Month: July 2009

And are the people the data?

Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska once opined that the internet was more like a series of tubes than a dump truck. Well, if that’s the case, then Minneapolis is a lot like the internet because it is a series of tubes. Actually, they are called skyways and the people use them so they don’t have to go outside in the winter cold or the summer heat. We wish we had known how to access them since it started to rain as we walked to the Mill City Museum. But you know the internet is really complicated.

Flour power

Our major activity of the day was visiting the Mill City Museum. Both General Mills and Pillsbury were headquartered here. The General Mills headquarters have moved out to the western suburbs and the milling is now done closer to the wheat source or the transportation source. For a long time the mill stood empty and eventually burned down adding to the urban blight along the riverfront. The whole area has been cleaned up and the Mill City Museum has been built among the ashes of the former mill.

We learned about the history of Minneapolis. The history of milling. All about wheat. Etc., etc. Once again, it’s probably not a good idea to ask us (especially John) questions about milling. You’d get more than you bargained for.

Chicken and Wild Rice

It seems appropriate on this, our anniversary trip, to come across one of our wedding gifts, Dinner in a Dish. At the museum there was an archive of old Betty Crocker cookbooks and we found our long ago cookbook. This is the 1968 publication. I still make the Wild Rice and Chicken Casserole.

Minneapolis has proved to be a very likeable city. The Twin Cities have a great setting, lots of open areas and friendly people. It’s been fun to see the cities that our friends always rave about. Now if they could just do something about the weather……

We took a short trip to the lakefront in Escanaba before we headed out across Wisconsin to Minneapolis. This is a picture of a small lakeside museum in an old lighthouse.

I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay
I sleep all night and I work all day…

After traversing Wisconsin we crossed the Saint Croix river and entered Minnesota at Stillwater. Stillwater was very pretty with lots of restaurants and small shops. They were currently having Lumberjack Days which, of course, made me think of the Monty Python song.

36000 sq. ft., riv vu

Upon reaching St. Paul, we made our way to the James J. Hill House. Hill was a Scot/Irish immigrant from Canada who made a fortune in the railroad business. He married a waitress from the hotel downtown and they had 10 children. The house is in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. This style, popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson, is a revival style incorporating 11th and 12th century French, Italian and Spanish Romanesque characteristics. It’s actually quite unattractive from the outside. Inside, there are many large rooms. We had a great tour and probably annoyed other people on the tour by our constant questions. After the tour, we rode down Summit Ave. with its many Victorian houses.

I’m a girl who likes a bar

After getting up early, driving a good part of the day, touring the Hill House and fighting rush hour traffic getting into Minneapolis, we were pretty tired out. So when we saw that there was a happy hour with small bites at our hotel, we were totally down with that. In the picture is a lot of brown food, but as Anne Burrell says, “Brown food is good food.” Clockwise from the truffled French fries are a vegetable risotto and a plate with two cauliflower fritters and smashed parsnips. It was all really yummy and we didn’t have to do anything but take the elevator downstairs.

After sending John about 25 miles out of the way with my expert navigation, we finally arrived in Mackinaw City, MI around 12:30 and found Scalawag’s Whitefish and Chips place. The food was fine and we were enjoying ourselves and looking forward to poking around Mackinaw City and taking pictures of the bridge.

Bucketsful
During lunch the sky darkened and it started to lightning and thunder. And then the rain started coming down. Not soft California type rain but thunderous rain. The kind that comes down at the rate of about an inch in fifteen minutes. We had no jackets and no umbrellas. John was such a hero. He ran between the raindrops (ala Rabbi Akiba) and retrieved our umbrellas so that I wouldn’t get totally wet.

I love high bridges

Not. So here we are in the thunder and lightning and pouring rain crossing the very high, very long Mackinac Bridge. We watched an episode of Modern Marvels depicting the building of the bridge. But it was too foggy and rainy to really photograph it well and I really just wanted to get it over with.