Matthew had to go back to work today, so the kids and I decided to explore Minneapolis together. We found information online about the St. Anthony Falls heritage trail, and decided that would be the perfect place to explore. We started at the Mill City Ruins Park, a really amazing look back at an important part of Minneapolis history. In the 19th century, this area of mills, canals and other historic resources comprised the largest direct-drive, water-powered facility in the world! It was the leading international producer of flour, and unsurprisingly, the birthplace of companies like General Mills and Pillsbury. The ruins were beautiful, and really fun for the kids to explore:
Across the street was the Mill City Museum:
Continuing our exploration, we left the park and walked across the stone arch bridge, a beautiful old bridge that was built in 1883 to connect the Midwestern farmers and their crops of wheat to the booming flour production mills. Along the bridge, we found our next historic landmark - St. Anthony Falls:
At one time in history, these were natural waterfalls, the only ones of their kind on the Upper Mississippi river. Due to overuse and poor engineering of water power systems, the falls partially collapsed in 1869 and were reconstructed with concrete in 1937. The falls are still pretty today, and you can get a sense of how powerful they might have been in their prime.
We continued our walk on the heritage trail, crossing over the Stone Arch Bridge to the other side of the Mississippi. We did a little exploring here, walking down main street, and into the neighborhood a couple blocks to check out this beautiful old church:
We continued past the church to a tiny park that was the site of the Art Godfrey house, the oldest surviving frame home in the Twin Cities. It was built in 1849, so we were expecting a run down little shack full of history, but it had been completely restored on the outside and wasn't open for tours, so the whole experience was sort of anti-climatic. The kids were definitely not impressed by the trek through the heat to see a regular looking house in a tiny little park.
To make up for it, and to cool down (we still aren't used to this warm spring weather!) we stopped at a little cafe along the Mississippi and the kids got gelato. Ahhhh...the perfect way to cool down!
We continued down Main street until we got to another bridge which lead us to the middle of the river and a tiny little Nicollet Island. It was small, but the view was amazing!
We strolled down to the water, and what should we find but two geese and their little gaggle of chicks! The kids were so excited to see the fluffy little baby goslings and immediately started trying to entice the chicks closer and closer.
Their cause was helped immensely when a little girl came over and gave the kids half a loaf of bread to feed the birds. Suddenly, they were very popular!
Tiny, curious little goslings. They are so fluffy!
When the kids ran out of bread, and the goslings lost interest, we set to work building some little twig and leaf rafts. I didn't manage to get a picture of them before the kids set them in the river, but here is one tiny little raft floating away down the mighty Mississippi river:
The kids were starting to get tired at this point, we walked nearly two miles along the Heritage Trail, not including our detours to the church and Godfrey house. That's a long ways for little legs, especially when its so hot out. We headed back to the apartment for lunch and a little cool down, satisfied with another fun day exploring this beautiful area.
Across the street was the Mill City Museum:
Continuing our exploration, we left the park and walked across the stone arch bridge, a beautiful old bridge that was built in 1883 to connect the Midwestern farmers and their crops of wheat to the booming flour production mills. Along the bridge, we found our next historic landmark - St. Anthony Falls:
At one time in history, these were natural waterfalls, the only ones of their kind on the Upper Mississippi river. Due to overuse and poor engineering of water power systems, the falls partially collapsed in 1869 and were reconstructed with concrete in 1937. The falls are still pretty today, and you can get a sense of how powerful they might have been in their prime.
We continued our walk on the heritage trail, crossing over the Stone Arch Bridge to the other side of the Mississippi. We did a little exploring here, walking down main street, and into the neighborhood a couple blocks to check out this beautiful old church:
We continued past the church to a tiny park that was the site of the Art Godfrey house, the oldest surviving frame home in the Twin Cities. It was built in 1849, so we were expecting a run down little shack full of history, but it had been completely restored on the outside and wasn't open for tours, so the whole experience was sort of anti-climatic. The kids were definitely not impressed by the trek through the heat to see a regular looking house in a tiny little park.
To make up for it, and to cool down (we still aren't used to this warm spring weather!) we stopped at a little cafe along the Mississippi and the kids got gelato. Ahhhh...the perfect way to cool down!
We continued down Main street until we got to another bridge which lead us to the middle of the river and a tiny little Nicollet Island. It was small, but the view was amazing!
We strolled down to the water, and what should we find but two geese and their little gaggle of chicks! The kids were so excited to see the fluffy little baby goslings and immediately started trying to entice the chicks closer and closer.
Their cause was helped immensely when a little girl came over and gave the kids half a loaf of bread to feed the birds. Suddenly, they were very popular!
Tiny, curious little goslings. They are so fluffy!
When the kids ran out of bread, and the goslings lost interest, we set to work building some little twig and leaf rafts. I didn't manage to get a picture of them before the kids set them in the river, but here is one tiny little raft floating away down the mighty Mississippi river:
The kids were starting to get tired at this point, we walked nearly two miles along the Heritage Trail, not including our detours to the church and Godfrey house. That's a long ways for little legs, especially when its so hot out. We headed back to the apartment for lunch and a little cool down, satisfied with another fun day exploring this beautiful area.