Peckish Travels

Bob and I broadened our horizons a bit today with a short 25 minute drive to the cute little town of Stillwater, MN. We had seen a sign for Stillwater when we did our bike ride on the Gateway Trail on Friday, and it had also been recommended as a place to visit by our friends here.

A quick online search told us that Stillwater has a population of about 19,000, sits on the St. Croix River, and is often called the Birthplace of Minnesota due to the territorial convention held here in 1848 in which the process of establishing Minnesota as a state was laid out. It was a lumber town in the last half of the 19th century, so Stillwater had a number of active sawmills at that time.

Currently, Stillwater is popular for its attractive downtown riverfront area, hiking, biking, and water recreation, and historical sights such as the Stillwater Lift Bridge.

The downtown area had a number of attractive shops, restaurants, and hotels, as well as public art in the form of sculptures and murals. And, of course, the beautiful St. Croix River and bridges.

We started out the day headed for the free Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota campus. We didn’t know much about the place but it was listed on a Things to Do in Minneapolis list and the photo of the building caught our eye with its curvy metal construction. It was designed by Frank Gehry (also of Guggenheim Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles fame).

We parked in a section of Minneapolis near the university called Dinkytown, which is the commercial center of student life. So you can imagine our surprise when one of the first things we saw when we crossed the street onto campus was a wild turkey. In fact, there were quite a few of them wandering around.

Not having a ton of expectations about the art museum, the five or six room museum was really well done, so many interesting pieces, including some by Doug Argue, a Saint Paul native.

After exploring the WAM, we headed over the Mississippi to see some of downtown Minneapolis as well as the Stone Arch Bridge.

Bob and I were back on the bikes today to cycle part of a trail that we had passed when we biked to Phelan Park a few days ago. The Gateway State Trail is an 18-mile multiple use trail that begins in the city of St. Paul and travels northeast through the cities of Maplewood, North St. Paul, and Oakdale, and ends at Pine Point Regional Park. It is located on a former Soo Line Railroad grade.

We didn’t do the full 18, as part of it is closed for maintenance, and we haven’t done that much biking recently, but we did 12 miles out and back for a total of 24. Plus we did a few miles to the trailhead and back. The Gateway State Trail was impressive, fairly level, and shaded. Sections of the trail have a horse path that runs alongside of it.

We started our bike ride using Wheelock Parkway, as we did the other day. However, on the way back, we branched off onto Trout Brook Pathway, which took us along McCarrons Lake and then into the Reservoir Woods, which we could exit into the neighborhood where we are doing the house sit.

We were out biking for almost 3.5 hours and got into the house a few minutes before a quick downpour came through.

We’ll, it wouldn’t be much of a visit, at least not for Bob, if we didn’t get a big head photo or two for his collection. So far during our St. Paul sit, we have two — one in front of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and one in Phelan Park in St. Paul.

Today, we did a guided tour of the James J. Hill house. James J. Hill was a native Canadien, who made his fortune in the US as a railroad titan. He was called the Empire Builder. He built a line from St. Paul to Seattle and Amtrak calls the line the Empire Builder, a few years ago we road that line.

His home, completed in 1891, was once the largest private residence in the state. At 36,000 square feet, the house had with 13 bathrooms, 22 fireplaces, a three story pipe organ, as well as electric lights and security system. The final cost to build the home was $932,000, which would equal 31 million in today’s dollars. The guide provided interesting details of his and his family’s life as well as the home.

Minnehaha (Ha Ha!) Regional Park is a city park in Minneapolis, the “twin” city to St. Paul. Minnehaha Regional Park is home to Minnehaha Falls and the lower reaches of Minnehaha Creek. It lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (didn’t know there was such a thing). The 170-acre park was designed by landscape architect Horace W. S. Cleveland in 1883 as part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway.

The Wikipedia entry for Minnehaha Falls claims that the lovely waterfall within the park was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (who never visited the park but saw photos of the falls which were made as early as 1852) in his 1855 poem, “Song of Hiawatha.” There are a number of references to Hiawatha, Minnehaha, and Longfellow throughout the park.

The park was full of children at summer camp, families, and other visitors. After we visited the falls and the main section of the park, we continued on to the Longfellow Gardens and walked part of the great hike and bike path along Minnehaha Creek to Lake Minnehaha.

Bob and I are often blessed with having generous home owners. Our current homeowners left us 2 bikes for our use, should we so desire. We do so desire and took them out today for a first trial run, as there are a wealth of bike paths in the area.

We rode down Dale Street to Wheelock Parkway, which has an impressive bikeway that runs alongside it. The parkway is named for Joseph Wheelock, who immigrated to Minnesota from Nova Scotia in 1850, 8 years before Minnesota became a state. He was a newsman and parks advocate. In the 1890s, he proposed a system of parkways then known as the Outer Circle, but which are now recognized as the Grand Round.

The bike path was lovely — physically separated from the road, shaded by trees, and usually separated from a walking path. We biked east on it through lovely neighborhoods to Phelan Park, another great St Paul regional park with a lake, splash pad, hiking/biking trails, and a golf course.

Today’s adventure consisted of visits to the St. Paul Cathedral and the Minnesota State Capitol. We began at the cathedral, which was an easy ten minute drive from the house. It is very impressive inside and out and is on par to many older ones we’ve seen overseas with an impressive organ, chapels, and beautiful stained glass windows.

The St. Paul Cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral, was completed in 1915. It is the sixth-largest church in the United States and can hold up to 3,000 parishioners. Today, it had only a few guests while we were there. In fact, we didn’t see many other people at the Capitol or out and about on our walk between the two sites.

It was an easy walk to the capitol from the cathedral and both seem to be on one edge of downtown St. Paul.

The Minnesota State Capitol was completed in 1905, so it predates the cathedral by 10 years. Wikipedia says that it is built in the Italian Renaissance, Beaux Arts style. We wouldn’t have known, but we were both impressed with the marble used (Georgia white marble) and the gold statue on the front facade. Fun fact: the dome is the 2nd largest self-supported marble dome in the world behind St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

There were a number of statues on the grounds as well.

Occasionally, we land in a place for a housesit where we have friends or relatives. This is the case with this housesit in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bob had coffee yesterday with a friend from high school, who gave him some ideas of places to see while we’re here. Tonight, we’re having dinner at the home of a friend from college and his wife. It’s always great to have the opportunity to reconnect in person.

This morning Bob and I went to visit one of the greater St. Paul area’s many parks — Harriet Island Park, which actually didn’t seem to be a real island, but we also walked across to Raspberry Island, which did seem to be a very small island in the middle of the Mississippi River.

After leaving the park, we drove out along the road that runs along the river. We found a good spot for another photo of the Mississippi River and downtown St. Paul.

After seven weeks in Australia, five of which were at our house sit in Melbourne, we had a quick turnaround for our current sit. Landing late on Tuesday (7/11), we picked up our car in Janesville (thankfully, it started) on Wednesday, and traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota, for our walk through on Thursday at noon for a two-week sit with Becca the cat while her people are on safari in Tanzania.

The pet part of the housesit should be relatively easy as Becca has an auto-feed system for food and water (though water needs to be manually filled). Keeping the house clean and secure, plant care, and scooping the kitty litter are the main responsibilities. With that in mind, today we ventured to Como Regional Park. This 450 acre public space consists of a lake, 2.6 miles of walking/biking paths, zoo, amusement park, conservatory, Japanese garden, carousel, athletic fields, golf course, and swimming pool. It is quite the lovely resource for locals and visitors.

We parked near the lake and started our exploration of the park by circling the lake on the 1.6 mile trail around it.

After the lake loop, it was a short hike to the Japanese garden and conservatory.

Once we exited the conservatory, we were in the the zoo where we saw a few animals.

The final stop was the carousel. This carousel was built in 1914 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (apparently they made more than toboggans). It spent 75 years 1 mile away from its current location at the Minnesota State Fair. It was rescued at auction in 1988. We didn’t ride this one.

Today we are celebrating my first winter birthday, and it comes as Bob and I are wrapping up our lovely Melbourne (Burwood) housesit. Our homeowners return Monday afternoon.

Today began with strong winds and rain. The rest of the day has been mixed. It’s rainy crazy again at the moment, but Bob and I had purchased tickets to an exhibit at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, ACMI, in the city, and we had good weather for getting there and back.

The Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion exhibit provided a multi-media look at some of the film stars who defined and disrupted the feminist ideal. It was attractively presented, and I especially enjoyed the costumes.

Tonight my favorite chef (and husband) is making dinner, and there might be some sparkling wine. Here’s to love, life, and seeing the world!