Ice on the river

On this morning's run, I meandered along the Mississippi River, and I couldn't help taking a detour over the river to see what the water looked like.

The early cold snap ended overnight - the temperature was in the mid-30s by 8 a.m. and I liked leaving my gloves at home! - but the stretch of unseasonably cool temperature meant that ice had already started to form on the river. On a gray morning with a touch of fog, I took a minute to marvel at the formations before continuing on my way.

Morning light

Early yesterday morning, I brought Josh to the airport and started my run as the sky was getting light.

The city was quiet and still in my early miles. I made my way over to the St. Paul skyline in time to see the sun actually lift over the horizon, one orange sliver at a time. In Minnesota's capital city, it reminded me of the peaceful sunrises in the Great Smoky Mountains and the Boundary Waters.

Through downtown St. Paul, that golden light was bouncing off the buildings, too.

On one bridge overlooking the Mississippi River, I noticed that what looked like debris in the water was actually patches of snow and ice floating downstream: another sign of spring.

I wanted to get a closer look, so I ran down to the bike path you can see in the picture above.

Total: 11 gentle miles on a quiet morning in early spring.

The rest of the riverboat story

Okay, I am finally ready to continue the story I started Thursday night before I got sleepy!

Earlier this summer, my sister surprised Josh and me with two tickets for a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi Queen Paddleboat! I was so excited, for many reasons:

1. After asking about our schedules, she chose tickets for a specific date (Thursday night), so it was "we've got this on the calendar!" not "we'll do this fun activity someday in the future."
2. I love a midweek date - and a unique activity to boot!
3. I've been on a couple of riverboat cruises before, but they've always left from near downtown St. Paul, so I was excited to be part of a Minneapolis excursion.
4. I love being out on the water in the summertime.
5. The Thursday night cruise includes a pizza buffet, and as many of you know, I love myself some pizza.

I'm not exaggerating when I say I was looking forward to this boat ride all week, so one of our takeaways is that we want to book more Thursday night outings early in the week to properly anticipate the night out (and reduce the chance of bailing in favor of our comfortable routine!).

Josh and I met at Bohemian Flats, near the University of Minnesota campus, and boarded the boat just before 6 p.m. for a two-hour cruise up and down the river.

Here we are - after the boat ride, but it's the only picture that shows the boat!

Right away, we approached downtown Minneapolis:

And then we turned back and went almost as far as the Lake Street bridge! I loved being on a section of the river that I run along often and seeing it from a different perspective. Also, the captain was talking about some of the history of the river and bridges (fascinating to me!), but we could only hear that narrative on the second level, outside, after we enjoyed our pizza at one of the tables inside. It was a warm night, but there was a breeze on the water that was great. There seemed to be a fair number of tourists on the boat, as well as a large group of locals celebrating a birthday, and I think this activity would be super wherever you call home. You guys know I love tourism at home.

The clouds were extraordinary:

This company runs cruises through late October, and I would love to book another trip for late September when the fall colors are peaking. Wouldn't that be gorgeous!? Big thanks to my sister - it was such a treat!

Marvelous Monday (H20 version)

Well, this post is in the same family as Marvelous Monday but only in that it will contain five items of note.  I'm adding a little twist because it's Monday and I'm still thinking fondly about Saturday afternoon.  My dad took my brother and I out on the Mississippi River in his fishing boat for the first time in many years!  

It was sunny and 60 degrees, the leaves were just turning yellow and I wore a sweet plaid lifejacket.  Dad drove about an hour up river, we stopped for a picnic that he had packed and then turned around and drifted back to the boat landing. We had a fabulous time, even if I was in charge of spotting approaching rocks because of my seat at the front of the boat.  (I'm very pleased to report that the boat and all three of us are still intact.)  

My dad grew up in and on the Mississippi - we passed his old house on our route - and because my grandparents lived there when I was growing up, I did to some extent, too.  When I was a kid, we went on boat rides and fished (a lot) and caught little crayfish.  When he was a kid, though, it sounds like Dad was more adventurous than I was. At the tender age of 13, he assembled a homemade jetski with a piece of plywood and a little motor and used to cruise up and down the river on it! (I got a monster kick out of hearing this today in the era of hypersupervised children and helicopter parents.)  Dad knows what's underneath the water's surface based on different patterns and waves.  He has a veritable library of trivia and history in his mind about the stretch of the river we traversed: which patch of land used to be a horse farm, which yard used to host a speakeasy, which stumps sticking out of a channel used to hold up a bridge. I knew I'd have fun, but I learned a lot more than I expected, too.

So to celebrate Marvelous Monday, here are five highlights from our boat trip:

1) I'll lead off with my tremendous but ultimately futile efforts to get a photo of the three of us all facing forward and smiling.  This is pretty typical.  I'm sure we're smacking into rocks and Dad is doing some serious boat- or navigation-related work while my brother and I mug for the camera.

2) There were some sections of the river that were so shallow - I'm talking inches deep.  Other parts of the river were super deep. Some shallow sections were sandy, others rocky.  Some required more serious maneuvering on Dad's behalf than others.  We provided moral support.  Here are the shadows of my brother and I peeking over the boat at a particularly shallow section.

3) One part of the river had loads and loads of seagulls hanging out from one side of shore to the other. 

4) I think Dad was happy as a clam.  (Ha, ha, breaking news, finally an apt simile on Miles and Laurel.) It was so relaxing to spend an afternoon on the water.

5)  See?  It's that relaxing.  This was my view.  Feet up, head resting on the back of my lifejacket. I confess that I probably wasn't providing much navigational help at this point...but I think we were back in deep water by this point. Fingers crossed. 

It's in writing now: We're doing this again before the river freezes over.