Mini donuts and Tilt-A-Whirls

It's the Great Minnesota Get-Together--better known to you out-of-staters as the greatest state fair in the nation! I'm off to revel in the cheese-curd infused delights of crazy carnival rides and free Boyz II Men concerts.

Near Target Field

The varied skies and skylines of Minneapolis.

My thoughts have been several thousand miles away these last few days as I'm preparing to move to London for grad school next month. Hence the sporadic postings--which, to be honest, will probably continue pretty sporadically until this becomes Photo-A-Day in London.

Minneapolis Public Library

This is the spectacular Minneapolis Public Library in downtown Minneapolis. If you have not been, get your butt down there now. It's been open for something like 6 years and I only just visited a couple weeks ago and I am so sad I didn't do it sooner.

Soap Factory

There are a number of art museums in the Cities. A lot of us know about the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center. But how many of you have visited the Soap Factory? It's a neat little place with some permanent and changing contemporary art exhibits, including this funky yellow thing.

Uptown

The Aveda building in Uptown in Minneapolis. At least, this used to be the Aveda building. Not sure if that's what it is still.

New in the old

An old brownstone on Summit that has been redone to reflect its 21st-century owners.

Kahler

Bird's eye view of downtown Rochester, MN as seen from the Mayo Clinic. The little patio down there is part of a revitalization project to get folks to spend their nights and free time in the downtown area instead of at movieplexes in the suburbs.

BN

I'm generally not a huge supporter of massive chain bookstores (I shop at Sixth Chamber Used Books and Common Good Books around these parts). That being said, I love that Barnes and Noble opened a store in this old movie theatre in Rochester, MN, thus saving it from deterioration and neglect.

Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, MN, is one of the most famous clinics in the world. It also is the main reason why Rochester is on the map these days.

Men at Work

Day trip to Rochester, MN. Here are some construction workers doing some things to one of the Mayo Clinic buildings.

Pump at Soudan

 A large pumping thingy that was used to run the elevator that took miners down the Soudan Underground Mine.

Soudan Underground Mine

A crazy crazy week last week, and so I forgot to post yesterday. Ah well. That's only the second time.

This is something used to transport taconite and iron mined at Soudan Underground Mine, now a state park that you can tour. You can even go down into the mine--very cool stuff. Check it out if you're ever in northern Minnesota.

Historic Fort Snelling

It's Civil War Weekend at Historic Fort Snelling today and tomorrow. I am somewhat connected with this site, so maybe I'm biased, but if you come down, it'll be a lot of fun. This is a shot of the living history interpreters, 1827 U.S. soldiers in this case, firing off a cannon during the regular season programming. (Credit goes to my mom for this one...)

Brick buildings

More images of the Cathedral Hill neighborhood. Lovely old brownstone-like apartments.

Bug

Why is it that a VW bug can make even the most common of photographs look good?

Hexagon

The Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis. Once a grungy biker bar, now a hipster joint that just looks like a grungy biker bar. It's kind of an odd place.

Reflections, part 4

The quietly rippling waters of Everett Lake make the sky and the clouds looks like an impressionist painting. I wish Monet had done some travels in northern Minnesota.

Growths

Fungi on a log. Found on a hike around Dry Lake, just north of Ely, MN.

Bright colors

My two favorite houses on Selby Ave. in Saint Paul.
This is part of the Theme Day "Bright Colors" over at City Daily Photo. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.