Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities Driving Tour MNLIFE

Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities Driving Tour MNLIFE

Relatives are in  town and want to know what they can see in Minneapolis and St Paul.

So here is one tour from Rochester, MN

St Paul Minnesota State Capitol Building

by A. Hu

 75 Constitution Ave St. Paul, MN
Yeah, another state capitol with a dome ....
just down the road is the 

St Paul Cathedral

Cathedral of Saint Paul 239 Selby Avenue Saint PaulMN 55102.
from http://twashere.com/st-paul/
Which is a really, really big catholic cathedral, dominated by a dome that covers almost the entire main building.



Science Museum of Minnesota 

 120 W. Kellogg Boulevard
A big science museum that overlooks the river from the back, just at the edge of downtown

Science Museum of Minnesota


Peanuts Statues


75 W. 5th St. St Paul


from http://www.magazineusa.com/us/cityguide/show.aspx?state=mn&unit=stpaul&doc=16&dsc=Peanuts_Sculptures




Peanuts Sculptures

A permanent tribute to Charles M. Schulz is located in Landmark Plaza Park, where his famous characters are immortalized with permanent bronze statues of Snoopy and Charlie Brown, Sally and Linus, Lucy and Schroeder and Peppermint Patty and Marcie.




Schmidt Brewing Company, 882 7th Street West, Saint Paul, Minnesota

You can take the freeway out of town to get to Minneapolis, but if you take the local roads, you'll drive by  this impressive fossil of a beer factory which they're still trying to figure out what they are going to do with it. There is a giant beer bottle on the street corner.


http://www.placeography.org/index.php/Schmidt_Brewing_Company,_882_7th_Street_West,_Saint_Paul,_Minnesota

Originally Christopher Stahlmann's Cave Brewery, this was the home of the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company until 1990 when it closed in a leveraged buyout. It reopened in 1991 under new ownership as the Minnesota Brewing Company. The brewery experienced a brief period of success, adding the Gopher State Ethanol plant in 2000 to produce ethanol for the fuel industry. Odor and noise related to the conversion of thousands of tons of corn into ethanol was causing a backlash in the West End neighborhood around the St. Paul plant. In 2002, the brewery operations were closed, and the Grain Belt recipe and labels were sold to the Schell Brewery in New Ulm. The ethanol plant remained open for another 2 years before shutting down in 2004. However, despite changes in ownership and cease in operation, the Schmidt Brewery, remembered well by it's red blinking sign and famous slogan The Brew that Grew with the Great Northwest, remains an icon within St. Paul's West End neighborhood.


by A.Hu

Giant Beer Bottle

Mill Ruins Park 



130 Portland Avenue South  Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401

This is the big waterfall on the Mississipi river which was the site of a big mill center where water wheels directly drove mill machinery before electrical generators.  Now you just get a great view of the river and the stone bridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Ruins_Park

wikipedia

Gold Medal Flour A. Hu

Stone Bridge, Falls on Missisippi



Spoon Bridge and Cherry


credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/timwilson/1361651/lightbox/

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden


The park Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an 11 acre (45,000 m²) park in MinneapolisMinnesota, in the United States.[1] It is located near theWalker Art Center, which operates it in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. It is one of the largest urban sculpture gardensin the country, with 40 permanent art installations and several other temporary pieces that are moved in and out periodically.[2][3]

The park is also in proximity to Loring Park and the Basilica of Saint Mary. It was once connected to Loring Park, but the construction of Interstate 94in the 1960s split the area into two parts.[4][5]



One of the Sculpture Garden paths with Spoonbridge and Cherry in the background

The centerpiece of the garden is the Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985–1988) water sculpture designed by husband and wife Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.[9] The grounds also include the Cowles Conservatory, which has more flora and sculpture inside, such as Frank Gehry's Standing Glass Fish. Apedestrian bridge, the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge (1987), designed by Siah Armajani now crosses I-94, once again connecting the sculpture garden to Loring Park.[10]


Walker Art Center


Basilica of Saint Mary (Minneapolis)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



The Basilica of Saint Mary is a Roman Catholic minor basilica located on its own city block alongHennepin Avenue between th & 17th Streets in downtown MinneapolisMinnesota. It was the first basilica established in the United States. The Basilica of Saint Mary is the co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis[2] and is one of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the country.[cita

Target Field

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Field
550 3rd Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55403

This is at the northern edge of the city, a very new baseball stadium, no covered roof feature.


