Can't believe it's day ten already. Time has flown by and here we are in the twin cities. We decided when planning to do one day in St Paul and one day in Minneapolis. Had a fairly leisurely breakfast and then headed into St Paul not as early as planned. Commented to Ann on the drive in that it felt like we were really late. It was only 9.20am. Just having had a lot of early mornings it felt like we were heading in at midday. We had looked at the best ways to get into to the city centre and in the end just decided to drive. There was no traffic and we got parked really easily.
Made the short walk down to the Minnesota Capitol building. Went in and got a pamphlet for a self guided tour but then a free tour was about to set off, so we went on that instead. Started out with us becoming celebrities as we were the only ones not from Minnesota on the tour. Everyone seemed very surprised that we would turn up a: in Minnesota and b: In the Capitol building. A woman who looked like Jane Lynch told me she liked the accent and then asked why we were here. I said we had been to all fifty states and were now spending more time in the ones we had only briefly visited before. That seemed to satisfy her inquisitiveness and she didn't speak to me again.
Guy gave us an hour long tour, with the highlight being to get to go on the roof. Also now know where the term passing the bar comes from. The building itself is only a little over a hundred years old but has had to have extensive repair works done at a cost of $300million. There has also been some controversy whilst being done up about the some of the works of art inside which depict Native Americans such as the Dakota in unfavourable ways. Some paintings have been moved to less obvious places so there can be more information given with them as to why they ain't great.
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Capitol
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| Inside the rotunda |
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| Senate |
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| Horses on the roof |
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| Down below the rotunda |
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| Supreme Court |
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| House of Representatives |
The other thing we saw was the tribute to Melissa Hortman and her husband, who were shot and killed at their home last month. She was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. One young boy on the tour asked his mum why she had been killed. I didn't hear her reply but I expect it was something along the lines of because our country is fucking mental. The killer visited four houses of representatives that day. He shot and injured one senator and his wife, two houses were empty and the fourth was Melissa's home in Brooklyn Park, which is the area we are staying in.
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| Tributes to the couple |
We had a bit of a wander after the tour was done. As it's a public building you can go anyway in it if the door isn't locked. There were people taking wedding pictures on the stairs, but there was no wedding. Ann and I just walked on the stairs and they cleared off. Bought a magnet and then went outside to decide on what to do next.
Got back in the car and drove to the Science Museum of Minnesota. Went in. It was ok but not the best for adults, very much orientated at kids. If we'd known that we wouldn't have bothered. Did get to watch a film about National Parks narrated by Robert Redford. Again is was nice to look at (especially as we'd been to most of them) but it didn't really tell you much.
Also saw some dinosaur bones.
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| Triceratops |
Eventually we left having seen all there was to see, including the Mississippi River which runs past the museum. Headed back north towards home but made a detour to do something we haven't done in ages.
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| Mini Golf! |
We can't remember when the last time was we played a mini golf tournament here in the US, so stopped at Lilli Putt. Didn't start well for me as I hit the ball off the course with my first shot. It wasn't my fault, the course design meant it was inevitable if you hit the ball where I did. Needless to say Ann insisted on me having a penalty for being out of bounds. I rallied though and reached the turn one under par, with a five shot lead. Disaster on ten when my tee shot failed to complete the jump over the river and Ann insisted on a two shot penalty as per the rule booklet. She birdied as I made a double bogey cutting the lead to two shots, but just as quickly I got two back on the 11th.
End result was:
Knightley, R: 68
Roffe, A: 71
Made our way back home for dinner. Now realise there is an actual channel called Midsomer Murders which shows non stop Midsomer Murders.
States visited - 8
