Going THRU the SOO

The next morning we up early and ready to take a boat through the Soo Locks but they aren't ready for us- LOL- first one leaves at 10 AM - so we get breakfast at a place out near the expressway that proved once and for all that you actually CAN ruin breakfast- LOL... we spend some time cross hatching the town streets to see what the place is like...they have plenty of bars. They even refer to it in tourist materials as the BARMUDA triangle :-(  I guess that says it all really...

so off we go - racing back to the boat having dawdled around town for a while...

The trip takes us up the St.Mary's River into the Canadian Lock and around the harbor on the Lake Superior side - back through the American Lock #1 and down river to the dock - it is about two hours altogether...

here is the TB summary-

The Michigan side of the Soo is less populous than the Ontario side; it too looks like it has seen better days. While the Soo Locks are a thriving operation, they don’t employ a lot of folks and who knows how the rest get by.  We took the 10 a.m. Soo Locks Boat Tour, which was excellent (2 hrs).  The tour boat was not crowded, so we had good seats under sunny skies.  The cruise included an upstream transit through the one Canadian lock and a downstream transit through one of the four US locks.  During our cruise two freighters were transiting the US locks, one in each direction.  Another very enjoyable and informative DART event. 

and some more info from the actual Soo Locks brochure-

our boat-

dredging ships-

a dry dock for repairs

the grocery store ship-

the hydro-electric plant and closer views of the magnificent stone work-

the dock #2 of the Soo tour boats-

a museum ship docked in SSM - for education and information-

remains of an old dock-

some tugs-

the coast guard-

another tug-

some of the lift mechanism from the docks area-

a ship headed into lock #1 toward Lake Superior-

the St Mary's River falls area-

the international bridges-

heading into the Canadian lock-

passing under the bridge on the way into the Lake Superior side-

some views of the working port-

heading back down to the Lake Huron side following another boat into the lock #1

the RR bridges are up unless in use-

as we go down stream in Lock #1 another boat comes up stream in Lock #2-

the geese go for a ride in the lowering lock water-

we pass another tourist boat- on the way back to the dock and gift shop- LOL

then it is out of town and on our way across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! One more post- you are almost 360* around the Lake!