My Favorite Part Of Town

I've featured this area quite often. It's a personal favorite location in the Twin Cities of mine. You have the Mississippi River, the road is Sheppard Road, the bridge in the distance is called the High Bridge [it was also my the same bridge myself and Kate [Visual St Paul] posted for the bridge theme day]. On the left is Harriot Island with a couple of, decorated in lights, paddle fords that have stuck around for the frozen winter months.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Washington, DC | Naples, Florida | Buenos Aires, Argentina

When Pucks Fly

Watch for flying pucks? I didn't know pucks could fly....hahaha! Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week.

A little bit different type of photo today. I took this one while sitting at a Park of Cottage Grove Wolfpack hockey game versus Mounds View. From my seat, I kept looking at the warning, but saw the flag in the background. While looking at it through my cameras viewfinder, I really liked the looks of the shot.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Bellefonte, Pennsylvania | Malé, Maldives | Las Vegas, Nevada | Mckinney, Texas | Wroclaw, Poland | Denver, Colorado | Saint, Louis, Missouri | New York, New York

One More From The Historic Library

This is from the same location as yesterday's photo of the downtown St Paul Public Library. I wanted to show the front area of the entry way into the library and all of the work that went into the design.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Terrell, Texas | Vienna, Austria | Mazatlan, Mexico | Monte Carlo, Monaco | Greenville, South Carolina

James J Hill Library

Named after successful business man, James J Hill, the downtown St Paul library has been around since 1921. An early settler in St Paul, James J Hill is well known for his success in the railroad industry. The library is located at 80 West 4th Street.

The view of the library is on the north east corner of the building.

There Are Good Things About Winter

Despite my latest trend in posting for the past couple of days, wishing for the Spring season to start, winter does have it's good points.

No Yard Work - Working in the yard is not an option. I cannot mow the lawn, water flowers, pull weeds, working on landscaping projects, trim the trees, rake leaves, and many more. It just can't be done. The frozen ground plus a lack of seeing the ground while it is covered in a layer of snow prevents this fabulous chore.

Fireplace - Only in the cold winter months do I light up my fireplace. We have a wood burning fireplace that keeps the family room oh so warm and toasty on the frigid and blustery winter nights. While the summer heat is enjoyable to me, staying warm via the fireplace is a delight in itself.

Family Time - In this fast paced world we live in, the cold weather forces us to stay indoors more this time of the year and enjoy each others company. Playing board games, watching a movie, getting to know each other.

Snow Days - Who doesn't enjoy calling in to work because the snow and/or ice is making it impossible to get yourself to work. I enjoyed them as a child, I still enjoy them as an adult.

Winter Beauty - While taking photos in the winter can be quite a challenge, you can also get some outstanding captures that can only be taking this time of the year. Not dressing warm enough is the major factor. The winter elements can give you one of those outstanding photos to an area that you're familiar with, yet it looks entirely different in a winter scene.

I'm Ready For Spring

Reading the comments from yesterday's photo, J. Andrew Lockhart from Van Buren, Arkansas said it best "Oh, I'm ready for spring!!". Honestly, I couldn't have said it better myself. On a positive note, today temperatures was 32 F degrees! The sun was shining and I found myself and my father agreeing that today was a warm day out. Which makes me laugh when 32 degrees above zero is considered a "warm" day. Keep in mind, we've had temperatures around -15F degrees. That's 47 degrees warmer this afternoon than -15F from a few weeks ago. Sadly, spring is still a couple months away....

My Daily Photo Favorites: Susanville, California | Nashville, Tennessee | Riga, Latvia | Barton, Vermont | Portland, Oregon | Sharon, Connecticut | Joplin, Missouri | Katonah, New York | Guelph, Canada

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Oh the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

It doesn't show signs of Pauseping, And I've bought some corn for popping,
The lights are turned way down low, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

When we finally kiss goodnight, How I'll hate going out in the storm!
But if you'll really hold me tight, All the way home I'll be warm.

