The Mighty Mississippi

This is the Mississippi River as it passes through Red Wing, Minnesota. I decided to use this photo as my blip mainly because of these young girls soaking up the sun on the dock. Three days ago (Thursday), Red Wing was hit with 13 inches of snow!!! Look at this today - Crazy Minnesota!!

With a day like today we had to get out and enjoy it. Our first stop was an SNA (Scientific & Natural Area) near Cannon Falls. There are a number of SNA's around the state, land set aside to preserve natural features and rare resources of exceptional scientific and educational value. (obviously from their website). The public is welcome to visit as long as you "walk gently". Anyway, this particular spot has a hillside covered with Pasque Flowers. We were happy to find them in full bloom today, so spent over an hour photographing them and enjoying the sunshine. This was my first chance to use the macro lens outdoors. I was able to get a few shots that I liked and posted one of them here.

Then we drove over to Red Wing. After a quick stop at the DQ for cones, we went down to the riverfront. You can see the boats across the river getting ready for summer. Some of them were still wrapped up in what looks like shrink-wrap! All-in-all a pretty great day.