HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: What a beautiful part of the world Teegs lives in
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing
WORD OF THE DAY: Wine tasting – 11 samples!!!!
Today Teegs has mapped out a day of activities for us to do. I can’t say enough how grateful I am that people have taken time and days off work to show me around, it really is humbling and I am glad they are just as happy to have me as I am to be here. So another thanks Teegs. We decided to keep the day a mystery to me and I just basically went along for the ride. I am not normally that type of person but it was fun to not know what was coming next.
We were up at 8am, I was up first, so I had showered and changed and got started on my blog, as I was still in Chicago and had a little bit of catching up to do. We left home at 9.45am and headed to Loring Park for the first stop. Loring Park is the largest park in the Central Community of Minneapolis. It also lends its name to the surrounding neighborhood. Designed by American landscape architect Horace Cleveland, the park contains a small lake (Loring Lake formerly known as Johnson's lake) and paths for walking and biking. Originally named Central Park it was renamed in honor of Charles M. Loring. The park is surrounded by apartment buildings, many dating from the early 1900s. Recent construction in the area has brought many new town homes and condominiums to the area. Loring Park is locally known for its diverse social environment and as a nexus for many arts and cultural events. We parked right out the front of a coffee shop called Dunn Brothers, so we stopped in there briefly to get some breakfast and then take that with us to the park and eat that amongst nature surrounded by what was to be an amazing day of weather. It was again a surprise when I was paying for my bagel and vanilla shake that behind the counter next to the coffee machine was a sign and bag of Ethiopian coffee for sale!!! I’m telling you all these little random signs of Ethiopia are everywhere and it has to be a good sign/karma. The clock in Montreal on Addis time, the parking attendants in David’s building in Chicago; Jenny knows an Ethiopian and now Ethiopian coffee staring at me in Minneapolis. It is a sign, I’m telling you!!! So with breakfast in hand we started to walk through the park to find somewhere to sit. It was at this point after seeing our first squirrel near a tree that Teegs is a little scared of these cute looking guys. I always thought they were cute until this little guy obviously sniffed out our bagels and started to walk right up to me, which normally would be a problem till Teegs started to freak out, and then I freaked out and then the squirrel freaked out and we all made tracks in opposite directions. I think the squirrel recovered quicker than us as we kept walking he started to stalk us and what we had in our bags. We made a turn onto a floating pontoon that got us rid of the stalker squirrel but gave a new challenge of killer birds, swooping over our heads. Once again Teegs is not a huge fan of the birds, they were black with a large red spot on their wings, and in Teegs defence they did look a little mean. One sat only a meter away from me and then started this loud bird call that seriously bought in 4 more friends and they all sat there just looking at us. Well Tegan wasn’t going to have a bar of that and after I had taken a bite of my bagel she shot up from the bench screaming I’LL KILL YOU and lunging at the nearest bird! Holy Schmokes, I nearly choked on my bagel, she scared the hell out of me and I think the birds got the idea as they flew off. I just hope they don’t bring re-enforcements as we will be screwed!!!! It was so funny I’LL KILL YOU and with that look I would have believed it!!!!!
We left the car where it was and walked through Loring Park to the Sculpture Garden also located in the park but separated buy a 12 lane highway that we crossed over by a foot bridge. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an 11 acre (45,000 m²) park in Minneapolis. It is located near the Walker Art Center, which operates it in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. It is one of the largest urban sculpture gardens in the country, with 40 permanent art installations and several other temporary pieces that are moved in and out periodically. The park is also in proximity to Loring Park and the Basilica of Saint Mary. It was once connected to Loring Park, but the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s split the area into two parts. The land was first purchased by the park board at the turn of the century, when it was known as "The Parade" because it had been used for military drills. It became known as the Armory Gardens after park superintendent Theodore Wirth created a formal design that included a U.S. National Guard armory (Kenwood Armory) for Spanish War Volunteers. Working as a civic and cultural center, in 1913 a floral convention transformed the land into floral gardens, which it remained for the next 50 years. In 1929, a year after the Walker Art Gallery opened across the street, the Armory was blasted for its instability, and a new Armory built in downtown Minneapolis, turning the Armory Gardens over to the Minneapolis Park Board. After the highway was put in, separating Loring Park from the Gardens, much of the land was used for sports playing fields. In 1988, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden opened, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and landscape architects Quinnel and Rothschild. In 1992, the Garden was expanded, adding 3½ acres. The centerpiece of the garden is the Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985–1988) water sculpture designed by husband and wife Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The grounds also include the Cowles Conservatory, which has more flora and sculpture inside, such as Frank Gehry's Standing Glass Fish. A pedestrian bridge, the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge (1987), designed by Siah Armajani now crosses I-94, once again connecting the sculpture garden to Loring Park.
