Empty

A rare view of empty seats in the Excel Energy Center arena.

Outdoor Hallway

Above me is the southbound traffic of Highway 61, just ahead is the northbound lanes. If you look closely, you can see a vehicle parked in a lot. The lot leads to a walking path that eventually leads to Battle Creek Park.

Corvette Pan Out

At the request of Mirela of Zagreb Daily Photo, I'm posting a broader photo of Thursday's Corvette Stingray. This unfortunately is the biggest photo I have of the Corvette.

Corvette Stingray

Hopefully a Corvette Guru can leave a comment on the year of this Stingray, I'm unsure by what's available in the photo. I captured this from the 2006 Car Craft Summer Nationals held at the State Fair Grounds. The candy apple red with the pearl coat gave the fender a really awesome look.

Through The Fog

Time for a capture from another photographer in the family. Today's photo is the first from my daughter. She has captured downtown St Paul through the fog, smoke and everything else in between.

Roadside View

one more contribution from njc from last weekends fabulous snow/fog

Frosting Trees

We had a very interesting snow storm, furies, fog, fluffy, very light, not much of anything really roll through town last weekend....oh what a sight mother nature left for us. Trees were frosted from top to bottom. I've seen people take a photo like this and make a negative of the photo which makes the trees look like this. This photo is the real deal. I gave my son the camera while I was driving as he had the best view on his side of the car. He captured a couple of decent shots along our journey....

Purple Sky

The colors for this one turned out rather odd. The sun had set, maybe 20 minutes ago. Cloudy sky, street lights on and freshly fallen snow. Exposure was only 1.6 seconds, but the photo turned out very bright for how dark it was at the time. Gotta love snow brightening everything up like it does....

Stairs Closed Again

Same location as yesterday's photo, but a completely different view.

Quiet Night

A quick peek into Rice Park, downtown St Paul. It looks a bit quiet around here at the time of the photo, but I believe I just hit it right for the photo to give it that appearance.

Empty

Looking at today's photo, it appears as if I am the only one in the building. I took this one at the end of the Minnesota Wild's Kids Club event. I guess I was lucky that the seats were empty when I snapped this one.

B&W Downtown St Paul

Taken from the east side neighborhood.

Dog Show

Adjacent to the Xcel Energy Center is a large convention center type building call 'River Center'. As I was making my way to an event at the Xcel, I peered into the window and saw a dog show competition. I'd personally never been to one before and stood and watched for about five minutes. There was two or three different judging areas for the dogs and so much additional activity in the room. I know this photo has a lot in it and is incredibly busy to look at, but I did crop out quite a bit to help on the eyes.

That Explains It All

A sign located in downtown St Paul explaining how an energy plant works.

Xcel During Intermission

Took this photo during the intermission of one of the Minnesota Wild's hockey games. I was trying to capture all of the team flags, but with so much hanging from the ceilings, find that perfect shot was next to impossible.

Tugboat Row

Tugboats lined up along shore of the Mississippi River near downtown St Paul.

Partial St Paul Skyline

A partial view of the downtown St Paul skyline from the Wabasha Street Bridge.

From The Archives

Looking through some of my photos from last summer during the Republican National Convention. This capture stood out seeing all of the police in their riot gear, making their presence known and keeping the peace.

Deja Vu

A different day, a different location, but surprisingly I had the same idea in mind for the same subject. I was looking through my archive of photos for some that I've overlooked in the past. To my surprise, the last two days were of the same subject, same location and nearly the same cropping. Personally, I like today's better than yesterday's because of the added green from the trees.

Four Horsemen

A portion of the Minnesota State Capitol building.

Just A Rowing

A little bit different view from last months similar subject, which can be seen here.

Turning Wood Into Electricity

That smoke you see rising out of the top of this building is actually steam. I've featured this building many times in the past, but always from a distance and refered to it as the 'smoke factory'. The purpose of this building is electricty, heating, and cooling. It burns 1000 tons of wood chips per day. It's fancy technology boils water very hot, creating electricity in it's turbine blades. The hot water is the pumped through underground pipes heating nearly all of the buildings in the downtown area. There is also a really fancy technology called a steam absorption chiller that condensed the steam vapor back into a liquid, cooling the water down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This water is also pumped into the downtown area into air-condition units to keep the buildings cool in the summer months.

Right Here, Right Now

This is the place to park....indeed it is.

To The Other Side

From the bluffs of downtown St Paul. The Science museum, the building on the right, the High Bridge in the distance with the Mississippi River flowing through the photo....

Big Boat, Little Boat

I saw the rowing team gliding along the Mississippi waters. From this distance, I believe this is a woman's rowing team. Though I'm unsure of any other information about them.

Maze

This small flat maze, is part of the outdoor portion of the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Long Lines

Under the Wabasha Street Bridge in St Paul.

The Right Side

Yes, this is the right side of the Freedom Bridge, also called the Wabasha Street Bridge.

The Source

This art piece is named "The Source" and is located in Rice Park of St Paul.

Water Gadge

Looking Up

Down along the Mississippi River, an abandon grain house.

Key Stone

Science Museum Of Minnesota

On The Hill

The St Paul Cathedral, high on the hill.

