Archive for July, 2008

Drive In - Cottage Grove, MN

Posted by Shek on July 27th, 2008

Growing up in South Dakota there were often closed drive in movie theater screens along the highways.  According to driveintheater.com there are only seven remaining in South Dakota and I’ve never been to one of them.

Saturday night was my first experience at a drive in.  There are only eight theaters still open in Minnesota and on a beautiful night it was a lot of fun.  Listening to a movie via a car/truck radio has its drawbacks, but this was still a great way to hang out with friends, enjoy a warm summer evening, and see an exciting movie - Batman: The Dark Knight.  This was a double feature, but we left before second movie started - Journey to the center of the earth.

Paddling the Mississippi: it’s the Mpls Aquatennial

Posted by Shek on July 20th, 2008

It was a happy coincidence that this year’s trip down the Mississippi happened during the Minneapolis Aquatennial.  There were no additional festivities because of the city-wide celebration, but it was a good excuse.  We paddled 8 miles from Boom Island Park in downtown Minneapolis to Hidden Falls Park in St. Paul.  The MN DNR produces a Mississippi river map that includes the part we paddled.

The route we took led us through three lock and dams, under 13 bridges, and it can be divided into three parts:  1) Downtown/St. Anthony Falls;  2) Bridges/University of Minnesota; and 3) The River Gorge.

Downtown/St. Anthony Falls

Bridges/University of Minnesota

The River Gorge