Sunday, June 30, 2013

Southeast Minnesota bluffs and Como Park

June 2013  Minnesota

After the road trip, I took a couple days to see friends and family in Minnesota before flying home.

The last of the lilacs-compare these to the ones in my backyard where the whole flower is the size of my fingernail.

 We toured the gardens of the Plummer house.  Nicely manicured lawns and decorative flowers, fountains and rocks.



The dog was very good and did not try to hop in!


The next day we hiked in Whitewater State Park.  It has some great trout streams and views of the river bluffs.  The view of course is at Inspiration point.


Which is up a gabillion stairs.  I hear I am lucky there are stairs as it used to be just trail!

But it was worth it at the top


 And just a little scary out at the point.  This is from the point, looking back at the trail.

The next day was Como Park Zoo and Conservatory which I remember as having an amazing garden and a small sad zoo.  The zoo has been upgraded, but so have the rides.  The amusement park portion is just perfect for the 6-12 yr olds.  

We just happened to be there with nine 7-year old boys.  We did not visit the zoo or the gardens.  I was one of the adults who got the pass so I could ride with the boys who were too short to ride alone.  I love  roller coasters!  I rode the Tilt-A-Whirl 4 times, the Tornado 4 times, and the Dragon coaster 6 times.  Since a single ride is three times around the loop, I did this coaster loop 24 times in about 4 hours-fantastic!!  I recommend the front car, which is the smoothest ride :)




Much respect for all the adults who took us to Valleyfair as kids.  I know that we went non-stop from open to close.  This was only a couple hours and it was tiring!

Shout out to John, the nice guy I met at the airport.  One of the great things about travel are random encounters-a few minutes of fun conversation adds a nice break from the boring and stressful parts of travel.  


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