St. Paul History Center

Sitting on the outskirts of downtown St. Paul is the History Center which I've been meaning to check out for awhile. Although their main exhibit about chocolate was sort of a bore, we discovered one called Minnesota's Greatest Generation that was truly inspiring and well produced.

Most of the artifacts were donated from real Minnesotans who experienced the Great Depression, World War II and what their lives were like after the war. They recreated a movie theater and played popular films during the 30's, a drugstore where everyone used to hang out and make phone calls from and one of my favorites was watching a recreation of a World War II combat flight in a C-47 plane.

The exhibit was housed in a 6,000 square foot space, so there was a lot to see and reading through personal journeys from so many different perspectives made for one of the best history lessons I've had in awhile.

Downtown St. Paul on a cold winter's day.

A snowed in bench walking up to the museum.

1930's style drugstore/soda fountain.

A vintage pin ball machine.

A bunch of vintage television sets -- I wish they made televisions like this still.

A classic car nestled beneath a vintage neon sign.

Paul Bunyan charcoal.

Vintage sock monkeys.

The capitol building on our drive home.