The fire is slowly dying, And, my dear, we're still good-bying,
But as long as you love me so, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Give Me A "T"

When I took this shot, I thought it was a unique view of one of the arches on the Robert Street Bridge in St Paul. Now all I can see is a great big letter "T". The view still is unique and it's a decent minimalist photo.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Seguin, Texas | Van Buren, Arkansas | Athens, Greece | Mettman, Germany

Interesting Links Of The Day: How the US Tax system works

Total Lunar Eclipse Of The Heart

[Title Note: Someone at my work was adding words to the old 80's hit by Bonnie Tyler, "Total Eclipse Of the Heart", if you could have only heard them sing it]

Here is my photo attempt of the lunar eclipse that has come and gone. I read for best results on taking lunar eclipse photos it's best to have a clear sky [duh], away from lights [I was not], have a 3X lens for your camera [I did not have]. Well, I stood about five feet outside my front door, shot across a street light and used only the zoom on my camera. My results are okay, but not fantastic.

Did I mention the temperature was -3 F at the time of photo taking, I was wearing my sweatshirt, jeans and my slippers! The one thing in my favor was the lack of wind, there wasn't any, thus I got my shots taken in under five minutes of being in the cool temperatures. Honestly, with the lack of wind, it wasn't that bad for the few minutes I was outside. Throw in some wind, I would have taken one shot and called it a night, it took about a dozen in all.

The bottom left corner dot is the planet Saturn. The top, almost directly above the moon is Regulus, the brightest star in the Leo constellation. It is also about 77.5 light years from our solar system.

 
More Daily Photo Lunar Eclipse Photos: Detroit, Michigan | Port Elizabeth, South Africa | Port Angeles, Washington | Weston, Florida | Chicago, Illinois | Minneapolis, Minnesota | River Falls, Wisconsin | Forks, Washington | Larchmont, New York | Washington DC | Regina, Canada | San Diego, California | Stayton, Oregon | Maple Ridge, Canada

Minnesota Wild

This is my third season as a Minnesota Wild season ticket owner. I split a pair of seats with a co-worker of mine. I've sat in the same seats in section 103 game after game. Well, I didn't have tickets for tonights match up versus the Vancouver Canucks, but I wanted to attend. At the last minute, I decided to head down to the ticket office and see if I could get one seat to the contest. With a bit of luck, I found myself in the Club Level seats, in one of the stadiums corners. A much higher perspective on the game, but I was able to see the plays develop at this level. I found myself watching all of the players intertwine, but would constantly miss the big check into the boards. From the lower level, I could anticipate what was going to happen during the game, but find it much tougher to see the plays develop. I guess there is a trade off at what level you watch the game from.

Unfortunately for the Wild, they didn't play so well at times. Had the lead for most of the game and should have won, but Vancouver earned a tie, then ultimately won the game in overtime. I'll take the point.

  
My Daily Photo Favorites: Larchmont, New York | Oslo, Norway | Chicago, Illinois | Seoul, South Korea

Interesting Links Of The Day: Total Lunar Eclipse today starting at 7:45 CMT | Find out if you'll see the eclipse today

Tiny Daggers

Looking out my window one evening, I noticed the street light shinning through the ice cycles that were hanging from the roof of my home.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Greenville, South Carolina | Vienna, Austria | Kuala Lumpure, Malaysia | Ioannina, Greece | Monte Carlo, Monaco

Looking Into Rice Park

The view into Rice Park located downtown St Paul. This photo was taken during the St Paul Winter Carnival. You can see the ice sculptures, but my target for this photo was all of the lights in the trees.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Bangalor, India | Flagstaff, Arizona | Sesimbra, Portugal | Sitka, Alaska | Oslo, Norway | Ystad, Sweden

Ice Age Coming

I tell ya, this has been an unusually cold winter here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. We are not alone as Canada, China, Hong Kong among others are reporting similar record breaking cold spells in their part of the northern hemisphere. Some of these articles I read just get me thinking about the current trend in the global warming theory.

Solar Activity Diminishes; Researchers Predict Another Ice Age
GISS: January 2008 was the coldest month since May 1995
Global warming on other planets

This headline I just don't understand at all: Global warming blamed for unusual cold spell.

Huh? Warming causes cooling? What? I guess it all depends on what you're willing to believe? While I do believe there may be some global warming happening, I don't believe that humans are the root cause. I have a hard time believing the press or politicians as it is and I'm sure many of you share that simple belief on the press and politicians.

