Sunday 20th October 2008 - Some photos from Minnesota

I'm over in Minnesota on business in the Minneapolis/St Paul area - just landed yesterday (Saturday) evening, but decided not to waste the day today and got up bright and early to make the most of the exceptionally warm weather over here at the moment (only due to last another day or so before it starts to plummet towards snowtime). First on the cards was a drive into Minneapolis itself to visit the Sculpture Garden that can be found there, but on the way I spotted a rather nice looking church/chapel (can you tell I'm in no way religious) so I pulled over to grab a few pics first before heading onto the Garden.

After the brief stop it was back into the car and a matter of 500m drive to the Sculpture Garden (had I realised it was so damn close to the church I would just have walked over instead of driving). I had heard about this place a while back due to the centrepiece of the park being a huge Spoon and Cherry sculpture, but there were plenty other interesting (and weird) scupltures to be found around the park also - including a giant fish made out of hundreds of square pieces of glass, which was found inside a greenhouse section of the park.

There is a bridge which runs from one side of the park over the freeway towards the centre of Minneapolis, the bridge itself was quite cool so I popped up to grab a quick snap of it before heading back to the car.

I was in two minds on where to go next - either to Minnesota Zoo or something more educational - Historic Fort Snelling, in the end the latter won out as I fired the car back up. When I arrived at Fort Snelling it was only around 11am and with it being Sunday the Fort grounds weren't due to open until 12 noon, so after doing a quick scan of the map I could see that there was a trail leading me to "Pike Island" in the middle of the Mississippi (I would later discover this was a few miles away), but there were some nice views along the way to be found.

I had heard of the Minnehaha Falls back in 2002 when I was last over here with my job, but had yet to pay them a visit, so after discovering they were several miles in the opposite direction from Fort Snelling where I set out on foot from I got the old legs moving once again back past the old Fort (that was hard not to write fart there!!!) and onward to the "Hidden Falls" of Minnehaha. The first section of path to the falls was a nice smooth sheet of tarmac, a welcome change to the cross country style paths that made up the first 6 miles or so of the days adventures, but it didn't last too long - about a mile and a half past the Fort it was time to descend back into the woods and down the steep slope to the side of the Mississippi once again and head along it's bank to the waterfall.

I would be lying if I didn't say the falls were a major letdown, but with the exceptionally dry and warm weather over here recently it was only logic that the falls would be less intense than what you can find during the winter and spring months when the snow is in melt mode. By now I had notched up several more sore-leg miles getting to the Falls, and a little more slowly than earlier in the day I started to make my way back to Fort Snelling to have a look around.

All images are completely unprocessed and straight from the cam (Sony DSC-R1) - only resized down to 650px wide.

Monday through Friday I'm always hectic with work, but I plan to make the most of the next few weekends while I'm here and have pencilled in a trip North to Duluth and the North Shores of Lake Superior, and if time (and weather permits) also to try and visit a few other states nearby as there are around 7 states that can be driven to and from within the confines of a day (albeit a long day behind the wheel of a car, but hey I wouldn't be a car nut if I didn't like driving long distances).

PREVIOUS BLOG ENTRIES

2008-09-14 - Monaro On Tour Photographs

2008-06-26 - Integration, Supporting the Nation & Happy Anniversary Irmscher

2008-02-28 - Dr Remington Strikes Again and Life In Germany

2008-02-17 - Have I Just Done A Britney?

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