Down Hill From Here

As you turn off Kellogg and turn south onto I believe it's Jackson Street, you're passing the downtown St Paul post office on the left, you'll find an entrance under railroad bridge, through the narrow opening just big enough for vehicles with no room to spare and make your way turning right onto Sheppard Road and left to Warner Road. Deep breath, that was a long sentence. What you cannot see in the photo is the Mississippi River blocked by the rail bridge. The shiny mirrored building was originally a government building, but it is now owned by Comcast Cable company.

Lego's With Size

My son wanted to take a photo while we were at the Mall Of America, this was his submission to the Twin Cities Daily Photo. This is one of the Lego creatures that are all around this area.

Tower Of Power

I've driven past the tower in the distance many times, but only from a distance. I have no idea what tower that is nor it's purpose, but it's always stood out to me. Perhaps one of the local photo bloggers can help me out with the name. This is about as close as I usually get to the tower. It's on my list of things to find and get a better look one day when I have the time. As I'm taking the photo I'm on Highway 280 heading south and I'm about to merge with Interstate 94, the view is to the west.

Go West Young Man

All I can think of when I look at the photo, besides that it's of downtown St Paul as I'm traveling west, is the Red Rubber Ball song. Almost dead center is a large red ball on the billboard for the power ball drawing. I wasn't old enough when the song first came out, but I can still remember listening to my parents 45's of the song when I was a child. I'll have to click the photo to make it large enough to see the red ball.

Have You Ever Seen Rain Coming Down On A Sunny Day

I couple of week ago, we had this quick storm pass through the neighborhood and I mean a quick storm. It was raining on one side of the house while sunny as could be on the other. There was just enough rain to get everything completely drenched, but it was hardly enough to measure in rain gage. However, I walked out to the back yard and the sun was shining through the rain drops that were still resting on all of the pine needles. The photo picked up the effect the rain droplets had pretty well, but I wish I would have gotten a closer shot looking back because it was just a tad more brighter than what the photos shows. The trees above were still dripping from their leaves so I was worried the camera would get wet. If you look closely, you can see some rain drops falling from the pine needles.

Sitting On An Angry Chair

Name the song and band that sings the title of this daily post. It's cheating if you google it.

This oversized chair sits at the bottom of the high bridge on the West End neighborhood. It was put in about ten to fifteen years ago. The small park is an art piece of some sort. I've driven by hundreds of times yet I've never stopped to smell the roses and get a good look. It's always been a drive by, so naturally I this photo is a drive by shooting of what I see. Perhaps one of these days I'll stop and see if there is any artist information or why on earth there is a big oversized chair in the art park.

Old Glory

Which Way To Go

One has to know where they are headed before making their way into downtown St Paul. Traveling East on Interstate 94.

Now That Is One High Bridge

The bridge is known as the High Bridge. I guess for the how tall of a bridge it is because the street name across the bridge is Smith Avenue. The bridge crosses the Mississippi River and connects the West End neighborhood to the West Side neighborhood. This is the second bridge in this location. The original bridge was one lane in each direction, no shoulder with a wooden plank walkway down one side. I still recall the day I watched them blow up the old High Bridge as a child.

Mile Stone Post - 100th Daily Photo

I've hit one hundred daily photo posts today. I'm posting a photo from one of my favorite places in the Twin Cities. I've been waiting to post this photo for a couple of weeks now. My second attempt at a night time shot of downtown St Paul on the bluffs of the East Side neighborhood at Mounds Park. I believe the shutter was open for 7 seconds for this photo. It's a tad over exposed, but I like how it all turned out for this pic.

Make sure you stop by my Caption Contest daily photo and enter in your caption for the photo.

Barge Right In There

Lots of barge activity on the Mississippi River. Looking closely at the photo this evening, I never realized that they had a machine to lift the barges out of the water for repair right down there on the bank of the Mississippi.

Please Put Your Tray Backs Forward

This was from February as we approach the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport. They built a new runway that runs along side the Mall Of America. The suns glare makes it a bit tough to see the Mall, but that is one of the two large parking lots. I like the cars on the top level for some reason. The middle of the mall you can see white rectangle glass domes to let in some daylight.

We'll Just Put Some Bleachers Out In The Sun

And have it on Highway 61....this train yard is on Highway 61, yes the highway 61 from the song that Bob Dylan made famous. This train yard is in St Paul, but just barely. It's down about as far south as the St Paul borders go. The Mississippi River is to the right, the red shed looking building is the control room for the train yard. There is a walkway that crosses over the tracks to a parking lot that runs along Highway 61 south.

I really like this area because it's really a beautiful place, but it's not seen by many because it's more of an industrial area. There is a metal scrap yard down the road, the train tracks of course, a couple of oil refineries and on the other side of the river are a couple more businesses that use the river to transport goods or supplies to keep their businesses up and running. It's more like this area is hidden because of what we have built around it. It couldn't be further from that. It is very scenic, despite the man made structures.

The Stars Are Bright

I've been trying to take a better photo of the AMC neon sign at the Mall Of America, but I'm not sure how it could be possible. I'm back as far as humanly possible without falling over the railing and down three stories.

