Around the Circle This Week: November 25, 2016

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Giving thanks

The whole Lake Superior Magazine team, from editorial to circulation, hopes our U.S. readers enjoyed Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday. We gave thanks for all of our readers, supporters, partners and, of course, the big blue Lake that sustains us (in more ways than one).

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, a day to support the locally owned small businesses that make our communities so vibrant. Lake Superior Magazine’s Outlet Store in downtown Duluth will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Stop in for refreshments, bargains and prize drawings!

Duluth’s season of downtown Pop Up stores also is starting. Each Christmas the Greater Downtown Council partners with owners of vacant downtown retail storefronts, offering space rent-free for two to three months. The program started in 2013 and has resulted in some permanent business startups. Check out the list of Pop Ups and Small Business Saturday deals.

+ In other Thanksgiving news: A group of wild turkeys visited downtown Negaunee “and they are gobbling up a lot of attention,” the Mining Journal reports cheekily.

Hey, that Elsa looks familiar

That might be the thought for some Duluthians attending the “Disney on Ice: Passport to Adventure” performance at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, December 1-4. Angie Lien grew up competing for the Duluth Figure Skating Club before she went to the University of Minnesota Duluth majoring in exercise science. She will be Elsa in the “Frozen” portion of the skating program, which also features takes on “The Lion King,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Peter Pan.”

+ On a seasonal note, a few notes on winter:

The Michigan DOT wants you to tell them how they do on road maintenance this winter. Sign up to answer anonymous surveys to report how U.P. roads are maintained.

Sure, you grew up here walking on snow and ice – yeah, yeah, you know how to do it. Until you face-plant. Here’s a cute video reminding us to pay attention when walking on ice.

And while we’re dispensing advice, here’s a Weather Channel video on what to bring in your car for winter. (Hadn’t thought about the toilet paper. Good idea!)

The Twin Ports Christmas Lighting Challenge is now accepting entries. Register your home by December 1. The public starts voting on December 2.

Will Alexander Henry come home to Thunder Bay?

That’s the big question for the maritime T-Bay community. According to a CBC report, the newly formed Lakehead Transportation Museum Society already has some funds available to take the decommissioned icebreaker, born in Thunder Bay. “We budgeted for around $250,000 as far as the actual tow and bringing it back,” Charlie Brown, president of LTMS, told the CBC.

The vessel has been displayed in Kingston, but the museum there no long has the space to house it. It might be “sold” for $1 to the LTMS or it might be scuttled to make an artificial reef. The Alexander Henry was built in 1958 in Port Arthur, which merged with Fort William to form Thunder Bay in 1970.

In Thunder Bay, the rare carousel at Chippewa Park will need a $1.5 million renovation, says the Friends of Chippewa Park. TBNewsWatch reports that the friends group will turn to the city and other government agencies for financial help and will launch a fundraising campaign. The carousel, built between 1918 and 1920 and featuring hand-carved horses, is one of three of its kind left in Canada.

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, to Jamaica: That’s a new direct flight option this winter at the Sault airport, which is fresh off a record-setting October, according to SooToday.

A student EMT saved his father’s life on the Michigan Tech trails. “At first, Mario Calabria thought it was a joke. The whole family was mountain biking on the Tech Trails, riding slowly on a flat part of the trail,  when his father suddenly fell off his bike, hitting a tree as he slumped to the ground,” Michigan Tech’s Jennifer Donovan writes.

Video: On WNMU-TV, a panel of Michigan DNR experts share an update about the health of the Upper Peninsula’s forests.