Downtown Minneapolis

As the weather started to get better yesterday, a few of us started exploring Minneapolis more. Ironically, having spent most of our time here, we seem to have spent the least amount of time exploring Minneapolis compared to the other cities we've been to. Of course, that's partly cos of the cold weather and partly cos there really isn't much in the city itself.

Anyway, yesterday was the first walk we had around downtown. We started by visiting what used to be the only waterfall along the Mississippi River, which, I found out, is what divides the Western from the Eastern states in the United States. Well, it's now more of a dam than a waterfall cos the waterfall partially collapsed due to erosion. Dams were also built to harness hydroelectric power to run the sawmills and flour mills along the river banks.

This was the route we followed. You see in the centre the Falls and the dams.

Map showing the Mississippi River. I never actually realized that the Mississippi basin was so huge. And at the source of the river is Lake Itasca, which I visited in Feb. (Pics may or may not be up later on)

Front view of the falls. Looks kinda small from here.

Picture of the original falls. Looks so much nicer.

A bridge across the Mississippi River. And it's reflection. I like this picture cos it's almost perfectly symmetrical.

Another bridge across the Mississippi. This one from Nicollet Island to downtown Minneapolis. There's a cute story about how a couple used to cross from this island to the other side. In summer, they would walk on logs that are kept in a pool between the island and mainland. In winter, they would walk across ice as the surface of the river froze.

This is the view of the damns and falls from the top.

After our walk along the river, we walked around downtown a little. Below are the scenes from downtown.

Minnesota flag.

Cute advertisement.

R2D2 mailbox.

We watched a dance production based on the storyline of Edward Scissorhands after that at downtown St. Paul. Imagine traveling between 2 cities in one day. haha. The production was really good. It was creative and wonderfully choreographed. There wasn't any dialogue in the whole show but from the dancers actions, you'd be able to know what's going on. And the energy level was pretty infectious.

These are just some of the animal-shaped plants placed outside the theatre for publicity.

Life's so much better with great weather.

Gina