Selling Sno-Cones at the Beach

Mississippi bluffs

We've wanted to visit southeastern MN for quite a while, and finally got a start in that direction yesterday. We drove along the Mississippi River southward to Red Wing, and then along the scenic drive around Lake Pepin. What readers "from here" know (but I did not) is that Lake Pepin is not actually a lake but a widening of the river into lake-like proportions. It is several miles wide and twenty-something miles long. But readers might not know how it was formed: when the Chippewa River, which runs at a steeper gradient than the Mississippi, joins the latter, the Mississippi doesn't have enough velocity to carry all the sediment from the Chippewa southward. These particles fall out of suspension and have formed a huge sandbar that has essentially dammed the Mississippi.

I do like knowing these bits of natural history.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, like September: cool in the shade, warm in the sun, crisp and dry. Lake Pepin was beautiful - slight riffs in the water, lots of sailboats, ringed by wooded bluffs that look sort of like the mountains at Acadia National Park in Maine (containing North America's only fjord). Those who call Lake Pepin Minnesota's answer to Lake Lucerne are perhaps going a little too far but it's a beautiful area and well worth the drive. We took our time, stopped for lunch and shopping and postcard-writing, read lots of historical plaques, and it took us eight hours - a pleasant day trip that could be extended or shortened depending on the travellers' inclinations.

Today is beautiful and warmer. We might try another (shorter) trip. It seems a shame not to enjoy this flourish of gorgeous summer days.