A trip to Winona is a summer tonic

On a fine summer day, the drive from the Twin Cities to Winona is a tonic. The town is only two hours away, but a day trip there can feel like a vacation if you luck out with high blue skies, a whiff of breeze and sun blazing on lush farm fields. Head south on Hwy. 52 and hang a left at New Trier so you'll roll past Miesville, home of the legendary Mudhens baseball team. At pretty Red Wing, pick up Hwy. 61 south along the Mississippi. The river's tree-covered limestone bluffs frame the valley as it widens into Lake Pepin where sailboats skim over flashing waves.

Architectural highlights

Winona touts a distinctive legacy of century-old stained glass, much of it readily visible in downtown businesses, banks and churches. The Merchants Bank is a well-preserved 1912 Prairie School gem designed by Minneapolis architects William Purcell and George Elmslie. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, it has stunning terra cotta ornamentation and unusual walls of opalescent glass whose abstract designs echo Frank Lloyd Wright. In the lobby, note the surrealistic 15-ton cash vault shaped like a golden eyeball on a silver trolly. (Brochures for self-guided tours of other glass sites are available at the bank, 102 E. 3rd St., or the Winona Convention and Visitors Bureau in the Winona County Historical Society, 160 Johnson St., 1-507-454-2723; www.visitwinona.com.)

Culture

Two universities -- Winona State and St. Mary's -- help explain a culture quotient that seems rich for a town of 30,000. In July, the five-year-old Great River Shakespeare Festival staged three productions by the bard, complete with teacher workshops, elderhostels and prelude concerts of everything from baroque to bluegrass (1-507-474-7900; www.grsf.org). The Minnesota Beethoven Festival peaked in July, with nine concerts including a recital by violin superstar Joshua Bell. The series continues Oct. 26 with saxophonist Branford Marsalis (1-507-457-1715; www.mnbeethovenfestival.org).

Winona and nearby towns boast a number of museums of which the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is the newest and most ambitious. Founded in 2006, it overlooks a Mississippi channel and features folk art carvings, historic photos of the river and changing shows of sea paintings (1-507-474-6626 or 1-866-940-6626; www.minnesota marineart.org). Located in a former armory, the Winona County Historical Museum offers research archives, and for the kids, a cave, a tepee and a river steamboat plus a history of the city's sewer system. Irresistible (1-507-454-2723; www.winonahistory.org).

Diversions

For a big picture of the Mississippi valley, drive up to the Garvin Heights Park, a 30-acre parcel overlooking the city. Enroute, stop for a taste or a bottle at the Garvin Heights Vineyard, which began producing wines from locally grown grapes in 2006 (1-507-454-7179; www.ghvwine.com). At the park, retired Winona State University professor Carol Jefferson and volunteers have been restoring the native vegetation on the limestone cliffs, which have been a lookout point for at least 12,000 years. Watch for hawks riding on thermal updrafts from the river valley below. Serious birders will want to cross the river to Wisconsin's 6,200-acre Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge where the thousands of birds that ply the Mississippi flyway each spring and fall can be observed from telescopes mounted to an observation deck (1-608-539-2311; www.fws.gov/midwest/trempealeau).

Traveler's info

Winona Visitors Center, 924 Huff St., 1-800-657-4972 or 1-507-452-0735; www.visitwinona.com.

Mary Abbe • 612-673-4431