MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL
Sister cities, growing up on opposite sides of the Mississippi River, Minneapolis and St. Paul are fraternal, rather than identical twins. They have the same history, but the two cities have distinctive personalities. Chrome, steel and glass skyscrapers seem to sprout daily in Minneapolis; St. Paul proudly protects the stately brick and stone mansions of days gone by. Even from a distance the cities’ skylines demonstrate their differences.
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| Downtown Minneapolis and one of the windows on the Corporate office building for Target |
St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota. It started out as a settlement known as Pig’s Eye; named after the nickname of Pierre Parrant, a French-Canadian whiskey trader who started the settlement around 1840.
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| Mississippi River seen from the Science Museum Minneapolis skyline seen from the State Capital  |
Today Minneapolis has a population of 368,400 and St. Paul’s is 287,151. We plan on staying here four nights. There is a lot to see and do in both cities.
After 3.5 hours and 147 miles, we arrived at Apple Valley, just outside of the Twin Cities.
LEBANON HILLS REGIONAL PARK
This is a city park located in Apple Valley, about 15 miles south of Minneapolis. It is about 5 miles from the Mall of America. It is a good location, close to everything. A little too close to the airport, so there is lots of air traffic and noise. This is actually the best RV park/campground we stayed at on this trip. It has two loops, paved and level with lots of grass and some trees. The showers are nice and there is free WiFi in one of the loops. I’ve never heard of WiFi at a city park. No cable TV, but you get several channels with the antenna. It is very quiet during the week, but full, busy and noisy on the weekend.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under MINNESOTA to see a review and more pictures of this campground. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
CRISIS #1 Aug 8 (Mon):
As we were getting settled into our site after we arrived we noticed a burning smell and saw heat waves coming from one of the trailer’s tires. Dave took the tire off and found that the wheel bearings had disintegrated and there was some major damage to the axle. We called in a mobile RV service and he showed up about an hour later. We were told that the axle had to be replaced. We sat there stunned and watched the rest of our trip go down the drain. How long is this going to take...days....weeks...can we extend our stay here..... Tom (Mobile RV Service) took some measurements and made some calls. He told us a week. He left and we waited for more information. We talked to the managers of this campground and extended our stay, but we would have to move to another site as some other family has reserved out site for the weekend. Two days later, the axle has been ordered and it is on its way from Indiana. It should be here early the next week on Tues or Weds. It will take a day to install (on site) and we could leave the next day. We extended our stay here in the Twin Cities by 7 days. Instead of leaving after 4 nights on Friday, we will leave the following Friday (11 nights later).
CRISIS #2 Aug 9 (Late Tues night):
Just as we thought things could not get worse, it did. Late the next night Crystal was banging on the screen door chasing a moth when the screen door suddenly popped open and she fell out of the trailer. Confused and scared, Crystal ran deep into the bushes that surrounded two sides of our camp site. How do you look for a scared cat in the dark? We went into the brush with flashlights and it was impossible. The brush was full of dense shrubs, trees, and vines. On the other side of this line of brush is a busy road. Next to our campground loop is more brush, another loop, and a lake and more brush and trees. It is hopeless.
We rented two ‘live animal traps’ and set them up in the brush. She never touched them. For the next 5 nights she would come out, wander around, meow and hang out at our trailer. We saw her and heard her. She still had the collar with bell on. But we could not get near her. As we approached her she would run into the brush. It is so frustrating to be so close, yet so far away. We did not see her the 2 nights over the weekend as we had to move to another site. The campground was full that weekend. It was busy and loud, plus a severe T-storm rolled in that Friday night. We feared she would disappear forever. But as soon as we were able to move back into our site, she was hanging out at our trailer again.
The 5th night, we put the pets into the car and left the trailer doors open, hoping she would come into the trailer. We rigged the screen door so that we could pull it closed from our bed. Crystal did come into the trailer and meowed a few times. We pulled the string to shut the door which made a great noise. We thought we had her. But when we turned the lights on, we saw that she got out the door before it shut. This is pure torture for us.
As we waited for the axle to arrive and still had hopes of catching Crystal, we did manage to do some sight seeing of the Twin Cities.
