HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: A taste of the supernatural….
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Leaving my Hostees-very emotional
WORD OF THE DAY: Minnie seems groovy…
I was up early this morning as I needed to make sure I had everything packed, shower and I wanted to upload a blog before I left for the airport. I have said this many times and thank goodness this is a labor of love is all I have to say again….. An early goodbye was also said to Joe as he left early to get down to the boat for 8am. Cheryl cooked a breakfast to end all breakfasts and as usual it was restaurant quality and I am so lucky I have had cooked brekkies at home all week. We told David that he needed to be at the apartment at 9am, arriving at 9.20am we were on the road at 9.35am. These guys, working for United Airlines wouldn’t have left till 10.15am, but I had to check my bags, probably fight with them over the 2 bags for free business and then get through security, so I pushed it for 9.30am as a departure time and this is probably the latest I have been at an airport for any flight ever, and I have seen a few of them in my travels that is for sure. There was hardly any traffic on the roads and we made it to the airport at 10am. My flight was ta 11.35am, so this was all going to plan, I was a little panicky as I normally allow more time, but it was only a domestic flight, so I should just settle petal. This was the hard part though saying goodbye. I hate goodbyes at the best of times (is there such a thing) but for some reason I had a frog in my throat and tears in my eyes as I hugged, waved and hugged my friends Cheryl and David with promises of keeping in touch. We are actually quite good at that and I know we will see each other again in London. I tell them the dates that I am there (has to be Thursdays normally) and they work the London route that day, we have dinner and then they leave the next day back to Chicago. We caught up 3 times last year based on that and I know we could make at least one work for us when I get back to the UK in August. I was sad though and it is really hard to keep in touch and see people again on your travel but I have been very lucky and fortunate that I have been able to do this with a whole bunch of people and this you could never out a price on and is the ultimate travel experience. Making life-long friends. You all know who you are and I love every single one of you xx
So with a waving frenzy till David and Cheryl were out of sight I loaded up my bags and made my way to the self check-in machines. You really can’t check in any other way here in the States, they really want you using these machines. I was dreading the bag question from the machine as I wasn’t a ‘normal’ passenger as I was entitled to 2 bags but it didn’t even ask me how many bags I had, so at least I was going to be able to explain myself to an actual person as I was not going to pay for the second bag. There was hardly anyone at the airport, so all the processes were quick and when I go to the bag drop I told the check-in chick I had 2 bags and she weighed them both ( big bag was 46 pounds-phew and my little bag was 21 pounds) she said that would be 40USD. I gave her my e-ticket that showed 2 pieces and without a bat of an eyelid she did something on the computer and it was all fixed!!! Now that is customer service. She was really nice and asked about my trip and where I had been and wished me luck as I left the counter. Maybe she had just started work, check-in staff must get some right old pain in the arses with what people try and check-in, so I don’t envy that job at all. I did check with her that I would be okay to take my glass picture with me on the plane and she said it wouldn’t be a problem at all. So now I had my rolly bag, my handbag and a damn glass picture! Security was a breeze and I was checked in and past security within 20 minutes. I think for Chicago International Airport even that was a miracle as it is a massive airport. I would have expected it to be busier as it was a Saturday morning but I’m not complaining. The flight was delayed as our pilots were coming off another flight that was delayed, so we were all ready to go, we just didn’t have the drivers, but it was only 30 minutes and we saw them moving their booties quite fast when they arrived to our gate, so at least they weren’t dilly dallying and I was able to text Teegs to tell her so she didn’t have to wait more than needed at her side. We were flying on a MD83 with a seating configuration of 2x3. My glass picture fit no problems in the overhead bin and I just hoped that no-one would come along and drop a heavy bag on top of it. I was sitting at my usual window seat and when the doors shut we had a spare seat in the middle of the 3 seats, so I could spread my elbows and not have to fight anyone for the arm rest. Actually I am pretty good with that and don’t really use the arm rest, so when people take the arm rest as soon as they sit down I have to smile as they don’t have to fight me for it as I rarely use it anyway.
The flight time from Chicago to Minneapolis was 58 minutes. Sometimes it takes longer to check-in and through security than what the actual flight takes. Whether you fly for 45 minutes our 14 hours it is all the same procedure. President Obama had arrived in the night before and as we were taxing to our runway, we could see Airforce One parked a little ways away from plebsville. I tried to take a photo, but as I only had my little camera out the 10 digital zoom didn’t quite cut the mustard, but I did snap one anyway and I know what that plane is right! Pretty cool to say I’ve seen Airforce One. With an uneventful flight we arrived only 10 minutes late and with all my baggage collected I waited outside for Teegs so she didn’t have to pay for parking to collect me. The last time I saw Teegs was in 2010 in Canada when we all caught up with Amy and Kelly. We met initially on a Tucan Central America trip in 2009 and have stayed in touch ever since and we also caught up in New York as well. So it was nice to come to her town and see some of the sights that Minneapolis has to offer.
