Going Nuclear~a Walk in the Park

YIKES!! I just realized that summer will officially be over in 9 days and I have a couple summer activities I wanted to share. Since Grace is crazy busy with school and work she hasn't had time to post yet about Bolivia, I'll fill the space for now. In July when Randi's family came for a visit we drove 2 hours north to visit Jon's Mom(still working on tolerating travel since back surgery last fall). Jon also had to deliver ski's so I went with~I would not pass up any opportunity to spend time alone with Jon. We drove threw UMore Park along the way, Jon knowing(cuz where I go-so does the camera!) I would want to take pictures, pulled over(3-4 times) for me.

UMore Park is located by Rosemont MN in Dakota county. It was once farm land but during WWII it was turned in to a munitions area of about 11,000 acres designated to make smokeless powder. The web site above(is legnthy) has the most historical info that I found, so far. After the war it was then sold to The U of MN for $1. It is now used for ag research and development and other stuff.

Smoke stacks in the distance(I want a camera with a zoom lens). The barracks are visable from the road, but my pictures didn't turn out. Peole do explore the area, and I found a blog or two about that, the down side is if you get caught you could get a hefty fine.Jon told me these were to used for lauching nukes if needed, I found no evidence to prove or disprove that. He could have been pulling my leg, which he is very good at, but they do look like they were a back launch for something big. Then he took me here to Vermillion Falls in Hastings MN, we used to live in Hastings and would come here just for fun. The water is low this year, I have pictures with Jon and his brothers walking across that cement thing and the water was almost up to thier knees. The old mill is huge, it is now used in another capacity. I love the huge old gears, here again a zoom lens could give you some really neat artsy photo's. No more shameless plugs for a different camera. I did send my camera to The Boundary Waters with Avery a few weeks ago, he brought it back still in the zip lock bag~shucks!The view above the fallsThe view from a new platform. We once hiked down there and and took pictures of us right next to where the water hits the rocks. The view of my favorite part of the day.