MIDWEST BASEBALL TOUR - LEG 2: St. Louis, Part 2

If you haven’t read Tim’s reports on preparing for this trip (this is his first time planning a trip), be sure to check out what it took to plan and prepare for this trip in a wheelchair.

In Part 1 of this report, we arrive in St. Louis to a fabulous hotel, get frustrated at a very inaccessible national park, and take a cruise on the Mighty Mississippi.  Now, it's game time.

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It’s a short, two block walk to Busch Stadium from our hotel. Knowing us though, we walk to the part of the stadium furthest from our seats, so we need to walk around it back to home plate to find the Will Call booth to pick up our tickets. We do and head on inside.

Our tickets today are in the Infield Redbird Club. This is a semi-private (meaning anyone can buy tickets to it but only ticket holders have access to it) section next to the press box overlooking homeplate from the first base side to the third base side. It’s the second deck up. We sit on the third base side in the closest accessible seats to home plate. There is an overhang from the deck above but it does not block our view in any way. We have great views of the city, the arch, and our hotel just beyond center field.

The club also has an expansive indoor area with tables and booths. There is a large food court with ballpark staples like hot dogs, beer, and popcorn. There are also more specialty foods like pulled pork, barbecue, salad bar, and an Asian stir-fry bar that my wife took advantage of.

Each end of the food court area features a full bar. Unfortunately as you might expect of a team owned by InBev (and Anheiser Busch), all the tap beer is Budweiser, Bud Lite, Bud Select or some other variety of the town’s most famous product. It all tastes like water to me. They do serve a nice selection of microbrews and other brands, but only in the bottle.

Another knock on the stadium is that the food and drink prices are the highest we’ll encounter on the trip. Knocks aside, this is still a great stadium in one of the great baseball towns. Stadium toured, food and drinks purchased, it’s time to play ball as the Cardinals are hosting the Houston Astros…one of the worst teams in the league right now.

Ryan Ludwick scores in the first inning on a Matt Holliday ground out to give the Cards a quick 1-0 lead. Houston kills the no-hitter hopes in the third as Tommy Manzella gets a single but no runs are scored. Ludwick scores again as David Freese gets an RBI single.

That’s where the game stays until it all comes apart for St. Louis in the 7th. Carlos Lee of the Astros gets on first due to a throwing error. Hunter Pence doubles, sending Lee to third. Starter Brad Penny loads the bases by hitting Houston third baseman Geoff Blum. Two runs score on a Tommy Manzella sacrifice fly to right field. Pinch hitter Cory Sullivan brings Pence home on a single. Sullivan scores when center fielder Michael Bourn bunts a single.

Penny is taken out after this inning and replaced by Jason Motte. While the Cards were able to get another run in the bottom of the 7th, Motte gives up solo homers to Lance Berkman and Hunter Pence bringing the final score of the Cardinals loss to 6-2.

As any fan can tell you, a loss is tough but it’s still better than not being at the game. Being out-of-towners, we aren’t heartbroken and still have a fun time. On the walk back, we see this strange looking truck. A closer look shows there are two (clothed) strippers working a pole. It’s a moving billboard for several local strip clubs.

On a warm morning, fortified from our hotel breakfast, it’s time to explore the city. There’s a riverfront district called Lacledes Landing that looked interesting when we first got into town. We walk to the nearest Metrolink station about 3 blocks from the hotel. Metrolink is the trolley system here in St. Louis. My wife complains that it was just as far to walk to the station as it was to Lacledes Landing. Close, but I still think the trolley was closer plus I wanted to check it out for a future transit report.

Metrolink is 100% accessible. Every station has an elevator or is ramped. Each car has 4 locations where a seat can be folded up and a wheelchair put in its place.

We get day passes for my wife and I. It’s cheaper to buy each ticket separately for disabled riders ($1.10 for the trolley and $1 for the bus vs. $8 for a day pass) for the amount of rides we will take.

