Minneapolis

Here I go again. I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend a conference. This is my first time to this city, and I think I found some cool things I never knew were here. 

I start out at the 5-8 Club, which used to be a speakeasy (place to get booze during the prohibition). 

Now it's home to the Juicy Lucy, a hamburger made with the cheese inside the hamburger rather than on top. Two places claim to be the originator of the Juicy Lucy, the 5-8 Club and Matt's Bar. Now every burger place serves it. I choose the 5-8 because Matt's only offers American cheese. 5-8 offers choices, and my pick is blue cheese in this 1/2-pound burger.

Minnesota was voted by The League of American Cyclists as the second-most bike-friendly state in the United States. Utah needs signs like this one. Too many people on the Jordan River Parkway and other trails don't know that "On your left" means I'm passing on the left so you (pedestrian, slower bike, dog-walker, etc.) should move to the right. They either pay no attention at all or scatter in all directions. 

Bike lanes and trails are everywhere in Minneapolis. This bridge has the cars in two lanes (one in each direction) with a semiprotected bike lane (plastic reflector posts). And these lanes get used a lot. In fact, all the paths near the river are very busy with bicycles and runners. 

I had read about the Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi and wanted to see it, but I had no idea this part of Minneapolis also has dilapidated flour mills from the 1800s and early 1900s with the buildings preserved in their crumbling condition. The park here is called Mill Ruins Park. And in one of the remains is a mill museum.  

This is the Pillsbury building on the opposite side of the river from downtown Minneapolis.

And this building at the base of the Pillsbury site is restored into artist lofts. 

Today is a real estate agent's open house for future artist residents. 

This arch bridge has been restored into a foot and bicycle path. 

This squirrel is storing food for winter. 

Preparing the food. 

This is a cute lighthouse on the Mississippi, and Minneapolis is in the background. The river is roughly 220 yards wide at this point (as measured by my footsteps across a bridge). 

And I end the evening wth dinner at Izzy's. This four-course meal has chocolate with almonds, pumpkin, and caramel with sea salt on a waffle cone with a chocolate ball at the bottom to seal in the ice cream so it doesn't melt and drip out. 

Thursday, October 27

First Show Day

 

This is the opening session. This show is a collection of community health center workers, from doctors and nurses to administrators and office staff. Their primary job is to provide health care to the underserved. The keynote address was a narrated collection of poems and songs like the following:

"I Care and Am Willing to Serve"

Marian Wright Edelman

Lord I cannot preach like Martin Lurther King, Jr.

or turn a poetic phrase like Maya Angelou

but I care and am willing to serve.

 I do not have Fred Shuttlesworth's and Harriet

Tubman's courage or Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's political skills

but I care and am willing to serve.

I cannot sing like Fannie Lou Hamer

or organize like Ella Baker and Bayard Rustin

but I care and am willing to serve.

I am not holy like Archbishop Tutu,

forgiving like Mandela, or disciplined like Gandhi

but I care and am willing to serve.

I am not brilliant like Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois or

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, or as eloquent as

Sojourner Truth and Booker T. Washington

but I care and am willing to serve.

I have not Mother Teresa's saintliness,

Dorothy Day's love or Cesar Chavez's

gentle tough spirit

but I care and am willing to serve.

God it is not as easy as it used to be

to frame an issue and forge a solution

but I care and am willing to serve.

My mind and body are not so swift as in youth

and my energy comes in spurts

but I care and am willing to serve.

I'm so young

nobody will listen

I'm not sure what to say or do

but I care and am willing to serve.

I can't see or hear well

speak good English, stutter sometimes, am afraid of criticism

and get real scared standing up before others

but I care and am willing to serve.

This is the Dentrix Enterprise "booth" (table). 

Booths like this one are common at community healthcare shows. 

Some of the sessions are pretty boring for someone like me, but the organizers keep it interesting with breakout sessions such as this one with a young guy leading everyone in what looks like Tai Chi. 

After all is said and done today, I head to a Yelp-recommended steakhouse for a pork chop. The salad and veggies are very good. The pork chop tastes great and is good, but it's not quite as tender and juicy as I prefer. I'm a bit spoiled by the kurobuta I had on my birthday in Osaka last year. 

I then intend to go to the St. Paul Corner Drug Store for a banana split, but I unintentionally put the La La Homemade Ice Cream shop in my GPS, so I end up here for a sundae. Chocolate and caramel with candied pecans. It is worth the misdirection. 

Friday, October 27

Finish the Conference and Go Home

It's going-home day, but first I have to visit the Mall of America, the first or second largest mall in the United States, depending on which source you refer to. The West Edmonton Mall in Canada, which is owned by the same family as the Mall of America, is the largest in North America. Others in China, Dubai and elsewhere are bigger than any in the West. 

Yarn streamers just inside one of the main entrances. 

Crayola has an "Experience" adventure, which I don't visit. I also don't visit the mall's aquarium or the comedy club or other paid attractions. Nor do I stay in either of the two hotels attached to the mall. But I do buy a lunch box full of crayon markers and crayons in the Crayola store. You can get as many markers and/or crayons as will fit in the box, for $16. I get all the available marker colors and a mess of crayons. 

The mall is four floors high. 

And it has a lot of stores I've never heard of, like this place that sells neither boxes nor lunches. 

The Lego store is pretty big, and it's attached to the indoor amusement park. 

Lego Transformers.

The amusement park has all kinds of roller coaster and throw-up rides. 

This moose and some friends are in front of the spinning, hanging-chair throw-up ride. 

Lunch: A black-and-blue burger, medium well. 

And chocolate ice cream with almonds for dessert. 

When we were in Seattle several years ago, Sara and I each got a turtle at Godiva Chocolates in Bellevue Square for about $2.50. We thought it was a ridiculous price, but we only got one each and quite enjoyed them. Today I decide I deserve a Godiva's turtle for no reason, but what the heck. I neglect to ask the price of this "pecan caramel cluster" before I order it. $5.87. Yikes. It is very good, and at least Minnesota doesn't have a sales tax. I eat it slowly, so it's only about $1 per minute. 

Then I'm off to the airport and airport pizza. When the girl brings my pizza out, another guy waiting asks if this one isn't his. I haven't been paying attention, but I stop to see if there's been a mixup. The girl assures us this one is mine. When I get to my gate and start eating the pizza, I think, "My pizza is supposed to have just 'hot pepperonis and peppers'." This one has those, and it has sausage and mushrooms and onions. I hope the other guy is enjoying his hot pepperoni and peppers. 

Bye, Minneapolis.