We Say Goodbye to the Upper Mississippi - The Party's Over (for now)

 On Thursday, October 21, evening we all put our luggage outside our cabin doors to be picked up and moved to the buses.  After a very early breakfast we vacated our rooms and disembarked.  Our bus carried us from Red Wing to the Minneapolis Airport.  We were told that the reason we did not continue sailing upstream to St. Paul was because the river depth was too shallow due to lack of rain.

Bob Grunst picked us up at the airport and gave us a quick tour of the city nearby.  Bob is a friend of Bill's from their old college days and a retired college professor who now lives in St. Paul with his wife, Sue.  We wanted to see the largest shopping mall in North America so here it is above.  It was still quite early so we did not go in to do any shopping, but instead headed for Frederic after dropping Bob at home.

It has been a fun trip with great weather and we will miss our cozy cabins on the water- each with its own balcony.  As well as.......

Happy hour each evening at 5:30 with live music and...

... a table of hors d'oeuvres  (Francis loved the shrimp) ...........and..

....... a great stocked bar and trained bar tenders with any top-shelf liquor or drink a person might want.

(all included in the price)

Just like currently in Michigan, we saw signs like this above in all the cities in which we stopped.

One mystery that was never solved for us was how the Red Wing Shoe logo, above,  turned out to be so similar to the logo of our beloved hockey team in Detroit????? (Go Wings!)

We had a very fun and educational trip with our neighbor and friend, Francis, on American Cruise Lines, and would recommend American to anyone who would like to try a smaller boat in which to cruise.

                                                            🚢🚢🚢🚢🚢