Stairs To Freedom

COUNTDOWN: Only 3 Days Until The End....

I was tempted to flip this photo upside down to see if anyone noticed it was wrong. Except for the washed out sky, to me, it would be tough to tell what way is up. Take a look, turn your head and see the photo upside down. It could be an optical illusion, a life sized one. These stairs are in the middle of the Freedom Bridge, also known as the Wabasha Street Bridge heading into downtown St Paul. About in the middle of it, there are a set of stairs on either side that lead down to Raspberry Island and to a small parking area.

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Torino, Italy
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St Paul, Minnesota

More Fun With Photos

COUNTDOWN: Only 4 Days Until The End....

Yesterday's photo was just pure luck to be standing with the A-frame around the 1st national bank building. Today I'm going to play off that very theme. If you are standing in Harriot Island closer to the Mississippi River, you can magically turn the 1st National Bank Building into the 1st National Crown Plaza Hotel! How cool is that?

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A-Framed Skyline

Took this one while in the Harriot Island playground area. I was watching my kids play here, I turned around and the a-frame was nearly aligned with the 1st National Bank building. Strange inspiration for taking a photo eh?

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Where's Your Other Hand....Between Two Pillows?

There was this massive cloud bank to the east on Saturday. I had to take a photo of it. I also wasn't alone. Head over to St Paul Daily Photo by Carol for a different view of the very same cloud bank! It really was impressive as the east had the beautiful clouds in the photo, while the rest of the entire sky was completely cloudless and full of blue. I had to drive around for a bit to get rid of the house and trees to get a clear view of the sky.

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Somebody's Gotta Feel This

I'm going to keep with the concert series theme since it's Memorial Day weekend. I've had this photo in my photo vault for well over a year now. I took this one during the Kid Rock concert back in April of 2006 when they performed in St Paul at the Xcel energy center. Wifey and I were sitting in row 14, center section. I challenge you to find anyone who enjoys a concert of this music genera and also enjoys concerts that features nothing but brass instruments as show in the previous daily photo. The photos I took during the show were very tough to take. Low light, no tripod, lots of movement. Needless to say, most of the photos were a blur and not very presentable. This one was fairly decent with the pyrotechnics in the background giving me more light for this photo.

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Minneapolis, Minnesota
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The Quintet With The Money-Back Guarantee

This past spring, I attended a brass quintet concert in the northern part of the Twin Cities. I brought my wife and two kids to see Classic Brass Inc. The word on the street is they are one of the busier brass quintets in the Twin Cities area. Their repertoire is quite varied and they also throw in a money-back guarantee, what a deal!

I've grown up watching two of the members of Classic Brass Inc playing various types brass instruments since the early to mid 80's. My Uncle Roger and Aunt Tina, the two in the photo on the far right. I first saw them perform with Minnesota Brass Drum & Bugle Corps at many Drum and Beauty Competitions and have always enjoyed the shows.

Classic Brass Inc has a few summer concerts on their schedule. The June events I have prior events already scheduled, but the August 27 concert in Minneapolis at Lake Harriot Bandshell, I have marked on my calendar to attend.

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Ladies And Gentleman, Your American Idols

No silly, I wasn't at tonights American Idol finale show in Hollywood, this is from the 2006 Idols road tour. The 2006 version toured through Minnesota last summer performing at the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul. It was an enjoyable show. My kids loved it as this was their first concert they had ever been too. Congrats to Jordan Sparks, the 2007 American Idol winner. She gave me goose bumps when she sang the 'Broken Wing' song on Tuesday. Blake Lewis had the most original song ever this season with Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love A Bad Name'.

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Riga, Latvia
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Cause I Drink Alone, Yeah With Nobody Else

Yeah, the other night I lay sleepin'
And I woke from a terrible dream
So I called up my pal Jack Daniels
And his partner Jimmy Beam

My son and I were heading back home one Saturday and we pass this Jim Beam sponsored racing car driving on the streets of Cottage Grove. He squealed the tires a bit as he turned the corner. I had to see where it was going. I did a u-turn and the next available spot and went on a chase. I saw the parking lot it drove into and read the sign that said the car was on tour at a new local liquor store, how ironic. Interesting way to advertise I though. My son asked if I had the camera because he wanted to take a photo for this website. So this is his first photo he took for the Twin Cities Daily Photo. The car was only there from 4:00 to 6:00 and it was 6:07 at the time of this photo. They actually were rolling the car onto the trailer for the day, otherwise he would have gotten a better shot from outside the car.

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Who Are You

Last photo from the Carpenter Nature Center. This great horned owl was impressive to me. Mainly because I heard them a lot when I lived in St Paul, but never ever saw one. Living out in Cottage Grove, that is one thing I do not hear that often. So to finally see one, wow, larger than I expected.

From The Biggest To The Smallest

Yesterday I had a photo of the largest bird in the raptor family, with a wing span of about 6 feet long. Today we have the smallest of the North American Hawks, the American Kestrel. This is quite a colorful bird up close. Not what I would expect to see from a bird of prey. Although, for the birds that make Minnesota their home, it's one of the most colorful birds that I have personally seen around here.

I didn't get the information from the volunteer holding the hawk if this bird would be released back into the wild.

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