Tall Ships!!!

We went to the Tall Ship Festival in Duluth a couple of weeks ago. What a wonderful weekend to spend with family! We stayed at a house on Park Point two houses down from Anne's grandma's house. Almost the whole extended family was able to make it!

We left on Thursday morning and got to Duluth just in time to get on Craig and Betsy's boat (Blue Norther) and escort the Tall Ships into Duluth. It was quite an experience sailing with those boats. Their sailboat was one of the chosen to be an escort vessel. We had to go six miles out of Duluth and meet the ships along with about 15 other escort vessles. The boat traffic was very heavy and it got worse as we got into Duluth. We were very thankful to be on the lake and not in the crowds, that's forsure. But, it must have been quite a sight watching the ships sail in.

The Pride of Baltimore

Europa

Audrey and Mimi

Audrey and Daddy with some of the Tall Ships in the background

There were helicopters swarming overhead too. It was crazy!!

She feels right at home on a boat. Thank goodness!!

Sailing into Duluth. Some of the ships were letting off cannons.

It was a pretty hot weekend. We went to the beach the first night we were there and didn't put Audrey's swimsuit on. No problem for her! She took off her pants and went swimming in her underwear and t-shirt!! Good thing Anne's Aunt Loranda was also swimming....otherwise one of us would have had to do the same as Audrey. There is no stopping our strong willed child!

Audrey and Bitta walking near Canal Park

Touring the Bounty. The ship was made for the movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" and was also one of the ships used in "Pirates of the Caribbean." We got to the festival an hour before the gates opened and waited to get on one of the boat tours. It was worth it!

Walking around the festival. There weren't many spots that weren't crowded, but we managed to find a few and that made us happy!!

We brought Craig's speedboat up that weekend as well so we were able to spend a lot of time on the water watching the festival from there (it was so nice to be able to avoid the massive crowds). We went on some great sails on the Blue Norther too. It was a wonderful weekend!!