Before last Saturday the closest that i had ever gotten to Lake Minnetonka was being lost somewhere in the maze of roads surrounding the area trying to find my way out of suburban Minneapolis. The event that took me to Lake Minnetonka (specifically the port of Excelsior) was a ride on the Minnehaha Steamboat.

The steamboat ride consists of one of the multiple paths as a tour a crossed the lake with historical narration. The tour is very informative and neat to hear about the development of Lake Minnetonka and the creation and demise of many of the features of the area such as the steamboat itself which was previously (and intentionally) sunk with it’s kin to the bottom of the lake than recovered.

The boat and the tour are both part of the Museum of Lake Minnetonka and are available for rides May 26 through September 30th with the captain, engineer, and all other people on deck being very knowledgeable volunteers. The lake was surprisingly empty of traffic whether it was due to the weather, the state fair, or some other forces it but seeing and hearing about all of the places on the tour definitely made it worth while.