Duluth, Minnesota

Downtown Duluth.

The ride from Fargo was the most painful yet. However sitting in a cold and ugly hotel room in Toronto looking at my 5.5 hour trip to Ottawa tomorrow, it doesn't seem that bad. This is when I started to get a feel of what much of the East is like - populated. There was a freeway for part of the way, but a large part of the journey went through 55 MPH roads where the speed would drop to 30 as traffic passed through many small towns.

I arrived in the beautiful city of Duluth just after nightfall. For 2 nights I would be staying with my host Anesa and her partner Matt. The first night I was pretty whacked from the ride, but luckily Anesa and Matt didn't want to go out and party we all had an early night. After Anesa was nice enough to give me some home cooked dinner, I slept soundly on their couch in their very eclectic townhouse.

The non-retarded cat warms in the Minnasotian sun.

Anesa and Matt had 2 long haired cats, one was literally retarded. Anesa had pity for the poor inbred cat, who had no irises (no idea how his eyes worked), and took him as a pet. The cat would also eat constantly then vomit it back up later. During the night I would always hear the "crunch, crunch, crunch" of him eating!

The next day Anesa had only a short shift so she was able to show me around Duluth in the afternoon  We walked down to the shore of Lake Superior; the word's largest freshwater lake by surface area. This thing is massive, it just looks like an ocean from land. According to Anesa, people will go down the the "beach" in summer to swim and can actually surf on the waves when there is strong winds. In the winter you can skate on parts of the lake.

The number one attraction in Duluth is the Aerial Lift Bridge (just known as the "Lift Bridge" to residents), so we both headed down to hopefully see it in operation. Luckily we got to see a massive cargo ship go through it.

Looking up at the Aerial Lift Bridge.

Cargo ship passing through the bridge.
Ships tended to have their own crane, which I
thought was unusual.

Later on we walked up to a local microbrewery and had a beer. The brewery was situated right on the lake and the beer was awesome! We walked around a bunch of different parks and along the lake, chatting about various topics. Anesa had traveled Scotland and was currently training to be an EMT. She was hoping one day to move out of Duluth, maybe back to Scotland. She was a super nice young lady with a great personality and easy to talk to!

That night Anesa was holding a "girl's night", so I made myself scarce. I rode down to a recommended burrito place called "Burrito Union", who named their food after historical Soviet Union figures. I had the mighty "Rasputin" which was a burrito with all meats and all salads, the thing seemed to weigh a pound. But once finished I earned myself a "Rasputin" sticker, which I now display proudly on the back of my laptop.

Lake Superior (nothing to do with burritos).

Afterwards I headed down to a local dive bar and drank a few bud lights (they were cheap that night). As usual, it doesn't take too long before you get talking to the locals. I chatted with a very friendly guy who despite the current locale was very well educated. Later on he guided me away from the Duluth ghetto on my walk back home.

This apparently was going to be part of pier in Lake Superior, but sunk in the process.
It now has been left in place either as an attraction or out of apathy.

I thought this sign was so ugly I had to take a picture.

When I got back the girl's night was in full swing, so I quietly surfed the net in the room next door. Upon leaving the next day, Anesa and Matt gave me some advice on a good highway out to Minneapolis.

They were a sweet couple, I loved staying with them in Duluth!

View down to the Lake taken with the GoPro.