Saturday, August 2, 2008

Grand Marais, MN

We are so lucky to be in Grand Marais for the weekend of the 79th Annual Fisherman's picnic. That might not sound like much, but, believe me, it is huge! All the motels and the 300 site RV park are full and this tiny village of 1400 is bursting at the seams. We are enjoying four days of non-stop activities - everything from Grand Marais Idol and loon calling to kids' tractor pulls and non-stop bingo. We even went to see How to Talk Minnesotan - the Musical one evening. It was hilarious.

Being a natural harbor on Lake Superior, the town has a long association with the sea and fishing.


This adorable little guy is a pirate and if you can't tell from his sword, it says so on his shirt.


They have all sorts of bicycles at the rental place. This one is useful as a lawn mower as well as fun to ride.


This vendor sold letters cut with a reproduction of an 1870s Barnes Velocipede, no. 2 scroll saw.


Jenny Atkinson, the eight time log rolling world champion demonstrated her technique. This log is the largest in diameter used in competition. The smallest is only 12 inches and is barely out of the water.


We learned that it is okay to splash your opponent or even jump on the log to bounce it. She made it look easy, but I can't imagine even standing on it, let alone rolling it.


Mark decided to enter the rock-skipping competition. Although he had an impressive 14 skips, the winner had 32! We don't know how they counted all those skips.


The WINs just had to participate in the big boat parade in the harbor. Here they are getting last minute instructions.


They valiantly paddled to keep up with the Coast Guard boat. The announcer gave them a nice introduction and the crowd cheered appreciatively. This might have been because if it weren't for the WINs, the parade would have consisted of one canoe, two rowboats and three small motorboats!


But wait! Let's zoom way in and see what our friends are really doing. Here we see Peggy is mugging it up for the camera and Phil, I do believe, is taking a picture!


Meanwhile, Diana and I walked out to the lighthouse which is said to be 5 degrees off plumb. . .


And Artist's Point, the natural breakwater for the Grand Marais harbor.

2 comments:

  1. WOW, more beautiful shots of our beautiful country, and the beautiful WINs, of course!! Keep having fun!!

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  2. It's a good thing I didn't read yours before I posted mine. Even so, we have a few pictures exactly alike.

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