At Lacledes Landing, it’s a bumpy, cobblestoned area full of restaurants, bars, and just a few shops. Mostly closed restaurants, bars, and a few shops. I guess it’s more of a late night destination rather than a daytime jaunt.

Back on the trolley, we head to the end of the line at Shrewsbury on the southwest side of the city. By this time it was hot and muggy making the ½ mile walk we took excruciating. We were going to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard shop on the old Route 66.

We’ve heard about this place on many shows on the Food Network and the Travel Network as one of the icons of Route 66. This is particularly interesting to us because we live adjacent to a stretch of the Mother Road.

It’s hot and the custard is good but it’s halfway melted before we find a place to sit and eat it. By the way, Ted Drewes does not have a dining room, a dining area, or anywhere with tables or chairs. There are some bus stop benches on a nearby sidewalk, but that’s it. A bit of a disappointment after coming all the way out here.

On the way back, we stop at Union Station which used to be the massive St. Louis railroad station. It’s still massive and the old train barn is as huge as some of the stations I’ve seen in Europe such as Munich or London. Only thing is, it’s not a train station anymore. Now, it’s a mall with a small man-made lake, some restaurants, and a Marriott hotel. It’s very quiet and not bustling with life at all. It would have been nice if at least one or two platforms could have been saved. Amtrak now stops and a small platform near Busch Stadium.

I’m a bit disappointed in it.

We go back to the hotel, have dinner, and take a swim in the 8th floor pool and call it a leg.

Stay tuned as we head out to leg three of this Midwest Baseball Tour…Kansas City, Missouri.

Darryl
Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

MIDWEST BASEBALL TOUR - LEG 2: St. Louis, Part 1

If you haven’t read Tim’s reports on preparing for this trip (this is his first time planning a trip), be sure to check out what it took to plan and prepare for this trip in a wheelchair.

We leave the Comfort Suites in Newport, Kentucky with no regrets but we really won’t be missing it either. Next time, I think I might be able to get the Embassy Suites nearby at a comparable price.

It’s an all day drive, 384 miles, to get to our next destination, St. Louis. We have a Ford Escape, a non-accessible vehicle, to make the drive in. That means the power chair has been left at home and Tim is using a new manual chair he bought for this trip. He’s manhandled into the front passenger seat, our luggage and the folded-up chair in the back cargo area, and my wife sits in the back seat with the maps in the navigator position.

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We cross into Indiana heading for Indianapolis to make a stop to see the museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s about 90 minutes away.

Before we left on the trip, my wife went to the AAA to get maps. Unfortunately, she didn’t check them at the time and the girl at the counter, geographically challenged, gave us maps for Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. None of those states feature our destinations of Cincinnati, St. Louis , or Kansas City (but Kansas comes close!).

Today, we are relying on the map Budget Rent a Car gave us and we exit in Indy to find the speedway. 40 miles later, we figure that either the map or our navigation were off because we never found it and ran out of time. Later, checking the map on the computer, we find that the map was off, placing the speedway about 25 miles west of where it really was. Too bad, I really wanted to see it…nextime I guess.

Ever onward, we stop at a great Love’s Truck stop in Illinois for fuel, sodas, and snacks and then later again in Terre Haute for lunch at a great Steak and Shake restaurant. We later find out that a couple of hundred miles south of us, tornadoes are wreaking havoc on Oklahoma including destroying another Love’s truck stop down there. We just got a little light rain along the way.

Weather is an ongoing concern for us. Local news keeps predicting thunderstorms and we’re concerned over cancelled games and vacation killing inclement weather. We can push back our next two games by one day if necessary, but no more than that.

Coming into the St. Louis area, the first thing you see is the giant Gateway Arch, the tallest structure in the city. It’s off at the Martin Luther King Bridge and into downtown. Our hotel is on 4th Street, right behind the arch, so it’s very easy to find once we’re in downtown.

For this leg of the trip, we’re at the Drury Plaza Hotel St. Louis at the Arch. We walk into the beautiful, large marbled lobby and check in. The room they give us has a small window with an interior view which we don’t like so it’s back to the lobby to ask for a better room. They give us a two-room suite on the 7th floor. It still has a small window but at least this one has a view of downtown and the Old Courthouse.