Sorry for my little rant, today's photo is from the Mississippi River, just some river ice that has founds it's way down into the Twin Cities area. I really like the pieces of ice that have smashed on top of another, but then have frozen in place to form a solid piece of ice. The shadows are from a lift bridge.

The Saint Paul Hotel

Night time view of the Saint Paul Hotel building. It is the building with the lights around the edge of the roof line and all of the lights on in the penthouse level.
 

My Daily Photo Favorites: New York, New York | Cape Town, South Africa | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Larchmont, New York

Happy Valentines Day Al & Rae

I received a call from my father back in January of this year saying his cousin Rae Kupferschmidt had a massive brain hemorrhage, that she had been taken off life support, and she was brought home to die. He then said he would pass along the funeral information when he knew it. About two weeks later, I get a call from my dad once again about Rae's condition. With a strange sound in his voice, he says that she's alive and has started to make a recovery. The doctors were astounded by her recovery since they declared her "brain dead". The also said "He's never seen anything like it and that there must be some special something coming from somewhere to have turned this around so dramatically."

Yesterday, Al brought Rae home once again, alive and well this time. Rae has been interviewed by Channels 4, 5, 9, and 11 [local stations] and Good Morning America, plus several newspapers. Rae's Good Morning America interview will air Thursday morning at some point during the show. One of the news reports, I heard them say this story has gotten the worlds attention. Amazing!

Now that's a Valentine story. To learn more about Rae and her story, there are articles and videos in the links below:

Stillwater Gazette [article]
KARE 11 [article & video]
KSTP 5 [article and video]
KMSP 9 [article & video]
WDFL 4 [article & video]

Frosting Covered Branches

One of the beauties of winter is the collection of snow on things, nature, bicycles, lawn chairs, anything out in the open is fair game for the snow falling. This tree is a very good example. One thing of note, the snow that has collected on the trees had fallen about 36 hours prior to taking this photo. Yeah, you ask? Well, the sun did come out, there was very little wind, to my surprise, there is this much snow still left on the branches. Typically if you don't get outdoors and take your photos shortly after the storm has passed, you've missed your opportunity.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Munich, Germany | Memphis, Tennessee | Saratoga Springs, New York | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Chicago, Illinois

The River Ice Is Alive

Once a month us city photo bloggers have a theme day, back in December 2007, our theme day was bridges. I posted a photo of the high bridge that crosses the Mississippi River from the West Side neighborhood into the West End Neighborhood. That was not my first choice of the bridge I wanted to take a photo of. Today's photo was what I had in mind for the December theme day, but it was so darn windy and cold that night, that the cold temperatures got the best of me. Yes, I was a tad under dressed for the night air.

I've posted several photos from this area, but this is my first while standing on the downtown St Paul side of things, plus at night. The house you see is the Minnesota Boat Club. It is located on Raspberry Island. The bridge you see, is the Wabasha Street Bridge looking south towards the West Side Neighborhood. I do really like how the ice appears to be creeping down the flowing river waters. Trust me, it was well froze over and not moving to my eye.
Camera Settings: ISO 80, f/2.8, 1.6 sec

My Daily Photo Favorites: Little Rock, Arkansas | New York, New York | Budapest, Hungary | Paris, France | Juneau, Alaska | Stockholm, Sweden | Austin, Texas | New Orleans, Louisiana | Guelph, Canada | Naples, Florida

Almost A Snow Day

While we are known for our snowy winters here in Minnesota, we've actually been spared from many snow storms this winter season. I took this photo back in mid to late December. It was the last time we've really had a snow storm to brag about. Since then however, we've had some of the coldest temperatures and wind chills since the early 1970's. The weather folk predicted -35 to -40 F for wind chills with an air temperatures of around -15 F. Back about five years ago, they changed the formula for wind chill. Now according to what I heard on the radio yesterday, if we were under the old formula, they would have said the wind chill was -60 to -70 F. They hadn't predicted temperatures that cold since the early 1970's.

