Crime Scene on the Mississippi

Last week I volunteered with Big River Journey.  A hundred plus 4th graders boarded one of the Paddleford Boats at Harriet Island for a trip along the Mississippi River.  Kids rotated between 6 stations where they could learn about river navigation, otters, eagles, macro invertebrates, geology, or my station, river trash.  The name crime scene pulls them in of course and they get to dump out bags of trash found in the river and try to figure out how it got there and why it might be bad for it to stay in the river.  Hopefully those kids came away with an understanding of what a storm drain is, maybe how it differs from the sewer system, and just maybe they will remember what a watershed is.  They will probably all remember that they are made up of 60% water and they most likely get their drinking water from the Mississippi River.  When I was out for a walk along Minnehaha Creek days later and saw this storm drain, I thought removing this is easy enough to do.  So do it! Otherwise, it's headed right to the river!

We have had a lot of rain lately and the Creek was really full.  We started our hike at the 46th Street station on the Light Rail Blue Line.  The trail takes you past Lake Hiawatha, Lake Nokomis, and into the neighborhoods of cute homes along the creek.  You could follow the creek all the way to Lake Harriet before heading back north toward downtown Minneapolis.

The creek had a lot of Virginia Waterleaf in bloom as well as Violets and a few Dame's Rockets.  

It's always good to get distracted by a new restaurant along the way and this one is a keeper.  Somewhere into the Lake Nokomis neighborhood is this little gem called Hot Plate. It's breakfast (plus beer) and the food was really great.  I was starving when we got there and the pancakes with lingonberry butter plus chicken fried steak, sausage gravy, eggs, and fried potato was actually way more fuel than what I needed to keep walking.  The restaurant's owners are collectors of old paint-by-number paintings and the weirdness abounds.  Picture an Emmett Kelly's "Weary Willie" next to the Virgin Mary and you get the idea.  Lava lamps and plastic figurines and old 1980's style hand held electronic games add to the decor.  This place is definitely worth the detour off the trail.