Window aside, it’s a great suite. A separate bedroom with a king size bed. A nice sized living area with a large (queen size) sofabed and recliner. Two 42” flat screen TV’s…one in each room…with a large number of channels to choose from including several HD channels. A large bathroom with a roll-in shower. A small dry bar with microwave, fridge (not honor bar), and a coffee maker.

The hotel also has a good number of freebies to go along with the room. We take advantage of the first with some wine, beer, and cocktails along with a light dinner in the lobby (chicken wings, nachos, egg rolls, salad, and veggies). In the morning is a hot breakfast featuring scrambled eggs, biscuits & gravy, sausage, pancakes, yogurt, fruit, toast, bagels, donuts, and muffins along with coffee, juice, and milk. Starting at 10 in the morning, it’s all the popcorn and soda you want until 10 at night. In the room, you have free wifi or free wired Ethernet high speed Internet access (your choice), 60 minutes of free domestic long distance, and 15 minutes of free long distance to Mexico or Canada.

There is a nice pool and spa area on the 8th floor with a good size pool and two hot tubs overlooking the river along with a decent fitness room. The guest laundry is adjacent…$1.50 to wash and $1.25 to dry.

Back in the lobby is a stunning diorama of Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea exploring the new territory with a waterfall and pond. Lovely hotel…one of the best I’ve ever been to. It’s rated #1 in St. Louis on Tripadvisor with good reason. Rates are reasonable too…we paid $150 for our suite, adjacent to the arch and two blocks from the stadium.

After breakfast the next morning, we go over to the Jefferson Expansion Memorial National Park behind the hotel. The arch is huge, stunning, and inaccessible. Built in the early 60’s, it’s debatable if the architect, Eero Saarinen, should have thought about accessibility (Universal Design was really in its infancy at that time) so we’ll let that slide.

An underground visitor’s center is under the arch. There is a fee to enter but if you have the America the Beautiful Access Pass or Golden Access Pass, you can enter free (you get the pass at the entrance to any national park if you’re disabled for free).

Tim and I elect to send Letty up to the top to take pictures while we watch a film on how the arch was constructed. I buy package deals for all of us that includes a riverboat cruise at noon. Letty goes up in the tiny capsule to see the observation deck. The trip includes 85 steps. That, and the tiny door plus small interior of the capsule rules this out for non-walkers.

The documentary is vertigo inducing as we watch the workmen put the final touches on the arch, 630 feet above the ground.

Meeting back up in the lobby, we have some time to explore the gift shop before going down to the adjacent riverfront for the cruise. Well, it’s adjacent if you can walk down stairs…

I ask at the information counter how we get down there in the wheelchair. They show me on a map how I can go either way and detour down to the water. It looks short on the map.
In reality, it’s a half-mile, unmarked trek to get around. We finally find a way by taking an elevator down to the bottom floor of a parking garage, exiting through their ramp, walking down a street to the river, then doubling back to the dock.

This is just ridiculous. Take a look at the pictures…it would be very easy to build a ramp down the hillside to the dock. I can’t believe it is this inaccessible.

On the dock, we find things accessible enough. We get spots on the bow of the boat and leave on our cruise. The tour takes us north past a floating casino; then on to the original power plant built for the 1904 World’s Fair (still in use); numerous docks loading and unloading barges; back down south to get great views of the city; seeing a wrecked barge up against one of the bridges; and finally coming back to the dock after an hour. There are also numerous barges being pushed up the river and pulled the other way filled with all manner of cargo. It’s an interesting trip.

Now, we have to make our way back up which entails another ½ mile trek. We decide to go the other way. It’s just as long.

Being lunch time, we decide to eat at Max and Erma’s, a nice little place attached to the hotel which has a $10.99 special. Choose an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert. It’s very good and we can’t finish it all.

