The Duluth Christmas Day, 2009 storm

It will be remembered for a long time. With 22 inches of snow falling, helped along by winds over 50 mph and topped off with freezing rain, the day was one to remember, even if all the relatives didn’t make it to dinner. Ships were not moving in the harbor and only a few hearty souls made it down to Canal Park to get some pictures.

One cold soul had an advantage; Steve Sola lives on Park Point and owns the lighthouse next to the Aerial Bridge, providing a nice vantage point to watch the action. He was also in a good position to follow one of those big waves that enter the ship canal quickly and branch out over the top of the wall. We stitched 3 of those pictures together (above) as he shot the same wave at 3 different points along its journey through the ship canal.

But with wind gusts over 50 mph, moving his camera through the lighthouse door at the top was worse than swimming upstream in a heavy current. After two hours of moving out, snapping a picture and retreating quickly to the ‘warmth’ inside his lighthouse, he was able to get some nice pictures of his neighboring lighthouses.