Kate found out that there was a Farmer’s Market in Sioux Falls at Falls Park. We decided to kill several birds with one drive by going to the Farmer’s Market, touring Falls Park, and getting groceries all in the same trip. On the way out, we saw a Great (White) Egret in the inlet that had the Great Blue Heron a few days ago.

That tiny white speck to the right of Kate’s head is an egret … or dandruff.

Falls Park is in the middle of Sioux Falls city. Originally, it was a scenic spot to relax in the shade or wade in the water. Due to its convenient location, it became too industrialized and polluted for relaxation and wading. Fortunately, the damage has been reversed, and it is a scenic place for relaxation again. It also has a large dedicated area for the Farmer’s Market with a pavilion, playground, and bathrooms.

We arrived at the Farmer’s market at around 11 am, and it was a veritable zoo. It looked like there was going to be no parking in a 2 miles radius, but an employee in a Gator pulled out from a spot right in front of us. This was a rather large Farmer’s Market with around forty to fifty stalls, live music, and live aerial performances. The free live performances were worth what we paid for them, barely.

Kate was happy to find that they sold produce at this one. In fact, produce, plants, and food were the majority of the booths.

They even had a booth that sold portable mushroom farm bags. Sadly, there were no Morel mushroom bags.

After the Farmer’s Market, we crossed the street to the falls area. The first building was a barn with historical information about the Stockades and South Dakota Agriculture.

Now, Kate has a cheat-sheet to use when the Master Chef TV show asks where a piece of meat comes from on an animal. They are kind of like a morbid version of the shape puzzle for small children. She also got to “drive” the corn truck.

The next building was the visitor center for Falls Park. Basically, it was a souvenir shop with bathrooms and a viewing tower. The signs claimed that the tower was 83 steps tall, but John only counted 82. Either someone is wrong or they count the ground floor as a step. Either way, the tower is about 50 feet tall, and the views were beautiful, if you block out the cars, people, noise, and pollution.

The Farmer’s market was in the back and the falls in the front.

While taking pictures of the turtles, some lady ambushed John trying to get him to take professional pictures of her sister. John had to refuse multiple times. He took some pictures with their cellphone, so he never got a good picture of the turtles. The lady clearly does not understand that a random person with a camera is different than a professional portrait photographer. There is special equipment, knowledge of poses, and patience dealing with people required for that profession. It would not have been worth John’s time or their money for him to do a photography session with them.

Earlier in the day, John had told Kate that, if anyone asks if he is a professional photographer, he planned to say “No, I am a very unprofessional photographer.” Sadly, she just ask him how much a photography session would cost.

There were also some female Mallards hanging around at the top of the falls.

Around this time, John noticed that the camera was acting funny. The 55 mm – 250 mm lens seemed unable to get a crisp picture. He is not sure why. The lens was cool when he brought it out, so maybe it had condensation on it. Or the lens or filter was not tight. Either way, it is weird when the thing you camera says is in focus (the while duck) is less in focus that something else (the duck head on the right).

The park has permanents of the old mill, dam, and other structures along with a cafe. Many of the buildings were made from the Sioux Quartzite from the local quarry. This is the wall of the mill ruins made from Quartzite.

This is the turbine house for the mill and the supports for the water feeder pipe.

The dam is near the old train bridge that is visible from the tower. The dam had been replaced once, and it looks like they are building a newer concrete one. The viewing platform near the dam had views of the park from the opposite side as the Visitor Center. It also had a series of information panels about the history of the park.

This is a 270 degree (3/4 circle) panorama of the view into the park. (You can see the full resolution panorama here.) On the right hand side of the panorama, you can see U-shaped supports for the water feeder pipe from the picture above.

After walking Falls Park, we headed to Chik-Fil-A, shopping, and home.