Today should be a relaxing day. We actually decided what we wanted to do last night. Minneapolis has something called the Chain of Lakes. Towards the bottom is Lake Harriett and Bde Maka Ska. We will start off by taking the bus to Bde Maka Ska and decide what to do from there, probably go north and see what happens and what we feel like doing. After all, isn’t Minnesota the Land of a 10,000 Lakes?
I got up at 6. No lightning to report, so nothing there. I just continue writing stuff, mostly on my blog entries. Once Sherri gets up and gets ready, we go down for breakfast-well, she has to wait a few minutes while I finish writing up a thought.
Then it is back up to our room. We spent a few more minutes getting ready to go. Then it is time for us to head out.
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Bde Maka Ska
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I do not know what it is about this city, but whenever I go out, I lose track of which way to go. I did it yesterday and I did it again. Fortunately, I have Sir Google to keep me straight. At least to let me know where I am heading, even if I am heading in the wrong direction.
Instead of Hennepin & 3rd, I ended up at the 5th St station. We caught the E Line which took us all the way to Hennepin&33rd. Then it was a little over a half mile to the lake. Sherri is usually mesmerized by houses which are different from the usual builder’s cookie-cutter styles. These houses, while not fancy, do have some character. Something which says that somebody built them the way they wanted to live in them.
Flower on the Lagoon
We then get to the path which
runs around Bde Maka Ska-this is the Ojbiwe
name for this lake. When I think of an urban lake, I think of
something small. Not something which could have waves on it. Or in
this case could host a horde of sailboats. That is this lake, maybe
3,000’ across and a mile in length.
A bit more, about the path we will be following, loosely today. The Chain of Lakes is part of a loop around Minneapolis called the Grand Round. It is about 51 miles of trail, running through 55 miles of parkways, touching all of the lakes. Much of the route is in parks, but some follow roadways. We have walked on some of it while on the trail close to the Mississippi.
When we get around to the north part of the lake, we go under West Lake St and come across a lagoon between lakes. There is a certain amount of beauty here. Both the stillness of the water, the lily pads and the ducklings swimming in a row.
To get to where we want to go, we need to cross over the channel and get on the trail. Now we are on the west side of the Lake of the Isles. It looks like there are two of them: Raspberry Island and Mike’s Island. This sounds like two names which are not very much in tune with each other. But then again, I was not the one naming them.
Our first view of the lake shows what looks like a boat with water wheels on each side. Later on we saw it and realized it is a skimmer of anything which might be floating on the surface, such as algae. We stopped and rested and just enjoyed what we were seeing. Then we continue around the west side. We will be leaving the lake towards the northwest side of it.
When we pass by a woman, she wonders if we have any water? I have an unopened water bottle from the hotel in my pack which I gave her. She looks like she is not doing well. So we made a move to stay with her. But a nurse comes up and offers to do that. The nurse would provide better information and care than what we would, so we left her with the bottle.
I am curious if there was anything which I would recognize or even that I might be interested in. There was a book with an interesting title, Bad Indians Book Club by Patty Krawec. I usually find books about bookstores or book clubs to be pretty lame. But how lame can a book with a title starting with Bad Indians? Turns out it is more of a discussion about certain books which whites should read about Native Americans. Good reads has it as a 4.08, so it probably is an OK read.
But I do buy one book:
Onigamiising:
Seasons of an Ojibwe Year.
I will skim the first and last chapter of a book to get an idea if it
is worth my time. The last chapter talked about how Native Americans
treat their elders with respect. That seemed like a good way to end a
book about both an annual season and the season of life. Note:
Goodreads rates it only marginally better than the Bad
Indians book.
Signs at BirchBark, but lots of places expressed this
Sherri also bought a book,
Braided
Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmberer. We paid for both of the books and then
headed back to the northern part of the lake. This is where things
slightly started to fall apart. First, instead of heading east to the
northern part of the Lake of the Isles, I realized later that going
west would have brought us to another lake, Cedar
Lake. At
the northern park of the lake, we get into the Kenwood
Park
neighborhood. Some very nice houses which Sherri stops and admires
frequently.
But the problem is that we are getting boxed in by a freeway or having to wander and zigzag through streets to reach the next lake. But clever me sees that there are some walking paths which will take us to Cedar Lake. Unfortunately, while me being clever can be contested, the fact is that there were paths which connected to other paths which on the map seemed pretty straightforward, but on the ground lacked being able to decipher which to use.
So we headed off on a perfectly good pedestrian path. But was we kept going along, I realized this path was not going to get us to Cedar Lake. The path is pretty exposed and while not hoit by Fresno standards, it was warm enough that we needed to consume water. Which brings another problem into focus: we had given away our second bottle of water and we were down to the last third of the remaining water.
We sat down, had lunch and examined the map and the situation. I figured out where I went wrong, so we backtracked and found where to cross tracks to get to the proper path. I think much of this is new and they do not have any signage up. There are three paths all heading in the same direction. I chose one path which Sherri was right-it was a bicycle path. We get onto the pedestrian path and walk that.
There was not a water fountain or faucet in sight. But we do see Cedar Lake. As we pass by Cedar Lake, Google Maps tells me that the pizza parlor we had discussed going to might be a possibility. Now instead of walking 30 minutes, we could walk 7 and take the 9A bus to right in front of the place.
The place is Bryn Mawr Pizza. While the pizza looked good, I do not think we were in the mood for pizza. They also had sandwiches. I ordered a Club and Sherri a Heavy Veggie Hoggie. The sandwiches were good, nothing exciting. But it did hit the spot. They refilled our water bottle. Sherri got a soft drink and I got a bottle of water. I think those may have done just as much good as the sandwiches did.
While we were eating, Sherri noticed a book store across the way, Big Hill Books-it bills itself as being the happiest bookstore in Minneapolis. We went in and browsed around. I think we were both tired and not terribly excited about any books, so no books were bought. But the bookstore looked like it had the standard fare of interesting titles.
While we were eating, we discussed what else we could do. I saw that there was a garden back where we picked up the bus earlier. We decided to go and see as the garden had an interesting title: Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary. We took the 9C bus back to almost where 9A picked us up. Then walked north about a third of a mile to the Gardens.
The Garden is situated in a ravine and is about 15 acres in size. There seems to be three sections: woodland, wetlands and prairies. We do not go into the prairies section. The paths have a thin layer of cedar mulch over them rather than gravel. As you walk, there is a sense of softness and silence, allowing you to enjoy the peace of the area. There are signs along the way which identify plants along with an occasional short note. This is a garden for you to enjoy just being there rather than to educate or strike you with awe.
What helps with this sense of peace is that the garden is not in bloom. Sure, there are some flowers scattered about, but nothing overpowering or begging you to take a picture. The areas we wander through give a sense of different shades of green to lull your senses. I think if I lived here, this may be a once a week meditation walk.
We leave the gardens a little before 5 and head back to where we left the bus. We pick up the 9A bus which takes us downtown where the E Line brings us to Hennepin and 3rd. From there it is just a three block walk back to the hotel. The rest of the evening is rest, shower and pack for tomorrow. I am in bed by 10.
Extra Photo's
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| Morning from our hotel |
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| Walking the Butler Garden trail |
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| City View from our lunch spot close to Cedar Lake |
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| Lake of Isles |
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| Lagoon between Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles |
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