George Floyd Square

 I live in a St. Paul suburb and don't get to Minneapolis very often. Today while running errands I realized I was not far from George Floyd Square. I had never been there, so I decided to pay a visit. Cars can now drive through, but slowly, because there are still many tributes set up in the street along the sidewalk by Cup Foods and on the spot where George died. People still visit and mill about, so cars go carefully. Also, the famous raised fist and garden is in the center of the intersection of 38th and Chicago, which helps slow down the traffic. I did not feel in danger from traffic while there.

These (above) are about a block from the famous intersection.

A quilt was among the many tributes and memorials.

the spot where Mr. Floyd died

Being there is an emotional experience.

It still hurts.

Disappointment of the day: this shop I had heard of doesn't

open until 3:00 PM, and I was there at about 11:00 AM. I will be back.

Our Amazing State Capitol

Our state capitol building has been renovated and is now completed. I participated in a tour today, and was so impressed! We had one of the planners from the restoration team give us the tour, so we got an extra part that normal tours don't get. Beautiful!

Our capitol was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and was completed in 1905. It had experienced several upgrades in the past, but this restoration was the most complete it has ever had. They made structural repairs and upgraded mechanical systems, and corrected past "improvements" such as returning aluminum windows to beautiful wood as they were originally designed, cleaning off paintings and restoring them to their original beauty and colors, cleaning walls and panels and murals, uncovering skylights, taking out lowered ceilings and re-discovering old beauties hidden above... many, many beautiful upgrades so that Cass Gilbert himself would be proud to come through and see how well it has aged. I was gob-smacked. It's a gorgeous, amazing building.

This rotunda is one of the biggest unsupported rotundas in the world. Our guide listed two or three famous rotundas that are bigger, then comes ours in Minnesota!

The column on the right of this picture, reddish color, is stone from St. Cloud, Minnesota. I assume it's granite, but I'm not sure.

In the above picture, all those columns are made of marble from across the world. Our guide didn't specify which countries.

This next part is what we got as a perk for knowing the right guy to lead the tour: go outside up on the roof area and get an up-close look at the Quadriga.. the sculpture of four horses, a man and two women. The man represents prosperity, the women represent civilization, and the horses represent the four directions. They are covered in gold leaf! I had never seen them up-close before. They are huge! It was awesome to be up there.

The Quadriga as zoomed in on from below.

Pictures below: (1) the Supreme Court room, (2) the governor's reception room (press conferences occur here). It is very gaudy compared to the stately beauty of the rest of the building. (3) original in-laid wood flooring, (4) outside looking up to the Quadriga and the dome which covers the beautiful rotunda.

Fall colors and people's colors were beautiful today, too. Too bad the sun didn't shine, but at least we didn't get rained on. I'm eager to go back and spend more time in our beautiful state capitol (the people's house). I can't wait for the next legislative session to begin! The statue below is Hubert Humphrey.

The majestic building in the background is the St. Paul Cathedral, another gem of Saint Paul.