Downtown St Paul Icon

I've featured the 1st National Bank building in a few shots during the past couple of years of the Twin Cities Daily Photo blog. For the city of St Paul, it is one of a few major, visual landmarks it offers.

Two Years Of Twin Cities Daily Photo

I'm a day late, but the Twin Cities Daily Photo has been active for two full years now. What started as a way to learn about my new digital camera has completed it's second year. Honestly my starting date had slipped my mind and I don't really have any special montage of my photos, but the photo I've chosen for this occasion is still one of my favorite photos I've taken so far. I am standing in Mounds Park in East St Paul overlooking downtown St Paul. There was a storm rolling in to the right of the frame at the time of the photo. This was also my first attempt at nighttime photography.

Close Up On The High Sky Way

Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche Update Series: Colorado win series 4-2

Look, Up In The Sky, It's A Skyway

A skyway? Way up there? Kind of odd, don't you think?

The North Counterweight

The rail road counterweight mechanism as seen from the Robert Street Bridge.

My Daily Photo Favorites: returning soon....

Interesting Links Of the Day: March Madness | Blank Bracket | Printable Bracket

Where The Sidewalk Ends

Looks a bit deserted on the Saturday I took this photo. I'm looking west on Kellogg Boulevard.

This is also my 600th post.

My Daily Photo Favorites: returning soon....

All Day On Sundays

Park Free 4:30 PM to 8:00 AM Daily and all day on Sunday's and Holidays. Now that's a bargain. At least it is if your parking downtown St Paul.

Things Are Looking Up

I'm standing on the sidewalk of 4th Street and Minnesota Street in downtown St Paul. As I look up, I see the 1st National Bank building. If you look in my logo I created at the top of this website, that building with the large "1" on it is the building I'm talking about. From this vantage point, it's all but gone. I'm really curious why they built this building with the large center piece missing? Was it build this way to use more natural light for those with inside office rooms? Was it a cost savings thing? Was it one of the towers added at a later date? The other side of the building is completely flat and does not mirror this side of the unique look.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Terrell, Texas | Stayton, Oregon | Mazatlan, Mexico | Regina, Canada | St Barthélemy, France | Paris, France

View From The Green Stairs Revisited

Back in April of 2007, I posted a daytime photo from this very location. I never thought it would make for a night time location to take a photo from. After looking at the results, I'm more than pleased with the results. The downtown you are looking at is St Paul. Not sure if you can make it out, but if you follow the street, across the bridge, you'll see a small white pointed dome, that is our State Capital Building. These green stairs are on the bluff of the West Side neighborhood.

 

Landmark Sighting

The world famous, Mickey's Diner in downtown St Paul.

Change Directions

They turned part of the road in downtown St Paul into a skating rink. I was very surprised to see this when I took a walk downtown over the weekend. To my right is Land Mark Center. The brick building in straight ahead is The St Paul Hotel, straight down the sidewalk you would run into Rice Park and then the library to give the locals an idea where this is if you haven't seen it. It was a bit chaotic watch everyone skate. There were couples skating in opposite directions, people spinning in circles, people standing still just talking, and a couple kids chasing each other. I was waiting around waiting for people to crash into each other, but it never happened while I was there. If you're going to be nearby, throw your skates in the car.

  

My Daily Photo Favorites: Quincy, Massachusetts | Barton, Vermont | St Paul, Minnesota

Interesting Links Of the Day: The Best Notable Quotables of 2007 - The 20th Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting | Mother Nature At It's Finest | Japanese IQ Test

December's Drive By Shooting

Whole City On Fire

I was reading the comments left by Fenix of Boston Daily Photo and had to laugh. He said yesterdays photo looks like the whole city was on fire. Throw in the smoke, I understand exactly what he is talking about. Today's photo is no different. It's from the same location as yesterdays and was actually my intended bridge that I was going to post a photo of. My intent was to take a photo of the Wabasha Street Bridge, from the High Bridge looking over the Mississippi River and getting a great reflection from the bridge lights. Well, the river was partly frozen and I thought I was dressed warm enough, but I was not and had to leave the High Bridge sooner than I wanted to because of the winds blowing across the bridge.

As I left the High Bridge, I took a quick photo of the bridge I left and that became my daily photo selection. I took this photo of the Wabasha Bridge from the bluff, but didn't use it as a bridge photo because will all of the scenery, I thought the bridge became lost in all of the city lights.

Too much information?

