Aboard the Jonathan Padelford

A few weeks back, the Jonathan Padelford company announced that they'd give free rides aboard their riverboats on Memorial Day, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the river cruises. Not surprisingly, reservations filled up pretty quickly. Luckily, DH and I snagged a couple of seats, and yesterday got to take our ride.

 

Here's the smaller of the two boats. If you look on the right side, you can see the tip of the paddles, in red.

 

A little harder to see, but the larger boat is actually like two boats connected. This is the one we rode on. I politely but assertively got us to the front of the line, so we could get top-deck, open-air seats. Not that the interior is bad.

 

Notice the dance floor. I assume that's for the evening cruises.

The boats depart from Harriet Island, right across the river from downtown St. Paul.

As the boats move up the river, there's plenty of old and new to be seen.

 

For some reason, I love the look of old, broken buildings. However, this one had a sign that gave me pause:

 

I'm thinking, not yet. Maybe someday. A little early to be advertising, though.

Given the way the Twin Cities sprawl, it's surprising how quickly the river takes you away from cityscapes into a wilder terrain.

 

There are caves, complete with graffiti. In a very maternal way, I do worry about the people who scale these walls to paint them. I worry about their safety more than I worry about the defacing of nature. Somehow the latter seems more logical.

I told DH that, except for the fact that there aren't any palm trees, this could be the setting for Lost. Maybe the sequel? Lost Two? Plane crashes into heavily wooded area after leaving the downtown St. Paul airport? It'd be a workable idea, if it wasn't for the fact that there's a major road not far behind those trees. But still--from the river, doesn't it look wonderfully deserted?

 

Deserted for quite a while, even by the water, it appears.

 

Periodically a recording would give out some piece of history or trivia about what we were passing. For this site, a swinging bridge that allows trains to cross or boats to pass, the recording told an amusing legend: apparently the land on the right belonged to some old codger who, when the bridge was being built, would come down every day with his cup of coffee and watch the construction with a big smile. The day it was to open, a crowd came to witness this technological marvel. But just as they were getting ready to open the bridge, the old coot yelled, "Don't open that bridge!" When asked why, he said the swing part would then swing onto his properly. Surveyors were dispatched, and lo and behold, the guy was right--the construction company had mistakenly built the bridge so it would swing onto the old man's property. Railway officials, fearing what the man would now expect for a selling price, asked to buy his property. He refused, at any price; apparently he'd been a steamboat captain who'd lost his career when railroads became more prevalent, and he was not going to have any railway-based company buying one inch of his property.

True story? Who knows?

 

On the way back, we passed a small yacht club that had a little convenience store and gas station right on the river. On a nice day, wouldn't that be the perfect place to work?

Padelford boats operate all summer, with both public and private cruises. There are several theme cruises available, including fireworks, birding, sunset dinner, and margarita cruises (yes, there are bars onboard). Fancy and elaborate? No. A fine way to relax and enjoy the view? Very much.

Comments

[Chris]

That "Condos" picture is awesome - you should submit it for the Consumerist Flickr pool!

[Carrie K]

I really want that to be a true story, it's fabulous.

Looks like fun!