Sunday, August 3, 2008

I saw three ships come sailing in...



On a perfect summer afternoon, three tall ships sailed into Duluth to kick off the maritime festival. It was one of those "I love Duluth" days. If I didn't live here already, I would have been talking to real estate agents before I left town. But as the picture suggests, we live here already and were swimming in the luscious water as the ships came in.

I love that feeling of being in the water with something magnificent. Chemistry tells us that a body of water is fundamentally one long string of connected water molecules. So as we're in that water with those tall ships, we're very nearly touching those ships, even though they were 2000 feet away.

The ships had been gathering far off shore all afternoon, waiting for their planned arrival time.

Then at 4:00-ish, right on schedule, they lined up and came, full sails a-flying, through the Duluth ship canal. "Little" Schooner Madeline led the parade. The "Pride of Baltimore 2" set off its cannon when it reached the piers. The US Brig Niagara, not to be outdone, set off its cannon too when it hit the piers...suffice to say, the bigger the ship, the bigger the cannon.

Yeah okay, I love Duluth. The crowds in Canal Park were super bad with the ships in port, but we expect that anyway, part of the price of living here. This could be a great annual event.

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