Temporary

It's a temporary entrance, but a rather unique snaking tunnel into the emergency entrance of St Joseph's Hospital.

Looking Through The Bars

The decorative fencing, which separates the east bound traffic from the west gives a unique view of south bound 7th Street. I took this one while I was stopped for a red light on 7th Street and Wabasha in downtown St Paul. The fencing also doubles as crowd control while people in the Xcel Energy Center leave the building. The fencing forces those walking to their vehicles to cross at the street corners.

Skygate

Smack dab in the middle of downtown St Paul is this artwork sculpture by Ron Fisher.

Passing By

On the overpass of Interstate 94, near Mounds Boulevard in St Paul, traffic whizzes under my camera lens at light speed. I'm unnoticed by the drivers as they venture forth on their nightly quest.

Shadow Painting

The shadow of the temple caught my eye.

Streaking Lights

Passing semi truck, caught on camera with downtown St Paul in the background.

Independence Day

"I hope you and yours enjoy a safe and happy 4th of July. Happy 233rd birthday, USA! Well, sort of, as the USA is actually 220 years old dating back to the adoption of the Constitution)..."

Eric H.

I read this quote from a good friend of mine today and thought it would was a great message for this day. The photo was taken during the Republican National Convention in 2008 along Highway 94 while driving 55+ miles per hour.

Metro State University

High atop the bluffs of the East St Paul neighborhood, Metro State University. While the University was founded in 1971, this fabulous building was built about fifteen years ago from what I can recall. Since I've started this Twin Cities photo blog, I've always wanted to photograph this building because of the large pains of glass. Unfortunately, when I was there on the spot trying to find a great location to shoot from, all I could find was very large and established trees blocking my view. This was plan B and I'm quite pleased with the results except for cutting off the tops of the flags. However, if I stepped any further back, I would have been standing in the busy traffic.

Ghost Ad Mystery Revealed

Following up on my June 15th post featuring a 'ghost ad' painted on a brick wall in St Paul....my dad had figured out that the beer brand on the sun faded advertisement was Milwaukee brewed, Blatz Beer. After doing some digging using Google, I found a key reference photo from a 1942 magazine article about Blatz Beer. The ad is about a pilsener beer flavor with the slogan 'For Good Taste' with a trapezoid shape around the word 'Blatz'. Looking at the additional photos I found, I can confirm the ghost ad is for Blatz beer. The trapezoid shape in the magazine ad matches the ghost ad, plus the word 'TASTE' is very clear to see from their slogan.

Ghost Ads Guessing Game

I'm sure I'm not alone with these older forms of advertisement and the intrigue they bring. I'm fascinated that they would use the side of a brick building to display their message, but I do suppose the lack of nicely placed flat billboards in town were a few years in the making. So we are left with the guessing game of what product were they advertising.>

There is no doubt, it's a beer advertisement. Pilsener beer of some sort with the word 'Great' in the slogan. Since I know it's local Hamm's Beer comes to mind, but it doesn't fit what I recall about their advertising. So I'm stumped as to what the advertisement was. Any ideas on this ghost advertisement one?

Copper Top

A capture of the copper dome of the St Paul Cathedral.

Covington Inn

I stumbled across the Covington Inn while looking for an old restaurant from a long time ago. The restaurant had changed names, but was still there and had an expanded menu. Right across from the restaurant is the Covington Inn, which is a floating Bed and Breakfast on the Mississippi River. It's docked up on the river in St Paul within Harriot Island [across from downtown St Paul]. I looked around their website for their rooms and rates. From what I see is they have four different rooms [I couldn't tell if they had four rooms only, or if it was four different themed rooms]. Each suite offered a unique view of the city with the Pilot's Room being the favorite. If anyone who stumbles across this and has stayed there, I would love to hear some feedback from you.

April Showes Bring May Flowers

Or so the rhyme goes. No, the flowers in the photo are not recent. They were taken at the end of last summer. Currently, the leaves are almost full on the tress. Lilacs are starting to turn blue and purple. Tulips have it their prime and nearly all of the perennials have poked out from their winter long slumber.

Gopher Liquors Sign

This is an interesting signs that I'd be interested in finding out about that is located on 7th Street in downtown St Paul. What I can tell you, really only based on my visual detective work, though I'm sure there is a lot more history involved with this location. The sign is a mix of a few different ownerships or partners. The Gopher Liqours sign looks like it was added to the Coney Islands sign with your Hosts: George-Cheri-Keith. Though there is a sign added under it reading: Andy-Phyllis-George. Are these new hosts? Is this the same George from the original grouping of names? Or are there now six different hosts [or owners]. What is the most current name of this business as there are several signs saying there could be many: Gopher Bar, Gopher Liquor, Coney Islands? Or is it several business in the same location? Too many questions right?

Incidentally, a couple blocks and around the corner sits a vacated restaurant called Original Coney Island Cafe which I featured a photo of back in January 2008, are these two locations owned by the same group?

Como Conservatory

We are at the point of the spring season where everything in the Twin Cities will bloom at once. This in turn will send allergy sufferers to medication and combat the pollen. The photo is an outside view of the Como Conservatory in St Paul. The tax payer/local business funded Conservatory is a crowd favorite with hundreds of plants from around the world growing in an ideal area.