Honeymoon: Duluth, Minnesota is Not Flooded. Long Live Long-Pong.

When the waitress asked for Blake's ID and he told her he was underage we were kicked out of the Thirsty Pagan. To not miss out on our favorite pizza and beer (and we had a coupon to use up) we ordered food to go. While waiting for our food we walked around the great, but sad city of Superior, Wisc.

Heading directly out the door and towards the industrial waterfront this Charlie Brown block was plopped amongst the former industry.

Everything in Superior looks like it has seen better days. Part of this is because Superior's downfall from its peak population occurred before the 1920s. Most Midwest American cities continued to grow until at least 1950. In fact Duluth didn't hit it's peak until the 60s and didn't begin it's decline until the 80s. Why the Twin Ports declined at different times is another discussion entirely.

(Nikon D300 and 18-55 f/2.8 Lens)

I wanted to share photos along our trip, so I took quite a few Instagrams along the way. I thought I'd show you the difference

 (Nexus S 4G)

Brooke even caught me in the act of instagramming.

We spent most of the next half-hour walking up Tower Avenue.

Most of the ave is lined with dive bars. Somehow I didn't take a picture of them.

We did get a pic of our reflection.

A flower in the cracks.

And Blake posing by a totaled car.

Brooke was probably wondering what my deal was.

When we arrived back Scott went inside to get our food. I stayed outside with Blake. After 5 minutes Scott texted me saying they hadn't made our pizza yet and they offered him a free beer while he waited. Punk.

Mmmm...free beer.

We ordered another growler with our pizza and headed back to Blake's house. 

We then played a game of Clue with a couple of his roomates. 

After talking about it all day Blake took us over to his favorite hangout to play a new-to-us game of Long-Pong. 

With so many rules we were confused at first, but eventually we picked up on the game and played a few rounds. 

The short version of Long-Pong is that it's table Tennis meets badminton with a twist of volleyball.

It definitely draws a strange crowd, the likes of who smoke cigarettes and drink Gatorade.

Long-pong is held in a former school now turned into an artists apartment coop. During one of the breaks we checked out the place. 

It pretty much looks like what would happen if the arty kids took over the grade school and never left.

They're extremely structured artists.


After we got back from our journey we played some more Long-Pong.

Guess what Brooke and Blake are doing.

Day 3

The next morning Blake made us breakfast. 

I stumbled upon a note he wrote about our stay for his roommates. I should've ganked that bookmark.

 

And then we headed over to the Glensheen so Scott could tour the house. 

Scott then turned negative about the house and rich people.

OK, I was a tad negative. I'm an inquisitive person by nature. When a man (Chester Cogdon in this case) amasses great sums of money and builds an extravagant home you have to question where, when and how they made that money.

After we said hi to the Cogdon's lakefront, I picked up the authortative biography on the speculator-lawyer. Now that I've read A Lake Superior Lawyer  I give him credit for being a decent businessman and not a robber baron. Though he worked for quite a few.

Ghost?

No, lens flare.

I still think it's a ghost.  

We dropped Blake off at his house and said goodbye. Then made our way towards the Apostle Islands passing Fairlawn on the way. 

We were on our way to Madeline Island when we were minding our own business.

Then a bear showed up in the middle of the road.

Did the bear attack us? Find out in our next post.