Visit Lock & Dam #1 in Minneapolis and learn lots about how rivers are used to transport goods

Head down to the Mississippi River and check out Lock and Dam #1. It's just down the hill from Wabun play area and the VA Home, and just downstream from the Ford Parkway Bridge. If you're lucky, you'll get to see some barges coming through.

The web site advertises a 30-minute tour called the Visitor Promenade offering a bird's-eye view of the locking procedure and other topics ranging from barge traffic in the transportation network to the Corps 9-foot channel project. What that means is you have free rein to wander around, and are able to climb over the locks to get a great bird's eye view of everything that's going on. The kiddos (and I!) loved it!

There were a bunch of things the kiddos could climb on!

Signs placed around the lock and dam tell the story of construction, and also about how the river.

ABOUT THE LOCK & DAM
Ford Dam, officially known as Lock and Dam No. 1 is on the Upper Mississippi River and is located between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota just north of the confluence of the Mississippi with the Minnesota River at Mississippi River mile 847.9, in Minneapolis. The dam portion was previously owned by the Ford Motor Company, which operated a hydroelectric power station to feed electricity to its Twin Cities Assembly Plant on the east side of the river. It was sold to Brookfield Power Co. in 2007. The dual-lock facility is operated by the St. Paul district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Mississippi Valley Division.

Each lock is 56 feet (17 m) wide by 400 feet (120 m) long (17 × 122 meters), half the width of the next lock downstream, though this is the only dual-lock facility in the district. Major rehabilitation efforts were carried out between 1978 and 1983, including the replacement of many manual and hydraulic components with computer controls.

Commercial barges carried over 15 million tons of commodities through the Lock. Among the commodities are: coal, burner oils, grain, and aggregate products.

The official web site for the Lock and Dam is here: http://www.nps.gov/miss/planyourvisit/lockdam1.htm

The address is 5000 West River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55417
Contact Information: Call the Lock and Dam No. 1 office at 612-724-2971.

A group of vets came down to go fishing while we were there.

One of the operators handed the kids some brochures as we walked past.

Enjoying the view from high up

Looking down on the lock doors as they begin to open

This is one of the old controllers used before everything was computerized.

It's a great place to see birds!

A barge going through the lock

Looking east

By the dam

AFTER YOUR VISIT, HEAD TO PLAYGROUND
We paired our visit to the Lock & Dam #1 with a picnic at Wabun play area in Minnehaha Park. There's a new Universally Accessible playground there, and it is tons of fun!

FIELD TRIP: Touring a professional kitchen

We headed over to the Minnesota Foodcrafters kitchen off Butler Pierce Road in St. Paul earlier this week. I was writing a news article about the kitchen and its artisan chefs, and needed to snap some photos to accompany the article. I've been thinking about everyday places that are important that we can tour, places that might inspire the kids to future careers, places that help them understand better how their world works. The Foodcrafters kitchen perfectly fit the bill. So, I brought the kids along.

Martha Glass of Bistro Meringues led us on a tour of the Minnesota Foodcrafters space. Once part of a larger company, it's been divided into space for a produce company, Sunrise Market and the Foodcrafters kitchen. There is office space available to rent, a few common areas to work and/or eat lunch, and a fantastic demonstration kitchen. Plus the kiddos walked inside two huge refrigerators and a freezer. We saw the individual cages where each of the 12 companies working out of the kitchen store their equipment and supplies. We saw the loading dock.

Then we walked through the large kitchen area that's actually 3 rooms. One for Gluten-free, one for regular food production and one that's kept dry for the meringue production.

I loved showing the kiddos how small business owners make specialized products, items that are gluten-free, foods and drinks that aren't packed with preservatives, and items that are more natural. It fits with our lifestyle and what I think is important. And they were fascinated to check things out.

Martha and her crew took items out of the oven. Pointed out the humongous mixing bowl they crack hundreds and hundreds of eggs into each time they bake. They let the kiddos taste test the mint and cherry cookies that weren't nice enough to sell. They showed them how they fill, then bag and add a twist-tie to each bag. We didn't see the cookies being made, but then we got to see the rest of the process.

It was wonderful!