Duluth, MN...

After leaving Jay Cooke State Park, we had some time to kill before Bentleyville would be open.  I thought that we'd head up to Gooseberry Falls for the afternoon, but Lukie wanted a change in plans.  His suggestion was to go to the Great Lakes Aquarium, so we did.  I hadn't been in there for a long time and Lukie/Lex had never visited...

The day started with making waves (very similar to what they've done at the Science Museum)...

And Lex loves to pictures like this...Lukie tolerates it okay...

We saw an electric eel...

Lukie got up close with a lamprey...we had a nice discussion about jawless fish and how this fish feeds...

There was a pool were you could touch sturgeons...that was a hit...some were pretty big...

They love to find something that they can manipulate...

Lex cannot turn down the chance of seeing 'what's your wingspan?'  She does it every trip to the zoo too...

She's really hoping these show up later this month...

Lukie loved touching the jellies...

Lex wouldn't touch them, even though it was explained to them that their stings don't penetrate human skin...Lukie was touching them for almost ten minutes...

They had three alligators ready to roll...

This was a tank demonstrating the fish living in the St. Louis River, which we camped by the night before...

We caught a predatory fish feeding presentation...the kids loved watching it (Lukie didn't want to go, but really enjoyed it)...

The main tank is one that demonstrates the fish living near Isle Royale...the fish separate themselves largely on depth...

The most cool aspect for me was the interactive area that allows kids to discover how ships navigate the lock and dam system to get from the ocean to Duluth.  This is Lukie and Lex having a ship leave Lake Ontario heading for the ocean...they took it all the way from the St. Louis River to the Atlantic...

After the aquarium, it was time to eat...of course we went to Little Angies...

We spent some time at the Maritime Museum and out by the lake (but it was getting cold)...

After warming up (and waiting for the sun to go down), we were off to Bentleyville...