Sledding in Lyndale Farmstead Park

Location Coordinates:
44°55'49"N,
93°17'35"W
Lyndale Farmstead Park
Minneapolis, MN

A white Christmas was something I never experienced growing up in southern California. We were sometimes treated to wet Christmases, or maybe a windy Christmas, but never a white Christmas. Snow was an exotic substance that you saw glistening on the mountains as you stood in the valley below. Occasionally our family would pack up the car and drive up to places like Wrightwood, Lake Arrowhead, or Big Bear to play in the snow. We pulled on three or four pairs of socks and doubled up on sweaters under an overcoat, grabbed our little round sleds, packed a lunch with a thermos of hot chocolate, and headed up for adventure. My dad battled bumper to bumper traffic as all the "flatlanders" from the LA basin trekked up the mountain roads to throw snowballs at each other and skim down the icy hills on various forms of sliding contraptions. Looking back, it really was a lot of work to pull off a little winter entertainment.

Now I'm a Minnesotan, and snow is no longer exotic. It arrives in November and doesn't depart until March or April. But I still have an appreciation for its beauty and all the fun winter activities it enables. And having a fun snow adventure is a whole lot easier now than needing to drive to a distant mountain locale with lots of other people. Now I simply throw on my coat and snow pants and head out for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, or ice fishing. Or, I can simply walk across the street to an ideal sledding hill. Area residents flock to Lyndale Farmstead Park as soon as the first flakes fly to glide down a perfect bowl-shaped slope. No traffic, no long lines for a ski lift, just the simple good times of a toboggan and a hill. It is a little bit of Currier & Ives viewed right out of my kitchen window.

The year 2010 will be ending in just a few hours, and I'm very excited about my plans for photographic activities in 2011. It is going to be a great year. Stay tuned!