Let me tell you this, I did make my way out into the brutally cold and windy night. If you read yesterday's post about the Wolfpack hockey game. When I left the stadium and made my way to my car , I thought my face was going to freeze! The wind, oh my the wind was bone chilling cold last night. Now the funny part was, I started my car and the DJ on the radio was saying that the people who believe in global warming must live in warm climate areas and have not lived through a Minnesota winter like tonight. I couldn't disagree with his line of thinking.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Quincy, Massachusetts | Budapest, Hungary | Larchmont, New York | Glasgow, Scotland | Torun, Poland | Sitka, Alaska

Minnesota Hockey Day 2008

Yesterday, March 9, 2008 was the first annual Minnesota Hockey Day. The entire state celebrates the sport of hockey from the pee wee leagues all the way to the professionals. The biggest game of the day in my opinion was held in Baudette, Minnesota, which is very far away from me. What was special about this game was it was an official high school hockey game played outdoors. This is the second year of the outdoor game and it's probably what sparked the Minnesota Hockey Day idea. While I didn't attend the game in Baudette, me and my family did attend a high school hockey game held in my city of Cottage Grove. The Park Wolfpack matched up against Mounds View Mustangs. One special thing about the game was I have a cousin that plays for the Varsity team for Mounds View. Unfortunately he was scratched from the game or he has an injury, I really was unsure why he didn't play. He was in street cloths for this game. The Mustangs did look sharp tonight as they crushed the Wolfpack by a score of 7-0.

  

Old Seventh Street

What you're looking at is now called Seventh Place. Where I am standing for the photo is officially called Old Seventh Street. At one point in time, there was a street running straight through Seventh Place. I don't know the exact year, but it was sometime in the 1980's the city planners moved Seventh Street over one block to Eight Street. I vaguely recall this event in time as I was rather young at the time. My suspect is they wanted to widen the road, while at the same time preserve this very part of downtown St Paul. It was at one time a thriving theater district. I had recalled this stretch of town as an abandon area of St Paul. I can still picture the theater sign that was here at in the past. Don't know what it was called off the top of my head, but it was there. The surrounding buildings had many broken windows and frankly this area made me a bit nervous to walk through.

Today however, it has been resurrected into a thriving business area of St Paul. The arch you see has to be about five years old at least. It's very new to my eyes. I will say, one block straight ahead they also build a couple of very tall buildings. Perhaps they moved Seventh Street to make way for the new buildings. Which ever the case, I welcome improved site and I applaud the city planners for their incite to preserve this small stretch of downtown. There are now many businesses that call this their home.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Montego Bay, Jamaica | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Torun, Poland | Durban, South Africa | New York, New York | Terrell, Texas

Window Of Opportunity

Another view of the St Paul Athletic Club building from yesterday's post. The building was finished in 1917 and the craftsmanship that went into the building shows the beauty of the building in these windows. The top arch of the window sill stand out the most. I'm curious if there was ever anything placed in the circles of the arches. Then you'll notice the large pillars between the pairs of windows. Also something that looks like it could have been a railing at the bottom of each window. It looks like something belongs there. Now back to the top of the arches, above them all of the bricks you see laid side to side and you only see the butt end of the bricks. Very unique design. Why the small diamond shape between the window arches? So much work went into the windows alone on this building.

My Daily Photo Favorites: London, UK | Minneapolis, MN | Sitka, Alaska | Las Vegas, Nevada

St Paul Athletic Club

Yesterday marks my final photo from the St Paul Winter Carnival. I am however, still posting a photo from the St Paul area. The build your see with the mural on the side is the St Paul Athletic Club building. It was finished being built in 1917, it has 14 floors and is mainly residential from what I've been reading. Though this is a distance photo and I can't really tell for sure, but it appears that some of the windows on the top floors are broken. It could be reflection shadows, but if they are broken, this photo was taken in the winter and I couldn't imagine those floors are in use.

Excluding the mural, do you see the smiling face somewhere in the photo?

Ice Melts Above 32 Degrees Fahrenheit

As I mentioned earlier in the week in regards to this weeks ice carvings I've been posting, the day after they carved the blocks of ice, it warmed above the freezing point for about 36 hours. This caused havoc with the spectacular creations as you can see in the two photos I've posted today. You can sort of make out what some of the carvings are. All of the details are gone and pieces have fallen to the ground. Yet there are a couple ice carvings that I have no idea what it could have been. Despite the melting that has taken place, I really like the way these photos turned out with all of the lights on the trees, the colors the ice blocks are with the lights reflecting. Next year I'll try to get out there on the first night just in case there are warm temperatures once again.

