Monday, May 30, 2011

Canal Park

One of our favorite weekend getaway is to Canal Park in Duluth, Minnesota. It is a small trendy area right on the shores of Lake Superior. Lots of things to see and do. Here is a view of our motel taken from the end of the lighthouse pier. We had a nice large 3rd floor room with a balcony facing the lake.


One of the landmarks in Canal Park is this interesting aerial lift bridge. The roadway lifts straight up allowing room for boats and ships to pass underneath. Duluth is a very active shipping harbor.
These are some sailboats that have just passed under the lift bridge and are heading out for a day of sailing on Lake Superior. It was a great day for sailing.
It was a busy day in Canal Park; a good number of people enjoying the sunshine, the seagulls, the sailboats and the view.

This was the view from our balcony. All along the shore of Lake Superior here in Duluth is a wonderful walkway for pedestrians and also a paved surface for joggers, rollerbladers, bicyclists, etc. And then, alongside that is an earthen path for the horsedrawn carriages for tourists to enjoy. We took a long morning walk on the walking path. Nice fresh air!





When we arrived on Friday it was a rainy, gloomy day and we heard from some shopkeepers that the entire weekend was supposed to be rainy. However the weekend surprised everyone with the skies clearing and the sunshine. There was brilliant sunshine waking us up, glistening off the lake.


Wally enjoys a morning view off the end of the pier.


I was happy to have nice weather for picture taking. I don't think I would have brought my new camera out in the rain. Too risky for me. ha ha. I am so NOT a risk taker.


One of the great features of this new SLR camera is the quick response allowing me to capture movement right when it happens. Here is a seagull taking off from his perch on the lamp post.


Another favorite thing I enjoy in Canal Park is rollerblading. I am not known for being real athletic thought I like to think I am coordinated and not clumsy; mostly I like to walk, walk, walk. Nothing too strenous or hard. Or risky. ha ha. But I love rollerblading where there is a lot of nice smooth, flat surfaces and Canal Park provides just that. I didn't realize Wally brought along his camera while we were rollerblading, but here is proof of my athletic venture. Not sure this is my best side. Perhaps this side is better? Not sure.




The size of the cargo ships entering the port were vast. This ship was over 1000 feet in length and about 100 feet in width.


It would appear that the living quarters for the crew is this area to the rear of the ship. I imagine the rest of the ship would be for cargo; in this case, we believe this ship was coming in for coal.


In the evening, about 8:30 pm, this large ship was coming into the harbor. It was quite dark and I was experimenting with taking some night time pictures with my camera while on the balcony watching this huge vessel arrive. Isn't this picture interesting? It was taken with a very high ISO and the quality is not actually clear for enlarging the photograph, but none-the-less, the colors are amazing. It was actually quite dark outside. It was a nice getaway, just too brief!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

GREAT PICS!! j

John said...
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