Mining Minnesota

We went likity split across middle and eastern North Dakota, on into Minnesota. Mining and logging are big here, along with agriculture. Bemidji was surprisingly delightful. On every street corner there were works of art, mostly copper or steel, including the first staues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Sited on a lake, it is also known for The Fish Restaurant. Located just on the edge of town (picture included), it is a sixty-five-foot long Tiger Muskie, with a fourteen-foot wide mouth, that welcomes people to the restaurant. This lovely art nuveaux was featured in Chevy Chase's National Lampoon's Vacation. Check your Netflix catalogue! While we did not see all of North Dakota's roadside giants, we did catch the world's largest cow, Salem Sue along I-94.

Mid-way across the state, we passed from mining, barren, hilly country into greener, woody, pasture-filled, lake dotted new landscape. John Steinbeck observed, in his Travels With Charley, that this is the dividing point between western and eastern, moving from semi-arid to lush, from dry to the biggest muddy water source, the headwaters of the Mississippi, which begins in Lake Itasca.

Duluth is a attractive and busy town. We stopped for two days to catch up on laundry and stayed at the so-so Red Roof Inn. Pat went to a nearby Laundromat and did the dirty work, and then used our GPS to find her way downtown to some must-see places: the aerial lift bridge, the downtown canals, the big ships, and the waterfront and dockside eateries. She had a great lunch and visited beautiful, huge Glensheen Estate on the lakefront. Our first evening there we came upon a very nice Italian bistro and had a terrific dinner. The server, a teacher at the middle school, was a delight and said we must go to a special restaurant at our next stop, Bayfield. We will try it.