Road Trip: Ohio. Again.
Day 3: Thursday, April 13, 2023 - St. Paul, MN
Day's statistics:
Weather: upper 70s
Steps: Steve 12,737; Linda 11,719
Travel: 295 miles
Breakfast was a bagel and some eggs for Linda, and I had eggs and sausage.
We packed the car and head out at 8:45 to our second capital of the trip; St. Paul.
The city skyline on approach.
And the capital dome on approached.
We found a surface parking lot about a block away from the capital. Fortuantely for us, the pay station was unfunctional -
so we got to park for free.
We walked to the intersection across the street from the capital. In front of us was a group that was headed to the
capital to protest for equal rights.
Before going inside, we grabbed our selfie.
Also got a shot of the statue near the dome.
We entered the capital and found that there was no security - most capitals that we've been to have security.
We got our stamp.
Like Des Moines, we took a self-guided tour because it was only 9:15ish and the next tour was at 10:00.
The sites of the capital, including a skylight.
The dome.
We were told by the docent to go to the basement because the tour groups don't go down there. So we did.
There was a dining / break area that also had some historical photographs of events at the capital hanging on the wall.
We also saw the Rathskeller (basement of the town hall) Café.
When the capital was completed in 1905, it was a full service restaurant. In 1999 the rathskeller underwent a renovation. Research
showed that there was artwork and German phrases on the walls before they were covered.
The restaurant is still in use (the first image is a little blurry).
On the way out of the area, we saw this interesting staircase.
We left the subtarrain and headed to the third floor of the rotunda. The first floor was set up for a speech, with a
close-up of the seal in the center of the floor.
Some artwork.
Looking out a window.
A wing, incluing part of the skylight and some artwork.
A composite of one wing of the capital.
The artwork in one corner of the rotunda.
A few of the many sayings imprinted on the wall.
We stopped our self tour here - we were pretty much just waiting around at this point anyway - and joined a tour already
in progress. The first stop this group was making was - to the roof! Linda didn't want to traverse the stairs, but I sure
did. On the roof there were views of Minneapolis, and [a stitch of] the closer St. Paul (the "twin cities").
The state flag fluttering in the wind.
A really close-up of the copper with gold leaf sculpture on the top of the capital. Obviously a different
angle than that captured while approaching. The sculptor that created this also created the Lincoln Memorial.
Here is also a closer-up of the back of the banner the chariteer is carrying.
The justice building.
Our few minutes on the roof were over and we returned inside to continue the guided tour with the group.
Some of the stone work around the building. Here is some Italian marble and granite.
We proceeded down a long hallway to the senate gallary. They weren't in session, but the president of the senate -
the bald black grey-suit wearing gentleman at the center top of the group of people - was conducting some sort
of interview or something.
We heard some information about the capital.
There are 67 districts with a senator for each - it is the US's largest state senate. Each district has 2 representatives
in the house for a total of 134. Seating in the senate is a little different than most state as the majority sits in the
back, rather than one side, so they can watch what everyone is doing.
The chamber skylight.
Some chamber artwork.
We left the senate and headed over to the house chamber.
Most of the chamber.
The speaker of the house's seat, with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln behind it.
This gold, copper, and stone work is above (not over) the speaker of the house's seat.
The chamber ceiling and skylight.
Some chamber lighting and architecture.
Some more capital artwork.
We left the chamber and had this view clear across to the other side of the capital.
We finished in the chamber and headed back to the rotunda. At this point, the governr(?) was giving his speech.
We believe it was LGBTQ+ related based on this person's t-shirt.
We headed over to the Supreme Court.
The artwork in the SC was by John La Farge, the renowned mural painter.
We were able to return to the entry door of the senate. We had been seated in the balcony above the president of the senate's seat.
Our visit to the capital was over, and we headed outside.
We got this nice outdoor full shot of the front of almost the entire capital.
Passing through a small park on the way back to the car, we came across this Leif Erikson statue.
After crossing some trolly track, and across the street, we arrived at our car, and headed out to the next location.
We arrived at
We parked on a hill on the side of the Cathedral of Saint Paul.
The church cathedral was huge. Here it is from the roof of the capital.
The door on the side was for the choir entrance, and it was locked. Then we walked to the front, and all the way up the stairs,
to find the doors locked. We let another couple that was about to ascend the stairs know that the doors were locked and we moved
on to the other side of the cathedral.