Minneapolis, nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City", is the the largest city in the state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States. Its name is attributed to the city's first schoolteacher, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with approximately 3.3 million residents. The city is abundantly rich in water, with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi river, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway. Among cities of similar densities, Minneapolis has the most dedicated parkland. It was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing the fifth highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. It has cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to the city for theater, visual art, writing, and music.
Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents until French explorers arrived around 1680. Nearby Fort Snelling, built in 1819 by the United States Army, spurred growth in the area. The United States government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people arriving from the east to settle there. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present day Minneapolis as a town on the Mississippi's west bank in 1856. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the east bank city of St. Anthony in 1872. Minneapolis grew up around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi. Millers have used hydropower elsewhere since the 1st century B.C. but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 were so remarkable the city has been described as "the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen." In early years, forests in northern Minnesota were the source of a lumber industry that operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes, and planning wood. The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the city's thirty-four flour mills where Pillsbury and General Mills became processors. By 1905, Minneapolis delivered almost 10% of the country's flour and grist. At peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for twelve million loaves of bread each day. During the 1950s and 1960s, as part of urban renewal, the city razed about two hundred buildings across twenty-five city blocks—roughly 40% of downtown, destroying the Gateway District and many buildings with notable architecture including the Metropolitan Building. Efforts to save the building failed but are credited with jump starting interest in historic preservation in the state.
The region is second only to New York City in live theater per capita and is the third-largest theater market in the U.S. after New York and Chicago. The city is home to Minnesota Fringe Festival, the United States' largest non-juried performing arts festival. The Walker Art Center, one of the big five modern art museums in the U.S., sits atop Lowry Hill, near downtown. It doubled its size with an addition in 2005 by Herzog & de Meuron and is continuing its expansion to 15 acres (6.1 ha) with a park designed by Michel Desvigne across the street from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Prince studied at the Minnesota Dance Theatre through the Minneapolis Public Schools. The son of a jazz musician and a singer, Prince is Minneapolis' most famous musical progeny. Minneapolis is America's third-most literate city. A center for printing and publishing, Minneapolis was a natural place for artists to build Open Book, the largest literary and book arts center in the U.S., made up of the Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Milkweed Editions, sometimes called the country's largest independent nonprofit literary publisher. The center exhibits and teaches both contemporary art and traditional crafts of writing, papermaking, letterpress printing and bookbinding.
After dropping off my bags at Teegs funky apartment (great looking bachelorette pad) we headed to a supermarket called Whole Foods Market to get some lunch supplies we could take to the park and catch up as it was a beautiful day out. It was a funky supermarket (getting an impression Minnie maybe a funky kind of town already) that claims they’re the world’s leader in natural and organic foods, with more than 310 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. They seek out the finest natural and organic foods available, maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry, and have an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture. The search for the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural foods possible because they believe that food in its purest state — unadulterated by artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food there is. There were plenty of tastings available so we made our way around the store trying all the tastings and really if we had of got more than one sample there would have been no need to buy any lunch and we could have filled up on all the samples!!! I can attest the samples were pretty amazing and with our stock of sushi, corn chips, a salsa and guacamole (that we tasted so it works) and 10 mini cupcakes and a 6 pack of beer we walked to a nearby park that faced the lake. So this is where we found ourselves for the next 2 hours just catching up with everything. Tegan has been a faithful blog reader, so some of the tales I was telling she knew a little about already from the blog so I was able to then give her some insider details that weren’t for everyone to read and we went back and forth of our lives for the last 12 months. Talk about a catch up of all catch ups, but we got there and it was nice to be up to date and talk about my relationship with Zeme and all that has happened in such a short time.
