departing for the day. First we visited the University of Minnesota campus to
see the Weismann Art Museum which was designed by Frank Gehry and opened
in 1993. Wow, what a unique structure. Part of the lower structure is built of red brick, just standard construction. The deconstructionism upper structure is composed of an aluminum skin and it has many different wave patterns with some angled flat patterns all alternating. The pictures do not due it justice. It is a phenomenal building and definitely worth braving the hot day to see.
We then headed downtown to Guthrie Theater, very interesting. Time Magazine called the theater "a 21st century dream factory". The building overlooks the Mississippi River and although it is in the Historic District, it is a modern box on box blue glass structure. Good enough for a quick drive by and snap some shots.
While we were at the river, we journeyed across the bridge to check out Saint Anthony Falls. From this vantage point we had a great view of the falls, the downtown skyline views, arched bridges, old power plants and a back view of the Mill City Museum. The falls were man made to produce electricity. There where two power plants. One was on each side of the river. In this same area, there were four flower mills, one of which was Pillsbury. This was a beautiful area filled with restaurants, apartments and condos. Many of which are located in the historic buildings. What we liked most was the fact that the town is not tearing down the old to build new like we see in Dallas. They are repurposing the buildings and it was great to see. One of the repurposed buildings was the Mill City Museum. The building looks like an old warehouse from the front, but from the back you can see the part of the old wall. Most of the wall has fallen down so you can see several floor of windows and the an entirely new glass structure set back inside.
Next we went to Minnehaha Falls which is a 53' naturally occurring water fall on the Minnehaha River. It was created during the Ice Age as a result of a glacier breaking off upstream. It is located in Minnehaha Park which is one of the cities oldest parks. We had a nice hike through the park after viewing the falls.
After all of the sight seeing we decided to do some Geocaching and came upon a Corp of Engineers Lock and Dam. It was Lock #1 on the Mississippi. There are 3 locks in the Minneapolis area on the Mississippi River. It was open to the public so we were able to the lock from a viewing platform. It was interesting to learn that one loaded barge carries the same amount of cargo as 54 tractor trailers. I had no idea that they could carry so much payload.
As the day ended, we found 3 Geocaches, tried for 4 but could not find one after searching for 20 minutes...bummer.
We are off to Sioux Falls, SD tomorrow. Maybe it will be a little cooler there, haha.
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