Padelford

My husband Shane joined in on the boat trip and I thought that was great, just us with no kids.

The boat trip was nice and relaxing, and the sun was out so it was a perfect day! For the first half of the trip we sat out on the front lower level deck and enjoyed the scenery and sun.

We both liked the trip but thought that it was a little long; we both agreed that in about half of the time we could have seen about the same things. 
I overheard some people talking right before we turned the boat around saying this is where the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers meet so I thought that was interesting. 

 I was a little disappointed in no paddles on the boat, on the drive back the sun went down and the wind picked up so Shane and I went inside to the top deck and looked out the back and no paddles...

I now can say that I have been down the Mississippi River, I am a little spoiled where I live, 2 miles from the St Croix River so paddleboats, canoes and tubes are something we do often with our family and friends. There has never been a need or interest for us to drive to St Paul to experience the same things that we can do in our backyard. I am glad that this class gave me this experience otherwise we would have never done it.

Alternative 4 Plymouth Playhouse

The Plymouth Playhouse was the last alternative assignment I did. When driving to Plymouth I never realized that it is REALLY far away, and the Playhouse was actually in the basement of a motel...a little disappointed upon the first arrival of the place.

When my girl friend asked me if I wanted to go see a musical with her for her class assignment I said sure, the plan was to see Grease, but tat did not work out for our schedules. we went to see "The Marvelous Wonderettes"

To my surprise when we walk into the theater it was like so many others I have been to, with concessions, serving beer and wine and a restaurant attached, The Green Mill.

The seats were almost bare when we first got there, and than all the tour buses arrived. I think (very positive) that my friend and I were the youngest people there, or maybe not the youngest but the only ones without grey hair.

The stage was set and the play started. The played was about a group of High School girls in a singing group who were all competing for prom queen. This was a great play and was interactive with the audience, which in my opinion made it into a comedy as well as a musical. The music that was sung was all from the 50-60's era which made it fun and upbeat to listen to.  In our programs there was even a ballet for us to pick prom queen, and they collect them at intermission and said they tallied them up...I'm pretty sure it was rigged. After intermission the scene was 10 years later at the class reunion, and as you may have guessed The Marvelous Wonderettes were asked to make an appearance. I won't tell you what their lives were like 10 years later because I think if you get a chance you should really go see this, and I would not want to ruin the surprise!

The Plymouth Playhouse in the end was great fun and I never felt like I was in a underground torture chamber. I think that with the great price of the ticket ($25) and the quality of the performance I will be back soon.

Nicollet Island and The Mississippi River

This island is located at the heart of Minneapolis. Nicollet Island is the only island that is inhabited on The Mississippi River. Right in the heart of downtown. When driving to the island we got to drive on cobble stone streets which made it seem like a step back into time.

 A short walk from the Pavilion is the river, with the city right behind it, and if you look down you can see St Anthony Falls, you could even walk closer to the falls on many walking trails.

There are also Green Bikes located very near here (about 1-2 blocks away) so you could even bike around the whole park.

Art in the park!! There is a beautiful statue at the park given to the city by a city in Ibaraki, Japan. This is  Minnepolis' sister city.This statue was given to celebrate the two cities' 20th  anniversary of being sister cities. The statue's name is the Bell of Two Friends.

We drove over over the Bridge on Power Street connecting the the west and east bank of the city.

This park was not as nice as some of the others, I was more interested with the streets and the shops on the the road into the park. I would guess that this is a very nice get-a-way for people leaving in the city and within walking distance for them.

Minnehaha Park

Minnehaha Falls at the park were amazing! I have not been to this park and always wanted to bring my kids. On this day no kids were present as it was rainy and gloomy.

The park was very pretty with nice sitting areas with new blooms of Daffodils.

The water was very high, which I am sure is common this time of year. The falls were roaring along with the river. What a tranquil spot to sit and listen to the water flowing.

 As you can see by the pictures there are many walking trails, above the falls and below. I only walked some of the trails on top as the weather was not very cooperative. I do plan on making an all day trip to the falls when or IF the weather ever gets nice. I believe that you could explore all day at this park.