We headed home at 5pm, Teegs had a friend, Jenny, meeting us at her place at 6.30pm and then we were heading into Minneapolis for a drink and then heading next door for our Ghost Tour that Teegs had booked for us. We went to a bar next door to where the ghost tour was leaving from and they had tea infused alcoholic drinks. It seems everyone here in Minnie has to be carded (have ID), no matter what your age is and Teegs had forgotten to mention that I needed to bring ID with me. As I didn’t bring my passport and I know I didn’t bring my credit card holder that had my Australian license it was looking a little like I may only be having a soda rather than an alcoholic beverage. After tipping my entire purse contents out on the bar I found a photocopy of my passport which only just got me through the strict regulations and I was able to have an alcoholic beverage. I tried the earl grey vodka and it was delicious so I had another one and it was just as good. Nothing like a bit of a buzz before heading onto the ghost tour. The ghost tour started at 8pm to visit the others side. What secrets do these 19th century limestone walls hold? What lies beneath today's bustling Mill City? We were given a ‘ghost bag’ of ghostly instruments that we could use during the tour. There was a torch, an EMF reader and spirit sticks. You know all the tools of the ghost spotting trade. I don’t think I have ever seen a ghost before. I believe I may have seen some form of UFO when I was a child with my mum driving from Humpty Doo back to Darwin late one night, which is basically one long stretch of road without lights (at the time). But I can’t say I’ve seen a ghost. Not to say I don’t believe in them, my mind is open, but never had a sighting. After a small presentation about the building, ghosts and information it was time to set off in search of some supernatural. There were around 20 of us on the tour and there were 3 real ghost hunters that took us on an expedition into the city's shadow lands, to meet the colorful characters of bygone days, where technology, theater, and a bit of the supernatural bring lingering souls to life. Their slogan is to touch, and be touched by, the past ... if you dare. Maybe it's the location on the shores of the fabled Mississippi or our long winter nights by a flickering fire. Perhaps it is the history of native tribes whose Spirit Island once rose from the river and has now disappeared forever. Or the legacy of fortune seekers who flocked to the area in the 1800s, some of whom found the wealth they sought and many of whom died trying. For over three centuries, men, women, and children with hopes, fears, and dreams have lived and died here. But their stories—and perhaps their spirits—remain. Nowhere is their existence more felt than in the oldest parts of the city, along the river where Spirit Island once stood. This is the site of the original St. Anthony Falls, which drew engineers and entrepreneurs, loggers and lumber pirates, saloonkeepers, floozies, and scoundrels of every stripe. Today, it is still the site of some of the city's most historic buildings and, allegedly, its best-known ghosts. High-tech ghost hunters and spiritualists alike attest to their continued presence—the weeping Ojibway woman, the lost children, the Wolfman of Nicollet Island, the builders, destroyers, homicides, and suicides. This is where, to this day, the ghost train runs where no tracks can be found. Below your feet, caverns, both natural and manmade, honeycomb the limestone and are home to strange things, also natural and manmade. This is no dry history lesson or haunted house, jack-in-the-box, gore-fest. Rather, it is a thoroughly researched dramatization, drawing on real legends and real history in the actual places in which the people lived and died, the events took place, and the ghosts have been seen. Today's most modern technology brings their stories to life in an indoor, outdoor, underground tour.
Our main tool was the EMF reader. An electromagnetic field (EMF) meter can detect fluctuations in the amount of electromagnetic energy in an area, and unusual fluctuations frequently indicate paranormal activity. Over the last few decades, as electronic devices and their fields have proliferated, the EMF meter has become an essential ghost-hunting tool for detecting paranormal disturbances. Have you experienced the strange, the unexplainable, and the paranormal? You are not alone. The supernatural still holds a powerful place in our world. The Real Ghost Tour has worked with medium, Kathleen Cotter and the West Metro Paranormal Society to examine evidence of real ghosts in the area, and employs the techniques of science to explore the spirit world. Our resident ghost hunter will show you how parapsychologists employ both ancient skills and modern technology to study the unknown. The tour was good. Am I believer now? I’m not sure. Yes hairs stood up on my arm, yes my EMF reader went nuts when we entered the cellar and one of the ghost hosts asked questions and with yes no answers with my EMF reader answering from apparently the spirit that was there. Jenny’s EMF reader seemed to be going nuts downstairs and it really didn’t stop flashing the whole time which was also a little freaky, like her spirit was following her the whole time. When we were upstairs a torch was turned on and off on its own accord. It only happened once, but at the back of my mind was that the ghost hosts could always probably do these themselves with all sorts of gadgets these days but they seemed so passionate when they were telling stories and I really wanted to believe them. At one point they were asking if there was a loved one that the ghosts wanted to speak to or had a message from and as silly as it sounds I really thought they were going to say Ruth, my mum’s name, but it didn’t come and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I went in with an open your mind and left with more questions than answers and is there really a supernatural world out there and did I actually experience it tonight or was it all just a well-timed performance. I guess we will never know. The last thing I saw as I left the building: where every story has a ghost and every ghost has a story………
The tour finished at 10pm and we went back next door for a bite to eat and to work out what we were going to do for the rest of the evening. I ordered for a started chips and guacamole and keep forgetting that chips here are like the Doritos here, packet chips and the chips that I wanted are called fries here. It is the 3rd time it has happened and I am always a little disappointed when I get the packet variety. This is the last time now though; I need to order ‘fries’. After we had all eaten it was nearly 11pm and I had to nip the gals in their plans and told them I felt totally wiped. I was so tired and it wasn’t like my flight was super early this morning and asked if they would think me a party pooper if we just headed home. Teegs looked a little relived and Jenny had church in the morning so it actually worked out okay and it just took some-one to take the step in the hope that that person didn’t look like a Debbie Downer. Even with that all settle we still didn’t get to bed till just before 1am.
Welcome to Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota.
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