Tuesday was officially a Day Off. Yep, that's what she called it.
We left the RV on a "short walk" to downtown Minneapolis. 4 miles and 75 minutes later we arrived at the Stone Arch Bridge. This "people bridge" is quite possibly one of the most beautiful bridges in the USA.
We walked across the bridge around lunch time and we were in awe of the number of walkers, speed walkers, joggers, runners, and bicyclists. This place must be one of the healthiest places in America (I just checked...they are #2). The views from the bridge are equally awesome.
Lunch was brought in the backpack and eaten in front of the bridge near the water. Simple and romantic.
As we finished eating and soaking up the sunshine, Karen heard that magical horn far away from the Lower St Anthony's Falls Lock and Dam that signaled that a barge was leaving the lock. Woohoo! It was coming our way and we would get to see it lock through the lock we were sitting next to.
Unfortunately, the only way to get ON the viewing platform was to be ON a dam tour (excuse my French). Fortunately for us there was a tour of the dam starting in just a few minutes. We got there in time and got to see the barge locking through.
...AND got to walk across to the other side of the lock to take even better pictures of the Awesome Bridge.
We wandered further along the waterfront and went into the Guthrie Theatre. It has this great architectural overhang that also has an overlook.
Dinner was on the horizon by now and we located some restaurants on the other side of the river with our iPhone. After a walk across a different bridge we sat down to some great burgers at Rachel's Cafe.
Stomachs full, we put more muscle on our legs by continuing our walk on this side of the river. Eventually, we realized it might actually get dark before we made it back to the RV Park, so we headed for home.
Total mileage was around 9 miles. Total time out was about 10 hours. We did make it back to the RV for "ice cream at 9" and that constitutes a great end to our first "day off".
So, just some thought here, next time you're looking for a place to eat, see if you can find a local person and maybe they can tell you some of the better places that are not " tourist trapish" . Is that last word even in any dictionary. Anyway.. also you might try this little app call Map My Walk that Deb and I use. It will tell you exactly how many miles you walk, maybe you already use another one.
ReplyDeleteI can't always tell ALL of the details of our day. We did ask a local sitting in a car and he gave us SO many choices. He actually started his list AFTER he asked us what we liked! We picked Rachel's.
ReplyDeleteOur walking app, Run Keeper, was killing our battery on our old phones. SO, we went out and bought new iPhones, so we can now bore you with details like, "We walked 9.4 miles today."
LOL... now that is a funny post..
ReplyDelete