Minneapolis/St Paul

Our first attempt to follow the Great River Road was not very successful – we must have missed the first turn sign and ended up on the main road towards Bemidji, which is the first biggish town on the Mississippi. When we drove into town, we found the GRR again. We stopped at the visitor center which had a whole exhibit on Paul Bunyan – including “his” gun – which is above Trish in this picture. The statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe were right outside – you can see how big they are in 2nd picture – if you can pick out the people in there.

The visitor center had this Fireplace of the States, which is made from stones from all the states in 1934, all the counties in Minnesota, the National Parks from that time, most of the Canadian provinces, a stone from the US Capitol and even a stone from Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park. It was built with support of the New Deal program Civil Works Administration – not the CCC.

We then took a look at Lake Bemidji – which is a lake that is just a part of the Mississippi River, but is unique because it is the northern most point of the Mississippi River. These are common mergansers that were on the lake.

Bemidji has a lot of public art, and we wandered the streets and found some.

And Trish imitated this Paul Bunyan blow up – to get a real laugh, check out this video — https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/566tr2ryb088i5940rq0l/2024-10-05-15.57.21.mp4?rlkey=9kixwhxs4j4q8w7mdhc9i04p7&dl=0 While we were walking the streets we smelled some BBQ, so we stopped in and got some brisket that we took back to the campsite and combined with some of our own baked beans and squash. It was a very windy night – they said 20-25 mph winds with gusts up to 50. Thank goodness there was a larger RV next door that worked as a wind break.

After breaking camp on Sunday, October 6 we started heading south – here are the first pictures of the Mississippi River from the car – there will be many more.

I had read about this place in our book about the GRR – it wasn’t open when we went by, but I had to get a picture of the 65-foot muskie that was built in 1957 in the very little town of Bena. And I think that’s a yellow-rumped warbler that was hanging around the restaurant.

This was a spot just below a little dam – these three guys were just hanging out enjoying the sunshine and watching the river flow by.

Another river crossing.

When we got to Grand Rapids we had no luck finding a park to eat-in, so we found a place for ice cream and ate in their parking lot before going in for dessert.

Grand Rapids is also the birthplace of Judy Garland. She only lived in this house until she was 4 years old, but there is a museum here that wasn’t open (Google is sometimes wrong.)

Then it was off for more back road driving and river sightings – and all was going well until we hit a detour – we were impatient and ended up driving about 6 miles on unpaved roads – some parts weren’t so bad, but other parts were like a washboard.

We ended up at the Gull Lake Army Corp of Engineers campground – we took a walk to the lake and spotted turkeys, ducks and a wood pecker. Did you know you can bow fish? Well if you do, don’t do it here.

I was surprised to see the life jackets just hanging there for folks to use if they showed up with their boat but without these. And some kids had a good time building this sand castle.

It was a beautiful sunset ….

… but no luck seeing much of the northern lights.

Monday was another day of back roads following the Mississippi, seeing the river, corn, trumpet swans, rapids, lakes, trees, pine forest and farm equipment. That’s me with another Paul Bunyan statue and on a bear bench. We drove by the Camp Ripley – Minnesota National Guard post that had this interesting gate.

Charles Lindbergh’s childhood home, the river getting wider

After our lunch at Lake Maria State Park, where we parked by the water and went on a short walk where the only bird we saw was a cardinal – so far a bit of a bust for birds. We then hopped on the highway so we could pick up a car, as we were spending the next 3 nights at the Lebanon Hills County Park outside of Minneapolis/St Paul. We did some laundry and watched some TV.

We wanted to be on the 10 AM tour of the capitol building, so we left camp at 9 AM on Tuesday, October 8. We made it. The capitol was built between 1898 and 1905, at a cost of $4.5 million. The exterior is made of white Georgia marble and St. Cloud granite.

Shots of the interior – very impressive.

The House of Representatives chamber

Supreme Court Room and a painting in the Governor’s Reception Room.