From the sculpture garden we decided again to leave the car and the hassles of trying to find a park in downtown Minneapolis and walk. It was only 1km or so, so we decided we could use the exercise and the sun’s rays felt so good. Walking back through another section of the park passing day care people with children, people walking, lovers talking and people playing ball and walking dogs we exited the park in to some residential areas to find us on one of the main streets of downtown. Our destination was the Foshay Tower. We did a stop in at Target, which its head office is located in Minneapolis, and had a look at the clothes. I tried a few things on, but didn’t buy anything as we then continued to the Foshay Tower.
The Foshay Tower, now the W Minneapolis–The Foshay hotel, is a skyscraper in Minneapolis. Modeled after the Washington Monument, the building was completed in 1929, months before the stock market crash in October of that year. It has 32 floors and stands 136 m high, plus an antenna mast that extends the total height of the structure to 185 m. The building, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, is an example of Art Deco architecture. The Foshay Tower marked a significant landmark locally in the push skyward, as the tower was the first in the city to surpass the height of Minneapolis City Hall, completed in 1906. It remained the tallest building in Minneapolis until the IDS Center surpassed it in 1972. As the building was designed to echo the Washington Monument, the sides of the building slope slightly inward, and each floor of the Foshay Tower is slightly smaller than the one below it. Internally the building uses steel and reinforced concrete. The exterior is faced with Indiana limestone, while the interior features African Mahogany, Italian marble, terrazzo, gold-plated doorknobs, a silver and gold plated ceiling, ornamental bronze, hand wrought iron and three commissioned busts of George Washington. It cost US$3.75 million to build.
Foshay Tower was the lifelong dream and namesake of Wilbur Foshay, an art student turned businessman who amassed his fortune by building up three utility company empires (operating as the W. B. Foshay Company). At the time the tower was being built, he had sold his previous two empires in turn and was building up his third (which was eventually to stretch from Alaska to Nicaragua). He planned to locate his business and residence on the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors where a three-bedroom, three-bath suite was built, with a fireplace and library, Italian Siena marble walls and glass-paneled ceilings. Foshay invited 25,000 guests to the dedication ceremony and provided all-expenses paid trips to many who included cabinet members, senators and congressmen. Nude dancers entertained. Each guest received a gold pocket watch. The military gave 19-gun salutes. John Philip Sousa conducted music, including "Foshay Tower–Washington Memorial March" a march he wrote for the occasion. Foshay presented Sousa with a check for US$20,000. The march was only played once during Foshay's lifetime. Six weeks after the building's opening on November 2, 1929, Foshay's corporate empire was thrown into receivership at the onset of the Great Depression. Ignominiously, Foshay's check to Sousa bounced, and in retaliation, Sousa prohibited the playing of the march so long as Foshay's debt to him remained outstanding. Foshay never lived in his new home, which also went into receivership. It wasn't until 1988 when a group of Minnesota investors repaid Foshay's debt to Sousa's estate that the march was permitted to be played in public again.
In January 1981, the building was wrapped in a huge yellow ribbon during the final days of the Iran hostage crisis. Once the hostages returned to the United States, the ribbon was moved to the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul so that people could sign it. The ribbon is now in the Minnesota Historical Society. The antenna on the roof has been used by various broadcasters, including television stations WTCN (a predecessor to modern-dayKARE) , WCCO and KMSP. Radio station KFAI has been broadcasting from the tower since 1984, but moved their transmission tower to the IDS Center in March 2007, due to the W Hotel renovation. On September 4, 2006, it was reported that developers Ralph W. Burnet and Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies would spend as much as $90 million to convert the 32-story office tower into a 230-room W Hotel, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. All tenants with the exception of Keys Cafe on the first floor moved out. A unique finding occurred at the tower when workers were replacing the ceiling in the hotel's lobby. When the lobby ceiling was removed, they discovered the room's original ceiling, complete with intricate engravings and embossed with various logos. However, due to past renovation work and age, the ceiling had deteriorated and was badly damaged. It has been reported that workers are currently in the process of restoring the original ceiling at the behest of the National Register of Historic Places, a process which will take a total of four months alone. The renovated W Minneapolis - The Foshay opened on August 13, 2008. The hotel retains the 30th floor observation deck and converted Wilbur Foshay's former boardroom on the 27th floor into the Prohibition Sky Bar. We were going to have a drink in the bar but they didn’t open that till 5pm so after walking around the small museum and then out onto the roof top for the great vies of the city we headed back down to find somewhere to eat.
We found an English pub with a rooftop where we settled and ate lunch in the beautiful weather. I bought a hoodie on the way out with the bar name and Minneapolis that runs across the zipper. I bet not many people will be wearing a Minnie hoodie in Ethiopia, and yes it gets cold enough to wear jumpers and hoodies there, mainly during the night with the altitude of the city at 2400m. We walked back to the car and then our last stop for the afternoon was a small town called Stillwater a 40 minute drive away.
Stillwater is a city in Washington County directly across the St. Croix River from the state of Wisconsin. On July 29 and September 29, 1837, treaties were signed between the US government and the local Ojibwa and Dakota nations that allowed settlement in the St. Croix Valley. The town was founded by settlers drawn by the area's then-abundant lumber and river traffic, making it one of Minnesota's oldest towns, predating Minneapolis by several years. Stillwater was officially incorporated as a city March 4, 1854 (the same day as St. Paul). Stillwater is often referred to as the birthplace of Minnesota. In 1848, a territorial convention that began the process of establishing Minnesota as a state was held in Stillwater. Minnesota officially became a territory in 1849 and became a state in 1858.
As more evidence of Stillwater's importance at the time, the convention selected three leading Minnesota cities as locations for three important public institutions: Minneapolis got the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul became the capital, and Stillwater was chosen as the site of the territory's first prison. The Minnesota Territorial Prison was opened in 1853. Lumbering was the predominant industry in the St. Croix River Valley in the second half of the 19th century, and for many years logs were sent down the St. Croix, collected at the St. Croix Boom Site two miles upstream of Stillwater, and processed in Stillwater's many sawmills. Steamboats were used most widely from 1860–1890, and a few are still used for entertainment purposes today. On October 18, 1921 Charles Strite invented the bread-toaster in Stillwater. By 1926, the Toastmaster Company began to market the first household toaster using a redesigned version of Strite's toaster. Stillwater is a popular day trip for tourists from the Twin Cities who enjoy the historic downtown's used bookstores, antique shops, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, historical sites and the scenic St. Croix River valley.
We walked the cute main street in and out of shops. We stopped at a ‘candy’ (lollies) shop and for some reason I got sucked into selecting and buying a bag of Salt Water Taffy which is like soft nougat in like 100 different flavors. I got 4 each of around 15 flavors and know for a fact that I will not eat many of them. I’m not sure why I got so many but the lure of all the flavors and all the pretty colours sucked me in and before I knew it I walked out with over a pound of them!!! Well it can be an extra gift for the McElhinny family.
