Isle Royale Forums

Do you want to shop, since you want to go to the Mall of America (shudder) in the Twin Cities?

I do not, but the girlfriend likes the idea of Mall of America. I shudder too. Shopping. Yikes.

You've probably been THROUGH Two Harbors, but if you haven't stopped...again, you are doing it wrong.

I actually went there on this trip, but just to check out the Granite Gear Warehouse I wish I would have had more time to check out the rest of the city, but we had another passenger with us that was not keen about going anywhere other than our main destination; a house we were renting while attending the wedding we went to for the week. I will definitely make it a point to check it out on my next drive up to Grand Portage.

What to sight-see? Again, start in the Canal Park area, and go to the very awesome maritime museum. Then stick around the canal and watch some giant-ass ships go by, only a few feet from your face

We missed a 1000ft freighter coming in as we were driving down the hillside to the pier. I would love to see one of the ships pass by on the lighthouse pier. Checking out the Vista Cruise seems like it might be cool too.

At this point, your day is over. You've already filled it up with very awesome things to do. But if you want to spend another day in the Twin Ports and maybe do some urban exploration, then try this: start out going to Superior and touring the last whaleback ship in the world, then touring an old pine baron's 1800s manshion (this is a personal favorite of mine). While you are in Superior, drive a mere few minutes and tour the old Firehouse Museum.

All things I am going to take time to explore online, especially the old pines baron's mansion since you said it was one of your personal favorites. If they check out as being as neat as you make them out to be, I might just have to pay a visit to your homeland

While your in Superior, you can head further south and check out Pattison Park, with Wisconsin's largest waterfalls.

Now your talking. This intrigues me most. I love waterfalls and could see myself investigating Pattison Park for a day provided its large enough to devote a whole day to.

Before you leave Superior, I'm sure you'll work up an appetite, so stop in The Anchor for some of THE BEST BURGERS in the Twin Ports, and a little bit of nostalgic maritime artifacts as well (you'll probably see at least ONE of the old Voyageur II captains there). Or if The Anchor is too busy, the BEST PIZZA in the Twin Ports is ironically only one block away at the Thirsty Pagan Brewery.

Good food and where to find it is essential to me enjoying my trip. My girlfriend and I are foodies, so we always appreciate good grub.

286-mile Superior Hiking Trail, which has many, MANY convienent entrances in Duluth.

Definitely want to do the whole thing one day. I will take this for a 3 week trip.

Beer is my personal favorite thing ever, and living in the Twin Ports, there's no limit to a delicious pint.

If only I drank You seem like you know where to find a nice variety of beers if your in the area. My buddy from work would really appreciate such information as I am sure many others on here would too as they pass through the area even if they do not plan on staying for an evening or weeekend.

Thanks for all the advice and stepping up to the plate for Duluth and Superior. I wrote this hoping to get a very detailed examination of what the cities have to offer and I think you did the Twin Ports Justice. It was also neat to know that your from the area. I once read that you were offering to give someone a ride to Grand Portage if they paid for beer and gas I wondered if you were going to be coincidentally in the area at the same time as the person you were offering the ride to or what the story was. Now everything is clear. I never knew where Soupe Towne, WI was and now I guess that is a nickname for Superior, WI. Although, I may be complete wrong on that note and perhaps it means something else. In any regard, thanks for taking the time to thoroughly defend paying a visit to the Twin Ports. I think I just may pay a future weekend visit to the place before going on an Isle Royale backing trip. If I do, maybe while my girlfriend and I are chowing down a pizza, you can swing buy so I can buy you a beer

Here is a link that will help you to keep track of the Lakers and when they might be arriving or departing Duluth. Occasionally (not every trip) the Ranger III will show up on it. They must sometimes not turn on their satellite transponder. You can zoom in and out and usually get details of each vessel. It works for all over the world. I could spend hours messing with it. This link through the PastyCentral portal is convenient since it automatically focuses on Lake Superior.

http://pasty.com/marinetraffic.html

When I was a student at Michigan Tech, I had a roommate from Superior. He always would claim that Superior had more bars per capita than any city in the U.S. That was almost 40 years ago so I don't know the situation today but maybe an interesting bit of trivia.