You can even get a little seafood for lunch, I thought this little cafe was a wonderful addition to this park.

I did not get a chance to sample any food on this day, as our time schedule did not permit.

Hiawatha and Minnehaha statue is suppose to be on a little island on the river right before the falls, but as you can see it's a little underwater.

With so many trails above and below the falls, and lots of Historic buildings within walking distance I do believe that this will for sure be a must  to do for the summer. What a nice inexpensive way to spend the day in the city.

Simley Island Park

Simley Island Park I would imagine would be a wonderful spot for a small family picnic. The park is only about three acres but is in a great spot.

The lake surrounds you while at the picnic pavilion. This little park is located in Inver Grove Heights and to be honest I found it by mistake, but I really think it looks like a nice relaxing place to spend a afternoon. According to the Inver Grove website there are lots of fish in this little lake.

Fish in this lake include :

Sunfish

Black Crappie

Yellow Perch

Largemouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass

Northern Pike

White Sucker

Golden Shiner

Carp

 Most of the time I am a believer in smaller is better and I am going to have to agree with that statement with this park. I wish the day I went was nicer out and I could have enjoyed the picnic area with a bag lunch.

Harriet Island

                        Harriet Island is across the Mississippi River from downtown Saint Paul.
This is only one of the entrances of the park, we did not use this one. We used the entrance where the paddle boats are, and than I realized that this is where we will be going on our last outing as a class.

On the back side of the park there are beautiful house boats stored in a marina type setting. On the day I went to the park it was cold wet and dreary, I could only image how much fun it must be to own one of these boats and enjoy the nice summer air.

While walking through the park I really noticed how all the rain and snow has effected Harriet Island this year. The park was open but a lot of it was still under water and debris everywhere from the high water.

Trees underwater, and all the sidewalks had mud and muck on them. It smelled like yucky swamp.

You can see by this picture how high the water really was. This fence is full of leaves, garbage and other debris.

This was a picture that was a must for me to have. The tree was huge! I wonder how old it is, and it really is amazing that it has lasted all these years; through the cities growth and all the water problems Harriet Island seems to have year after year. 

If you look closely at this picture you will see two geese, these geese were as a happy as could be enjoying the water and spring day. When researching Harriet Island I found out that the Island was used for public bathing.

 "From 1910-1915, Harriet Island offered free public baths, bringing some 15,000 people to the beach every year. As pollution of the river increased, the popularity of the baths decreased." www.nps.org

 The Paddle boats at Harriet Island, and the city of St. Paul behind them.

To Kill a Mockingbird~Park Square Theatre

I left my house at 8am to drive to Park Square Theatre, I wanted to give myself plenty of time because of early commuter traffic to the Twin Cites. To my surprise it was smooth sailing all the to the theatre, arriving in downtown St Paul about 9:30am. I parked at the Lawson Parking Ramp, a little pricey ($10) but easy to get to and only a couple of blocks down from the theatre. With some time to waste I decided to go to Macy's and find some deals.....I did, and got a couple of things I needed. While at Macy's I bumped into some classmates, Candy and her sister walked out with me and we decided to go to the Candyland, I can never resist the candy shop and homemade fudge!

Next stop Park Square Theatre, YAY! I was really looking forward to this show because I did not like the book very much and I was hoping the the live show would shed a another light on it.

The theatre from the outside looked so small, and even walking into the lobby I felt the same way.

Dr K. was in the lobby meeting everyone and handing out tickets, she is always so smiley, and looked excited to see the show. When I walked in to the atorium, it was much bigger than I expected and the stage had a wonderful glow. I found my seat and waited with excitement!

When the show started I was a little disappointed, with different screens representing different homes. I got over that quick! The show had my attention the entire time! There were a couple character that I was a little caught off guard with. Jem in the book seemed like he was much more demanding in nature and protective with his sister. I always thought of Boo as being a young man, not hunched over with greying hair. Calpurnia did a wonderful job, I think she played her part perfect!

Intermission...

I was so pleased with this play and have a much better liking of To Kill a Mockingbird after seeing it.

