Exploring Minnesota...

As July 31st approaches and the date of our formal move to Minneapolis nears, I have found that it is really too expensive to go back to Milwaukee on the weekends. After spending the week of July 4th back in Milwaukee, the next three weekends will be spent here in Minneapolis, alone. So, I was happy to be invited to Duluth last weekend to visit one of my former colleagues, who also recently relocated from Milwaukee to a new city, Duluth, MN. His situation is very similar to mine and is as well living alone for the time being. As they say, misery loves company. So, off to northern Minnesota I went.

In 1995, I actually looked into relocating to Duluth after my fellowship. That idea was quite short lived after my wife found the brochure lying around the house. Little did she know that all these many years later, we would have occasion to visit there on the weekends from Minneapolis in the future!

Duluth has a great history that I really was not aware of. It is a major shipping port on Lake Superior, along with Superior, WI (Duluth, MN). You probably know the most famous ship that sailed from this area, The Edmund Fitzgerald (Edmund_Fitzgerald). Yes, the one from the Gordon Lightfoot song (The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald). Anchored in Canal Park is the S.S. William Irvin, once the flagship of US Steel, now a museum (S.S William Irvin). I plan on touring it on our next trip to Duluth.

S.S William Irvin

After arriving on Friday evening, we visited a local brewpub in Canal Park, The Canal Park Brewing Company (Canal Park Brewery). The beer was great and so were the burgers. We spent most of Saturday watching The 111th Duluth International Regatta. Congratulations to the Minneapolis Rowing Club for their overall 1st place finish.

MRC Men's Double

MRC Women's 8

Crew Regattas are similar to Pom Competitions, lots of time spent waiting around for your team to race / perform. So, in our abundant down time, I took the opportunity to consult my TV Food Maps App to check out the local Triple D / MVF dining spots. First stop was the Anchor Grill in Superior, WI. 

Tom wondering what all the bikers are doing here...

Overall not a bad place. The burger was good, but average. The beer was great however, Fat Tire on tap in cold frosted mugs! Probably worth the initial trip, but, probably not worth going back anytime soon. The burger at the Canal Park Brewing Company was much better.

Saturday evening was spent at Fitger's Brewhouse (Fitger's Brewhouse) for dinner and Grizzly's Grill in Canal Park (Grizzly' Grill) for a few after dinner beers. We had a lot of laughs and told a bunch of stories before calling it quits for the evening.

Sunday morning came faster than expected and with it the final stop of the TV Food Maps App Tour, The Duluth Grill. Highly recommended if you are in the Duluth area. Great breakfast and hands down the best banana cream pie on the planet!

It was a great weekend, dropping in on an old friend in similar circumstances and I would like to thank him for his hospitality! I look forward to many more visits to Duluth once all our families are officially Minnesotans. In the meantime, I will spend the next couple of weekends in Minneapolis exploring what else lies within my 10 mile radius...