I don't think MarineTraffic gets any of their data from satellites, but rather from terrestrial stations. When the ship is too far from a receiving station, they will not show up on MarineTraffic's site. Other ships in their area can still "see" them. They are required by law to have their AIS equipment on all the time.

Tampico wrote:I don't think MarineTraffic gets any of their data from satellites, but rather from terrestrial stations. When the ship is too far from a receiving station, they will not show up on MarineTraffic's site. Other ships in their area can still "see" them. They are required by law to have their AIS equipment on all the time.

Thank you Tampico for correcting my assumption but also for identifying the name of the system used, AIS (Automatic Identification System).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_ ... ion_System

This will make for some great bedtime reading. I did see that they have started to install (launch) low orbit satellites for relaying AIS signals for vessels too far from land or sea based transceivers. I occasionally notice relatively small pleasure craft reported.

I looked into the cost for a Class B transceiver. Looks like about $500 to $1500. Then I found this place showing how to use a second VHF receiver and laptop to make an AIS receiver only for about $100. It uses the PC sound card audio input to demodulate the encoded AIS signals coming in over Channels 87/88. I've done something similar to auto-decode CW ham radio transmissions.

http://www.aisonvhf.com/info.html

Rafiki wrote:I once read that you were offering to give someone a ride to Grand Portage if they paid for beer and gas I wondered if you were going to be coincidentally in the area at the same time as the person you were offering the ride to or what the story was. Now everything is clear.

I'm always down for providing a lift to Grand Portage. A 2.5 hour drive is nothing, and usually the [strikeout]girlfriend[/strikeout] wife and I turn it into a camping trip with the dog. Unfortunately, I won't be able to give any rides for the rest of this year as I'll be out of town. However, in the future, you can incorporate a lift from myself into your plans...just ask ahead!

And yes, Soupe Towne = Superior, WI.

fonixmunkee wrote:[strikeout]girlfriend[/strikeout] wife

Congratulations!

If you like old trains, go to the Depot. If you go down to the lowest level you can even climb in and on old engines and various equipment that is quite interesting.

Midwest Ed wrote:Here is a link that will help you to keep track of the Lakers and when they might be arriving or departing Duluth. Occasionally (not every trip) the Ranger III will show up on it. They must sometimes not turn on their satellite transponder. You can zoom in and out and usually get details of each vessel. It works for all over the world. I could spend hours messing with it. This link through the PastyCentral portal is convenient since it automatically focuses on Lake Superior.

http://pasty.com/marinetraffic.html

When I was a student at Michigan Tech, I had a roommate from Superior. He always would claim that Superior had more bars per capita than any city in the U.S. That was almost 40 years ago so I don't know the situation today but maybe an interesting bit of trivia.

Thanks for posting a link to another site I do not need to be spending time on!!

fonixmunkee wrote:[Beer is my personal favorite thing ever,

How do you really feel about beer?

Beer is certainly in my top 5. I can relate Fox!

hooky wrote:Beer is certainly in my top 5. I can relate Fox!

OK, not to derail the conversation, but I've seen my nick "mispronounced" a few times now on this board. It's "f-o-n-i-x", as in "phonics." It's from an old episode of "South Park:"

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-ep ... key-fonics

Now, continue talking about how awesome Duluth & Superior are.

AWESOME!!! I am so glad I started this thread. Now I can watch every episode of southpark online which I never knew possible. Best day of my life

fonixmunkee wrote:

hooky wrote:OK, not to derail the conversation, but I've seen my nick "mispronounced" a few times now on this board. It's "f-o-n-i-x", as in "phonics." It's from an old episode of "South Park"

Thanks for the clarification foximunkee


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Came across this, fonix may have covered someof this is his post.
http://www.superiorpublicmuseums.org/