and the chick said she thought so. And that the line was about 2 hours long. Ugh. Well, both of those tidbits of info turned out to be incorrect--as we looked out the back of the DECC, we saw that there was a (comparatively) small line for the smallest ship. We were like "heck yeah!" so we grabbed some lunch and ate it while waiting in line. On the way to getting said lunch, we ran into a couple from my church who had waited for FOUR hours to get on the biggest (and therefore coolest) ship. So at that point we kind of mentally resigned to only going on the small ship with the small line, b/c we really didn't want to wait 4 hours for the big'un. Plus, you could walk somewhat near the other 2 ships and take pics of them without standing in line to board them. That being decided, we waited for perhaps an hour & 15 minutes or so for the Madeline, making friends with the older couple in line in front of us.
We were so excited to board the ship and we figured we'd better make it worth our while--we took zillions of pictures!
(I tried to whittle down from all we took; I will add more pics behind a cut.)
We were hot & thirsty from waiting in line and from all the sunnyness. lol. So we grabbed some water & pop and took a nice shaded break on one of the (for lack of a better word) balconies of the DECC. We watched a giant...just gigantic...boat (not sure what kind) come through and the lift bridge had to go ALL the way up. sweet.
After that we walked around and saw some mateys and then saw that--lo and behold--there was a short line for the Pride of Baltimore II, the middle-sized ship! The ship tours were done at 6 pm, so I think people were kind of giving up on seeing them for the day--it was around 5pm. We stood in line maybe 15 minutes and got on board that one as well :) Again, we took bunches of pictures and it was super fun! Since we had figured we'd only get on the Madeline, this one was a complete bonus!
And when we got off that one, the line for the U.S. Brig Niagara--the biggest of the 3 ships--was right there. There was about 20 minutes left before the tours ended, so we thought we'd risk it--and it totally paid off! We got on board that one, too! It was amazing to see just how many ropes there were! It was crazy!
So we totally rocked the Maritime Festival--take that, 4-hour-waiters! lol. It was great to see them in order, from smallest to biggest, especially since we didn't think we'd get on board more than one of them. And grand total, we waited less than 2 hours for all 3 ships!!!!
Success!
After that, we walked around in Canal Park and took more pics :) It was a completely gorgeous day! The weather was just beautiful, and the breeze off the lake was soooo nice! We went to supper and then took some quick last pics before heading home for the night. We left before the 9:15 fireworks, which was kind of sad, but still had a full day of fun!
a few more (I have a zillion more where that came from if anyone cares to see 'em. Just ask--I'd be happy to show you!)
Duluth Maritime Festival. As we were driving into town, the line was out to the main road! Yikes! We asked at the ticket window (where the line was about 3 deep) if there was one line for all 3 ships, and the chick said she thought so. And that the line was about 2 hours long. Ugh. Well, both of those tidbits of info turned out to be incorrect--as we looked out the back of the DECC, we saw that there was a (comparatively) small line for the smallest ship. We were like "heck yeah!" so we grabbed some lunch and ate it while waiting in line. On the way to getting said lunch, we ran into a couple from my church who had waited for FOUR hours to get on the biggest (and therefore coolest) ship. So at that point we kind of mentally resigned to only going on the small ship with the small line, b/c we really didn't want to wait 4 hours for the big'un. Plus, you could walk somewhat near the other 2 ships and take pics of them without standing in line to board them. That being decided, we waited for perhaps an hour & 15 minutes or so for the Madeline, making friends with the older couple in line in front of us.
We were so excited to board the ship and we figured we'd better make it worth our while--we took zillions of pictures!
(I tried to whittle down from all we took; I will add more pics behind a cut.)
We were hot & thirsty from waiting in line and from all the sunnyness. lol. So we grabbed some water & pop and took a nice shaded break on one of the (for lack of a better word) balconies of the DECC. We watched a giant...just gigantic...boat (not sure what kind) come through and the lift bridge had to go ALL the way up. sweet.
After that we walked around and saw some mateys and then saw that--lo and behold--there was a short line for the Pride of Baltimore II, the middle-sized ship! The ship tours were done at 6 pm, so I think people were kind of giving up on seeing them for the day--it was around 5pm. We stood in line maybe 15 minutes and got on board that one as well :) Again, we took bunches of pictures and it was super fun! Since we had figured we'd only get on the Madeline, this one was a complete bonus!
And when we got off that one, the line for the U.S. Brig Niagara--the biggest of the 3 ships--was right there. There was about 20 minutes left before the tours ended, so we thought we'd risk it--and it totally paid off! We got on board that one, too! It was amazing to see just how many ropes there were! It was crazy!
So we totally rocked the Maritime Festival--take that, 4-hour-waiters! lol. It was great to see them in order, from smallest to biggest, especially since we didn't think we'd get on board more than one of them. And grand total, we waited less than 2 hours for all 3 ships!!!!
Success!
After that, we walked around in Canal Park and took more pics :) It was a completely gorgeous day! The weather was just beautiful, and the breeze off the lake was soooo nice! We went to supper and then took some quick last pics before heading home for the night. We left before the 9:15 fireworks, which was kind of sad, but still had a full day of fun!
a few more (I have a zillion more where that came from if anyone cares to see 'em. Just ask--I'd be happy to show you!)
