I love the trail on the south end of Lake Harriet, it’s a tunnel of trees and when everything is green, it a beautiful ride.

Lily pads float softly upon the sky’s reflection.
My favorite rest area of the western city trails.
This Month’s City Photo Blogs’ theme is Reflections.”
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This is part of the Grand Rounds and the “Minnehaha Byway District” which includes the Minnehaha Creek, may parks, the parkway road and bike trail. This was the first trail that I biked on when I moved to the city, it goes from the bottom of Lake Harriet to the Minnehaha falls. They’ve been rebuilding 35W since before the old 35W bridge fell into the Mississippi. The bridge is almost done but they’ve almost completely destroyed the trail and it’s a rough ride. Here’s the trick… there’s a foot path on the other side of the creek; you only have to go a short distance on it and if you watch for pedestrians and play nice, it’s much easier. There’s a street bridge on the west side and a foot bridge on the east side, they are both easy to find.

I love the network of trails in Minneapolis! The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy tries to convert abandoned railroad right-of-ways to trails, but here in Minneapolis the trails share them. Around mid-morning, the trains are very active as the cross-country trains come in and the trans-yard trains begin the daily shuffle. This guy is from the Twin Cities and Western (TC&W), the morning train usually has three engines, which isn’t that interesting, but I looked up their website and found that they only have eight of them, so it’s almost half of all their motive power.  It’s fun being a geek in the land of infinite information…

I love summer on the prairie…

Look who I met on the trail next to the Minnehaha Creek in Southern Minneapolis.

A few years ago I walked down to the sad little stone construction I noticed on my way to and from work. It was some form of fireplace, sadly left in the middle of a dangerous cloverleaf along highway 100 at 7. Recently this relic, which I’ve found out to be a Beehive Fireplace, has found a new home and has been lovingly restored. It’s been moved a short distance to a new park called Lilac Park, just off the Midtown Greenway Bike Trail at Highway 100.

There’s trail access, a handicap accessible bathroom and a few of the original picnic tables from when Hwy 100 was Lilac Way. It was constructed as a parkway and was the largest WPA project in the state. The Golden Valley Garden Club planted Lilacs along the parkway. Also, I just discovered the Nordic Ware tower right next to the park was “the first circular concrete grain elevator in the United States, and possibly in the world.”

I discovered geocaching back in 2007 and had fun, but lost interest in it to photography and this blog. Now that summer is coming back, I’m looking forward to trying it again. Have you played it? Leave me a comment and tell me about it!

This Saturday, July 18th, the Southern Pacific 4449, a 1941 Daylight Express steam locomotive that came out or retirement to pull the Freedom Train in 1976, is out for the first time in 30 years. It is on its way to Trainfest 2009 in Michigan. This Saturday July 18th, the 4449 starts its run to Chicago from Minneapolis at the Friends of the 261 facility at 8:00am.

I will be there taking pictures and boarding the vintage passener cars to join in on this amazing journey. The train will not be following the traditional Amtrak route, it is an express to Chicago that will be following the classic route along the mighty Missisippi. You can also track the 4449′s progress; there’s a GPS page on the engine’s website. There might still be tickets available there too!

I plan on twittering from the train, you can follow me: @mitchsterdotcom

Werner bracing for a slow exposure 32 stories over Minneapolis on the Foshay Observation Deck.

Last weekend I ventured on a Minneapolis Photo safari with Diane, Werner and Rob. Diane was the one that came up with the location — the observation deck of the 447 foot-tall 1929 Foshay Tower. The tower has an interesting history. It was completed just months before the 1929 stock market crash and had (according to Wikipedia) a fantastic dedication ceremony:

Foshay invited 25,000 guests to the dedication ceremony and provided all-expenses paid trips to many who included cabinet members, senators and congressmen. Half nude dancers entertained. Each guest received a gold pocket watch. The military gave 19-gun salutes. John Philip Sousa conducted music, including “Foshay Tower-Washington Memorial March” a march he wrote for the occasion. Foshay presented Sousa with a check for US$20,000.

But Sousa’s check bounced and soon after the building went to the creditors and poor Wilbur Foshay landed in jail and never was able to live in the apartment he built for himself on the 28th and 29th floors.

The tower held the record until the IDS Center was built in the 1970s. It eventually fell into disrepair and it disappeared from the public consciousness as other buildings surrounded it and hid it from view.

In 2006 it was purchased by local investors and everyone but Keys Cafe moved out as the building was converted into a W Hotel. On August 13th of 2008 the W opened with a museum on the 30th floor that leads to the 32nd floor observation deck.

Shooting the city from above at night is pretty fascinating, there are so many lights of varying color and the glass buildings offer fantastic reflections (see above). You might recognize the parking lot in the lower right corner.

We arrived at the tower around 6:30 just in time to watch the sun set. I’m planning on going back soon, it was a lot of fun. If you’d like to join me, let me know.