MALL OF AMERICA
Is the biggest mall in the USA. Dave & I have been to a bigger one. A much bigger mall is in Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada. Mall of America was once the site of the Metropolitan Stadium where the Twins (baseball) and the Vikings (football) played. In 1982, they moved to the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. In 1989, construction started on the mall and it opened its doors to the public in August 1992.
Hear are some facts about the mall: There are 3 levels with a 7 acre theme park in the middle on the first level, the theatres are on a 4th level, 4.2 million feet of gross building area, 12,500 on-site parking spaces in two ramps, 520+ stores, 11,000 employees year-round (13,000 during peak times), 30,000+ live plants, 32,000+ tons of trash recycled each year, 8 acres of skylights allow about 70% of the natural light to enter the Mall, 4.3 miles of total store front footage, 86 hours is the length of time it would take to complete your visit to the Mall if you were to spend just 10 minutes in each store, 7 Yankee Stadiums can fit inside the Mall, 32 Boeing 747s could fit inside the Mall, 258 Statues of Liberty could lie inside the Mall, and 170,000+ Legos have been lost in the LEGO play area.
MINNESOTA SEA LIFE AQUARIUM
There is a very nice aquarium at the Mall of America. There are 5,000 sea creatures in the 1.2 million gallon aquarium. You walk through this underwater tunnel that goes forever through sea life then through river life. This place is very magical and worth the price.
MINNESOTA ZOO
This place is not in any of the Twin Cities, but in the city of Apple Valley. This is where we are camping at. In fact the zoo is just down the street from where campground is. Sometimes you can hear the monkeys howling from our campsite. This zoo is a major WOW. It is one of the best that we have visited. It is a magical place with wonderfully designed grounds. You view exotic animals from around the world in natural habitats and a garden-like setting. The Tropics trail and the Minnesota Trail are all inside and you follow a path that puts you right their in their environment. This zoo opened in 1978 on 500 acres and featured 1,200 animals representing 238 species. Today more than 3,711 animals (518 species) reside at the zoo. This zoo also participated in 24 Species Survival Plan programs. This zoo is wonderful and a MUST SEE!
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| Mexican Wolf |
THE MINNESOTA LANDSCAPE ARBORETUM
This is a premier public garden and run by the University of Minnesota. This is an amazing place. It is 1,137 acres and has 12 miles of walking trails. There is also a 3-mile scenic drive that circles inside the garden. You can park at various places and explore the gardens in that area. This place is that big. We spent about 2.5 hours here on our first visit exploring the gardens and still didn’t see half of it. We returned a second time and hiked on some of the trails; the Forest Trail and the Bog Trail. The hike was very scenic, but it was hot and humid and the mosquitoes were eating us alive; we forgot our bug spray.
There were some interesting sculptures on display throughout the gardens. Steve Tobin’s (no relation) “Steelroots” will be in the gardens through January 2012. There are 17 of these roots. We saw a lot of them, but not all of them.
SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNEAPOLIS
Artifacts from King Tut’s tomb were on display for a few months as a special event at this museum. We saw this exhibit in San Francisco about 20 years ago. The artifacts were different at this museum, so we enjoyed seeing more of King Tut while we were here. The exhibit was set up very nicely. There were several artifacts from several different kings that led up to entering King Tut’s tomb. His sarcophagus was not on display (which we saw in San Francisco). But his mummy was, or rather an exact copy of his mummy (the only one). The real one will never leave Egypt. The rest of the museum had a lot of hands on stuff including a stair case that plays musical tunes when you walk up or down. Several young people were running up and down. Ahh, to be able to do that again. This is a very nice museum. The museum is located near the Capital building in St. Paul and along the Mississippi River.
STATE CAPITAL – ST. PAUL
This building is spectacular. The first Capital building was first used in 1849, but not finished until 1854. In 1881 it burned down. A new building was put up the next year, but already too small for the growing state. The current building was opened to the public on Jan 2, 1905 on a site a few blocks away from the original and second buildings. The current Capital was designed by Call Gilbert, a St. Paul architect. Construction began in 1896 and took 9 years to complete. It is 434’ long, 215’ wide and 223’ high. The dome is 60’ in diameter and one of the largest self-supporting marble domes in the world. Exterior walls are Georgia marble and the foundation and steps are St. Cloud granite. The interior walls throughout the building are made with more than 20 types of stone. There are works of art all over the place. You see signs of the North Star, Minnesota’s state motto, everywhere. This place is amazing and very impressive.
