Saturday July 3^rd, 2004

On Saturday, the Grand Excursion was scheduled to arrive at St. Paul’s Harriet Island Park.. The event coincided with the Taste of Minnesota Celebration which was also happening at Harriet Island, directly across the river from downtown St. Paul. We arrived at 9:15am, giving us plenty of time to scope out the scene. We found that the fair grounds would not be open to the public until 11:00am, which gave us plenty of time to find a free parking spot in the shade near the east end of Harriet Island Park. Parking was pretty tight by 11:00am as people began pouring into the Taste of Minnesota/Grand Excursion celebration. Although the crowd was sizeable, the people were not very receptive to the clean water and river management message contained in the Mississippi Monitor. Dick and David had a hard time distributing the Monitor to this metropolitan crowd. During a free moment, David found a booth set up by Mystik Toys where he brushed up on his juggling skills before leaving some Monitors for people to pick up. Although we did find some unique food items, like Mocha-on-a-stick, at the fair, the food was really expensive with funnel cake costing $5.00 in tickets and a turkey leg costing almost $10.00.

Fireworks announced the arrival of the riverboat flotilla just as the rain started at 3:15pm. A local boat, the Jonathan Paddleford ,came into port first followed by the Harriet Bishop, the Julia Belle Swain, the Spirit of Peoria and the Avalon (another local tour boat). The Mississippi Queen and the Delta Queen docked downriver from the Robert Street Bridge and were not visible from the fair grounds.

As the riverboats paddled into port and the rain began pouring down, people ran for cover and congregated under any available roof-top. During the downpour David met with Cathy Taylor of Victori Ltd., a vintage clothing reseller, who was in period dress for the Grand Excursion Celebration.