North Country 2011--Day 23

A couple of days trekking through cemeteries and then a day of sightseeing.

After getting settled in at the Lakehead Boat Basin here in Duluth on Monday afternoon we called Joanne's Aunt Pat and Uncle Dennis to let them know we were here. We wound up going over to their place after dinner to visit and to meet their three youngest grand kids. In the days before we started this RV thing we would stay at their house when we came up to Duluth for our visits. Even after we purchased our first RV we parked in their yard twice, for a couple of weeks each time. After trading for a coach with slide outs their yard could no longer accommodate us so we started staying down here at the Boat Basin. We met up with them again on Wednesday evening for dinner at the Duluth Grill. (This is one of the places we saw on the Food Channel's show "Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives".)

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent trekking through cemeteries. For the genealogy research we've been doing we've learned that only so much can be accomplished through online searches. Eventually there comes a time that you just have to go to the source. Additionally, thanks to my brother Chester, I have gotten interested in a website called "Find A Grave". This is a place where a person can set up a memorial page for those who have passed on. In addition to the information on the individual this site will also list where the person is buried. One of the entries that is normally posted is a picture of the gravestone, in addition to a photo of the person if available. To get pictures and information on members of Joanne's family up here we went to four different cemeteries and got the information on 18 of her relatives. We took two days because these cemeteries are spread out all over St. Louis County. Now we have been able to update our information in our genealogy pages at Ancestry.com but were also able to set up 18 memorial pages on Find A Grave.

With our cemetery stuff taken care of we decided to do some sightseeing today. We wanted to check out some of the other RV parks in the area. We were sure that we'd not find any we liked as well as the Boat Basin and we were correct. The Boat Basin is a very popular place and we cannot always get reservations for the dates we want so we were looking for a backup. So far I have not found one I'd take my coach into. We've found they are pretty old and run down without the services we get here at Lakehead. We also drove up to the top of the hill to Enger Park to see Enger Tower. We've been to Enger Tower many times but we had learned that some major renovations have been done up there. It is also a great place to take pictures of the harbor down below, especially pictures of the "world famous" Aerial Lift Bridge. This morning, before we left the coach, a large ore boat (ship) came through and moved to the piers in the harbor. Would like to be up at Enger Park to get pictures as one of the ships was entering through the canal. We have to cross this bridge to get from town out to Park Point and the Boat Basin. So far the brige has only been up once while we were traveling through.

After Enger Park we drove back down to Canal Park for lunch. We went to a little place we like, right on the water, called Crabby Bill's. This is an old fishing boat that has been drug up on dry ground and converted to an outdoor seafood vendor. This was a change from the past two days. There are two Coney Island hot dog places in downtown, just a few blocks apart. One, the Original Coney Island, has been in continuous business since 1921. The other, Deluxe Coney Island, is relative new, brighter and cleaner. Can't say either one has any better food than the other. (Joanne's Uncle Dennis thinks that the Deluxe is better than the Original.) We ended the day with another sunset over Duluth Harbor.