Iowa and Minnesota

Zipping Through Iowa

In just about every state we've travelled through, we've been pleasantly surprised by what we've found, and a lot of our preconceived notions have been busted -- that is, until we reached Iowa. It was just exactly as we had imagined -- flat farmland, ready to be planted with corn, and without too much personality. We did find a winery in southern Iowa -- ok, that was a surprise -- but basically we just drove through the state as a way to get from Missouri to Minnesota. 'Nuf said.

Into Minneapolis

I got a chuckle as we headed up towards Minneapolis. There was a sign that said "Medford 3/4 mile". Although there wasn't much there in the little town of Medford, it did put a smile on my face.

After having had such a good time in Kansas City, we were a little disappointed in Minneapolis. It didn't have nearly the personality that KC did. It was actually a little "blah". But we still ended up having a good time.

We've been amazed by the number of lakes, everywhere you look. Of course, this state is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes." There's this one area of town called the Chain of Lakes, and there are some beautiful, old, huge houses all along the edge. If you had to live in Minneapolis, that would be the place to live!

Wandering thru Downtown

We went downtown to the Nicollet Mall, which is a pedestrian mall that runs the length of downtown. The downtown area is interesting in that just about every block is connected on the buildings' second levels. In other words, you can walk from block to block in just about any direction and never have to go outside. I guess you'd have to have something like that in an area that dips below zero in the winter.

In front of Macy's is a bronze statue of Mary Tyler Moore, with her throwing her hat up like she did at the beginning of the MTM show.
Remember, her job in that show was in a Minneapolis TV station. I thought that was amusing.

A funny thing happened -- we were walking around in the cold, windy downtown, and of course, we had to go potty. I looked up and saw a Target, so I suggested we go in there. We went around the corner, looking for the door, then finally found it. We thought it was weird that the door wasn't more accessible. When we walked in, we thought it was a strange-looking Target, with an escalator, sculptures, etc. But we went up the escalator. When we got to the top, we looked and saw people walking everywhere, then finally a couple of security guards at a desk. I finally got it. I walked up and asked, "Is this the Target corporate headquarters or something?" He said "Yes". Since we were already there, I also asked, "Are there any public restrooms around here?" He showed us one, so we still accomplished our mission! ;-)

From there, we walked down to a Sculpture Garden next to the Walker Art Museum (contemporary art). Most of the sculptures in the garden were pretty weird, but the main centerpiece of the garden was pretty cool -- a huge cherry on an even bigger spoon.

On our way walking through the park, we saw something funny. A person was lying down on a blanket taking a nap, and next to him was a little nylon carrier that undoubtedly had some food in it. A little squirrel kept walking around and around him, wanting so very much to get to the food he was smelling, but scared to approach this big human being. We stood and watched him for a long time, but then we left. I'm not sure how things ended up. We kept thinking that the squirrel was going to jump on the man, although if that were to happen, I'm not sure who would have been more surprised!

More Adventures

In the afternoon, we drove down to Minnehaha Park, and saw the Minnehaha Falls. It's about 50 feet high, and is on a creek that runs into the Mississippi. The park is very big, and very pretty.

After the falls, we headed down to Bloomington to go to the Mall of America, the largest mall in the U.S., with more than 500 stores under a 4.2 million square foot building. Of course, about 2 million square feet of that, the entire center of the Mall, consists of a big amusement park, with several roller coasters, ferris wheels, etc. It was pretty mind boggling!

While we were walking around, we saw several hair salons. Since it had been about 8 weeks since either of us had gotten a haircut, we decided to walk into one. I've used only two hairdressers over the last 16 years, so I was wondering how it would go. But when I walked in, I decided that I was tired of being shaggy, so I told the gal to cut it short -- which she did! I had looked through some hair books and found a picture of a hairdo I looked, and the gal did a good job.

By the way, my hairdresser had lived in Minnesota her entire life, so I was entertained by her accent. At one point, she even said "Yah, sure" just like I would have guessed she would. When I told her I enjoyed her accent, she was surprised she even had one. Cute.

Art Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Saturday morning, we went to the big annual Art Show down in the art district -- or at least that's what they called it. As we went through the old dilapidated buildings, Michael and I were commenting that the Minnesota building code was nothing like the Oregon or California code! Anyway, there were many artists there displaying their stuff -- some of it looked good (but was way overpriced), but most of it was just bizarre. We wondered how these people paid the rent!

We thought we'd be at the art show longer, but a couple of hours was enough, so we headed over to St. Paul. The capital building was pretty, but right across the way from there was a huge beautiful building. We found out it was the Cathedral of St. Paul, built 100 years ago. We saw that the church was open, so we decided to go in. When we entered the side door, we quickly realized there was a wedding going on. Of course, Michael thought we should leave immediately -- but I convinced him that the cathedral was large enough that no one would notice we were there. So we stayed -- and no one noticed. There were also other people wandering around. The cathedral was huge and beautiful, and rivaled anything we had seen in Rome.

Prairie Home Companion

Saturday late afternoon, we actually went to Minneapolis' State Theater to see Garrison Keilor and the Prairie Home Companion. I've listened to that radio show on National Public Radio and on the internet many times, so it was pretty exciting to actually be there during the live radio broadcast. It was a 2-hour show and very entertaining. During intermission I went up front to take a picture of Garrison. He's a strange looking guy, but it was very cool.

Off To Packer Country

Sunday morning we heading off to Green Bay, Wisconsin. There's not a lot to do there other than see Lambeau Field (the Packers) and eat some Wisconsin cheese and sausage, but we plan on taking a day off to clean the house, iron some clothes, do some grocery shopping, and just catch up.

After that, we're heading off to Traverse City, Michigan for a few days. My friend, Margie, is from there, and she tells me it's wonderful. I'll give you a full report next week.

Remember, more pictures may be seen at http://semitte.photosite.com.