Mercado Central

Mercado Central was a Mexican style market, selling ethnic foods, clothing and trinkets. It is in the middle of the city surrounded by all sorts of different Mexican shops.

 I think that taking Spanish in college would greatly benefit me, I could not read any of the advertisements on any of the buildings. I really wanted to eat in the market but I could not read the meau, so I opted out!

When I go visit my Grandmother in Arizona there are bakeries like this all over, authentic Mexican pastries. Personally these sweets are not sweet enough for me....notice there is NO chocolate anywhere!
The market like the Hmong Market was fun to walk around and see what different cultures use as their staple items, and how they interact with one another. I did not feel so out of place here as in the Hmong Market. I was surprised that there was not a place selling fresh produce (at least I never found it). I really wanted to buy some fresh tortillas as I love them but I never found anyone selling those either.

Native American Center

We went to The Native American Center and there was not a whole lot going on. When we entered the building we were greeted by a lady walking out, and she told us that she worked the front desk but she was leaving for lunch, but we could feel free to walk around.  Very trusting lady if you ask me. We did walk around and seen very pretty murals on the walls, it would have been nice to know the meaning behind them. I did look for some ligature about the murals but none were found.

We went into the gift shop and bought our middle daughter a dream catcher and admired all the wonderful bead work, what time and patience bead work must take. Lastly we went to the gym, what a great place to have for the community to use.

Murals along side the freeway

When we left I saw more amazing things that made really realize that this was a Native American Community and that they seen to be very close nit to their heritage.

This picture is not that good, taken from inside of my car "Pow Wow Coffee"

Another picture taken from the car to show the Native American Community. All Nation Indian Church. All this culture in the middle of the city.

Minnesota History Center

When arriving at the History Center I really did not know what to expect, as I have never been there or heard about it until this class.  We entered from the lower level because we parked in the paid parking lot and found a delightful little cafe, we decided to get a snack before our tour. After eating we went and paid to enter museum. Walking up the stairs to go see the exhibits I saw a mural of "Minnesota" which I loved because it showed all the great things Minnesota has to offer, and if I am not mistaken I have seen it on a post card before.

The first exhibit we seen was the George Washington exhibit. I learned a lot of things about the President. The President was a very tall man, as shown below. There was a life size model of him, my husband thought it would be fun to get his picture taken to see how he measured up..

Some more facts I learned was that Martha was a widower, and had two children that were not President Washington's, but he raised as his own. They had no children of their own. Fact two, false teeth in this time period were gruesome, with all that lead in a person's mouth you surely would think that you would die of lead poison. Lastly Mt Vernon, what a beautiful plantation, 800 acres I could not believe the size. My daughter went to Mt Vernon last year for a class trip so I have seen many pictures, but she never told me how large it was.

MN150, our next exhibit. 150 places and tings that helped make Minnesota great. The Greyhound bus, life sized so you could pretend to drive. US mail delivery wagon.

My favorite was the wind turbine (windmill) I never knew that Minnesota was the 1st state to try these. I have been to the west coast several times and they are all over there so I always assumed that is where they originated from.

Next exhibit, Weather Permitting. This exhibit was particularly  interesting to me because my family has gone through a tornado "The Siren Tornado". My father in-law held on to a pole outside watching his cows fly in the air above him. Went went in to a replica of a basement in this exhibit to see what the Fridley Tornado was like.

We also went to Grainland exhibit, though this was not as interesting as the others, I believe if I would have brought my little kids they would have surely enjoyed climbing and bouncing down the grain elevator.

There were two more exhibits that we did walk through, Minnesota's Generation: The depression, The War, The Boom.  There was alot to see in this exhibit unfortunately there were about 100 school kids there and it was very hard to see and read about everything. I did take some pictures to share.

The last exhibit I saw was my favorite, Open House: If These Walls Could Talk. Walking through a St Paul home and meeting the last 50 families who lived there throughout the years. Seeing children grow up and how the house had changed through the years because of the time and fire. This made me think of my home and how someday I will have grandchildren running around and how my house will change and what would my walls say.

The History Centeer will be a place I watch for special events it was great fun to go to and step back into time, everything was very well done and easy to understand. I loved it!