A Cold and Wet Day in the Twin Cities

I have to start off by saying that today was a pretty boring day. It was very wet, although it didn't actually rain today it did rain all night and the news this morning said that the Twin City area got about a half inch of rain overnight. It was also cold - when I left the hotel at around 8:45am it was only 34° and with the wetness it felt even colder. But I ventured out anyway not really sure what I was going to do. I ended up driving to St. Paul and made my way to Kaposia Park. There was an event (Monster Mash) in this park back in October 2012 so there were quite a few boxes in the park. Also there is a neighboring park - Thompson County Park that also had boxes. When I pulled into the parking area there was not another car and I thought to myself - 'Am I the only idiot out in this weather.' - but that didn't seem to deter me. I took out the clues and read them. A few of them started with the same directions - walk past the playground and baseball diamond to the paved path. I think the weather was getting to me because I had a hard time finding the path. I then read a few other clues and some of them said to cross a bridge into the other park and some said to go around the log building. I did try to find one box around the log building but I didn't have any luck, not sure if I was in the right place. Anyway, I decided to nix this park and go to Thompson County Park. Here I began looking for a series of ten boxes called Monster Mash. I started on the trail which was wet, muddy, icy and snowy. I ended up finding the first two boxes on this part of the trail and had some difficulty stamping in. Everything was wet and I had to stand and stamp in as well as hold everything. I didn't want to put anything on the ground because it would be wet and muddy. The next two boxes were on a different trail and again I didn't have any problems finding them but the stamping in process was pretty awkward. Then I continued on the trail to the 5th box which I found without a problem but I couldn't get it out of its hiding spot - I finally figured out it was frozen in place. So I abandoned that box and continued on the trail but the trail got much wetter, more muddy and had ice and snow. I decided I wasn't in the mood to continue on - so I called it quits and returned to the car.

Witch Hat Water Tower

Once in the car I realized I was really cold and my hands were a little achy. I put the heater on and sat there to warm up and noticed the temperature was only 40° and I wondered why I didn't stop letterboxing sooner.

Since I was cold I decided to find a coffee place so I punched that into the Garmin and found a Caribou Coffee place just .7 miles from where I was. I was there in less than five minutes. I got a hot coffee and sat in a nice comfy chair and surfed the internet for about an hour. I really enjoyed the place - it was warm and comfortable. After finishing my coffee and bored with the internet I decided to head back into Minneapolis. My plan was to just head on back to the hotel and rest for a while and then maybe take a walk. But on the way I saw a landmark for a box that I had clues for so I took a small detour and found The Witch's Hat at the Witch Hat Water Tower. This was a quick and easy find but again the stamping in was a pain in the butt. But I got it done and replaced the box and returned to the car. Now I really did head back to the hotel. I gathered my things and went up to the room. The housekeepers were just getting ready to clean the room. So I decided to go for a walk around campus.

U of M Football Stadium

Don't know if I mentioned it or not but our hotel (The Commons) is on the University of Minnesota campus. So I walked and took pictures and then ended up at Espresso Exposé for another cup of coffee. About an hour and a half later I returned to a clean room.
Once in the room I sat in a comfortable leather chair and read for about an hour. Thomas returned from his conference and we talked for a little while. Around 5:30pm we decided to walk down the street to find something to eat. We ended up at a place called Stub and Herbs. This place was old and a little run down, a greasy spoon sort of place and the food was wonderful. We had a nice, enjoyable and relaxing dinner and then returned to the hotel. We got most of our stuff organized and packed because Thomas' conference is done in the morning and then we are heading further east for a few days. I will let you know where we end up tomorrow.