Magic in Minneapolis

Stillwater selfie

The trip to Minnesota has been fabulous, full of the expected good things (spending time with Katie) and the unexpected interesting ones, and now that Katie has gone to school and I have time to kill before my afternoon flight, I have time to write a little about it.

First of all, I am so in love with the Minneapolis area that I could stay another week. There is water, water, everywhere, and so many places to see it. We went around Lake Harriet and walked along the Mississippi near the Guthrie Theater and also along the St. Croix River in our day trip to Stillwater, the birthplace of Minnesota, where we spent a good part of the afternoon taking a trolley tour of the fantastic homes and browsing in the stores and at stalls in an arts fair while a jazz concert took place, which we would not have done if our hosts, Lonny and Andy, had not had a book called "100 Things to do in the Twin Cities Before You Die."  For exercise, we climbed up a lot of steep stairs to get this view of Stillwater.

View of Stillwater

This was my best Airbnb ever, a historic house, recently on a home tour, filled with art and antiques, with two cute little dogs, and a modern kitchen that makes me want everything in it, and a bed so comfortable that, thanks to the comfort and the cool Midwest air, allowed me to sleep past that dreaded 4 a.m. hour and sleep until the more respectable 7 a.m.

A semi-retired couple had the other room. They had driven over from Dubuque, Iowa, just to explore the area, and we became instant friends. In talking to the couple, and to Lonny, one of the hosts, we discovered a big commonality in addition to our shared political values: three of us had had cancer. We played "can you top this," and I am happy to say that I have enough distance to be able to do it with a sense of humor, as the others were able to do also.

They gave me the prize, but after hearing the other stories, I said I wasn't sure.

Last night, I stayed up until midnight talking to Lonny about his large extended modern family, and by the time we were done, I wanted to move in...or at least come back in May for the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre Annual May Day Parade.

But, back to my regular reality, which is a little complicated.

I fly in to Boston tonight, sleep at Diane and David's, then head out early in the morning to get to at least part of the Tuesday class at The Literacy Project in Northampton, then do some writing, then hopefully get in another outside clinic in the waning days of our Wednesdays at The Canoe Club, then go home to get picked up to go back to Boston for my ECP at the Kraft Blood Donor Center.

You might wonder, why not stay in Boston, but then I would not get to do those other things. And also, it will be nice to see my dog...if I can tear her away from Jim and Jane's.

Fun in Minneapolis

We covered a lot of ground over the weekend: walking around (part of) a lake or two, walking along

the Mississippi, eating out, visiting Dinkytown (yes, the area around the University of Minneapolis is

really called that), drinking coffee (me) and tea (Katie) at Caribou coffee and other great spots in sections of Minneapolis that resembled Northampton on a larger scale.

View of the Mississippi from our walk.

We also went to the Gutrhie Theater, almost missing the play ("The Heidi Chronicles") due to getting stuck in traffic during the Zombie Pub Crawl , which, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, broke a world record with at least 15,458 people dressed as the undead gathering in one place, an accomplishment entered in the Guinness Book of World Records. What can I say? I never knew I would go to Minneapolis and run into that.

Best of all, of course, was just spending time with Katie.

My home-away-from-home for three nights was another great find on Airbnb (the first one being the bed and breakfast in Seville). It was exactly 1.3 miles from Katie, a hop, skip and a jump, with "my lake" (Lake Harriet) close to me, and Katie's lake
(Lake Calhoun) a short drive from her.

Nice day at Lake Harriet

It is more expensive to fly from Hartford, so I flew from Logan, where Diane was kind enough to pick me up last night. I spent the night in Newton and then drove straight to Northampton this morning so I could get to at least part of class at the Literacy Project. Then, coffee with a friend; then, stopping at Atkins; then, picking up Maddie, then, taking her for a mini-walk...and then, wondering if I should clean out the car and unpack my bag, but saying, "I'll think about that tomorrow."