A Christmas Evening Walk

When I was in graduate school I met a guy who had grown up and lived his whole life in Los Angeles and was now here in Minnesota.  As the weather began to get colder he asked us at dinner one evening with all seriousness, "Surely when the temperature goes to 32 (0 C), you don't go outdoors?" Well, we had a good laugh and told him that yes we did. That memory came to me when my older daughter and I went out the door about 5 PM this afternoon for a bit of walk to look at lights.

There had been snow overnight and the temperature was about 15 (-9 C) with a rather cold wind in our faces.

We turned the corner on Minnesota Street and headed downhill.

In the next block we saw the door decorations on the condo tower that is a neighbor to my building.

We admired the tree in the lobby of the Wells Fargo building.

 We got to 7th Street and took a right where we encountered some decorated trees and also a snow plow.

We got over to the triangle on St. Peter Street and found these trees

I thought there might be some people at the skating rink by Landmark Center. It was well lighted but absolutely closed.

We enjoyed a view of lights in Rice Park.

Sorry this is so blurry.

We headed up Wabasha Street on our way back to my apartment. The sign in the window of the candy shop said it would be open from 10 -10 tomorrow, so I told my daughter we would be back tomorrow to check it out.

Also discovered the location of a small grocery store. It needs to be checked out too.  And a Walgreen's is there too for items one might want from a drug store. Found one can't drive down a street around the Minnesota Public Radio building, but one can certainly walk through there and save some steps.

So I've begun the process of exploring a new neighborhood. And yes, we do outdoors even when the temperature is below 32!