After lunch, we go to the room to rest up and get ready for the game.

There's more to come, watch for Part 2 coming very soon!

Darryl
Copyright 2010 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

MIDWEST BASEBALL TOUR - LEG 1: Cincinnati

If you haven’t read Tim’s reports on preparing for this trip (this is his first time planning a trip), be sure to check out what it took to plan and prepare for this trip in a wheelchair.

Now that the planning and booking is done, it’s time to go. We start off at Ontario Airport, about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. It’s a 6:55am departure meaning we wake up at 4am and rush to get going. We arrive at the airport at 5:30am.

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After check in (at the curb) and security, we head to the gate. I ask the gate agent if there are any better seats available on the plane, we’re in row 19 of the Continental 737, and none are available. Waiting at the gate to pre-board, the crew that would have to take Tim to his seat balk at having to transport him to row 19 and says they will load the plane first, then us.

Really? Row 19 is that bad? I’ve had airlines sit us in the back of the plane with no complaints, but…

This gets us bulkhead seats when they kick the people assigned there out (not my idea, theirs) but in this day and age of paying for every piece of luggage, being last means the overheads are full and everyone seethes as it takes time for us to get seated. A friendly flight attendant puts our bag up in first class…it’s important to have on the plane because it has medication and bathrooming gear we’ll need on the flight…and off we go.

(Note: Continental Airlines has since been merged with United Airlines since the report was originally written-Ed)

We change planes in Houston and have no problems pre-boarding on the second flight to Cincinnati. The flights themselves are fine, comfortable, and on time but I did not care for the minor boarding fiasco at Ontario. Note to self: do not use Continental (soon to be part of United) out of Ontario anymore.

We arrive at the Cincinnati airport, which is actually in Kentucky, at 5pm local time, pick up our rental car (Ford Escape), and head to our hotel, the Comfort Suites in Newport, Kentucky…just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

The room at the hotel is a “studio” suite, which means a larger room but not really a suite. There’s a king-size bed, sofa bed, and accessible restroom with bathtub and portable shower chair provided by the hotel. A hot breakfast (waffles, biscuits and gravy) is provided but it’s just adequate. In fact that word describes the hotel…adequate. Not great but not bad. It’s a bit expensive for that at around $150 per night.

After settling in, we walk to the nearby area of shops and restaurants known as the Levee at Newport. It’s a very lively area and we find a real gem, a branch of Munich’s Hofbrauhaus with a real German beer garden out back.

It’s small by Munich standards and the sausages are good but not quite on par with Germany, but here we go…an honest-to-goodness German beer garden three blocks from our hotel with its own brewery producing real Hofbrau beer, served in the liter sized glasses just like in Munich.

This is the perfect way to end a long day of travelling so we walk over to the riverfront and head back to the hotel.

It’s a Saturday and our tickets to the ball game are for Sunday so we take a drive to Louisville to see the Louisville Slugger Museum and take the factory tour. A 90 minute drive, we pass the Kentucky Speedway and a mysterious sign that states “site of fatal bus crash. May 14, 1988.”

It turns out that on that date, the worst bus accident in the country’s history took place when a drunk driver hit a church school bus. 27 people were killed, 24 injured, and several of the victims banded together and eventually formed Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

Once in Louisville, we pass a minor league stadium for the Louisville Bats, an affiliate of the Reds. You’d think they’d be called the Sluggers, but no. The stadium is named Louisville Slugger Stadium, however.

Not hard to find, just head to the riverfront, turn left, and look for a giant bat sticking up over the skyline. Park in the structure in the back and head into the Hillerich and Bradsby Company, better known as the makers of that necessary piece of sporting wood, the Louisville Slugger.

Inside is paradise for baseball fans. A long, narrow lobby from the front to the back of the building includes a room for special exhibits, the bat vault (where every major leaguer has a template bat locked up…the “Fort Knox” of baseball), sample bats made to major league player specifications that you can test swing, a batting cage (10 pitches for a dollar) where you can try out a major league players bat, a current league standings board, a gift shop, and that giant bat out front.

All very interesting but the main attraction is what you actually have to pay for, the museum and factory tour. It’s ten dollars for adults ($18 in 2022-Ed) and you get to enter the museum and take an informative and entertaining tour of the factory (no cameras allowed on the factory floor).

Entering the museum, the first thing to see is one of the very first bats made by Bud Hillerich for Pete Browning, one of baseball’s first professional players, in 1884. Browing quickly got three hits with it in the next game and christened it the “Louisville Slugger.” Next is an area where you can hold a game-used bat. Gloves are mandatory. Tim held David Ortiz’s bat. Me? I went with Mickey Mantle.

Several other artifacts are on display. Honus Wagner’s jersey and bat; Joe Dimaggio’s bat; Babe Ruth’s bat; and on and on. The factory tour shows each step of the process, from lathing the wood, burning in the insignia to lacquering the bat. We are informed that players are very particular about their bats. For example, Ted Williams had one person make his bats and they had to have eight lines of grain per inch. With the highest batting average on record, Williams must have known what he was talking about.

At the end of the tour, everybody gets a small wooden bat to take home as a souvenir. One of the best 10 bucks I’ve ever spent.

On our way out of Louisville, we go by Churchill Downs…a week to the day after the Kentucky Derby…but couldn’t find any parking so we left town and went back home.

For dinner, we head down the river to the Beer Sellar. We thought it was a restaurant, but it’s just a bar so we have a two dollar, pre-game beer special and chat with some of the fans getting ready to go to tonight’s game. We’re not going until tomorrow, but we have some fun talking and then watching them depart by boat from the adjacent dock to go to the stadium across the river.

Actual food is found at Bulldogs, just around the corner, where we have some delicious fish and chips while watching the game going on across the river on TV. It’s interesting when someone hits a home run, you can hear the fireworks coming in through the windows and on the television. You can also hear the cheers coming from all the numerous bars in the area and from the stadium across the water.

Sunday…Game Day. This trip is all about baseball and the main attraction is the game. It’s Mother’s Day and we’re going to see the Reds host the Chicago Cubs. It’s about a mile walk to the game. Over the bridge to Ohio, then along the riverfront to the stadium.

Behind the stadium is an art installation of a giant paddle wheel, along with a couple dozen posts that vent steam on a random basis. There are also speakers in the posts where you can hear people on river boats.

We are behind the stadium in center field and there is no accessible entrance here. We have to walk around, 2 blocks, to home plate to go to the Will Call booth, pick up our tickets, and enter.

Great American Ball Park is a smallish feeling stadium (42,000 capacity) overlooking the Ohio River towards Covington, Kentucky. As you would expect, Red is the dominant color scheme. There is a faux river boat in the outfield and fireworks shoot out of its smoke stacks at the beginning of the game, when a Reds player hits a home run, and upon a Reds victory. Steam comes out when the home team pitcher strikes out an opponent.

The food choices here are basic and mediocre. Hot dogs, pizza, and burgers are mostly it, with ice cream and candy for dessert. There is pre-made sushi at a little convenience store by home plate, but we don’t want any sushi that’s not made in front of us. The tap beer selection is vast and reasonably priced. Since we’re walking home, we take full advantage of it.

Our seats are at the top of the field level deck, about 2/3 the way from home plate to first base. There is a slight overhang from the club deck above but it does not block our view in any meaningful way. The price for this seat is $47 for this premium game against the Cubs. If you go to see a less meaningful opponent, say the Marlins, it would be five dollars less. There is accessible seating throughout the stadium, from the bleachers to the nosebleeds, along with the more premium seating on the field and club levels. The lowest price is $5 going up to $235 for the first five rows behind home plate. We had no problems getting more than one companion seat.

Ryan Dempster steps on the mound for the Cubs to start the game. There’s no score until the second inning when Dempster gives up an RBI double to Johnny Gomes. The Reds, led by pitcher Mike Leake, have the game in hand until Leake goes wild in the 7th inning, giving up a run on an errant pitch. The Cubs will go on to take the lead by one but the Reds take it back in the bottom of the inning on a Joey Votto 3-run homer. The Reds win the game 5 to 3.

