La Crosse, part 1

We've been surprised at how little time we've had to explore the city. Most of our time has been spent unpacking and shopping for essential items and furniture. I will describe what we have experienced of the city so far.

Although our apartment and its building is very nice, the surrounding area doesn't have much.

• To the east is probably the least scenic stretch of the Great River Road. Across that street is a sausage factory, a Pepsi warehouse, and some more light industrial complexes. The good news is that there is little or no pollution.
• To the north is one of the city's bigger landmarks, Gunderson Lutheran Hospital, just across the exempt railroad tracks. Ambulance sirens are mute when the windows are shut.
  
• Our windows face south overlooking our car parked in the parking lot. We usually park it outside of our window, and rarely does anyone park next to us. Beyond the parking lot is public storage. So maybe we should put our extra bowls and bedsheets there.
• The west is the best with a short walking trail to a part of the Mississippi River. Although the trail is just behind the apartment building, a steep downward slope prevents you from accessing it. One must walk around the hospital's airlift/helipad building and through its extensive parking lot to get to the trail. We just walked that trail today. It's not long enough.

What about the rest of the city? We are slightly south of the city center. The city center, located around Viterbo University, is probably were the lowest rent is. The downtown area is north of the city center. It's where the La Crosse River meets the Mighty Mississippi.

It takes about 5-10 minutes to drive downtown. All the nice local shops and restaurants are found there. Pearl Street has been nominated as one of America's hometown main streets. It's certainly more vibrant than downtown Kenosha but not as cosmopolitan/academic as State Street in Madison. I could go on longer about downtown La Crosse, so I'll save it for a later posting.

Most of the recognizable chains of Everytown USA can be found in the nearby city Onalaska where the mall is. La Crosse has a smaller version of this urban sprawl just a few miles south on South Avenue which becomes Mormon Coulee Road. There you can find the city's largest supermarket, Quillan's IGA Foodfest. Culver's and Ace Hardware are also in the vicinity as well as one of the city's cinemas. Just on the southern tip of the city is Wal-Mart. Just far enough away.

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is about a mile or two east of the downtown. The campus is in the perfect spot for viewing the bluffs. It's about 2.5 miles from our apartment, so I'll be walking to work when the weather is agreeable.

For a wider perspective of the city, it doesn't have much room to expand east or west. So it's a long city from north to south. The 3 major roads run north-south. One of them is Hwy 53 which is South Avenue for a while. It's the Great River Road in La Crosse. Another is Hwy 35 which cuts through the center of the city. And the other is Losey Blvd. which runs along the bluff-side of the city.