Cold And Windy Night

Another photo from my cold Friday evening series, about a mile from the theme day bridge photo, I snapped this photo of the "smoke factory". Actually it's an energy producing plant that spews non-toxic steam. The steam is there all year round, even on warm days, thus it's known as the "smoke factory". f/5.6 - 4.0 sec - iso 400

My Daily Photo Favorites: New York, New York | Montreal, Canada | Selma, North Carolina

Interesting Links Of the Day: Space Weather | Uranium Ore from Amazon [you have to read the comments] | Congratulations, you've made it

Broken Glass, Every Where

Okay, glass isn't everywhere, but there is a pile of it there in the parking lot. $7.00 dollars for all day parking. Why does this seam very low priced for downtown parking in Minneapolis?

Minneapolis Squares

I'm not exactly sure which building this is in downtown Minneapolis, but I really liked all of the squares in the building. I didn't realize it at the time, but the antennas you can see in the bottom left corner belong to a local television station.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Minneapolis, Minnesota | Montego Bay, Jamaica | New York, New York

Interesting Links Of the Day: What Happens Behind The Scenes | Eye Trickery | Flat 360 degree panoramic photos

Lines And Angles And Sky, Oh My

I really like this photo, the contrasting colors, the building detail. Mainly I like that the two roof lines of the buildings in the background have the exact same roof angle as the green roof does. Your thoughts?

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
Zurich, Switzerland - a must see!
New York, New York
Kyle, Texas

New And Old

Just before I posted today's photo taken near the farmers market in downtown St Paul, something stood out to me that hadn't occurred to me when I took the photo, nor when I processed it for adding to the site today. The front of the brick building is complete newer than the rear portion of the building. Which then brings to question, was the front of the building was refaced with the newer brick, or was it a completely new addition to the building? The brick color obviously doesn't even come close to a match.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Port Angeles, Washington
San Diego, California

I've Been Tagged

Another fun view of the Farmers Market in Downtown St Paul.

I've been TAGGED by Rambling Round of Selma, Alabama this past lazy Sunday. I've been asked to list eight random things about myself that you do not know and in turn, tag eight others to do the same.

My 8 Random Facts:
1. I've been out of the United States only two times. Both times to visit the country of Jamaica.
2. I will be traveling to Irving, Texas very soon.
3. I watch the TV show 'Survivor' with my wife and kids.
4. My senior year in high school, I received an A- in Chemistry, and a D+ in Algebra 2/Trig
5. I have been married for 13 years and loving everyday of it.
6. I work in the computer field.
7. My first car was a 1976 Mercury Cougar.
8. I like to dance with my wife.

I am tagging these 8 City Daily Photo Bloggers. [skip this if you've been tagged already]
1. Ann of Montego Bay, Jamaica
2. Chandlermom of Chandler, Arizona
3. Ben & Meg of Nelson, New Zealand
4. fenix of Boston, Massachusetts
5. Ming the Merciless of New York, New York
6. Bill of Delta, Colorado
7. Victoria of Joplin, Missouri
8. bwide of River Falls, Wisconsin

These are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

Hot Banana Peppers - $2.00 Per Tray

The other weekend we made a trip to the Farmers Market located in downtown St Paul. It was semi rainy day and couldn't do much photo taking. I had to limit the photos to under the shelter of the rain. Though we didn't purchase any of the peppers, the colors stood out for this photo. We did however buy some broccoli. My goodness it was delicious! I'd never tasted broccoli that tasted this good in my life, EVER! I'm not sure if it was a different kind of broccoli or that it was frozen, or bundled and sitting on a shelf in a grocery store. We'll be making another trip back just for some more broccoli.

If you read yesterday's comments, I was asked to give 8 random facts about myself from 'rambling round' of Selma, Alabama. I will honor this, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow evening as it's getting late tonight.

Windows Galore

Not The Red Roof In

This is historic Landmark Center, downtown St Paul. Believe it or not, over 18 years ago, I was dancing inside this building at a prom. It was my soon to be wife's prom at the time. Considering what this building was originally, for it to be used to host a prom many years later is, well, laughable.

I Want A Redo

I had hoped this photo would have turned out a tad better, or I'm being to critical today. I was waiting for a car to drive past me so I could get the lights in the photo. Back up on the river bridge, I waited, and waited, and waited. If you've been following along the past few days, the streets looked and were very deserted. Finally a car passed, I wasn't fully prepared. I set the camera down on my camera case, pressed the button and the two second delay had to elapse before the photo took. The photo is a bit crooked, if I straighten it, the tail lights go out of the picture. The photo is out of focus a bit because of the cars on the bridge shaking the camera, the tail lights are almost out of frame, the lighting is to bright in areas.

Straight Out Of A Hollywood Movie Set

From the same night I took the September Theme Day photo in Hastings, I walked a bit down the road and took this one using a garbage can as a tripod! Many of the comments mentioned the street looked deserted, [take another look at the September 1 photo and you'll see blurs of people on the sidewalks]. When I took this today's photo, there were no people in the shot and it looks even more deserted with very little cars in the photo.

