Out & About – Page 336

Mill City Museum

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.

Planning

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.

Juicy Lucy at the 5-8 Club and a walk over the Stone Arch Bridge

We started our Minneapolis adventures with a taste test of the Juicy Lucy at the 5-8 Club. The Juicy Lucy (or Jucy Lucy) is a hamburger with cheese in the center and two different bars in Minneapolis claim to have invented this concoction. We visited the bar that spells it Juicy Lucy. There’s actually a wikipedia entry about this.

We began with the fried pickles, which were about as delicious as the coming together of “pickles” and “fried” can be. Not to mention the ranch dressing.

At the 5-8 Club you can get your choice of cheese. Apparently at Matt’s Bar (home of the Jucy Lucy) the only choice is American Cheese. I chose blue cheese. After following the instructions on the menu and from my waitress to wait until everything cools down a little, I took a bite. It was good. They also had jojos, but they came without seasoning.

Needing to walk off our dinner, we stopped at Sara and Shawn’s house (which apparently needs a name) and then walked down to the Mississippi River and over the Stone Arch Bridge (built by James J. Hill as a railroad bridge).

On the bridge you can see the four lanes, two each for bike and pedestrian.

On the other side of the river I caught this illuminated view.

And also this glowing sign with the moon. The sign can be seen in the first picture of the Stone Arch Bridge. It’s on the building that looks like it is directly under the lamp.

DEN and MSP

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.

Interesting people on my flight.

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.

Things to do while waiting for your flight.

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.

Awesome clock at PDX

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.

Peal those shrimp! Peal them like bells.

A-hem. Can we have the copy editor at the Oregonian reinstated? Please?

Books read in June 2015

When it’s kind of a grumpy time because a very exhausting school year is ending, why not disappear into a few books?

Recommended this month:
Picture–Pool
Middle Reader: Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer, The Way Home Looks Now
YA–Prairie Fire, All the Rage, the Geography of You and Me
Nonfiction: The Boys Who Challenged Hitler

Picture Books:
Pool
Jihyeon Lee
Read for librarian book group.
Picture-only book perfect for those who love swimming pools.

The Night World
Mordicai Gerstein
Read for librarian book group.
Picture book about how things look different in the middle of the night.

Middle Readers:
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
Kelly Jones
Read for librarian book group.
Very fun middle reader about the new girl town, if “town” is her deceased great uncle’s farm. There, she comes across a catalog “Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer” and strange things begin to happen. Told in letters written to the company, her dead grandmother and dead great Uncle, this is a fun and funny story.

The Way Home Looks Now
Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Read for librarian book group.
Written with a cinematic flair that had me thinking “this should be a movie!” It’s quietly funny and also a good exploration of the ramifications of grief and families. I also loved the ending, which was perfect and had me thinking this book shouldn’t be a movie, because they would muck up the ending.

Young Adult:
Prairie Fire
E.K. Johnston
The second in the Story of Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim. (Which is actually the story of Siobahn, bard to Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim.) Once again, Johnston has her finger on the zeitgeist of this generation. Once again, she does amazing things, describing things via musical terms. This book appeared soon after the first one and I wonder if she rushed to write it? The ending seemed to come from nowhere and wrap up very quickly, which was a disappointment. Still, this was a grand contemporary fantasy set in Canada and well worth the read.

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
Stephanie Oaks
I read an ARC passed on from a friend.
Points for contrasting settings (The past: a cult commune tucked away in the woods. The present: juvenile detention/jail.) Points for interesting main character and strong supporting cast. There were more than few major plot points I didn’t really go for, which made this only a so-so read.

Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go
Laura Rose Wagner
Read for librarian book group.
I can heartily recommend this book if you are looking for a first-person narrative of Haiti after the earthquake. Or possibly you are interested in a story of two sisters (actually cousins) and how their lives change after the earthquake. This book was very strong in those areas.

For me, this was a book to slog though. I found that I was interested in the characters lives and what happens, but not in a way that I really wanted to keep reading. I think I was rooting for them, but didn’t really care for them. Is this a writing flaw or a personality flaw? If you are interested in the setting or topic, feel free to read for yourself and report back your experience.

Recovery Road
Blake Nelson
Madeline is 16 and in rehab. She meets Stewart there and the book follows their relationship through the next few years of their sobriety. I liked the portrayal of addiction and how so many things can influence a persons dedication to their clean-and-sober path. By the end of the book, it felt like the main character was just reporting, “and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened” which grew tiresome. However, few books feature the city in which I currently live and the college from which I graduated, so that was fun.

The Duff
Kody Keplinger
I was charmed by the actors in the movie adaptation of this book. I was not at all charmed by the book itself. The writing is poor (although fine for a teenager, which the author was at the time) the plot is repetitive and the book needed a lot better editing. On page 160 there is a great example where the writing suggests a character got out of a two-door car, shut the door, then opened that same door and got into the front seat.

Carney’s House Party
Maud Hart Lovelace
The book I should have read before Betsy’s and the Great World (grumble grumble, numbering system, grumble grumble) it primarily concerns Carney, a secondary character in the high school books, and her “house party” which apparently once upon a time had a definition meaning people coming to visit you for an extended time. All sorts of things happen during the house party, which are quite enjoyable to read about. There’s the usual singing, going on drives, chattering, hosting parties of every stripe. Betsy shows up midway through and also we get to nicely tie up the Carney/Larry plot that simmered in the back of the high school books all those years.

The Ghosts of Heaven
Marcus Sedgewick
Read for librarian book group.
Four stories you can read in any order. Or so I was told. I chose the order of 3, 4, 1, 2 and came away underwhelmed.

Simon vs. the Homo sapiens Agenda
Becky Albertalli
Read for librarian book group.
There are a lot of characters in this novel and I was confused as to who everyone was for about the first fifty pages. Once that sorted itself out, I was fine and enjoyed this novel. I loved the family scenes, which felt very true, and the coming out process also felt very authentic (at least to this heterosexual). The title flummoxes me, but does not detract from this enjoyable read.

All the Rage
Courtney Summers
Read for librarian book group.
I find the title to be unfortunate as I keep forgetting what this book is and have to remind myself by looking at the cover. However, once I remind myself, I get very excited, because this is a great book. Why is our main character on the outside of the cool kids she used to be friends with? Why is she so obsessed with nail polish and makeup? What is going on? I’ll leave you to find out yourselves.

The Geography of You and Me
Jennifer E. Smith
Two teenagers trapped in an elevator during a power outage. Things go from there. I really liked the obstacles the teenagers faced in this book and found it a nice breezy way to avoid packing for my upcoming vacation.

Also, Sara Zarr interviewed Jennifer E. Smith for her podcast. You can listen to it here: http://www.sarazarr.com/archives/4593

Nonfiction:
The Boys who Challenged Hitler
Phillip Hoose
Read for librarian book group.
Engrossing book about Danish teenagers who decided to not just roll over when the Nazis came to town. Aside from being chock-full of interesting details, I appreciated how the author discussed the aftermath of the consequences.

In Focus: Carleton Watkins
J. Paul Getty Museum
Watkins was the big Yosemite photographer back in the nineteenth century. Check out this book for high quality reproductions of his work, which is then put in context. There’s also a great picture of the Columbia River. I’m really enjoying this In Focus series.

Top movies of June 2015

June
13 movies watched

A New Leaf
Elaine May’s dark romantic comedy lives up to my youthful remembrances.

A Place in the Sun
Great mid-20th century class commentary and a good argument for why abortion should be legal. (I say this only partially tongue-in-cheek.)