Minnesota

We arrived in the Twin Cities and immediately realized that the attraction that we were supposed to visit, Fort Snelling, was not open until May. Sigh. It seems like post-May seems to be a better time to visit the northern states, since it appears to be very sleepy until then. Nevertheless, we took to exploring the cities.

We have driven 6196 mi / 9971 km so far.

Downtown St. Paul with its many sky walkways.

Also downtown St. Paul in a park near the CHS baseball field.

The impressive Cathedral of Saint Paul, which is a replica of St. Peter's in Rome. 

Me looking quite small in front of the cathedral.

Beautiful interior. 

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. It was under renovation, so the Spoonbridge and Cherry was the only one on exhibit.

Obligatory silly perspective photos.

Mall of 'Merica!

An entire amusement park in the middle of the mall. Complete with several roller coasters, a log ride, and mini golf course.

One of the most unique things we've done so far on the trip was playing around with heavy construction equipment at Extreme Sandbox! We each got to independently operate our own 19 ton excavators and do things like dig holes, roll around, complete an obstacle course, and pick up and swing around a car. Marc took to it very quickly, but I ended up doing things like scooping a large bucket full of dirt out of a hole and then forgetting what I was doing and immediately dumping that scoop back into that same hole I was digging. I guess I'll stick to psychology :)

Extreeeeeeme!

Me still trying to figure out what I'm doing.

Fashionable construction workers.

From Marc's cabin.

The hole he dug.

Marc lifting and swiveling around a car.

Before we left we also visited the James J. Hill House:

An impressively large mansion for the railroad magnate at 36,000 square feet. 

Obviously one needs a pipe organ to entertain guests in your fine art gallery,

The dark woods, intricate carvings, and low lighting made it more beautifully creepy than this picture conveys. 

Quite a small master bedroom, as per the style of the time.

A very lavish dining room.

Marc was most interested in the basement furnace and heating system. At the time it was coal and there was a servant whose full time job was to scoop coal down here.