Exterior of Target Field, including a view of the commuter platform at Target Field station.


Mary Tyler Moore Statue 

. 8th St S & Nicollet Mall Downtown

This is probably the coolest thing on Nicolette Mall and the downtown in terms of kitsch.


Do you happen to live in one of the cities where an iconic TV character is memorialized in a landmark? Are you wondering what the heck we’re talking about here?
TV Land, that fabulous television network that plays reruns of some our greatest American classic sitcoms and other TV classics has been placing statues throughout the United States honoring our favorite fictitious characters. Take a look at some great photographs we found:
The Mary Tyler Moore Statue
mary_tyler_moore_statue1.jpg

Photo by meetminneapolis
mary_tyler_moore_hat_toss.jpg

Photo by mhartford


IDS Center Crystal Court


80 South 8th St # 650  Minneapolis, MN 55402

Most of the downtown buildings are interconnected with skyways. The most impressive atrium is the Crystal Court which has a massive flag hanging from it, and connects to a few other fun places



Wells Fargo Museum and Real Stage Coach


https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/history/museums/minneapolis
Wells Fargo was bought out by a bank nobody heard of in Minneapolis, which decided to promote the whole stage coach thing.

Downtown Minneapolis

625 MARQUETTE AVE, MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 554022308
or sixth and marquette 

Minneapolis, Minnesota



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerrbo/5573570161/
On the Skyway level of the Cesar Pelli designed tower, Wells Fargo presents its Midwestern heritage, a Concord Coach, mining and milling along the Mississippi, the vintage Town Bank, and Northwestern National Bank's Weatherball.
There is a full-sized actual stagecoach on the first floor bank branch, not just a  picture on a wall. Sign says it seats 9 inside, and 9 people clinging to the luggage on top. Lock box is under driver seat which is why other guy on top rides "shotgun", and the big yellow lever is the parking brake, which still works that way on most cars with a center brake lever. 


US Bank Center and City Hall

200 South Sixth Street
Minneapolis, MN

Everybody drives by the City Hall, but few people see it from inside the US Bank center:


City Hall from US Bank Center by A. Hu


Metrodome Mall of America Field

 900 South 5th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415


Day 158: Mall of America Field

by 365 TWIN CITIES TEAM on SEPTEMBER 9, 2010



With everyone getting new stadiums, the Vikings got the next best thing: their old stadium renamed.
Mall of America Field, the stadium formerly known as The Metrodome, now has the field to themselves and no longer has to share with the Minnesota Twins. Of course, Mall of America Field, along with the name change, is also getting some much-needed renovations to keep up with the times and the demand. The Minnesota Momentum initiative is a grass-roots effort to revamp the Vikings program in an effort to keep it strong and keep in in Minnesota. Get the skinny on that program at their website.


Minneapolis St Paul Twin Cities Driving Tour MNLIFE Arthur Fiddler 1400 views 11/2013

Monday, November 11, 2013

First Chinese-American woman to fly for military died in fiery crash

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-35277_162-57609711/first-chinese-american-woman-to-fly-for-military-died-in-fiery-crash/#postComments

By 
NOREEN O'DONNELL / 
CBS NEWS/ October 28, 2013, 8:20 PM

First Chinese-American woman to fly for military died in fiery crash

Hazel Ying Lee reviews her performance after a session in a Link trainer
Hazel Ying Lee reviews her performance after a session in a Link trainer / U.S. AIR FORCE
Readers at CBSNews.com were asked to nominate their heroes for Veterans Day. If you know a hero, whether for conduct during a war or after, submit the details here

Hazel Ying Lee received her pilot's license the very year she took her first flight. She was that passionate about flying.
A little more than a decade later, she died doing what she loved. The first Chinese-American woman to fly for the military, she was killed as she ferried a fighter plane from New York to Montana during World War II.
(continued at link)