Frosty The Ice Man

Another frozen delight from the St Paul Winter Carnival ice carvings in Rice Park.

Frozen Fish

This aquatic vertebrae gives new meaning to the cold blooded spices. This frozen wonder is on the right side of yesterday's grand ice carving display which can be seen in Rice Park during the St Paul Winter Carnival.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Terrell, Texas | Montego Bay, Jamaica | Maple Ridge, Canada | Sesimbra, Portugal | Prague, Czech Republic | Delta, Colorado

Saint Paul Winter Carnival

One of my personal favorite times of the winter season is the two weeks of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival held each year for the past 122 years. Last week I posted a few photos from the Snow Sculpture contest. This week will be some of the creations made from blocks of ice. I only have a few of them because the day after the blocks of ice were carved, the temperatures soared above the freezing point for about 36 hours. There was a lot of melting during this period and by the time I was able to make it to the carvings of ice, they were not that recognizable. My guess is the event organizers had to recreate this welcome to the winter carnival creation. You'll know what I mean later in the week when I posted a photo of the half melted ice creations.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Naples, Florida | Boston, Massachusetts | Terrell, Texas | Wroclaw, Poland | Pasadena, California

Theme Day: When People Think Of My city, They Think Of

Surprisingly, the theme for the month of February was a challenge for me. I'm currently living in Cottage Grove, it just wasn't going to work for the theme day. Unless I posted a photo of the Cottage View Drive In theater, but I've posted many photos of it already. Instead I selected the city I was born in, grew up in, and know like the back of my hand, the Capital City of Minnesota: Saint Paul. While this photo is no where near as creative as I like to be for the theme day, I was out and about in temperatures of about 5 F degrees above.

What you are looking at is the State Capital building of Minnesota take from the walkway to the front side of the building. I felt it was a fitting photo for the theme day as it is often said that St Paul is the Capital City of Minnesota.

There are many more cities participating in today's theme day photo. Please stop by their photo sites and say hello. Let them know that Slinger from Twin Cities Daily Photo sent you. Do give everyone around the world a chance for their timezones differences to see all of the city photos.


Portland (OR), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Memphis (Tennessee), USA - Manila, Philippines - San Diego (CA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - New York City (NY), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - San Francisco (CA), USA - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - Mainz, Germany - Weston (FL), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Turin, Italy - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Bicheno, Australia - Durban, South Africa - Joplin (MO), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Brussels, Belgium - Chicago (IL), USA - Montpellier, France - Seattle (WA), USA - Mazatlan, Mexico - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Toulouse, France - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Susanville (CA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Helsinki, Finland - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Lisbon, Portugal - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Trujillo, Peru - Dunedin (FL), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - London, UK - Baziège, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mumbai, India - Naples (FL), USA - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Setúbal, Portugal - Stayton (OR), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Arradon, France - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Athens, Greece - Austin (TX), USA - Singapore, Singapore - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Jackson (MS), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Budapest, Hungary - Rotterdam, Netherlands - St Malo, France - Chandler (AZ), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Cleveland (OH), USA - Nottingham, UK - Kansas City (MO), USA - The Hague, Netherlands - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Wrocław, Poland - Chateaubriant, France - Cheltenham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Monrovia (CA), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Toruń, Poland - Grenoble, France - Lisbon, Portugal - New Orleans (LA), USA - Sydney, Australia - Boston (MA), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Wichita (KS), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Christchurch, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Wailea (HI), USA - Aliso Viejo (CA), USA - St Francis, South Africa - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Seattle (WA), USA - Pasadena (CA), USA - Vienna, Austria - Orlando (FL), USA - Torun, Poland - Delta (CO), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Paris, France - Stavanger, Norway - Niamey, Niger - Le Guilvinec, France - Bogor, Indonesia - Saarbrücken, Germany - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Juneau (AK), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Glasgow, Scotland - Chicago (IL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Sydney, Australia - Riga, Latvia - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Terrell (TX), USA - Terrell (TX), USA - Inverness (IL), USA