Bike ride across Minneapolis

A beautiful start to the day!

I stopped to snap a few pictures yesterday on a bike ride I took to and from a breakfast meeting in St. Paul.  What a dramatically different feeling it was riding a bike through picturesque parts of town, versus driving in traffic on the freeway.  It was also a nice bonus to get in a workout over the course of 32 miles!

Downtown Minneapolis

Old Linden  Hills train depot
along Cedar Lake bike trail

Scenic overlook of Mississippi River
and Minneapolis from St. Paul

Park sculpture

Martin Olav Sabo bike bridge 

over Hiawatha Avenue 

Bicycle "freeway" into town

Cedar Lake Trail looking west
from Theodore Wirth Pkwy.

Trail by Target Field 

I rode the newly completed Cedar Lake Bicycle Trail down to the Mississippi River.  What a wonderful bikeway! It was great to see so may riders out on a Thursday morning. Dozens were dressed in Twins wear, likely headed for the noon baseball game at Target Field.  
    
An article in the StarTribune, Bike Path Connects St. Louis Park to the Mississippi River, discusses the trail.  With the construction of the new downtown Twin's Baseball stadium (Target Field) the final cost of the last mile of the trail skyrocketed to $9 million dollars.  This generated considerable angst among some who feel that spending tax dollars on anything other than roads for cars, war, police and prisons is extravagant and wasteful.  

Rider entering Cedar Lake Trail
from nearby Mississippi River

Mighty Mississippi River at trail end

    
Seems a great thing, doesn't it, to have fewer people on the roads and more folks getting exercise? One little guy I passed appeared to be biking with his grandpa to the baseball game.  He complained of a sore butt.  Other than that, lots of smiles on the faces of the bikers, who ranged in age from about 5 to 80.  Fun to even see some families biking together.