Tour of Historic Hastings

Day 6: Wednesday September 9 (continued)

After going to the Como Zoo we decided to take the kids down the Mississippi River, a place that I s pent a lot of time at as a kid. It was fun to see Rachel do things that I used to do.

Hastings is well known for it's Spiral Bridge that used to span the width of the Mississippi from 1895-1951. It is a one of a kind bridge but they had to replace it the current bridge called the Hastings High Bridge or Old Blue.

This bridge sits high above the water just in case there is a flood...which usually does happen to one degree or another every other year. Along the path there are signs that you can read and pieces of the original spiral bridge you can walk up to and on.

I remember as a little girl I would walk along the ridge of the old spiral bridge and thing I was sooooooo COOL! When Marc and I were dating he came out to MN to meet my family. It was winter time and we took a walk along the river with the bitter wind blowing through our coats and freezing our faces into a permanent smile....okay maybe it wasn't permanent but you get the point. In the winter it gets bitterly cold down by the river, so it was nice to walk along there in short sleeves.

Further down the trail along the river is a train bridge that can be raised to let the barges go by. I remember seeing many barges float down this river...usually early in the morning or late evening. I took a picture of Rachel under the bridge to show just how tall it is (and that is just from the road up....not the water!) You have to look closely but she is the little tiny blue dot. Every year Hastings celebrates River Town Days. They have booths set up to buy pretty much anything you want, most of it fried. :) There is a little carnival set up, and on the last night they shoot fireworks off over the river after the boat parade goes down river. It is always crazy but so much fun. One year maybe we'll get out there while it's going on.

I also used to walk along these letters, which Rachel started doing without prompting. It was very cute to see, made my heart melt and my mind flood with memories.