It turns out that the third entry was the right one. This side also had a parking lot for the church...
We went inside and there was a Mass in progress. I put the shutter on silent and we quietly moved about the church.
Looking back at the capital after leaving the cathedral.
Lunch was Mediteranean at Black Sea.
We arrived at 12:00, placed our order, paid, and sat.
Linda had Greek falafal salad.
I had Black Sea Donor (aka gyro).
By 12:30, we had finished our meal.
We then set out for our next destination.
On the way to our next desitination, we passed the Great Wolf Lodge. We never saw one before, and didn't know if
having a slide attached to the side of the hotel was normal or not. (We did see another hotel on this trip that
also had a slide - just one - so it probably wasn't a GWL, but a competitor.)
Have you ever heard of the Mall of America (MOA)? Do you know anything about it? The MOA happens to be the largest
mall in the United States at 5.6 million square feet (but it doesn't even break the top ten globally).
What makes the mall so impressive is that it has over 500 stores, an aquarium, and a 7 acre amusement park.
There are quite a few interesting facts online - such as that it has its own zip code and the largest
lego model - that if you are interesting, go look it up.
Our visit to MOA was more to say "we were in Saint Paul and visited the MOA" than it was because we really
wanted to do shopping, or go to an amusement park in mid-April.
The mall is quite the spectacle. We didn't see all the stores, but we covered a fair amount of a couple floors.
We saw enough to know that there were two mini golf courses - one was a black light sort of thing and the other
was more traditional.
We saw the large food court, the huge Lego® model, the rides and golf courses. After walking around and
sightseeing, we decided to play a round of minigolf, and captured some more pictures and a short video on the
back straight of the course. Most of the picture have something to do with the rides.
These are all pretty much self-explanitory and taken with the phone rather than camera.
We played an 18 hole round of minigolf at Moose Mountain Adventure Golf. It was an old-west themed course, and I won 54 - 61.
While playing mini golf, I filmed a group riding the roller coaster and going through the loop-the-loop.
During our stroll, we came across this oversized wooden beach chair and took a selfie.
Relative to the size of the mall, we really did not spend much time there - but I already explained why above.
As we drove away, we saw this what looked like a circus tent.
We started to make our way to Wisconsin.
After about a half hour, we crossed another state line (though GPS and Google maps shows it in the middle of the St. Croix River).
While we were driving along, we noticed that it looked like the road had salt on it - or of the not too old residue from
it. We thought this was a little weird, especially since it was in the 70s and 80s the last couple of days that we were in
the area. But then a couple more miles down the road we spied... snow. Not much of it but some near the woods in a couple
of different spots. Tried to get this at 70ish MPH - the horizontal white strips in the middles is the snow.
The low-fuel light came on, and we started to look for a place to fill up. We saw one of the blue "Gas at exit ##" signs
showed that the next exit had a gas station. So we exited, filled up, and got back on the highway.
On i90 / i94, an hour and a half outside of St. Paul, in a town called Clear Creek, was this random shot of the Wisconsin coutryside.
Further on, in Orange, was this interesting rock formation.
Most highways have numbers. Some also have names. Or names. But this was the first time we saw a highway that had... a letter.
We also buzzed past this Veteran's Memorial at Sauk Prairie (incomplete because, 70 MPH...).
We were approaching our final destination - Super 8 in Verona, WI, just outside Madison.
We passed another wind farm - this one was only six turbines.
Not far before the hotel we came across a Piggly Wiggly supermarket. In this state they sell wine and liquor in the supermarket.
So we were able to buy local wine, a chicken cobb salad, some fresh rolls, and some local cheddar cheese. When we purchased
the salad, it was supposed to come with one free dressing, but it rang up. So we told the cashier. And the cashier called the
manager / supervisor. The manager / supervisor came over and told us (by looking at US) that there is supposed to be one free
dressing with the purchase of a salad. We were like "yea, we know, tell your cashier that."
Anyway, we continued on the half hour to the hotel, and checked in at about 7:22.
When I went to check in, Linda noticed that there was a group of guys having a tailgate in the parking lot (the hotel was, overall,
a little better than this scene may portend).
We got to the room and by about 7:30, sat to enjoy our dinner.
After our long drive and meal, we rearranged our suitcases, watched a little TV, washed up and went to bed.