COMO PARK ZOO AND CONSERVATORY
This is a very nice place in a very large city park in St. Paul. It is free to the public, but they ask for a $2 per person donation. This zoo is quite big and it’s the first zoo we have visited this trip that has zebras and giraffes. It was a hot and muggy day, but we moved slow and managed to enjoy the day. For over 100 years, Como Park has played a vital role in providing an outdoor haven for the residents of St. Paul. Today the Zoo and Conservatory is operated by the St. Paul Parks and Recreation Department. The Zoo features a large cat exhibit, primates, birds, hoofed animals, aquatic life and a polar bear exhibit. The Conservatory is a half acre indoor and outdoor facility with a number of different wings dedicated to a variety of plant life including bonsai trees, ferns, orchids and seasonal flowers.
MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts was founded in 1883 by 25 citizens of Minneapolis. The original building opened its doors in 1915. This side of the building looks like the Lincoln Memorial with huge columns. We never saw that side. We entered on the more modern side of the Institute, a new wing that was added in 2006. This was a major renovation and expansion that included 34 new galleries. There are more than 80,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history. Art work includes work by Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. There is a lot of Asian, African and Native American art as well as photographs, textiles, drawings, marble statues and bronze statues.
Also a lot of modern art work that is really weird. You look at some of these pieces and wonder why it is called art. We saw a large framed piece of art that was a solid white canvas. I got up close to it, stared at it thinking I would find a tiny spot..something. I found nothing. Then I though maybe the art work was temporally off display...but no. That framed white canvas was the artwork....really weird.
THE CRISIS
We had a happy ending to our crisis that came down on us at the beginning of our stay in the Twin Cities. On the 6th night of Crystal being loose (8/15) I finally sat outside our trailer, late that night after all the lights went out and waited. Sure enough she came out and wondered around, walked by me a few times then suddenly turned around and started rubbing on my legs. I was in shock. I didn’t move. I slowly started to pet her and she reached up for more. I grabbed her and ran into the trailer. End of story, it was that simple. We should have done that the first night!!!
We had a happy ending to our crisis that came down on us at the beginning of our stay in the Twin Cities. On the 6th night of Crystal being loose (8/15) I finally sat outside our trailer, late that night after all the lights went out and waited. Sure enough she came out and wondered around, walked by me a few times then suddenly turned around and started rubbing on my legs. I was in shock. I didn’t move. I slowly started to pet her and she reached up for more. I grabbed her and ran into the trailer. End of story, it was that simple. We should have done that the first night!!!
The next day (8/16) our trailer axle arrived. Tom’s Mobile RV Service arrived on the following day with the axle and spent the morning replacing, repairing and checking the other wheel bearings. Crisis #2 has now ended and we are doing the happy dance (picture two old people jumping up and down all over the campsite...not a pretty picture, but a happy one). For the first time in 10 days we got a good sleep that night.
We lost a week by having to extend our stay in the Twin Cities. But it could not have been a better place to be stuck in. This is a nice area with a lot to see and do. It was a depressing and stressful time for us, but we also had the time to see a lot of the sights we would have missed if we had left after the planned 4 nights. And at times you are thankful for the delay; that the damaged axle was a blessing as it gave us the extended time to search and wait for Crystal to come home. But it all ended well and despite the crisis, we enjoyed our time here and we will be back to the Twin Cities on a future trip
Our next destination is Wisconsin, America’s dairy land and the land of cheese.
WISCONSIN FACTS:
Settled in 1766
Entered the Union on May 29, 1848
Wisconsin has a population of around 5,363,675 and 56,154 square miles.
State Capital: Madison
State Nickname: Badger State, America's Dairyland
State Motto: “Forward”
State Motto (funny): --
State Flower: Wood Violet (1949)
State Bird: Robin (1949)
State Animal: White Tailed Deer
State Tree: Sugar Maple (1949)
State Gem: --
State Song: “On Wisconsin”
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