Page 26 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL and CITY TOUR – and Kay’s Birthday

Saturday - If we hadn’t had the GPS system in the car, we would
still be looking for the cathedral. The main roads are all under

repair so you are detoured all over the place. With the direction
finder, we just kept reentering the coordinates and by golly – it got

us there. And were we ever glad.

It is a spectacular monumental structure of external granite and
internal travertine marble based on the design of St. Peter’s in

Rome. It seats 3000. As the Mother Church of the Archdiocese of

St. Paul and Minneapolis, it is recognized by the Holy See as the
bishop’s official church and it holds the cathedra, or bishop’s chair.

As soon as we arrived, the organ began to fill the vault with music.

Heavenly! Then we noticed people being escorted into the
sanctuary for a wedding. We stayed long enough to see her come

down the aisle and then slipped out.

Back to the Mall for a quick lunch and then we took an escorted
bus tour of the Twin Cities. The lady that drove and narrated is a

native with generational roots back to the original settlers. She

was witty and wise and took us for a three hour tour of both cities
including historical sites, parks, beautiful neighborhoods with

stately mansions, State government buildings including the
capitol, Jesse Ventura’s governor’s residence, the campus of

Minnesota University (45,000 students – The Gophers), the
Mississippi riverside, and the old industrial areas of Minneapolis

where Gold Medal Flour, Pillsbury, and General Mills began. The

fathers of the cities decided in the early 1800’s that no one would
be allowed to build any structures on the lakeshores. This has

allowed them to have parks around the many lakes for the free

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