Twin Cities 101 for Republican Convention delegates

When the Democrats met in Denver, I had no trouble suggesting some things to see and do that staff writer Christopher Reynolds couldn’t do in his June Travel story. As a former Kansas Citian, I had visited Denver several times — and had been there on business a couple of years ago.

But the Twin Cities? Not in my travel lexicon, I’m sorry to say. Reynolds’ Travel story of Aug. 19 was comprehensive and fun, and we also we wanted to augment with a native’s perspective for those those attending the GOP convention. So I turned to Catherine Watson — formerly the Travel editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, an author, a Lowell Thomas award winner and a native Minnesotan — for her thoughts. Here’s her take on the Twin Cities.

— Catharine Hamm, Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Don't know Denver from Minnesota's Twin Cities, where the Republicans will hold their national convention next week? Take our photo quiz to see if you know the Mile High City from St. Paul.]

From Catherine Watson:

Sure, the Guthrie Theater and the Walker Art Center and the Science Museum are great, and so are biking around the in-town lakes and driving down that scrapbook of American architecture called Summit Avenue.

But without the two sights that top my personal list, none of it would be here — not Minneapolis, not St. Paul and certainly not the GOP convention.

My first favorite is something Minnesotans tend to take for granted — we’re that used to it. Our license plates, for example, brag about 10,000 lakes (there are more than 11,000, actually), but the body of water that carries my heart is the Mississippi River.

I drive across the Mississippi at least twice a day, going to the health club or the supermarket in St. Paul and coming home to Minneapolis, and every time — in blue-sky summer or blizzard-white winter — the river takes my breath away. When visitors come, it’s the first thing I take them to see. I like watching their jaws drop.

Between Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Mississippi flows through a deep limestone gorge — the only true gorge on the whole river — lined on both sides with woods and paths for biking and walking. It’s gorgeous, and it keeps getting prettier as more and more defunct industrial buildings are torn down along the banks or turned into condos with splendid (and high-priced) views.

The two cities, by the way, are twins in nickname only and rivals in just about everything else. But they both owe their existence to the river. The Mississippi powered the mills that ground Great Plains wheat into flour and sawed northern forests into lumber, and it’s still a highway for huge barge-loads of freight on their way downstream to the Gulf.

The riverfronts of both cities lie within the 72-mile-long Mississippi National River Recreational Area, and there are a lot of ways to get to the water. The Padelford Riverboat Co. offers cruises from an island below downtown St. Paul and walkable bridges in both downtowns lead to small riverfront neighborhoods.

All told, the combined metro area has nearly 30 major bridges, including the mile-long Mendota Bridge spanning the wide valley where our other big river, the Minnesota, joins the Mississippi.

That’s where my second favorite sight has been standing since 1820: Ft. Snelling, a tiny frontier fortress on a bluff overlooking the rivers’ confluence. Its oldest buildings are now one of the best living-history museums west of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

From its high stone walls down to the straw-filled mattresses in the soldiers’ bunks and the pot of stew cooking on the hearth in the laundress’ quarters, the fort has been restored to the way it looked when it was a wilderness outpost of a young United States. Costumed interpreters make it seem real on weekends through October and every day in summer.

The little fort is interesting any time, I think, but it’s especially relevant this year — not because this is when the Grand Old Party dropped by, but because 2008 is the 150^th anniversary of Minnesota statehood. And Historic Ft. Snelling is where it all started.

— Catherine Watson, special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: visitors watching the Mississippi River from the bridge observation deck of the Guthrie, by Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at 12:13 am by Catharine Hamm and is filed under Midwestern States, Spring, Summer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.