We had plans for visiting a winery while we were here and we found one at the end of the town as we made our way back up the other side. We were going to try and get onto the 5.15pm trolley but after stepping into the wine tasting we had no chance of making that. That was the only thing that Teegs had down to do that we didn’t get around to doing, so it wasn’t a bad hit rate and we had been go go the whole day. The wine tasting was great. It was 5USD to taste 11 wines and if we bought 2 bottles from the cellar then the 5 bucks came off the total. Not a bad deal and 11 wines!!! That is insane. Needless to say there was a nip pourer on the bottles so there were no heavy hand drinks, especially with tasting 11 it was a very good idea on the wineries part. We were given a laminated wine list of everything we were tasting and a marker pen and we could make our own remarks as we went. So we decided on the 5 dot system and rated the wines out of 5. Just as well because by the time we got to the 11th glass we had totally forgotten about the first few wines and just went by our rankings. Like any wine tasting the purchase of 2 bottles each turned into 3 bottles each to get the 7th bottle for free. I only had 2 nights left in Minnie, so I knew when I was buying my share that I would be leaving them with Teegs as a thank you gift for having me for the last 4 nights. The winery ladies were friendly and I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t get their names. But one of the ladies I think was the manager and after being asked what brings an Australian to Minnesota, she had heard me telling my travel story and how I got here and she came back out with a web address of her brother in law who is into small time printing of books and e-books. She said if I wanted to get a small run like 4-5 books to contact him as that is what he does. It just goes to show what talking to people can do and if I hadn’t of mentioned it I now wouldn’t have made a contact. She also asked if I had read a book called Tales of a Nomad which she said sounded similar to what I have done and she also said that the author of Eat, Pray, Love was paid to make her journey that she wrote about. It was always going to be a book and with the trip in hand was paid to write it. That I didn’t know and took a little shine off the reasoning behind her trip, even though I am sure it was all heart felt, but I don’t know it took its meaning away from me when I found that out.
Northern Vineyards Winery was established in 1977 and was acquired by the Minnesota Winegrowers Cooperative in 1983 and is Minnesota’s oldest winery. They were established the Minnesota Winegrowers Cooperative as a means of making and selling wines from the grapes produced by their grower members who are located throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Northern Vineyards is owned by the member-growers of the Minnesota Winegrowers Cooperative. They were the first modern winery cooperative in the United States. Each member maintains a vineyard between 1-15 acres and produces grapes that are brought to the winery in the fall to be made into the wines. Each vineyard has its own unique characteristics for growing grapes, depending on soil and sun exposure. Vines receive meticulous care in order to withstand the rigors of Minnesota’s continental climate. They offer a variety of wines at Northern Vineyards Winery. They have everything from dry too sweet in both whites and reds and also have a variety of dessert wines. Most of the labels on the wines read “table wine”. In the United States, table wine simply means that the alcohol content of the wine is between 9-14% per volume. All of their wine is made at their Stillwater location. The grapes are brought to the winery beginning in late August or early September. Depending on the growing season and grape variety, the crush can sometimes last through late October. The complete wine making process is done on location at Northern Vineyards Winery. They produce approximately 30 different wine varieties annually. We had a great time here and after we purchased our 7 wines, we asked if we could keep them there, finish walking the other side of the street, get something to eat and then swing back with the car and pick up the wines. We found a great shop that had the Indian silk wrap skirts that come in 3 different lengths and that can be worn like 100 different ways. I have 2 of them sitting in my backpack, but Teegs hadn’t seen them before and they had like a billion different colours, but we chose a great colour for her and I did manage to buy a nice top and 2 pairs of earrings. With purchases in hand we went into a Caribbean themed restaurant and ordered some snack foods as we were still full from lunch, Teegs drank some water and based on traffic we walked back to the winery instead of driving and the gals were busy with at least 4 different groups in there, and with goodbyes, luck wishes and waves we made our way back to the car and home.
Driving home we asked where the day had gone. We were busy all day and the time just seemed to slip us by. We got home at 8pm, it is still daylight at this time, and nearly 12 hours earlier we had left for today’s Teegs Tour. That’s a big day in anyone’s book. Needless to say we were pretty full of eating, so dinner was guacamole and salsa left over from the other day washed down with one of the bottles we had bought from the winery today watching the movie This Means War. It was a gals night in and what a great way to finish off a mammoth day. I like the feeling of Minneapolis, but only during the summer for me, I am not sure I would be able to handle the winters here hearing the stories on how cold it gets here for 5 months of the year. I think I’ll stick to Ethiopian weather for me.
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