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Sep 13, 2009 11:15 pm US/Central
Finding Minnesota: Cruisin' The Fall Leaves
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
A sneak peak of fall has already started. The leaves have just begun to change colors, but soon enough, we'll be looking at bright bursts of yellow, orange and red in trees all over the state.
This week in Finding Minnesota, WCCO-TV reporter Angela Davis traveled to Taylors Falls to show a leisurely way to take in nature's spectacular show.
Come mid-September each year, it is one of the hottest tickets around -- with one of the best seats in town.
Climbing on board the Taylors Falls Princess for a scenic boat tour along the St. Croix River is always pretty, but when the leaves start turning colors along the banks of the river, it's absolutely breathtaking.
"The first colors that will change, and they're starting to change now, it's the maples and it's the reds," said Dan Raedeke, operator of
Scenic Boat Tours.
"A little later on the yellows will start coming and then towards the end of September, first part of October, we'll start getting the rust colors from the oaks. And when they inter-mix together they will be beautiful."
From now until early October, visitors can kick back and drift along the river on a fall scenic boat tour, or what is coined "the leaf cruise" in Taylors Falls -- an annual tradition for lots of families.
"Families will come, all generations," Raedeke said. "We'll get three, four generations coming together and making it a family tradition, coming on the boat ... and they will talk about when they come back, 'Five years ago this happened.' They have a lot of fun."
Raedeke knows a thing or two about family tradition. This boat company has been in his family since 1906.
He and his sister, Amy Raedeke Frischmon, make up the fourth generation to run the business.
There's even a family photo album Raedeke Frischmon put together for their 100th anniversary.
"Then we had the Dalles showboat, the Robert C., which was named after my grandfather, the Kathy M. which was named after my aunt or my mom's sister," she said, while showing Davis the album of photos. "And the boats that we operate with today, which is the Taylors Falls Queen and the Taylors Falls Princess which we are on right now."
She said back in the early 1900s her family was already operating a boat business in Stillwater when they got the opportunity to expand.
City leaders in Taylors Falls needed someone willing to take tourists out on boats on Sundays and their great-grandfather answered the call. Through the years his descendants have remained just as devoted.
"I think part of it is the river and the nature and the beauty right here. It gets in your blood," Raedeke Frischmon said. "All of us have gone off and done other things, and had an opportunity to go off to college, and maybe study abroad and do different things, and we all just get drawn back to the St. Croix River Valley because it's gorgeous."
Those interested in taking a leaf cruise are encouraged to make a reservation. The dinner leaf cruises take place on Friday and Saturday nights through the end of September plus one more on Oct. 3.
Afternoon cruises are available on weekdays through mid-October.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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