Hope's Travel Blog

Thankfully, the weather was beautiful on Sunday, so I was able to do some hiking. I spent about two hours hiking up, around, and on top of Barn Bluff. Barn Bluff is that gigantic geological formation that sits between the highway and the river when you drive through Red Wing. It rises about 350 feet above the river and town.

I hit all but one of the trails - the Midland trail. I went out on the North trail and saw three groups of rock climbers trying to scale the cliffs. I also saw a hawk, or some other bird of prey while hiking the trail.

The North trail gives you views of the river and of Wisconsin. Once you make it around to the west end of the bluff, you can see over the entire town of Red Wing. There used to be a set of stairs that ran up the bluff from Red Wing, but they were removed when the highway was constructed. Some of them are still there and some have been repurposed at the trail head.

Instead of taking the South trail back, I decided to walk the Prairie trail, which follows the ridge of the bluff. It's a wonderful trail. There are moments when you can see to either side of the bluff. The picture below was taken at the very end of the trail at the eastern scenic point. I imagine this trail is fantastic in late summer when the prairie is blooming.

One note about the trail, there are unmarked footpaths that should only be followed by the very brave, or by people in a group. I followed one for a while and had to turn back. It ran along a very narrow path along the bottom of the ridge, right before a big cliff. There is nothing to catch you if you stumble on a rock and fall. I made it up to the point where the trail descends down a rock face. Being by myself and not much of a dare-devil, I thought the better of it and went back to the marked trail. It's been a long time since a trail gave me the willies like that. The last time was in Utah, hiking in Canyonlands. We had packs on our backs and had to turn toward the rock face and shimmy across a slick rock face that was a sheer 30 foot drop to rocks below. Shiver!

Posted by Hope L. Johnson at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

St. Paul has it's statues of Peanuts characters. Red Wing has it's statues of Red Wing shoes. This one was inside the train depot in Red Wing, but there are several all around town. The shoes are to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the manufacturing company, which started in 2005.

Posted by Hope L. Johnson at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Why do I love fancy hotels so much? I haven't been at many, but the ones I've been at are just fantastic. Maybe it's because I can pretend I'm another person, someone who doesn't have to vacuum up dog hair every other day and do laundry.

The St. James Hotel was build in 1875. All of the rooms are decorated with antique furniture. The picture below shows the bed in my room as well as the hand-made quilt, which was removed and put on a quilt rack after the turn-down service. That's right, turn-down service. They turned-down the bed, left me chocolates, and a little card with tomorrow's forcast. The front desk even called me and asked how I liked the room and if I needed anything. I, of course, mentioned that I needed dinner reservations, which she made. Magic.

I had some time before dinner, so I wandered around the shops in the hotel and around downtown Red Wing. (Fact: The name of the town comes from the dyed red feather that was the symbol of the Mdewankanton Sioux who were the first people to live in this region. Now it's the familiar symbol of Red Wing shoes.) The hotels shops had a gift shop where I bought some bath salts and a good, cheap mystery. It was dark when I started walking around downtown, so there wasn't much to see. There were several coffee shops, antique shops and other places to spend money at near the hotel. (Fact: Red Wing was the largest primary wheat market in the world around the time the St. James was built.) I imagine the town looks a lot different during the daylight.

Dinner was scrumptious. It had to be. It cost me $56. After dinner - dessert and coffee, of course - I stumbled up to my room. Well, not stumbled, just walked slowly up three flights of stairs. I guess two glasses of wine were too much for me.

Now, back in my room, I'm using my free WiFi and watching cable TV. Good Eats, no less. I don't have cable at home and one of the shows that I miss is Good Eats. It's like heaven here.

Posted by Hope L. Johnson at 04:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We really didn't find a name for the street shown in the photo below. It was taken during our 24-hour photo crawl of the Twin Cities. This was actually snapped in St Paul, just a few blocks away from Summit Avenue, Ramsey Hill, and the James J. Hill house. How many stop signs do you count?

One other question, if you didn't know that this photo was taken in St. Paul, where would you have said this street is? One person said Portugal. I've never been there, so I can't confirm this. I suspect that stop signs in Portugal don't have the word "Stop" on them.

Posted by Hope L. Johnson at 06:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's decided. I'm spending the weekend in Red Wing, MN. What will I do?

1. Swedish message. Never had one. Seems like it's time.
2. Stay in a fancy hotel. The St. James in the historic section.
3. Hang out in the bar. They have live music on Fridays and beer.
4. Shop. Antiques, Red Wing boots, Red Wing pottery... who could ask for anything more.
5. Cable TV.
6. Free WiFi
7. Hiking. It may not be the best weather but I'm climbing a bluff and viewing the river and you can't stop me.

Posted by Hope L. Johnson at 05:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)