Photos taken during Grand Excursion leg, Red Wing to St. Paul

After 4 years of planning, we were finally able to join the Grand Excursion on their glorious arrival in St. Paul!! We’ve had reservations on the Spirit of Peoria ship since before the bookings begin in 2003. We’ve completed all the previous 13 legs of our mission and were ready to relax for the final journey. All the towns along the river from Illinois to Minnesota had spruced up for this adventure. There were a dozen ships, double and triple deckers, which made the final leg from Red Wing and Hastings into St. Paul. George and Jeanette Gru took us to Red Wing the night before and we boarded at 6 AM. Every town and each lock along the way were stuffed with people observing a symbol of yesteryear. There were tens of thousands to great us upon our arrival in St. Paul the afternoon of July 3, 2003. For them and for all the other passengers it was a taste of nostalgia. For the Elmquists and the Hagens it was a sense of enormous accomplishment on completing our 240 mile river trip from Birchwood, WI to St. Paul, MN in 4 wonderful summers full of adventure!!

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