Strolling Through Bentleyville Tour of Lights

 Strolling Through Bentleyville Tour of Lights

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for December 11, 2022

We drove up to Duluth, Minnesota on Saturday.  Right when we arrived in town we see this group of characters walking over the bridge above the interstate.  How did I not know that everyone in Duluth dresses up like Santa all winter?  Seems kind of weird to me.

We met up with our good friends, The Korkowski family, shortly after our arrival.  Jacob goes to school at the University of Minnesota Duluth so he's local.  The rest of us are out of towners.

At nightfall, we drove to Fitgers to get on a train.  I thought it might be the Polar Express, but I didn't see Tom Hanks anywhere.

Lucky for me, these people are even more fun then a train car full of Hanks.

Our destination was a place called Bentleyville.  It's billed as the largest free Christmas Light walking tour in the country.  Not sure if that's true or not, but the place appeared to be pretty bright so it might be true.

They claim to have more than 5 million lights set up throughout the area.  I swear I only counted 4.5 million while we walked through so I'm not sure I can trust any of their numbers.

The display spans the 10 acre park on Duluth Harbor and takes about 45 minutes to walk through.  There are a lot of unique things to see and they play festive holiday music on the various paths as you stroll along.

They say they love Duluth.  I think it's a pretty nice place, but love is an awfully strong word for me.  I think I'll just be friends with Duluth and leave it at that.

The tree in the center of the display is more than 120 feet tall and has more than 50,000 lights.  I looked for presents underneath, but couldn't find anything.

The heart at the end of this tunnel was making me feel pretty romantic.  I thought it would be cool to get a picture with my wife in there, but the line was too long to make that happen.  So we had to feel romantic from a distance.

A short while later, we found this little display with a Santa hat where we could get a picture together.  Not quite the same sentiment as the heart, but we both still felt pretty happy to be together.

When I asked Luke if he wanted to get a romantic photo with me as well, he politely declined.  He then said he'd take this platonic picture with me.

We stuck pretty close to the Korkowskis which could be a challenge at times.  There was a lot of people who wanted to see these Christmas lights.

The Star Tribune said more than 350,000 people will walk through Bentleyville this holiday season.  That's a lotta light lookers.

The have several holiday themed snack stations scattered throughout the event.  We didn't partake because we weren't positive it wasn't some kind of a set-up by a Grinch type individual.  Maybe next time we'll be a little more trusting.

Bentleyville sits next to the shores of Lake Superior.  It's one of the greatest lakes I've ever seen.

All kidding aside, it was a pretty cool experience to visit Bentleyville.  They do have a very impressive display of lights and it was a fun thing to do to get into the holiday spirit.  

Before we knew it, the last train of the evening had arrived and it was time for us to leave.  Although we still didn't see Tom Hanks on the way back to Fitgers, I did spend much of the ride back thinking about his statement that there's no greater gift than friendship!