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I had the day off today, so I decided a little adventure was in order. The day started off with my customary morning coffee. Today, the choice was Starbuck’s Ethiopia blend topped off with a heavy dose of cream of course!

The adventure began with a trip to the Barnes & Noble at the good ole’ Mall of America…can you believe that is the closet mall to where I live? I am excited to say that I bought a book titled “Urban Forests”…my interest in trees specifically is relatively new, but has been developed out of other ecological and earth friendly interests.

My interest in trees specifically was re-ignited the other night while watching the History Channel and a documentary on Easter Island and the history of it. I had no idea that the island had been densely populated with beautiful vegetation in the past. That coupled with my interest in climate change, the human carbon footprint and the fact that trees help to combat the greenhouse effect and climate change…which is real BTW–, led to this sparked interest…I suspect that my life will be forever changed and as well as the world because of this purchase.

I will definitely let you know my thoughts on the book as I work my way through it.

On to the next adventure…which was a trip to Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis.

The Falls is very close to where I currently reside and where I grew up. I am unsure why I not taken more advantage of visiting the falls and the park in the past. It is amazing, vast and full of opportunity for exploration and adventure. So, I headed over to the park after my trip to the MOA was complete.

There are many places to park once you get to the park…there are parking lots, and meters on the street, so today parking was not an issue. The park is large, so depending on what you plan to do, you may want to scout out the parking lot options ahead of time. On a warm summer day, I suspect that parking would be much tougher to find. It would be a neat idea to take the Blue Line light rail and get off on the 50th Street platform and walk from there. I will have to try that during the summer.

I started out on the west side of the park near the Minnehaha Platform and made my way northeast towards the falls. The photo above is the actual falls taken just south of them on the path overlooking them right along Minnehaha Creek. There were barriers on the the steps to go down to where the people in the photos are because of the incredible ice buildup, so I followed the rules and appreciated the falls from above. I do suspect that those folks did capture some amazing photographs down there though!

I then made my way through the park towards the north and east. I saw a couple of beautiful cardinals and some very busy squirrels along the way. As I wandered about I double backed toward the creek just shy of the Minnesota Veterans Home building site. Down in the valley, there were no barriers to the creek and walking along the creek was very peaceful. I came across several bridges that crossed the water and all the vantage points were wonderful and calming as the water is not quite as powerful down in that area.

I made my south along river and had a couple of interesting encounters on my way. i encountered a large population of robins bustling about in one specific low lying area about 20 feet from the river. Needless to say, I do not think they were very excited for me to interrupt them…as they scattered every which way as I came near them.  As I passed the robin crew, I came across a young couple setting up their hammock right over the creek…very risky I would say, but I bet it was amazingly peaceful.

I made my way back home shortly after my encounter with the “hammockers” as the path had ended…they were snuggled into their hammock by the time I passed them the second time. I re-passed the robins a short bit later and this time though they seemed too busy to be bothered by me and kept singing and carrying on with their day.

I had a wonderful day…I will go back at some point for more adventure!!