Our Bus/Bike Sketching Trip to Duluth, Minnesota

Roberta and I got married July 14th thirty years ago. It's always a hot day on our anniversary. This year we took a trip to Duluth hoping Lake Superior's breezes would cool us off while we biked and sketched around town. We got cool weather for two of our three days in Duluth, but the wind shifted from the South on the last day giving us the same brutal heatwave everyone else was experiencing. In spite of the weather, we were able to do a lot of sketching and bicycling.

Roberta and I caught the Jefferson Lines "Rocket Rider" bus to Duluth early Sunday morning from St. Paul's  Union Depot. We had a comfortable ride up Highway 35 and arrived at the bus station in Duluth before noon. We unfolded our Brompton bikes and biked the three and a half miles to downtown on an on-road bike trail through a gritty industrial area on broken pavement, some of which was being repaved. There are plans to make a better bike path along this stretch connecting the Munger Trail with Duluth.

The bicycling is much better along the lakeshore north from downtown Duluth. We biked the Lakewalk, a paved trail  with lots of great scenery. Along the Lakewalk, we stopped to sketch at Leif Erikson park, Congdon Park and Lester Park. We also sketched a thick fog rolling in on the deck of Fitgers Restaurant. We also found a lot to sketch in Canal Park - the famous lift bridge from the deck of Grandma's and the fishing boat-turned snack shack called Crabby Ol' Bills. There is also a lot of sketchable stuff at the Duluth Depot. I had a lot of fun sketching the William Crooks locomotive in the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.

We look forward to returning to Duluth for more bicycling and sketching.

Here's Roberta's sketches (click on the sketches to make them bigger):

The view from Leif Erikson Park.

The Lift Bridge in Canal Park.

The falls in Lester Park.

Tischer Creek in Congdon Park.

Fitgers.

Crabby Ol' Bills.

My sketches...

A view of Canal Park from the Lakewalk trail.

The lift bridge at night.

Lester Park.

Tischer Creek, Congdon Park.

Fitgers and Canal Park.

The "William Crooks" locomotive at the Depot.

Here's a photo of Roberta sketching with our bikes parked near the falls:

Our Bromptons proved once again to be the perfect bike for exploring and sketching a city: