Minneapolis - 8/23/14

Half of the dynamic duo was awake and stirring at 6:35 - the other closer to 8:30.  All are feeling fairly rested with very little sign of the prior evenings troubles.  Embassy Suites breakfast rocks - however, this writer would suggest staying away from such a family friendly place on the weekend before school starts.  Swarming with children on one last fling into the City for a "special" weekend before heading back to the mines!  Great way to have a curmudgeon start his day.

We headed out to IKEA, a quick 6 minute trip down the street.  We arrived around 10:30 and began the "walk."  We finished the showroom walk around 11:30 and found ourselves in front of the cafeteria just in time for lunch - what planning. After a long study of the 5 item menu, we decided on the Swedish meatball special.  We tempered this indulgence with a shared salad.

Then down to the marketplace/warehouse where we loaded up on all the crap we had spotted upstairs and a few things we hadn't known existed.  We were out of there at 1:30 and under $300.00 poorer than when we went in.  Not bad.

On to downtown Minneapolis for a search for the Birchbark Book Store, owned by Louise Erdrich.  After a few wrong turns on and off the freeway system, we found ourselves in the lovely Kenwood neighborhood, filled with older homes, a park, large lake, etc.  Walked into the Birchbark Book Store, which specializes in Native American literature.  A lovely small store where we scored a few books and a few signed copies of Erdrich's work.

Back into the chariot and off to St. Paul in search of the Common Good Books bookstore, this one owned by Garrison Keillor.  Now this is a book store! Just across the street from Macaelster College, this store was jammed with a wide collection of books, books, and more books.  We left with only 7 books, a membership in the frequent buyers club, which gives the member a 13th book after a purchase of 12, and a sign up to the email list.  The shop is located on a block that includes a juice shop, a wine and munch bar, a coffee shop, a cheese shop and all offering outside seating and a place to eat and chat - plus free parking and on-street parking.  The area was crawling with students and other liberal types  Very charming and bewitching.

4:20 and time to get on the road again, heading to our ultimate destination of the day, Redwing Minnesota.  We had a lovely drive along the Mississippi River, along the Wisconsin side, crossing back over into Minnesota at Redwing.  Redwing is an historic little town with some charming downtown stores and homes, 7 churches within a three block stretch, and trains tooting through town along the river.

We dined at the Bayside Tap and Restaurant, which turned out to be a little bar and grill with excellent steaks.  Nothing pretentious, but very friendly.  Good food and good pinot noir by the glass.

We were back in our hotel room at 7:00, reading and watching TV.  Your humble scribe reawakened at 8:15 PM from his reading chair and crawled into bed.  His mate already dozing between scenes from "Friends."  A long and very pleasant day including all of our favorite things: shopping, dining, good books, good wine, traveling the countryside, and companionship. 

Tomorrow it is up and out, traveling south to Iowa and then cutting across the state, westward, taking in Deb's ancestral area around Winterset and Madison County.