We found the official portrait of Jesse Ventura (no Tim Walz portrait until he is out of office.) And the elevator had these glass windows that were labeled. I guess to let fireman know that if they go in by these window, they won’t find a floor.

If you look closely at the picture of the exterior you may be able to pick out where the tour took us right next to this gleaming gold sculpture . It is the Quadriga, the Latin word for a four-horse chariot and was designed by Daniel Chester French (who did the Lincoln Memorial) and Edward C. Potter It is made of sheets of gilded copper hammered around a steel frame.

The photo on the left below is of Cathedral of Saint Paul, as taken from when I was next to the Quadriga on the capitol. And then a shot of when we were driving up to it. The cathedral was built in 1906, and the archbishop made sure that that cross was a couple of feet taller than the capitol.

The main aisle and the alter

This is a statue of St Luke – there were 3 more of St Mark, St John and St Matthew. There are twenty-four stained glass windows that are just beautiful.

And there is this Pieta – which was made with white marble dust and a bonding agent from a cast of the original that was made in the 1930’s. And a shot of the stairs leading up to the cathedral.

Then we drove down Summit Avenue – it runs 4.5 miles from the cathedral all the way to the Mississippi River. It is said to be the longest stretch of Victorian-era homes in the United States. Here are photos of a sampling of the 373 remaining homes on the street. The only one that we know anything about is in the last picture. Is was built in 1891 for James. J. Hill, a wildly successful railroad tycoon known appropriately as the “Empire Builder”. It is 36,000-square-feet, spans three lots and has 42-rooms. It cost $930k at the turn of the century (equivalent to around $22 million today.) Wish we were there on a day they were giving tours.

Our next stop was the Marjorie McNealy Conservatory at the Como Park.

Some huge lily pads and cacao beans.

And a huge Bird of Paradise and some bonsai.

Some bright flowers

A carousel and some Red-breasted Geese – there was a small zoo at the park.

Our dessert at the Southern Social restaurant – Lane Cake. Trish’s mom used to make Lane Cake for the holidays – but she said this was much different – it didn’t have the seven layers she was used to and hers was not covered with nutella – but it was still good.

The Minnehaha Falls were our first stop on Wednesday – we took a walk along the falls and the stream, all the way to the Mississippi. It was not quite 2 miles round trip. and it felt good to be walking a bit.

We made it ti the river – shots downstream and upstream.

After some lunch at the Walker Art Center – which we did not go into – we did go across the street to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. There were all sorts of interesting things, like Arikidea made by Mark di Suvero of steel girders and with a wooden swing.

Then there is Black Vessel for a Saint by Theaster Gates, made from bricks that use the leftovers of the brick-making process. And inside is a statue of Saint Laurence, the patron saint of librarians
and archivists.

Those columns are by Sol LeWitt, and Woodrow the horse is a creation of Deborah Butterfield. It appears to be made of branches, but it is actually branches that she painstakingly cast in bronze and then welded them together to form the horse’s body.

Kris Martin’s For Whom … doesn’t have a clapper – but it does sway every hour – it was a little late, but we did see it move. Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch is 25 feet tall – the biggest rooster I’ve ever seen.

Eva Rothschild’s Empire was fun to walk under. and Robert Indiana has Love statues everywhere.

And this is the most famous sculpture in the garden – it is called Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosie van Bruggen. They are from the Pop Art movement and since this is in Minnesota compared the spoon’s raised bowl to the prow of a Viking ship or a duck bobbing in a lake.

We had trouble figuring out the optics on this one but finally found a spot we could get both of us in the picture

Here is Trish in downtown Minneapolis – I wouldn’t let her actually toss the hat.

Last stop was the Mall of America – it is huge, but Trish still couldn’t find a pair of pants that fit. Just inside the door we went in were these oversized helmets from all the NFL teams. I probably should have taken a picture of some other team this year.

There is a full amusement park inside the mall with a carousel, a couple of roller coasters, a Ferris wheel and many more rides. And that is a transformer made out of LEGOs.