The National Museum of the Great Lakes at the Toledo Maritime Center.

I spend much of my free time along Lake Erie and one of the places I always wanted to tour was The National Museum of the Great Lakes at the Toledo Maritime Center. 

Well, today, we grasped the opportunity to do just that! 

You probably can't imagine my exhilaration as I opened the door and walked to the counter to purchase my ticket.  

The great lakes are a powerful force is a theme of this museum. Museums such as this are extremely valuable in that they store data and provide historical examples.  

Truth be told, Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot  might be responsible, in part, for my attraction to Marintine History with his 1976 ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Edmund Fitzgerald remains a mystery. No distress signals were heard from the American Great Lakes freighter and 29 men perished in the Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975. 

I wandered around the museum at random going from exhibit to exhibit and revisiting some of them. Artifacts, photographs, and audiovisual displays caught my attention. 

I paused a while to look over some journal entries and code and was excited to capture a photo of this magnificent lens.

One of my favorite things about the museum is it allows visitors to become involved with over 40  hands-on interactive exhibits. 

I spent an ample portion of my time watching my husband entertaining himself by navigating Lake Superior in a virtual submersible  3-D underwater simulator. 

What a marvelous way to spend a day!

If you are here you may wish to check out our visit to the  Col. James M Schoonmaker MuseumShip.