Minneapolis/St. Paul, Last Day

The day before yesterday I toured St. Paul on my bike checking out Grand Ave. and the downtown area. Throughout the city are small statues of Peanuts characters like Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Lucy, to commemorate the birth place of its creator Charles Schulz.





The Twin Cities has many beautiful cathedrals throughout the city. I took a picture with the St. Paul cathedral, for which the city is name after. After touring St. Paul, Becky and I ran around Lake Calhoun, one of the three popular lakes in the Minneapolis area. This was the first time I ran since last year. It was not as easy as it used to be, and was an indicator of how much I’ve gotten out of shape since I started this trip.





Yesterday I had coffee at the Spyhouse coffee house in Uptown Minneapolis. This was the first time I had a latte that was prepared similar to the way its done in Portland and Seattle, although the flavor wasn’t the same.







After the Spyhouse, I went to the Walker Art Center off of Hennepin and Groveland Ave. Some of the interesting exhibits where from Donald Judd, who utilized the aesthetics of geometrical shapes, and from Richard Prince, who recycles, reflects, and reframes photographs, cartoons, advertisements, and other images that already exist in the public sphere. One of the most interesting pieces of Prince were juxtaposed of photos of Adolf Hitler and Walt Disney in strikingly similar poses.











Another interesting exhibit was the Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes, which “demonstrate how the American suburb has played a catalytic role in the creation of new art.” It was interesting to see how much urban planning goes into making a suburb, and the special interest groups that have a stake in the development of such developments. Some of it was a bit unsettling, such as the impact of Strip Malls and Big Box stores having on the local economy and culture.


Outside the Walker Center is the Sculpture Garden which boasts pieces such as the Spoonbridge and Cherry which is a large sculpture of a spoon and cherry resting on an island strategically placed in front of the city’s skyline. It’s nearly impossible to not get a good photo of this sculpture.




While at Alene Grossman Memorial Arbor and Flower Garden I discovered a new feature on my Canon digital camera that allows me to take photos of small objects, and got a little carried away taking macro photos of the flowers and their insects. I thought I got some really interesting shots.










I left the Minneapolis area this morning around 9am. Becky left to pick up another couch surfer at the airport. She's only picking him up and dropping him of at a friends. She plans on driving to Rapid City for the weekend to visit Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills.

Wisconsin is not that far from Minneapolis. It took around an hour for me to get to the boarder crossing. I missed the Wisconsin sign, so I don’t have a photo to show. I’m currently in Eau Claire which is about 200 miles away from Madison. Depending on whether I can find a couch surfing host, or a camp site, I plan on being in Madison for a day, otherwise I'll just go to Milwaukee or Chicago.