Boring because its a suburb and not st paul or mpls
Too large too be cute like Hastings, but too small to be interesting and booming like woodbury
Working at the bank means finally interacting with residents of my city
Delivering pizzas in st peter led to exploring all parts of the city
I have my routs that i follow through the city of Cottage Grove.
Biking this past summer let me see the outskirts. Interacting with them as an exploration instead of just an evacuation.
I didn't realize what a perfect mix of suburb and rural small town it is.
It's connected to st Paul, but is bound on 2 sides by farmland, and by the river in a third
A lot of cottage grove's ethos? Aura? Comes from how you enter and exit it. Highway or county road
Because of the Mississippi River on its Western edge you must travel north or south by highway to get anywhere or you can go as far East as you want by county road.
I am using maps to depict cottage Grove so that i can visualize and put into relation the few parts of cottage Grove that are familiar to me with the many parts that are part of the city, but i have no point of reference for.
The drawn out process of recreating it, while at the same time exploring those same places in real life is an exercise in direct observation