A walk around the block

15th October, 2011

Last night I stayed up until 5am watching the Rugby World Cup Semi-final so didn't get up until after 1pm. By the time I was ready to leave the house, it was already after 4pm. That meant that I had less than 3 hours of daylight left. I wanted to go to Minnehaha Park. This has a waterfall on a small river that runs into the Mississippi. I started the river walk before but couldn't finish it because it got dark. So I walked along the river until it joined with the Mississippi. It is a very nice walk. It's nice that one of the best parks that I've come across is within easy walking distance of the house. Th waterfall (above) is probably the nicest one in the Cities (now that St. Anthony Falls has been mostly man-made). In the winter, the falls freeze and you can walk behind.

After my walk, it had gotten dark but was only 7pm. I decided to go for a stroll in the park (the part with lights). There was nobody at all around. I then went for a wonder south of the house as I had never explored that area. I discovered that I am very close to the airport (closer than I realised). I can walk there in 20 minutes. I also discovered a pizza place, Singaporean and Mexican restaurants.

When I had finished walking, it was still only around 8.30pm. I decided to go to the local cafe. It looked nice from the outside and I remembered that they had beer taps. I went in and ordered a dark German beer. Just like other places I've been, they weren't sure whether or not to accept my driver's license and student card as ID. One of the girls working there actually studied in Ireland for a semester. Of all places, she studied in an art college in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare. I have actually stayed there before and remember seeing the art college. It is in the middle of nowhere. I never thought that they would have visiting students from the US there. She also happened to mention that she just did the Camino de Santiago last month. She was pleasantly surprised when I said that I did it several times. She said that most Americans have never heard of it. I also met a guy who said that he is 100% Irish (though you have to go back around 6 generations). He was very happy to meet an actual Irish person. The other 2 people in the bar were a couple from Canada and Madison. They were very nice and were very interested in what I was doing here.