July 2, 2013 Thunder Bay waterfront

Today we wandered down to the waterfront/marina area of Thunder Bay.  This metropolis of over 100,000 was originally two settlements, Port Arthur and Fort William.  

The day was spectacular with a warm sun and cool breeze and we enjoyed every minute.

At the marina.

A thinking man!

I hope you can enlarge this enough to read it....

The Sleeping Giant: his head is on the left.

The old Canadian Northern railway station.

The area included a popular skate park.

Plenty of artwork around the area....

Bubba and a Studebaker Silver Hawk.

Again, I hope you can enlarge this enough to read it...

The massive grain elevators mentioned in the sign above.

Interesting art that appeared to be stone shaped into balloon animals....

The Tourist Pagoda, built in 1909.  It has survived the wrecking ball and neglect and is still welcoming visitors not far from its original site beside Lake Superior. 

June 29, 2013 Pictographs at Agawa Rock

"Misshepezhieu was the water spirit.  It has a lynx-like head with horns, a symbol of power, with the body and claws of a lynx and a spiny mane.  Known as the "great lynx" it appears with some frequency in Lake Superior pictographs.  It is believed that Misshepezhieu controlled the conditions on the lake.  If he was content, the water was calm, but if enraged, he could stir up the water with a lash of his tail."  (ever seen an irate cat lashing it's tail?)  The hike down to the pictographs was steep, and walking the ledge had me being very careful.  But it was worth it!

Horse and rider and four spheres.

Person in canoe, caribou or deer.

Fish, mythical creature.

Misshepezhieu, canoe, and serpents.

June 29, 2013 On the shore of Gitche Gumee....

We stopped at the Agawa Rock visitor center and walked the shore of Lake Superior a bit.

(The Ojibwe call the lake gichigami, meaning "big water." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the name as "Gitche Gumee" in The Song of Hiawatha, as did Gordon Lightfoot in his song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".)