My first attempt at taking this photo was back on June 15. Although I was going more for the vertical shot at the moment and showing just how "busy" the area was. Where I am standing for this photo is the third floor food court. There is a walkway between the two food areas to the left and right of me. The strange looking items are from Legoland as you drop over the railing and a few are suspended from the ceiling. We mainly go to the Mall Of America to eat at the restaurants versus shopping there. There is a restaurant call "Twin City Gril" there at the mall which has a good mix of typical foods from the Twin Cities area. Oddly enough, it is one of my favorite places to eat while at the mall.

Final Four Minneapolis Regionals

I took this photo this past March 2006 from the Final Four Regionals in Minneapolis. Not sure how many photos I took that day, but when I looked them over that evening, to my surprise I had this gem of a photo. I know a couple of daily photo blogs have a contest where you write a caption that goes with the photo. This is one of them photos that should have it's own caption contest because I still laugh when I look at it. If you don't see the humor in this photo, take a closer look by clicking on the photo to make it larger.

Casual Friday

This photo was taken at the Minnesota Zoo this summer. He's just laying around in the grass, by the water keeping cool, doing what he does best, while we all walk around, looking at the animals.

Quite A Mystery Scoob

I really have no idea what this building is or what it was in the past. The building is on University Avenue in St Paul. I really like the brick work on the face of this building. I must point out the cleaning bottle in the upper set of windows. I wonder how long it has been sitting there as the building is quite vacant. It looks like it may have been a dance hall of some sort just by looking at the type of building, perhaps just a tavern of some sort, who knows.

Way Cool Junior

I love this shot because it shows the backside of an apartment building that is not meant to be seen by passer bys. The air conditioners that stick out of some of the windows is the number one way to keep cool in an older brick building of this type. You do what you gotta do to keep cool during the hot and humid months in Minnesota.

So Many Curves

I've been trying to figure out how I can take a photo of this road, but I don't see how it's possible. Look at the posted sign about what lies ahead, it doesn't do it justice. The curves of Ohio Hill are crazy! It basically takes you from the top of the bluffs that overlook the Mississippi River to the bottom. There is one driveway that is on the tightest part of the largest curve. Why someone would put their driveway right there is beyond me. But the house that is there on that curve, plus the view they have, it could be worth it. Perhaps I can find someway to photo graph this road so it's more understandable, but trust me, it has some curve to it.

It'll Soon Be Gone

Passing under the Wakota Bridge is this terrific looking arch structure. There is a new bridge being built along side this one that will be opening up this fall. Once it is completed this arch will be no more than a pile of scrap.

Hazy Shade Of Summer

The thinnest layer of clouds made this sunset quite pleasing and gave quite an effect to the setting suns rays.

If The Vines Had Legs

Well, in this photo, the vines are creeping up the side of the brickwork and it makes for a great looking photo to me. The old advertising has faded away over the years, I see several different ads that have been painted onto the face of the brick. One of the ads is for Coke Cola and another for a beer, I believe Pilsner Beer from what I can see. The rest will be a mystery. What strikes me the most is the top most left portion of the building, does that look like a tulip up there or something with a large yellow flower. The detail is hard to tell from this distance, but I never noticed it until I looked at the photo closer later, than when I took it in person. Someone has a flower garden high atop this vintage looking brick building.

Ice Palace 2004 Series - pic 4

Another from my set of photos from the 2004 St Paul Winter Carnival when they built a palace made of ice blocks. The temps were sub zero at the time of the night time photos and the white splotches are snow flake reflections. This photo is of the entrance into the palace. There were many rows in place during the times where there was a large crowd, but during this really cold weekday evening, there was hardly a crowd.

The Latest In Weather Technology

So I'm sitting at the stop light downtown St Paul on Kellogg and I'm not sure of the cross street, I look to my left and I see this art/sculpture/wind detector/weather vain thingie. I have no idea what this is, I snapped a quick photo before the light turned green. What it is, who made it or why on earth it is even there in that spot, not to mention, how long has it been there and why have I never noticed this before. Too many questions, no information to give you, and no answers to my questions. Take this as a strange write up of a photo I have no clue what it is.

Really I couldn't just leave this blank, I had to write something about this mysterious item.

An Almost Stormy Night

From the location of yesterdays theme day, here is the same spot, but just as the sun set and a storm was rolling in. I was hoping to get a few photos of lightning, but the storm passed too far to the north for what I was looking for. None the less, this photo was my first attempt at night time photography.

Daily Photo Theme Day: Self-portrait In Your Favorite Place

Twenty-eight Daily Photo Bloggers around the world are posting a theme picture today of a self-portrait in your favorite place; select a number to visit another:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28

My favorite place is on the bluffs looking out to the Mississippi River and downtown St Paul. When you are on the bluffs on the East Side of St Paul and there is a lightning storm rolling in, there is nothing like being there seeing so much sky with the river, the city, the sunset, the lights, the smells, plus the lightning show provided by mother nature.

For reference, I'm looking west and here is a photo to give you a better visual of what is reflected in my sunglasses: Reference Photo Try and picture dark sky with lightning all around.