Travel Day, All Day

Today was a gorgeous day.  Too bad we had to leave.

We checked out of the apartment close to 11 am.  We went down to get a Lyft ride to the Hilton Hotel, where we could leave our luggage for a few hours.  That was convenient.  We walked to the W Hotel so that we could go to the observation deck of the Foshay Tower.    

Lobby of the Hilton, continuing the cherry theme.

Another piano

Elevator door to go up to the observation deck.

This is where we were our first evening in Minneapolis.

It was very windy, but sunny.  It was fun looking for the sites of things we had seen while we were here.

Up on the observation deck

"Our" neighborhood with the US Bank Stadium.

St. Paul off in the distance.  The 2 spires in the center might be the capitol building and the basilica, but I would not swear to it.

The music wall

Walker Art Center is in the center. See the white circle with the red in it.

We went into the IDS Building.  It had a bunch of shops.  I liked this fountain but I had a terrible time getting a picture of it.  The water was coming from the ceiling.

Zelo

It was lunch time.  We had heard about Zelo from our city tour guide, Doug.  It was very good but we all forgot to take pictures of our appetizers.  We had crab cakes, roasted Brussels sprouts and salad that we all shared, though I did not have any of the crab cakes and Jeanne did not have any salad.  I had the chicken risotto.  It was very yummy.  

After lunch we walked down the street to the First Avenue nightclub which had all of the stars.  We could not get pictures of the outside of the building before.  

We walked back to the hotel to get our stuff.  We called a Lyft to get to the airport.  We had to get Jeanne to the airport to get her shuttle from MSP to Duluth.  Then she has to drive home from there.  We wandered around in the airport.  We did a little shopping. 

Mosaic art work

We sat at Vino for a glass of wine, waiting for our flight.  Jeanne beat us home.

We bought food on the plane for dinner.  I watched "About Time". It was an uneventful flight. 

Glenn met us at the airport and gave us a ride home.  

Nice sunset from Sharon's place.

We had a fabulous trip but I am glad to be home.

Day 4 Minneapolis: State Capitol, Como Park and River Queen

We had an earlier start today since we needed to be at the State Capitol building in St Paul by 10 am.  That was clear across town. Jeanne and I walked over to buy the metro tickets for everyone.  We only had to buy 3 tickets because some kind soul had left a ticket by the machine.  It was still good.  The US Bank Stadium station is very close so we did not have far to walk.

We got the metro train to go to the Capitol.  Minneapolis has 2 main metro lines.  They are working on putting in another.  From our place one line went east to St. Paul and the capitol building and the other line goes south to the airport.

The capitol is an impressive building

Close up of the golden horses

Kris met up with her high school friend, Linda.  She joined us for the day.  She lives in St. Paul.

The basilica, looking away from the capitol.

Center dome. On our city tour we learned that it was an unusual structure of a dome within a dome.

Waiting for the tour: Jeanne, Linda, Kris and Sharon.

A lot of art work. The building was renovated and they tried to preserve the history of how the building was when it was built 100 years ago.

Lisa was our tour guide.  She was interesting. 

This is a pole that holds the cord to barricade an area.  I just liked the reflections.

The Governor's reception room

Senate room, very formal and strict rules of behavior matches the formality of the room.  The ruling party sits in the back of the room.  

Seating chart for the House of Representatives.

House of Representative, more casual.

When a representative presses their yay or nay button, it lights up on the wall showing how they voted.  Generally the democrats sit on one side and the republicans on the other.  When there are more of one party than the other then people are assigned to sit on the other party's side.

Supreme Court

We could not go up to the roof to see the golden horses, because of the rain.  It sprinkled on and off for most of the day.

Linda drove us to Como Park.  First stop was lunch.

We had lunch in the Pavilion, the Spring Hill Cafe.  It was casual soup and sandwich type place.  I had an Impossible burger.  I had heard that this was a brand of veggie burger that was supposed to taste like beef.  I was curious.  It was quite tasty and it did taste like beef.  

We walked around the park

Nice lake

Small waterfall, which looked very foamy.  We were curious.

When we got up close we saw that the pool was actually lined with some light colored substance.  It was not foamy at all.

Labyrinth.  It was hard to get a good picture of it.

The labyrinth was a different design than I have seen before.

Then Linda drove us to a different part of the park.  It is a huge park. 

The Conservatory

There is art work every where.

It was fun going through the rooms.

They had a bonsai area close to the Japanese gardens.

Then we walked through the Japanese Gardens.

Large metal sculpture, if you look closely you can see insects on the the blades of grass.

Linda drove us over to close to where we would get the River boat.  She parked on the Westbank Parkway.  This was just behind the Guthrie

Note the Amber room up near the top of the Guthrie.  

Since we had a couple of hours before our river boat cruise we decided to walk back to the apartment by way of Izzy's ice cream.  Kris gave Linda a tour and we sat and got our feet up.

We headed back to the car before the meter ran out.  Linda moved the car to the Bohemian Flats Park where we would get the Minneapolis River Queen for our Margarita Monday river cruise.

The paddles actually did not work.  They were broken.

We went through a lock.  That was fun.

Stone Arch bridge with the falls in the background.

Taco bar

It was tasty and the margaritas were good.

Weisman Art Museum or WAM

We saw a lot of rowers out on the river.  This group must have been having a class.

The instructor was shouting out instructions.  I am sure that the dog in the front was a big help.

Bald eagle

What a beautiful evening.  It was sprinkling when we got on the boat but soon it cleared up.  Could not have asked for better weather.

It was a 2 hour cruise.  When we got back to the parking lot, Linda headed off home and we walked back to the apartment.  It was great meeting Linda.  I know that Kris was glad to spend so much time with her.  

This was our last evening here.  What a great trip we have had.