July 12 - Great River Road

Today we are driving a bit farther north on the Great River Road.  The views from the tops of some of the bluffs were pretty spectacular.

We did a bit of wandering in Winona, Minnesota.

We had lunch in a restaurant in a beautiful, old building with a fantastic wooden bar.

There were the usual attempts to photograph the local flora...

and fauna (in this case, birds soaring over the river).

We drove farther north where we discovered Lake Pepin, birthplace of water skiing.  

It is actually a naturally occurring lake on the Mississippi, in a valley carved by glaciers.  Most of the lakes on the Mississippi are formed by the water backing up from the dams on the river.