Ship Shape (Road Trip III)

OK, I'm ready to continue the saga of our fascinating, end of the summer roadtrip.  

On our way back from Maumee Bay Brewing Laura said the brakes were feeling squishy - by the time we pulled into the campground there was barely any brake left. I got under the car and Laura pressed the pedal - fluid went everywhere. After packing up camp in the morning we decided to try and limp the car to a mechanic - why do these things only happen when I'm away from my tools? Anyways, we made it to a shop and fortunately they were nice enough to give us a loaner - we decided to kill the afternoon at the recently opened National Museum of the Great Lakes. When we pulled up we were surprised by all the cars and action - turns out it was the weekend of the Toledo Classic Boat Show - there were a few different ticket options - "we've got nowhere to go" so we bought tickets for the whole thing - bands, vendors, boat show, tours etc...

We're not huge boat nerds but it was still fun to walk around the marina and check out all the beautifully restored wooden Chris Crafts and the like. It was even more fun when we realized the had a Maumee Bay Brewing truck there serving up cold drafts - "why not? we are on vacation".

We were wondering what this giant tower was. Looking at Google Earth showed there was a old factory building there and this was the main stack. Turns out it was going to be torn down the weekend after we were there and the museum was going to be closed - so we were lucky on the timing.
Next we took the self-guided tour of the SS Col James Schoonmaker - a freighter launched in 1911 that was the "Queen of the Great Lakes" - or largest ship on the lakes at the time. It broke multiple cargo records. The cargo doors with Toledo in the background. "Belly of the Beast"

"Stepping Down" "Engine Room" - We were surprised by how interesting the tour was. It was cool that even though the ship had been bought and sold multiple times, and was in service for almost 100 years it still had much of the original furniture and woodwork in the cabins and crew areas.   "The Steering Gears" "Engine Room II" The Skyway Bridge from the Deck.   The Us Brig Niagara was at the Museum that day as well - the Niagara was one of Commodore Perry's ships in the Battle of Lake Erie(War of 1812). This is pretty much a replica though - the original was put in dry dock and was completely unsalvageable - this ship came out made of almost all new wood. It does sail but has all modern equipment on board too. As the photo demonstrates the rigging is amazing - it was still worth seeing. We only really had the chance to blow through the actual museum - we got the call about the truck being fixed and the shop was going to be closing for the day. I wish we had had a little more time but I think Laura was about done anyways - and we had had a good afternoon. We picked up the truck and decided to stop for one more adventure - but I'll leave it here for now ....really gonna drag these posts out....