Two cities and a river

Minneapolis did not extended a warm welcome to me –instead it was a cold one at minus 7 degrees even in April (statistics revealed that it was the first in 82 years that temperatures dipped in April)
Having heard about the Minnehaha Falls and the famous The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow my reaction was akin to someone who was handed a diet Pepsi when expecting a dirty martini.
If you are wondering why, see my picture below:

The sculpture garden had interesting works of art in metal and I walked all the way across the Irene Hixson Whitney Bridge just to read John Ashbery’s poem inscribed on it. And this photo below is my personal favorite considering the amateur status of my photography skills.

Think Mississippi river and you can’t help but remember Mark Twain which is infact a Mississippi River term "Mark number two” which means the second mark on the line that measured depth signified two fathoms, or twelve feet—safe depth for the steamboat.

The twin cities of St.Paul and Minneapolis are similar to Hyderabad and Secunderabad and that is definitely nothing to do with trafficJ. It is in the way that there is no exact line of demarcation between the cities and both seemed to merge into one another.
The St.Paul Cathedral close to the St.Paul downtown is a sight to behold and could easily compete with any of the famous cathedrals of Europe.
We had to cross the street to capture it’s glory on camera.

It was an all outdoor sights trip; other visits include Coon Rapid Falls, Mississippi Dam and of course how can a trip to the City of ten thousand lakes be complete without a lake? So took a long walk on the banks of Lake Calhoun stopping to admire kids making sand castles and men trying to hold on to their colorful sail boats.

A Collage of other photos of my trip is below and if anyone thinks of using it for things other than their desktop wallpaper you know whom to ask….