We decide to walk around the area of the stadium to see what festive activities we can find. The answer? None. It’s dead quiet in downtown Cincinnati so we head back across the bridge to Newport to find a lively atmosphere and settle in at an Irish Pub for dinner.

And that’s a wrap for Cincy. The highlights were the baseball game, of course; the fascinating and fun Louisville Slugger museum and tour; and the Kentucky side of the river across from Cincinnati is a lively and fun entertainment district. This leg of the tour left me with a strong desire to visit Kentucky again and explore it a little more fully.

Stay tuned as we head out to leg two of this Midwest Baseball Tour…St. Louis, Missouri.

Darryl
Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick

Adventures in the Far North...of California: Redding, Part 1

We haven't even left the state but, with a stop in San Jose to evaluate a new travel wheelchair, it's taken us 2 days and 560 miles to get to our latest destination, Redding, California just an hour south of the Oregon border.

Our hotel for this trip is Oxford Suites. We've had wonderful stays at this small, west coast chain of hotels at their Pismo Beach and Chico locations.  This one is not quite on par with those two.

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After a breakfast at the crowded hotel dining room, we head down the road a bit to Turtle Bay Exploration Park. We find that Turtle Bay is just a small part of a bigger park that is anchored by a pretty stunning pedestrian bridge across the Sacramento River.

That would be the Sundial Bridge (note, you do not have to pay admission to Turtle Bay to access the bridge), a functional piece of art spanning the river with a glass deck, suspended by cables attached to a tall spire that is an actual sundial.

We take a slow stroll across the bridge, stopping to admire the view and to watch a few rafters drift underneath. There was a race here earlier for kayakers that started at the bridge and ended up in Chico, a hundred miles away. Our path is much shorter, maybe another hundred yards.

There's music at the other end of the bridge, sounds very live, but no band in sight. I guess they just have a great stereo system and speakers.

I show Tim the large arc of time points and tell him how the sundial works. It's configured to be correct on the day of the summer solstice.

We wander a little bit on some of the trails. We've been here before, years ago, when we came to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park but much of this area was undeveloped. There's a small bridge over a nearby creek, shaded by stands of oak and sycamore.

The main trail continues on to the banks of the river and doubles back under the bridge. An accessible platform there allows wheelchairs to go right to the edge of the water.

A band is playing under the bridge, taking advantage of the acoustics it offers. So that's where the music was coming from.

I ask a lady playing with them if it's okay if I take some video of them playing. She tells me it's okay and that they're having a 45 year reunion of a group that used to just get together here and play once a week.

She asks where we're from and I say Los Angeles. She used to live there and knows that's a very generic term so she asks specifically where. I tell her the San Gabriel Valley.

"Oh, really? I used to teach school in South El Monte," she tells me.

"I grew up in South El Monte," I respond.

"I taught at Dean Shively School."

"I went to Dean Shively School."

"Do you remember a Mrs. Salazar?"

"Yes, she was one of my teachers."

"I used to be Mrs. Salazar."

Fate had brought us back together 45 years later. Just a fluke turn and an interest in their music led to a reunion with my elementary school teacher.

We spent the next few minutes catching up with each other's lives. She divorced, moved to Redding, met and married her current husband, then moved up to the Seattle area.

Just by chance, she was here this weekend to have that reunion with her bandmates. It really is a small world sometimes.

After that impromptu reunion, we head back across the bridge to visit Turtle Bay. Part zoo, part museum, part educational center, part aquarium, part garden, this is Redding's biggest attraction right now.

Inside, we go through a faux cave meant to evoke Shasta Caverns to the north. This is the only wheelchair accessible way to 'visit' Shasta Caverns, by the way. At the other end of the cave is an aquarium meant to represent the Sacramento River with examples of the different species of fish and animals that call it home.

