Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mill City, Here We Come!

Today turned out to be a perfect day for our family field trip downtown.  It was sunny and forty degrees with no wind.  We started out by boarding the light rail train.  Although the boys have taken the train before, this was a first for Anna.



Along the way, we had previews of our destination.


Shortly after its 10:00 am opening, we arrived at the Mill City Museum. 


The museum is housed in a building that used to be the General Mills flour mill.  It ceased operations in 1965 when General Mills moved to Golden Valley.  In 1991, most of the abandoned building burned down in a fire that was presumably started by the campfire of homeless persons occupying the building.

At first, we nearly had the museum to ourselves.  Not too much later, several classes of first graders arrived from area schools {we must have been on the right track, bringing our first graders here}.  The boys enjoyed the water tables that demonstrated how the mill was powered by water from the Mississippi River {The machinery on all eight floors of the building was powered by the river!  Amazing.}.  Anna and I really enjoyed the "Flour Tower," which was a tour of the mill by elevator.


After we were done seeing the museum, we decided to take advantage of the weather and walk across the nearby Stone Arch Bridge to get a closer look at St. Anthony Falls.





We ate lunch at a little tavern called Tuggs.  I liked their "No Crybabies" clock.


Finally, we took the train back south and made a quick visit to Minnehaha Falls before heading home.

1 comment:

  1. I have lived in Minnesota almost 15 years and never been to all of the above. I should take the kids for sure!

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