July 24, 2013 Arriving in Duluth, Minn.

This morning we woke up to the sound of rain on the RV roof, hmmmm, the weatherman was only off by 2 days! It was not a lasting rain. Lennie got up took his shower, & started the coffee water.I get up, make the bed & pull the bedroom slide in. By now the rain has already stopped. Len wants to pull out by 9:00am, so breakfast is quick, dishes are done, I head to the shower. Lennie must be in a hurry to leave? I barely got out of the shower & he was pulling the main slide in!?! "Come on Otis, let's go potty so we can leave!" Len hooked the car up last night, he's done everything  outside, he's just waiting on us.

& now we're ready too! We are only going to Duluth, but Lennie wants to beat the road construction traffic. We leave with slightly overcast skies, but we're off!

We luck out with the construction traffic, it seems like the whole world is under construction, but it wasn't too bad. We start getting closer to Duluth & what is that I see, a ray of sunshine & some blue skies!?!

 We are trusting our GPS to take us to our destination of River Place Campground, but.....she wanted to send us down a road (Herman Rd) Lennie was leery of driving down??? We pulled over, Len called the campground they gave us updated directions! The Manager met us at the gate, he told us every one's GPS wants to send people down Herman Road, which isn't a "RV Friendly" road!?!

It's a small campground, mostly seasonal campers. It's a nice campground on the St Louis River.

Turns out, this is a BIG WEEKEND in Duluth.Tall Ships Festival! If we hadn't had our reservation a month ago, we would not got a spot any where in Duluth. Had we known it was Tall Ships Festival weekend, we would have waited to come or bypassed Duluth. It is going to be wall to wall people tomorrow & Saturday down at the lake! 250,000 spectators are expected!!!!!! Can you imagine trying to park downtown tomorrow!?! With that in mind, after setting up, & lunch, we decided we'd be better off to drive into Duluth today, & stay away from that traffic jam tomorrow!

The first place went went to see was The LEIF ERIKSON Park! This is kind of funny to me as I have a brother, & nephew named, LEIF ERICKSON!

I text this photo to my nephew, my brother....he's doesn't have text capabilities, but I know he would have gotten a kick out of the Viking picture!

& the inscription!

It was a nice park, we walked all over with Otis by our side.....

We have a dog, so we always have a bag on hand, just in case....

We were just about to leave....

When I spotted a sign, that read..... NO PETS IN THE GARDENS!

YIKES!!!! I don't know if that meant the whole park or just where the flowers were, at any rate, we'd already broken the rules! that sign should have been posted at the ENTRANCE to the park! Okay, we're leaving!!

We head to Canal Point, this is where tomorrow's excitement is going to take place(without us!) We are fortunate to see a ship come in, not a TALL SHIP, like tomorrow's event, but still a ship & it brought the lift bridge up!

Here it comes!

& there it goes!

This is my "Postcard Photo"!

We leave Canal Park & walk down the "tourist streets" of Duluth. I'm looking in some of the shops, Lennie & Otis are just looking for a photo opt!?!

Otis gets a lot of compliments when he's sitting with Lennie, but I don't know about this time!?!

That's enough hamming for the camera!!!

We walk back to our car & drive over the lift bridge we just watched lift up & down to let the ship through! Otis does not like the sound our car makes driving over the bridge!

We just drive a short distance to a turn around point, which also turns out to be another photo opt!

Now it's time to head back to the RV,dinner is never too far from Lennie's mind! 

We had "fake" short ribs for dinner & were surprised how "REAL" they tasted!!!

Otis is ready for his nightly walk!

A new RV Park always means new smells for Otis, new smells mean: A Happy Dog!

Tomorrow we are going on a scenic drive on the North Shore Scenic byway!

Stay tuned!?!