Trout, salmon, ducks, and even a less than eager beaver are in this display.

Outside, an elevated and accessible boardwalk takes us over to the zoo where we see an animal show.

We are warned strictly to take a seat and do not move during the entirety of the presentation because these are still wild animals and we do not want to spook or distract them.

The show goes on with a couple of trainers and a menagerie of critters such as foxes, porcupines, and skunks along with some hawks, a vulture, and a raven.

After a day of wandering around the river, we head over to downtown and have a nice lunch at Mary's Pizza Shack before ending up back at the hotel where while waiting an hour for the pool lift to be fixed, the quiet swimming area became a small pool populated by a large swarm of noisy kids.

Oh well, we'll just call it a day at that point and pick up where we left off tomorrow.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved
Photos Copyright 2016 - Letty Musick
All Rights Reserved

Game Day and the Mighty Mississipi - Minneapolis, Part 4

I was hoping that this day would dawn clear. We’d bought tickets for our Minneapolis baseball game on the only day they’d be in town for our trip…the last day. Minneapolis has a completely outdoor stadium and a reputation for surly weather. We had one shot, and one shot only, to catch this game. No rain checks for us and the weather is promising “scattered thunderstorms.”

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Not to worry, though. The day did start sunny and stayed that way the entire day.  Game time is 7:05 tonight, giving us one more day to explore the city.

The mighty Mississippi river is only a short block from our hotel, the Residence Inn at the Depot. We haven’t really had a chance to explore it, until now.

We walk over and emerge onto a large lock. This particular section of the river is the only spot, from way up north in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, where there are falls. A set of locks…one on each side…carries boats and barges over the falls, which have been shapen by man over the years to be more of a spillway now.

Just south of the locks and falls is the Stone Arch Bridge, a former railroad bridge that is now used by pedestrians and bikes. At a ½ mile long, it’s our ticket across the river.

Starting out at a set of flour mill ruins, the bridge gives us unparalleled views of the river and of the many abandoned mills set along the banks of the river here. It was because of the rushing water of the falls that they are here…the water powered the wheels that ground the grain.

Pillsbury Park on the other side leads us to Main Street where a block long collection of taverns awaits but we’ll save that for the game.

An old iron bridge leads us over to Nicolet Island, past a bed and breakfast, then onto the Hennepin Avenue Bridge where we finish the crossing back to walk along the river back to the hotel. Around 2 miles total.

A little rest at the hotel, then it’s off on the Hiawatha Light Rail line to the game.  Target Field is new and beautiful. Access is wonderful. Tickets are a bit pricey but the food and beer prices aren’t bad. (You can see our entire stadium review at our Target Field entry in our Fields of Dreams series)

The Twins, not having one of their best years, take it as best they could to the visiting Chicago Cubs. It’s a back and forth game with a lot of action and several long home runs, and the home team finally edges out the visitors in the 10^th inning.

Coming back at night, looking out the train, my wife mentions we could have walked. Yes, but with all the drug dealers and hookers we saw, I don’t think that would have been the best choice we could have made either.

It’s the last morning here in the Twin Cities. We have an afternoon flight, giving us time for one more treat.

When we came into town, we had the incredible Jucy Lucy at Matt’s Bar. There’s also another claim to that special burger, the 5-8 Club…a former speakeasy south of town…that serves the Juicy Lucy. Of course, we have to try it and compare.

As at Matt’s, the place is packed and we have to hover over the tables to score one as someone leaves (you’re on your own here for finding a place to sit). We get one and look over the menu, which is extensive compared to Matt’s.

The burgers arrive and immediately we notice that the patties here are bigger than Matt’s. The onions are also sliced instead of diced. My wife likes this version better, I like the diced onions better, but they’re both very good.

With that last comparison in the books, it’s time to make the last drive to the airport, turn in the rental car, and take the flight home.

Hope you’ve had a good time, I know we did.

-Darryl

Copyright 2012 – Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick

Copyright 2012- Letty Musick

All Rights Reserved