GPS is a wonderful thing. I was picking up my friend, Ashley, from her school in Wayzata. She wanted to stop for Carribou Coffee, and since I’m not familiar with the area I used my VZ Navigator to search for the closest location. The GPS took us to a gorgeous part of town which I had never visited, but is apparently a very popular Wayzata shopping district. We ended up at a Carribou on Wayzata Bay, which had an attached independent bookstore – fun!
I couldn’t believe how pretty and alien this part of town looked; I felt like I was in a different geographical location, and certainly not only 20 minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Wayzata Bay makes up one small part of the larger Lake Minnetonka. Looking at a map of the area, it appears that approximately ten cities border Lake Minnetonka, with Wayzata Bay consisting of the northeastern most part of the lake.
So on Sunday, the Hubby and I decided to take an Explore Minnesota excursion to Lake Minnetonka. First we made our way back to Wayzata Bay. Here’s a poorly-lit picture of me in front of the frozen bay.
And yes, that frozen plain behind me is really a lake. Behind me you can see ice fishing houses and tents set up:
We wanted to drive around the entirety of Lake Minnetonka, but one of the “problems” with having a beautiful lake is that rich, fancy people turn the lake shore into exclusive lakefront property, so a lot of areas were dead end streets or private driveways. But, having to drive away from the lake to continue westward led us through some amazing snowy wooded areas (all privately owned, of course) that were boarding the lake. Aside from Wayzata, we saw parts of Woodland, Deephaven, Shorewood, Greenwood and Excelsior.
Here’s a shot of the “Port of Excelsior” gate, beyond which is boat landing/lake access. The Hubby wanted to go down onto the frozen lake, but I had serious doubts about my fragile 130,000 mile-wielding Saturn’s ability to make it up and down the icy landing.
After driving through downtown Excelsior, we decided to turn around. The sun had set, and driving around on strange icy roads after dark…maybe not the best idea ever. So, we made it around approximately one quarter of Lake Minnetonka, and we’re looking forward to taking the motorcycle out sometime this spring to complete our journey!
Biodork 
February 4, 2010 at 2:43 pm |
I usually expect to see water and boats near a Port. Instead, in Minnesota in February, a Port is an entrance to a treeless frozen plain. It is desolate and beautiful.