He's Going The Distance

Can you see it? Way, way, way off in the distance....it is there....you may have to click the photo to make it larger, but it is there. See it now? Right there in the center? It's downtown Minneapolis and I'm headed north on Nicollet Avenue.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:

This Is Not An Exit

I've always liked this entrance to this building located in downtown St Paul. The pillars, just huge, massive, strength. When I took this photo some time ago, I never noticed the sign that says "Lofts" there in the bottom left corner. This used to be a restaurant called Leeann Chins, a very popular Twin Cities Asian food chain. I'd have to say they are not at this location any longer. I'll have to investigate it because I'm just not sure. The building was completed in 1923 and was originally the St Paul Union Depot. [photo of the building as it appeared in 1925] I'll have to do a follow up on this in the future....unless one of the local daily photo bloggers know of it's current status.

My 5 Daily Photo Favorites:
Kyoto, Japan
Newcastle, UK
Kajang, Malaysia
Nantes, France
Moscow, Russia

All Those Balconies, Not One In Use

It's shame, all of those great balconies on the Galtier Plaza Building and not one of them is being used. Granted, the sun is setting, but it is on the opposite side of the building. The people who live in this high rise must be visiting their neighbors on the west side of the building who face the sunset. That has to be the answer.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
Riga, Latvia
Madison, Wisconsin
Guelph, Ontario

Feared For My Life

Do you see them bikers in the photo that are in the photo on the walking path of the bridge? They almost ran me over!! There I was walking peacefully on the Freedom Bridge heading into downtown St Paul, when I hear this "On your right" yell from the leader of the bike gang. I had to step, I mean "jump" out of the way to save myself from a serious injury of a fast moving 10 speed. I swear as they passed, I heard one of them say to me, "hi" and nodded his head up and down. I was trembling in fear.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites
Riga, Latvia
Cheltenham, UK
Uptown Minneapolis, Minnesota

Parking Lot Before It Starts

Site of the Farmers Market in downtown St Paul. This was taken in the early spring, on a Sunday morning, before the market started for the season.

My 4 Daily Photo Favorites
Boston, Massachusetts
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Chicago, Illinois
Trier, Germany

Do You See One Building Or Two?

My first glance at this photo today, I saw one building with great detail, lines and tan brickwork. Then it looks like there was an addition to that building. It has tan brickwork, square windows shaped around the original building, and them made it blend together in sort of an old versus new mesh. A bit odd in the contrasts between the two, but overall it works together. Now look at the window from the top down, third row on the right. There is a top portion of a window sticking out of the roof. Now I see it, those are two buildings, two separate buildings, not one. hahaha! The build with the square windows is a Qwest building, I'm not sure what the building in the front is. Both are located in downtown St Paul around Rice Park.

My 5 Daily Photo Favorites:
Budapest, Hungary
Wroclaw, Poland
Nelson, New Zealand
Manila, Philippines
Cologne, Germany

The South Side From The West Side

As the title says, this photo is of the south side of downtown St Paul while I'm standing in the West Side neighborhood. Naturally, the West Side neighborhood is south of downtown St Paul. If you go east of downtown, you're in the East Side neighborhood. There is also a city named 'North St Paul', located north of St Paul. There is a city named 'West St Paul', that ironically is located south of the West Side neighborhood. However, south of 'West St Paul' is....drum roll....'South St Paul'. I'm not sure who created the names of the areas/cities south of downtown St Paul, but their compass was not pointing in a northerly direction. I know what you're wondering, what is the city directly west of St Paul? Naturally its, Minneapolis! This was a bit confusing writing this, I can only imagine you as the reader reading it and what you are thinking. Haha!

My Top 4 Daily Photo Favorites
Bastia, France - must see!
Zurich, Switzerland
Seattle, Washington
Stockholm, Sweden

Lid Transplant

The recently transplanted dome from the State Capital building was finally put in place at it's new home over the weekend. This successful transplant was performed by a local constructions company....

Okay wait a second, that might be stretching the truth a bit. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to see the top of the State Capital building in St Paul from where I was standing for this shot. There it was and I'll take it.

Now that spring has arrived, I've been trying to get more color into the photos I'm posting. When I've had to get my color photo fix over the winter I often visited Isabella's Daily Photo site down in Naples, Florida. The colors in nearly all of her photos can only be found in the Twin Cities for about three weeks out of the year before the cold, snow and winter return.

Keeps You Warm In The Winter

The skyway system in downtown St Paul is a savior in the harsh, cold winters we see around here. I believe when I took this photo I was waiting on the light to turn green crossing 5th street.

Did you get your taxes in yet?