Finding Fall

Candy: We found fall today. It exists everywhere in Minnesota.

We took another road trip today, this time to Stillwater and the St. Croix River area. We were hoping to find lots of colorful trees, maybe see a bunch of pumpkins or an apple orchard, and mostly just experience the river valley area and the blue skies.

We forgot it was Saturday.

It seemed that everyone else in the state had the same idea, so we decided to forego the pumpkins and apples in favor of exploring both the Minnesota and Wisconsin sides of the St. Croix River from Stillwater to Taylors Falls on the Minnesota side and from Osceola to Houlton on the Wisconsin side.

We had hoped to spend some time at Taylors Falls State Park, but it was so jam-packed that we couldn't even find a parking spot. Instead, we headed back south a few miles to the Franconia sculpture park.

Some local artists have built quite an unusual collection of sculpture out of scrap metal and other found objects and the sculptures are installed in a field with grass trails leading to each of the pieces. I was looking for abstracts today, and so unfortunately I can't show you any pictures of the actual pieces, with one exception (below). The sky was amazing today.

One sculpture was especially interesting. It was named "Lost" and was a chicken-wire fence maze with a concave reflective piece installed at the end of the maze. Tim and I had fun posing above it while I snapped away.

This is a view inside a sculpture that featured several giant balls made of curved wood inside an old, stripped-down Airstream camper.

This piece was a stucco-covered lath and wire tower. I liked the mix of textures, color, and cloud.

This unusual piece was all cast iron, and I liked the way the curlique sort of framed the tree in the distance.

My mother's family is from the Houlton area, just across the bridge from Stillwater, and I haven't been there for many years.

Stillwater seems to have undergone quite a rejuvenation in its downtown and although it was way too packed with cars and people today to really stop and take anything more than a snapshot, here's a glimpse of part of the downtown. A lovely little town.

Late in the afternoon as we traveled back to Albany, we stopped at Achman Lake near the town of St. Joseph, which is just southeast of Albany. This little lake can be seen from I-94 and is ringed with birch, poplar, and maple trees which are just beginning to show their fall brilliance.

Strangely enough, and yet not surprising to us given our recent history, what we were looking for today was really the best right close to where we are living.

We had a great day outide and I hope you did, too. I'll leave you with myriad fall images from my time at Achman Lake this afternoon. Enjoy.