May 7th
We left Iowa by way of Illinois where we met Mary’s niece and her family from the Chicago area in Moline, Il, for a nice but short visit. We hit the road for the longish drive to Prior Lake, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis. We are at a lovely RV site at the Mystic Lake Casino/Indian reservation.
We have been here for a week having a wonderful time. We discovered the “light rail” Metro will take us from Mall of America all the way to Target Field (home of the Twins), and from there all the way to downtown St. Paul. Some of the sites we saw from the train were Fort Snelling and the National Cemetery that is said to have 70,000 grave site. It is so big, it just goes on and on filled with uniformed white markers.
We went to St. Paul Cathedral where we had a great tour by a man who did his homework and made it very interesting. The State Capitol is closed for much needed repairs, but we did visit the Science Museum, Minnesota History Center, & Foshay Tower.
Some of this was a trip down memory lane for Mary as she used to visit this area to see family as a child. We also visited the cemetery where Mary’s grandparents and other family members are buried bringing back even more memories.
We did a fair amount of walking in Minneapolis and St. Paul to and from the train so we got to see a lot of the two cities divided by the Mississippi River. We even drove out to Chanhassen to see Paisley Park, Prince’s estate. Lots of memorials left, lots of people milling around. We also stopped in the charming village of Jordan for breakfast and to take in the local sites. A highpoint was a visit to Minnehaha Falls that Mary had visited as a young girl with her parents.
As we toured the area of the two cities we were impressed by how clean it was and the public transportation was awesome. The bike trails are endless, filled with riders everywhere. Even the trains accommodate riders with stalls to put their bikes. We were also amazed at the construction going on especially in the Minneapolis area which includes the new Viking Stadium being built by U.S. Bank. It is huge. We missed the Twins as they were out of town. Along the way we have met lots of nice folks who either spotted us as tourists or we stopped to ask directions, talking to us and offer up places to visit. A very friendly area indeed and one we will pay another visit to this summer. Sunday we are off to our final destination for the summer near Detroit Lakes. We are looking forward to it.
