If It's Friday, this must be St.Paul

Before the storms hit, we headed to St. Paul to see what we could see. We hopped a ride on the hotel van and ate at Mickey's Diner. A real life diner - nothing fake, nothing slick, just good greasy food. (it made it in the Prairie Home Companion movie. )

St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota and NOT the home of skyscrapers, but the place you will find a beautiful capitol and the largest Catholic church in the USA - we zoomed by both before I got the camera out. Also, in the same area were the art and history museums . . . I may have to backtrack and check those places out.

We found the combination of old and new soothing and easy going. As I walked along St. Peter Street peered into the windows and spied on those gathered in the sidewalk cafes, I noticed business people here love to 'do lunch.' Brownbaggers were also gathered in the parks to enjoy some dry weather.

We found Rice Park (with statutes of Charles Schultz's characters - his hometown) in the center of the city surrounded by an historic hotel, The St. Paul, a men's haberdashery complete with a shoeshine man outside and a barbershop inside and a complimentary cigar to enjoy while shopping. Bob decided to read the paper in the park while I explored and not get get dolled up.

The Mississippi runs wide and slow around the city. I caught a snapshot of an Amtrak train on its way somewhere. We will be on it tomorrow evening.

After a few hours, the sky became dark and we called for a ride back instead of trying to find the correct bus stop - Bob didn't think the desk got his message so we found the right bus stop nearby and while we were waiting our guy in the hotel van pulled up - he had circled the area three or four times - Minnesota Nice.