The amount of cool places that I continually discover within just a few miles my house never ceases to amaze me. Tonight Patty and I took a walk through some trails at the Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul. It’s an environmental education center for school-aged children, but it also offers free hiking trails for the general public. Apparently, it’s a bit under-used; as with most places we go to in St. Paul, Patty and I were literally the only people there tonight.
I didn’t really know what the place was before we went (I’d never even heard of it before), and I was pretty amazed to walk up to the map board, look to my left and see a hawk, an owl and a Bald Eagle sitting in a series of raptor mews. (Man, that eagle! I’d never actually seen one up close before. They are beautiful — and huge.) Apparently, the birds are all injured or imprinted. We also ran across a functioning apiary (bee colonies), animal barns, ponds and a variety of wildlife. We only walked through about a fourth of the trails there; we’ll have to come back for the rest.
Any place you can walk around and run into a Bald Eagle is pretty cool, so you outdoor enthusiasts out there should check it out for yourselves. One word of caution: I did pick up a wood tick. MPR says there is an abundance of them this year because of the cool, wet weather. Yay for Minnesota.
Generally speaking, St. Paul is a bit of a lonely city. If you visit downtown at 9:00 on a Friday night, chances are you’ll find it utterly, inexplicably dead. That’s why it’s nice that at least once a year St. Paul gets completely overrun by people during Grand Old Day.
This year was my second time at Grand Old Day, and for those who’ve never been, the only thing I can compare it with is State Street in Madison on Halloween. The entire street is filled with people as far as you can see. From Fairview Avenue to Dale Street, the whole of Grand Avenue is completely blocked off to traffic (a major inconvenience for the neighbors, by the way) and inundated by a sea of remarkably well behaved revelers. It’s really a unique event.
We didn’t really see any of the shows there, because: (1) the people-watching is more interesting anyway; (2) you actually don’t need one of the $6 wristbands to drink beer unless you absolutely must do it in one of the beer gardens; and (3) frankly, it didn’t seem like there were any bands or groups there that justified the price of a wristband (Heiruspecs excepted, perhaps). Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and we were happy to just walk around… although we did take the time to stop at Stogies on Grand for a good cigar.
On Saturday, Patty and I took a tour of the Wabasha Street Caves. We got the idea last weekend when we went on a long walk around our neighborhood and came across a group of people standing outside the entrance, waiting for the tour to start. I had heard of the caves before, and without knowing much about them, I thought it might be interesting to see them. What I found, however, was totally unexpected.
When I heard “caves,” I was thinking something along the lines of cold, dank, dimly lit corridors filled with bat droppings and some weird rock formations. I didn’t realize that the caves are actually home to a full nightclub that once served as the hangout for the likes of John Dillinger and practically every other gangster who ever crossed through St. Paul (and there were apparently a lot of them).
Bullet holes, famous criminals, ghost stories, a full-service bar — who could ask for more? My pictures, frankly, didn’t turn out so great (who would’ve thought that the lighting in a cave would be so difficult?), but it’s just as well you go see it for yourself anyway. It’s only $5 per person, lasts about an hour, and runs Thursdays at 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. No reservations are required; you can just show up.
A quick word of praise for our tour guide, Dawn, who was terrific. She obviously knew her stuff, and did a good job of keeping our attention. Make sure you tip her!
Faster planes this time, but still pretty anticlimactic…
In the video, a flight of four F-16s from the Minnesota Air National Guard overflies the Capitol Building during Diana Pierce’s keynote address at the Minnesota Sesquicentennial. It’s not very impressive to watch, I know, but you try taking footage of jets going 350 miles per hour with a $250 digital camera. I did what I could.
It was actually a weirdly cathartic moment, given the budget agreement announced just a few hours earlier between the governor and the Legislature. Pawlenty himself was seated in the front row, and a lot of the House members were mulling about the steps. (The Senate was still in session.) I think the mood of the whole Sesquicentennial would’ve been dampened if the governor and state lawmakers hadn’t finished their work on time. The fact that they did lent the whole celebration an air of… I don’t know. Credibility?
Hooray, I say! Hooray for Minnesota! Hooray for F-16s and budget agreements! Hooray for no more late nights for me at the Capitol until January!
The House has been going in and out of session all day, so I’ve had a lot of free time. Earlier this afternoon I walked around the Capitol Mall and checked out the Minnesota Sesquicentennial festivities. In addition to the (admittedly poorly shot) video above, I took a whole series of pictures that you can view here.
I have to say that I was pretty impressed by the turnout. (The pictures I took didn’t really do justice to the expansive size of the crowd.) It was a perfect day for it too — sunny and gorgeous. Now if only the lawmakers can wrap things up early enough for my wife and I to be able to watch the fireworks tomorrow night.
I love working at the Capitol. You see something new practically every day. Today I looked out of my office window and saw approximately two dozen St. Paul canine officers and their dogs assembling on the steps of the State Office Building for a picture. Why? Don’t ask me, although I would assume it could have something to do with National Police Week.
It’s actually pretty amazing that they were able to get those dogs to sit like that long enough to take a picture. (One of the officers was explaining to my coworker that some of the dogs aren’t very accustomed to spending time around other animals.) All but one of the dogs appeared to be German Shepherds; I’m not sure what the other one was. You can see in the photo above that there’s one in the front row that looks a little different from the rest; I can’t remember if that’s the same one I noticed or not.
Anyway, since the Capitol Complex is situated adjacent to one of the most unsavory neighborhoods in St. Paul — no, seriously, it is — cops are always welcome here. I was hoping someone would walk by with a backpack full of pot or something, and I would see all 20 dogs lunge for him at the same time — but alas, my hopes, like so many other hopes and dreams at the Capitol, were dashed.
Be forewarned, this post is probably going to sound like an advertisement. Not that anyone would pay me for my endorsement of anything. I’ve been wanting to try grass-fed beef for a while now after learning about the health benefits. Grass-fed beef has a dramatically lower fat content, and more of the “good fat” that’s found in salmon and nuts.
At the Living Green Expo I joined a long line of people who waited for a sample of Cannon Falls-based Thousand Hills Cattle Company’s grass-fed beef and in the process learned that in addition to providing 100 percent grass-fed beef, the company’s also really committed to treating their animals humanely. The company representative said that anyone who wants to can go to Cannon Falls and watch the meat being processed. Don’t think I’ll take him up on that.
Anyway, the beef is sold at quite a few stores around the metro, but buying direct from the company made it a little cheaper ($4.69/pound of ground beef when you buy 16 pounds.) I looked for an online order form on the company’s Web site, but didn’t find one, so I called the number listed and talked with Director of Operations Kevin Kubat.
He told me the company considered taking orders online, but decided for now they really wanted to interact with their customers.
Now to the point of the story … the meat was really tasty, but more importantly, we could definitely tell it was healthier. As Nick put it, “You don’t feel gross after you eat it.”
