Visiting Chicago and Minnapolis/St Paul

It has been over a year since we last published a blog.  We are going to change that as we have had some interesting travels and more are to come. 

We started out at the Mall of America and a stranger took our photo at their designed photo-op location. But not too much new there.

We took the Blue Line light-rail from the MOA to the new US Bank stadium where the 2019 Super Bowl will be held.  We then transferred to the Green Line that goes to the old St Paul Depot.  This was our first time on that line. 

It is amazing how the old railroad barons would construct the most grand palaces for purchasing tickets and waiting for the call to proceed to Track 3 where your train was waiting.  I remember well the Grand Central station in Chicago when we were kids.  It was awesome to me and I remember the sound in that great receiving area.
This is the St Paul depot and it had a similar companion in Minneapolis, now gone.  Perhaps St Paul was too poor after Amtrak commenced and the depot was vacant except for a few restaurants that tried to operate there.  Today, non remain.
In 2003 we traveled to Whitefish, MT, on Amtrak and the station was a dingy little place in the Midway district of St Paul.  Now Amtrak has returned to this depot.

This was the main lobby and the position where tickets were sold.  The size of it speaks of the amount of traffic that went through this place during World War 2. 

This is the hallway leading to the gates and tracks.  Note the curved ceiling details.

This was the gate area.  In the far distance a yoga instructor is holding a class.
After we arrived in St Paul in 1963, we traveled several times through to visit Al's parents in Freeport, IL.  The CB & Q, the Burlington line, passed through Savannah, IL, on its way to Chicago.  Al's parents would meet us there for the trip to Freeport.

These are some photos from the past now re-created on door panels in the depot.

A photo of a locomotive from the Burlington era. 

We often used the dome car to view sights along the Mississippi River until we reached Savannah.  We did this until about 1968 when it all changed.

A view of the William Crooks that was on display in the lobby of the depot.  When the depot went into disuse, the locomotive was transferred to the Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN.

This is a photo of the William Crooks on its way to retirement in the St Paul depot.  According to wikipedia.org, the locomotive was built elsewhere and then transported by barge from LaCrosse, WI to St Paul as there were no tracks available.  It made its first trip to Minneapolis.

According to the plaque accompanying the fossil, renovations on the depot commenced in 2006.

A view of the new light-rail track leading to the depot and the famous "Red One" of the First National Bank in the distance.

We stopped off in New Hope, MN, to visit our friend Joan.  Joan and her husband, Ralph, now deceased, were great square dancing friends since 1991.

Hope and Ann were classmates with Al in Freeport, IL, graduating in 1953. Hope continues to live in Freeport and Ann in Mt Prospect, IL.  They came to the Nordstrom cafe at Woodfield Mall in Schaumberg, IL.  Al presented them with jewelry that he made.