Wanders in the cities

I've just had the privilege of being able to go and visit my sister in the cities. Presently, I am in her cool apartment, utilizing her laptop. At any rate... I do love it in the cities. I think it is the wonder of the city, its vast size. It's like you'll never know what you find when you turn this corner, something new and fabulous, and something you've never seen. In a small town, you can't have that sense of wonder. You know everything. You know where everything is, why it's there, and how long it's been there. A city is an adventure.
So, today, we we made use of this vastness of the city, and we did something we hadn't ever done before. Picture this. You walk underneath a masoned archway on a military base. Instantly, you believe yourself to have transported back in time. The soldier at the gate holds his gun high, and tips his hat to you. As you take a step forward, nothing but the sights of stone buildings fill your eyes. Ah, and your ears are treated to the noise of a soldier merrily playing his flute.
Sounds interesting, huh? Today, we traversed to historic Fort Snelling. It was actually quite enjoyable, as the buildings exhibit some marvelous masonry, and heavens knows I love history. When I was there, I took quite an array of pictures, so I decided I would share them will all of you lovely people who decided to drop by and read my blog.

Once you walk out of the parking lot, there is a wonderful overlook of the Mississippi river, and there seemed to be people swimming in it, which I found rather deplorable, considering how dirty the river is.

Here is just a plain, unobstructed view of the Mississippi from the overlook.

Before you actually entered the historic part of the base, there are a few buildings that are derelict, unused buildings. This is just a quick snapshot of the front door of one of them, in which you can sort of see how run down it is.

This is a round lookout tower, creatively named "The Round Tower." All the little window-looking bits are actually holes for which to shoot out of.

Getting closer to the inside now! You can sort of see how nice the masonry is from this and the picture of the round tower.

So now we're actually inside the base. This is the inside of the round tower. I just loved how the stairs go up and around, in a winding staircase manner. Very picturesque.

This is a view of out one of the windows in the round tower. Kind of eerie, no? It's nifty that you can't see anything but white light at the end.

From the top of the round tower, this is the view of the grounds. So, basically, from there you can see the entirety of the historic base.

Here are the unused buildings from the round tower.

This is the desk and chair inside of the jailhouse. They were used by the watchman, to the best of my knowledge. It's actually very neat looking, and sort of patriotic.

Kind of amusing, really. It's a huge pile of coal in one of the buildings. The question really is: Why?

This is the fireplace inside of Colonel Snelling's house. I think it's kind of stupid that they painted that silly thing on it, because it is such a lovely fireplace. There's granite on it, and so it seems kind of a waste to do that.

When you walk into one of the buildings, you can go and watch a multimedia show called "History under the floorboards." They used a projector screen (in the background), the wall, and a transparent screen (which you can see right there) to project things on to. Also, they had a projection of a magnifying glass go around the room to point out various interest points, and that's what this picture is of. It talks about all the things they have found underneath the floors of the buildings, and the show itself is set into an unrestored part of the building so you can see where they found the items. I was very impressed with it.

Just a picture of my sister and me.

This is my favorite picture out of any of them! It is some barrels of who-knows-what, but I just thought it looked really spiffy.

Here, they were doing a cannon demonstration. The zoom on my camera sucks, so this picture didn't turn out very well.

I was trying to take a picture of the cannon going off, but the boom was so loud, I jumped! So all you get is a little corner of smoke! Oh well.

Here is one of the guards who stood at the gate. Isn't he cute?

Freddie insisted on this picture, so I let him take it. The guy on the right had some awesome mutton chops!

This was one final picture of the unused building.

So, this is a picture out of my sister's living room window. Very cozy, right? Haha, it looks right into a ditch, so they like to keep the blinds closed

That's all for now, gang! I had a ton of fun on base, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures!