Discovering Stillwater

This is Stillwater Minnesota.

During Labor Day weekend, my wife and I spent a couple of days in this historic town which is known as the birthplace of Minnesota. It is a 4-hour drive away from our home in Iowa. Less than an hour into our travel, we stopped at a rest area when I realized that I left my wallet at home including my driver’s license. Thus my wife drove the rest of the way to our destination and back. Needless to say, I was dependent on my wife for all the purchases including food, and transactions we made on this trip.

Below is Main Street in downtown Stillwater.

No, it’s not a ghost town. I just took the above photos early in the day just before sunrise when I was out for my morning run. It is actually a popular tourist area. The town is known for its unique shops, antique stores, restaurants and local breweries.

The photos below were taken during business hours when there were several tourists flocking this place.

Besides me running around the town, literally, like other visitors we also dined in their restaurants, visited the shops, ogle at the antique stores, and tasted their ice cream and popcorn. We also spent some time just sitting on the park bench watching the river and people flow.

Stillwater was established even before the state of Minnesota was founded as a state. It is a river town that was settled at the banks of the picturesque St. Croix River. True to its name the water was still, at least during the weekend we spent there.

One of the main attractions in this town is the old Stillwater Bridge which is a lift bridge. Today, no more motorized vehicles pass here and only bicycles and pedestrians cross this bridge.

The lift bridge goes up every 30 minutes to allow big boats to pass by underneath it. Below is a photo with the lift bridge up.

If you’re wondering why the flag is at half-staff, it is to give respect to the victims of the recent school shooting in Minneapolis that happened a week prior to Labor Day. It’s kind of sad what’s happening in our world.

Back to this town, as you may surmise, since this place is a river town, many activities you can do is in the water. You can do fishing, rent a boat, or jet ski, or join one of their river cruises. There’s even a romantic gondola ride. We were contented to stay on the banks.

Here are photos of boats in Stillwater.

Here are more photos that features my favorite time of the day in this place, or at any other place for that matter – sunrise.

Though our stay in this place was short, we definitely had fun, or should I say, we made waves in Stillwater.

From the idyllic town of Stillwater,

Pinoytransplant.

(*all photos taken with an iPhone)