We drove to the Rainey Lake Visitor Center (about 45 minutes), which is east of International Falls. We booked a ride on the Grand Tour cruise on the Voyageur. We arrived early enough to look over the exhibits and eat a light lunch of cheese and crackers we had brought with us. The parking lot was packed with trucks and empty boat trailers. We then lined up to board the tour boat and found a couple bringing twin 10 month old babies on the tour. I don’t understand bringing such young children on a tour. Fortunately they stayed on the lower deck so we did not get to “enjoy” their crying as much as others. The first stop on the tour was Little American Island where gold was discovered in 1892 within a Quartz vein. The boom only lasted 10 years before it was played out and the lucky folks broke even. With the gold embedded in the hard Quartz, the processing costs to retrieve the gold limited profits. We then went on to the Harry Oveson Fish Camp, the last commercial fishing operation in the area which close din the 1930s. Along the way we saw a juvenile Bald Eagle perched just above the nest where it was hatched. It was HUGE and it was only a few months old. We also saw some deer, a bank type beaver lodge and many loons. After the tour we drove into International Falls to see what there was to see. It was not much. The town is much smaller than we expected and limited in what was available. After we returned to the Wanderer and took care of Etta, we went over to Sandy Point restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious (we both had the Walleye) but the price was much more expensive than we expected. The views from the restaurant were beautiful.
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