Catching up with Friends in Minneapolis

8/11/2019

Last night we were camped in front of Clyde and Julie Erickson’s new house in Bayport, MN. They took us out to dinner at a nice place overlooking the St Croix River. Afterwards they let us do a load of laundry at their house while we caught up on what had been going on in the last twenty or so years. Clyde and I worked together way back when chemicals were needed to develop photographs.

This morning we enjoyed big breakfast omelets, before they took us on a driving tour of Minneapolis and St Paul.

Minnehaha Falls is fun to say and was an impressive first stopping point.

Nearby Longfellow Gardens was next. Minneapolis residents are fortunate to have beautiful parks like this one in the city.

Summer flowers were in full bloom. This one was keeping the bees well fed.

A group of Hmung girls was posing for photos in brightly colored outfits. We learned that an estimated 66,000 refugees from Thailand live in the Minneapolis area.

From Longfellow we moved on to Lyndale Park Peace Garden.  Plaques on stones laid out instructions for folding paper cranes. Guess who had no trouble with origami?

Once folded, visitors were invited to place the cranes in a central statue.

The Crane Sculpture design really captured the spirit of folded paper evolving into a bird.

Confession - Here's the original photo. It was a grey cloudy day so I played with it at home adding a blue sky with fluffy clouds. Having manipulated it already, I went a little farther and complimented the statue with a flock of birds. An AI feature in Luminar 4 made it really easy to manipulate the photo.

Moving downtown, the Cathedral of Saint Paul, built in 1915,  was more interesting after replacing the grey sky with stars.

Inside, the cathedral was impressive. The dome reaches 186 feet above the top of cathedral hill.

Though a tribute to the city's namesake Saint Paul, the other apostles have a presence.

The stained glass of the "Rose Window" is flanked by an impressive hand carved organ case.

Exiting down the main steps, we looked back to see that sculptures and stained glass aren't limited to the interior.

Streets in the neighborhood surrounding the cathedral were lined with stately mansions built in the 1880's.

We are both fans of rounded tower rooms like in the corner of this beautiful mansion.

If you have $1.7 million burning a hole in your pocket this 7 bedroom, 12 bath home built in 1884 was available.

This home is large enough to have been a school.

Largest of the homes was the 36,000 square foot James Hill mansion. After immigrating from Canada in 1855, Hill worked on the St Paul levee as a teenager. Working his way up in the shipping industry, Hill became a driving force behind the creation of the Great Northern Railway. A train still crosses the country bearing his nickname, "The Empire Builder."

Leaving Hill's house on the hill we drove by the state capital, captured here without a sky replacement.

As we headed out of town we looked back at the northernmost city along the Mississippi River.

Clyde drove us by the old Colorcraft Photofinishing Lab. It is now a model railroad museum! I wonder if it still smells like photo chemicals.

A more successful entity, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing has their headquarters beside the highway.

Wrapping up the tour back in Bayport we really appreciated a personal tour where we didn't have to do any driving.

Many thanks to Clyde and Julie for a fun visit. We hope it is much less than twenty years before we get together again.

At 1500 we headed north in the van. It wasn't too long before we were distracted by this sign in Franconia.

The Franconia Sculpture Park is huge and has an esoteric collection of large sculptures.  A few photos follow just to give a flavor of what can be found here.

After a fascinating wander through the sculptures we drove another hour north to Banning State Park. It wasn't until after arriving that we learned all sites needed a reservation. Luckily it wasn't a problem to call and reserve site 11 for $23. There wasn't even an extra fee for reservations. Also included at no extra charge were large swarms of mosquitoes!