MINNEAPOLIS CHRISTMAS 2009 WINTER STORM

1ST MAJOR SNOWSTORM DECEMBER 2009

 

GOOSE POOP: THE VIDEO

MINNEAPOLIS 5K RUN THANKSGIVING DAY 2009

About 9000 people participated this year.  A "sea of humanity" downtown if you like.

MINNEAPOLIS FARMERS MARKET WRAPS IT UP FOR 2009

BRING ON THE CHRISTMAS TREES...AGAIN.

WILLOW RIVER STATE PARK, WISCONSIN

To quote the Wisconsin DNR website: With 2,891 acres of prairie, forests, and panoramic river scenery, Willow River State Park offers year-round recreational and scenic attractions in western Wisconsin. Located 5 miles northeast of Hudson on County Road A, the park has a campground, a boat launch, and a 400-foot beach and picnic area centered on 172-acre Little Falls Lake. Willow River State Park draws more than 300,000 visitors each year.

The Park is beginning to be surrounded by very large and expensive homes, when it comes to dramatic landscaping who better to do the work for you than the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Neighborhood Tornado Damage Summer 2009

LAKE MINNEWASKA FISHING SUMMER 2009

BLINK BLINK

The city did some water line repair and refitting.

Now that it's completed and for reasons only known to the Minneapolis Public Works Department, they won't pick up the hazard markers and lights they posted everywhere on the block.

I-35 W ROAD EXPANSION AND NEIGHBORHOOD

A walk home

A silly video I did after I shot the snow video:

SNOW IN OCTOBER

My attempt to capture the feeling of a first snow in Minneapolis:

TWIN CITIES MARATHON OCTOBER 2009

OH BOY!



HERE THEY COME!!!!

The annual Twin Cities fall marathon run was the beginning of October. Once again middle aged people pretending they are 20 year old kids pay their $100.00 entrance fee and enjoy the pleasure of training 2 -4 hours a day so they can run 26 miles.

No they aren't Olympic athletes which means they won't be getting any action after the race, but they do get a nice shiny medal for participating.

During the race, jars and tubes of Vaseline are provided to the runners so they can grease up the body parts that are chafing, the thighs, armpits, knees, testicles, nipples etc.

Trained medical personnel were stationed near the runners eating donuts and sipping hot chocolate in their ambulances. They were ready to spring into action just like Gage and Desoto from Jack Webb's classic TV show Emergency.

If I sound a little envious and patronizing...



...it's because I'm that kind of a guy.

The look of elation on the runners towards the end...

Well a least it didn't rain.

GETTING RID OF THE OLD DOCK

HOW TO GET RID OF AN OLD DOCK:

Sunday morning walk around Lake Nokomis before the weather went to hell

Beautiful September Sunday, enjoyed my early morning walk around Lake Nokomis.

Nokomis is a pretty lake in the Twin Cities, although I wouldn't be caught swimming in it. Rumor has it that you can't get the smell out of your swimming suit after you've been in the lake even with repeated washings.

As part of the Park Board's desire to make Lake Nokomis more accessible to the public, walking and bike riding paths were constructed around the lake.

To create these paths, the Park Board had all of the wild flowers removed that had grown around the lake, who would want to look at a bunch of wild flowers when you can look at a nice green suburban type lawn.

Years later someone realized that the wild flowers and natural grasses were an important part of the ecological health of Lake Nokomis. They acted as a filter to keep the lake clean.

Now parts of Lake Nokomis have been replanted with supposedly the original wild flowers and grasses that had grown around the lake.

The Park Board has now put up large signs in these spots trumpeting their approach to keeping Lake Nokomis healthy.

Since Lake Nokomis is a Twin Cities lake it has been extensively over fished by every would be master fisherman ready to drop a line in the water.

Nokomis is basically "fished out," leaving only carp and assorted rough fish populating the lake. You can see the fish at the surface of the lake gasping for air, probably because the oxygen content is very low in the lake water.

PIKE ISLAND 300 Native Americans died on this spot an all they got to show for it was this crummy plaque

Where the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers meet is Ft. Snelling, now a state park in Minnesota. The land that Ft. Snelling was built on was purchased from the Dakota Indians by intrepid explorer Zebulon Pike of "Pikes Peak" fame. The land includes a small island known as "Pike Island."

While negotiating with the Dakotas for a place to build Ft Snelling, Pike estimated the value of the land at $200,000. Congress paid the Dakota tribe $2,000.

After the Dakota Indian uprising Pike Island became essentially a concentration camp for Indian women, children and old men. Over 600 Dakota Indians died on this tiny space. Indians on Pike Island were relocated several move times and eventually ended up in Nebraska.

Today, Pike Island is a very pleasant place to spend a Saturday afternoon. We spent time on a nice walk around the island. Couples with small children in strollers pushed their children around the comfortable walking path occasionally stopping to take pictures of the kids against the background of the woods. Naturally there are always a couple of kids who don't want their picture taken and make it known by screaming and carrying on which kind or ruins the serenity of the island walk.



One doesn't have to be that troubled about what happened to the Dakotas on Pike Island. There is only a plaque and some structure that looks like a tinker toy to commemorate the occasion. Once you begin the walk you can quickly put those two things out of your mind and enjoy the pleasant fall day.



The sounds of rich, white and very privileged boat owners in very expensive boats with powerful motors echo up and down the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.



It was a pleasant way to spend the day.

TRAIN CHASE

Chasing a train through central Minnesota:

Scenic Minnehaha Parkway and Creek in South Minneapolis

Winding it's way through south Minneapolis, is Minnehaha Parkway and Creek part of the legendary "Grand Tour of the Twin Cities."

Runners, walkers, and bicyclists enjoy the pleasant and calming views along the Parkway.

The Minnehaha creek is a home to wildlife of all kinds including fish and fowl.

The soothing sounds of the running water in the creek help to create a tranquil and calming mood for the residents of south Minneapolis.

REGAL MN, the town named after a car

Between Paynesville and Belgrade Minnesota and stuck between 2 fields of soybeans in the middle of nowhere is the town of Regal. With a population of only 40 people, the State of Minnesota has deemed it unnecessary to even slow down while driving through the town.

After years of whizzing through Regal at the speed of light, we finally decided to stop off at the only commercial establishment in Regal, the Pilgrim Inn. Our decision to stop was based on the following on-line review quoted below:

"The food could not be better--try the chicken, it's awesome and the girls waiting on your are EASY on the eyes! Did I mention the beer is always cold...... it's a must if your in the area! (Feb 1, 2008)."

It was a sleepy Saturday afternoon in a town of 40 people. We ate at the Pilgrim Inn and then wandered around the town to see the sights. As it turned out this didn't take very long. Not much seemed to be going on with the exception of one odd resident apparently going for a walk on his roof.

As we pulled out of Regal we drove by one of our favorite sights on our way to the lake, the large and very smelly turkey farm on the outskirts of Regal. Much to our surprise the turkeys were now gone and there was a path of feathers lining the road. The direction of the feathers indicated the birds were on their way to a nearby turkey processing plant.

An interesting fact about commercial turkeys is that man has now bred them in such a way that they are unable to copulate with each other. The gobbler that you eat at Thanksgiving was probably born through artificial insemination, large white turkeys can no longer have sex with each other.