Red Wing, MN - Another Neat River City with Lots of Sights

Per usual, we started out with a sound breakfast in the dining room to keep up our strength for another day of interesting speakers and places to visit.  Here is fellow passenger, Francis.

Next we saw a slide presentation of Mississippi steam boat history, and heard a few river songs by Bobby Durham who is our resident river expert.

Then we got another lecture by Mr. Samuel Clements, above, about slavery while he was growing up in Hannibal.

Mark Twain is portrayed by Richard Garey on our boat and he is outstanding, truly wonderful to watch and hear.  He answers questions as Mark Twain and should not be missed if you ever get a chance to see him in person!

Before lunch we walked a few blocks into downtown Red Wing and saw the old headquarters of Red Wing Shoes: above.

We walked across the street and entered the Red Wing Shoe Museum.  Are you ready for what the sign above is advertising?  Look below.

Here it is with Karen posing for size comparison.

Here is the label on the tongue.  It is a size 638-1/2.  Guinness confirmed that it is the largest boot in the world.

After lunch we rode around the town of Red Wing and hopped off at the Pottery Museum.  At one time in years past there were three pottery factories in town because there is great clay nearby that was mined.

This man put on a demonstration for us with a pottery wheel.  He grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan and attended Western Michigan University.  It is a small world indeed.

Crocks like this were common in America for a wide variety of uses.

The famous "Little Brown Jug" was made in this town and here is an exact copy on display.  It is the jug that the  University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota play for each fall.

As we headed back to the boat we noticed these interesting floating boat houses in the harbor.  They are here all year and rise and fall with the depth of the Mississippi.

Tomorrow, Friday, we disembark for an early bus ride back to St, Paul and our car.  It has been a fun trip and we are not quite done yet.

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