Month: July 2015

Here is the building in Dinkytown (the neighborhood by the University of Minnesota) where Bob Dylan was rumored to have lived when he attended college.

Al’s Diner is an institution.  There might not have been a line if we had arrived at its 6am opening.  However, due to our late night we wandered down mid-morning. Plus it was a holiday (Independence Day Friday). So we waited in line.

After you wait outside, you get to wait inside. That’s us standing against the wall waiting for a counter space. At this point, we’re the next to be seated.  And you don’t sit down until you are told, because sometimes they have people slide down, so they can fit entire parties together.  I was quite impressed with how well we operated in each others’ bubbles.

Orders being taken.  In the background you can see the pay-ahead tabs.  They are fronted with yellow slips of paper with the person or parties name on them.  In the far background you can see one of the work spaces where the cooking happens.  There is another one to the left of this picture.  But the place is tiny.

My meal.

My bill.

We visited the Guthrie Theater for a performance of one of my favorite musicals.

It was a thrust stage and we had very good seats.  One thing I noticed about the perspective that the thrust theater offered is that I could see how much spittle flew out of the actors’ mouths when they talked.

After the show we visited the Prohibition Bar in the Forshay Tower, which was a skyscraper modeled after the Washington Monument. Originally, this was Mr. Forshay’s private retreat on the 27th and 28th floors.  Then the market crashed and Mr. Forshay lost his fortune.  He never got to live here.  But we got to buy fancy drinks.  Also, John Philip Sousa wrote a march for the dedication of the building, but the check bounced, so it was only played once.  At least until 1988 when some investors paid off the debt.

Our fancy drinks.  They were quite delicious.

Though we walked to the Mill City Museum over the Stone Arch Bridge, we crossed the Third Avenue Bridge coming back.  But first we were waylaid by this fabulous Post Office.  

I love this great infinity view.  This was built at a time when we believe government provided serveices and solutions.  It shows in the mammoth scale and the multitude of details.

Wonderful typeface.

We are lacking in bulletins today.

Gorgeous drop box.

Who wouldn’t be happy to finish addressing their mail here?

On the other side of the river we found the Ard Godfry House.  As the earliest surviving frame house it fit my vacation theme of “Houses and Homes.”

As I enjoyed saying ,”Did you know that the Women’s Club of Minneapolis restored this house?” Because you can’t read about the Ard Godfry house without hearing about the Women’s Club of Minneapolis.

We walked by Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.  This was originally a Universalist Church.  In 1877, the Catholics bought it and made it Catholic fancy.  You can see where the front part was grafted onto the original Greek Revival style.

We also visited Kramarczuk’s Sausage Company, where Sara got Borscht and a roll and I had sauerkraut soup with ham, a roll and a very delicious beet vinaigrette salad that I think was Ukrainian.

As we were talking, Sara’s eyes lit up.  A couple passed our booth and we guessed they might have gotten married, based on their outfits. I caught this picture, of the couple, Sara, and a perfect shirt.  This is my favorite picture from the entire trip.

On our way out we looked at the various sausage products available.

Our first stop of the day was the Mill City Museum.

We were scheduled for a Flour Tower multimedia tour, but had some time to kill, so we took this self-portrait in front of the big Bisquick package.

We could have also designed our own cereal box, but we did not.

The Flour Tour took place in an old freight elevator.

Our guide gave us information about the flour mill before beginning our multi-media experience.

I was interested in this camp which seemed to have a cool activity every single day.  I wouldn’t mind going to that camp.

The multi-media experience did not allow photographs, but it was very cool. The elevator moved to different floors and then told us some part of the history of the mill.  After the multi-media experience we were deposited on the top floor of the mill and learned how very important the dust collectors are.  Apparently, if you don’t have them, your factory explodes and kills many people and destroys several other factories.  This mill would know, because it happened here, once upon a time.

The mill met its end in the 60s when yet another fire (I think there were four total?) decimated the building.  Today, the walls make an attractive courtyard.

Our view of the Mississippi and St. Anthony falls.  These falls are what brought the power and made this a great site for flour and other mills.

There was also an extensive museum commemorating and celebrating General Mills products.  Here’s the story of one of the winners of the Pillsbury Bake-Off.  They had a fabulous video too.

On the way to watch a demonstration of how dust can cause an explosion, I took this picture.

I also loved these Fire Alarm Signals, leftover from back before intercom systems allowed verbal communication.

We were quite good at stacking the blocks and building some towers.

We also viewed a history of Minneapolis in 19 minutes flat, which was a great introduction to the city for me.  You can see a 30 second trailer here.

Sara and I did some planning via phone and email.  I was amused to see our different note taking styles join together. I’m on the left, Sara’s on the right.

Though the Denver Airport is not nearly as charming as the Portland Airport, it does have a Ben and Jerry’s. And tornado shelters.  I stopped at B&J for a scoop and some hot fudge.  And then I looked out on the beautiful day and contemplated how the scrap of paper with the number 302 came to be sitting on my table. I bet there’s a story there.

I got very excited because the Minneapolis airport has the round luggage carousals.  Then I got excited to see Sara and Shawn.

Dude. What the hell is that?
This was the question I didn’t ask, but rather took a picture on the sly. Although I didn’t have to be that sly because while the mouth and nose are free, the eyes are covered.
The flight attendant wanted answers too.  “I gotta ask.” she said eventually.
The guy said it was called the Ostrich and that they were really popular.
“I fly all the time,” she said, “and I have never seen anything like that.”

When I got to Minneapolis, I said to Sara and Shawn, “I gotta show you the thing the guy on my flight was wearing.  It was weird.”

“What if it was that Ostrich thing in the SkyMall catalog” Sara said. It was! And we both marveled at the craziness.

Since the SkyMall catalog doesn’t exist anymore in flight, I’ve included this link, so you can purchase your own.  But people are going to stare.

This woman spent the entire PDX to DEN flight going over song lyrics.  I assume she was a singer.  She had this “You sing the songs of Taylor Dane” printout that was very interesting to me.  But I can’t find an example of it with quick googling.

Wonder if the company in charge of the Jantzen Beach redevelopment planned from the beginning to lose the historic carousel.  Get grumpy.

Walk the secret hallway between the D-E and the A-B-C gates.  Enjoy how deserted it is.

Covertly watch this mother and son entertain themselves pre-flight, by taking pictures.  Enjoy how the son narrates his thought process as to why he was taking the pictures.

I procrastinated a lot getting ready for my vacation, at one point thinking, “Why am I going somewhere else?  It’s so much work!”  But I eventually got around to getting everything done and by the time I found myself at the airport (thanks Matt, for dropping me off) and made it through security, my mood rapidly improved.  PDX is awesome!  They had a piano player right outside of security and his cheery take on “Ode to Joy” calmed my frazzled nerves.  And I noticed this amazing clock!   It’s a tremendous specimen and I had a great time studying all the details.

Then I found the poster with the explanations.   Also, the Portland Airport has Cafe Yumm!  I love Cafe Yumm and bought an Edamame Bowl to eat on my flight.