Fort Snelling State Park

 

Fort Snelling State Park

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 14, 2021

We had the boys home from college for a few nights this week which is always great for us.  Grandma Linda even stopped by to visit for awhile.  Even though she's been fully vaccinated, we have all agreed to stay masked up when she visits until we all have been able to do so.  Plus, we like to play games where we pretend to be bandits.

We visited Lakefront Park this week and were saddened to see that the main building at Watzl's Beach has been removed.  Not that the building was ever open in the decades we've lived here, but it is just kind of striking to see how bare the beach looks all the sudden.

I thought this picture of some guy ice fishing at sunset was kind of fun.  Although I must admit, that ice looked way too thin for me to be comfortable being out there.  He has a lot more faith than I do.

On Saturday, we drove to St. Paul, Minnesota to visit Fort Snelling State Park.  It's another place I can't believe I've not visited before.  It's the oldest National Historic Landmark in Minnesota.  The actual fort is closed due to Covid, but we thought hitting some of the trails might be fun.

Apparently we entered through the wrong entrance so we were a bit confused why there were no people there.  Eventually we figured out where we were supposed to go.

The Mendota Bridge was the longest concrete arch bridge in the world when it was first completed in 1926.  It crosses the Minnesota River and appears pretty massive when standing underneath it.

The river doesn't seem quite as intimidating after walking down it for awhile.  More like the Minnesota Stream.

Poor beaver looks like he gave it his best shot before finally saying "Screw it!" and walking away from his whole Dam Beaver Life.  At least that's the story we told ourselves happened.

@toddswank

Rolling on the River! ##minnesota ##fortsnelling ##River ##Rolling

♬ Proud Mary - Tina Turner

I thought it would be fun to duck inside this hollow tree to get a picture.  Blue decided that being away from me for that long was too much of a sacrifice and climbed into the tree trunk with me.  He seems pretty happy about his choice.

The early spring weather has brought our albino squirrel friends back to the yard.  It's always nice to see that they survived another winter.  Although come to think of it, they probably do much better avoiding predators when camouflaged in snow than anything else.  They stick out like a sore thumb when standing on a branch.