A Minneapolis area 4th of July Trip

If you happen upon this blog because your trying to plan a fantastic Minneapolis area 4th of July trip, I have a fantastic one for you. If you are reading this because your a friend/ family member here was my 2014 trip.

Stop #1. The twin cities Jazz fest. Held primary in St.Paul, we made it a cousin gathering and started at the outdoor stages, rain brought us indoors and the music continued!

http://www.hotsummerjazz.com/ 

Stop #2 was dinner at Buca. While its a chain the decor is always a good time, the food fabulous and if you have a group or family who you go with the mix is perfect.  http://www.bucadibeppo.com/ 

 Stop #3. Coffee, Minneapolis has some great coffee house sections. NE Minneapolis has the Spyhouse that makes a good latte and has the perfect coffee shop atmosphere to relax, visit or get some work done.

 http://spyhousecoffee.com/

Stop #4. No summer in Minnesota should pass without some time on water in a boat. My trip we drove about 75 minuets  over to Taylor's Falls and spent a very enjoyable two days traveling down to Stillwater. This takes two vehicles or hitchhiking to accomplish. Free campsites are on the river but due to flooding we stayed at William O Brian State Park.
http://www.nps.gov/sacn/planyourvisit/maps.htm

Stop #5 Bike paths in Minneapolis. Minneapolis is one of the best bike cities in America. The midtown greenway is very enjoyable with safe, well used and maintained paths sprinkled with murals and sculptures.                     http://midtowngreenway.org/                            You can stop at the global market for lunch or coffee if you so desire as its right off the trail and has bike parking. http://www.midtownglobalmarket.org/ 

Stop #6. Continuing with the time along the Croix went about 90 minutes down to Frontenac State Park and hiked along the river banks. A 4 mile hike that takes some time and effort because as our park ranger told us what you go down you must come back up. The "lake" where the Croix and the Mississippi merge had sailboats sprinkling it, if I had more time I would love to see if you can do a day rental in that area.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/frontenac/index.html

And end it with some fireworks by Lake Minnetonka 

http://www.excelsior-lakeminnetonkachamber.com/lake-minnetonka-4th-of-july.html 

Canoe Tomoka State Park

Spent half a day in Tomoka State Park, and found the highlight of our Florida Vacation. This park has wonderful, friendly and informative park rangers (we even got to watch part of a er-enactment for school groups). 

 Along the hiking trail there is a lovely bench that was build as an Eagle Scout Project. We sat there for a while and had the privilege of seeing a dolphin swimming in the water way.

We rented a canoe and headed into Manatee water, where we saw an abundance of birds and found a Manatee, who was enchanted with our canoe. It came up to us and let Ian pet it for several moments before pushing our boat over to the shore, where it than settled in next to us for a nap! We went on our way and explored the reed marshes before turning around and heading back to the boat launch. The whole canoe trip was less than 3 hours and completed our vacation!

March is perhaps the perfect time to be in this park, not very many bugs, low levels of tourists, and just enough sun that your glad you have on sunscreen!

http://www.floridastateparks.org/tomoka/