Family Visit

So back during the last weekend of February my family (my mom Barbara, my aunt Sally, and my sister Kristina) came out for a visit. All their friends and coworkers told them they were crazy for coming out to Minneapolis in February. They were thinking of waiting a few weeks and visiting in March instead, but I'm glad they didn't. Their visit in the last weekend in February wasn't brutally cold, but it was still cold enough for there to be plenty of snow on the ground, which is was pretty. In contrast, March was muddy, muddy, muddy. Muddy muddy muddy muddy. Really quite muddy.

Anyway, they arrived on a Thursday afternoon, and Thursday night we took them to out neighborhood bar and grill, Tracey's. Eager to experience Minneapolis at it finest, both my mom and Sally ordered Juicy Lucys. The Juicy Lucy is a Minneapolitan-created cheeseburger in which the cheese is inside the patty (they sort of mush two patties together). B and I had never gotten up the nerve to order one beforre, but we'd heard that they are messy, and my mom and Sally confirmed this :-)

I took off work on Friday to show them the sights. The first place I took them to was one of the first places B and I had visited when once we got done apartment-hunting way back in May 2005 -- the Minneapolis Spoon.



Actually it is not called that -- it is simply one of the scupltures at the Walker Museum of Art's sculpture garden. But it has become kind of a symbol for Minnefabuolous, hence its prominent place on this here blog.

Next we had brunch at Hell's Kitchen, a restaurant in downtown Minneapolis that my mom had read about. The food was fantastic (though the service was a little slow). I had wild rice porridge.

Next we drove over to Uptown and explored the shops, then a bit tired of walking, I drove us all around the 3 lakes that are near Uptown. Then we picked up B and for dinner we went to Gasthof zur Gemütlichkeit in northeast Minneapolis. This is a big German beer-hall type place that B and I hadn't been to before.

The beer comes in these enormous mugs, and every time the waitress brings anyone a beer, she starts this huge "ziggy zoggy ziggy zoggy oy oy oy" chant. So the atmosphere is festive to say the least. Also there was an accordian player (who I failed to get a picture of) who ended up coming over to our table and playing many songs. Very fun time.





The amount of food we ordered was ridiculous:





We had leftovers in our fridge the whole weekend, but Sally said she refused to eat leftovers when she was in a new city with so many restaurants to try.

We started off Saturday by going to the Mall of America. B and I ended up waiting at the bar while my family shooped nearly til they dropped. Then we came home, rested up a bit, and hopped on the light rail to downtown. We had dinner at Brit's. I knew my mom would like the scotch eggs as appetizers, although coming off the heavy German meal the night before, perhaps we should have aimed for lighter fare . . . oh well.

Sunday we went for brunch at Bar Abilene, the "cowboy fusion" place in Uptown. Kristina got the breakfast buffet but the rest of us opted for lunch with, in a couple cases, margaritas. Then we walked down to Lake Calhoun, where my family experienced the Minneapolis thrill of walking across a frozen lake:



Sally (far right) particularly enjoyed it :-)

Then we did more of a driving tour, heading over to the Mississipp River. I've been meaning to blog about the fact that we live about 7 blocks from the Mississippi. That still kind of freaks me out when I think about it. Here is a picture of my mom at an overlook:



We also headed over to Minnehaha falls. These are 53-foot waterfalls on Minnehaha Creek. Minnehahah Creek is a tributary of the Mississippi that extends from Lake Minnetonka (the biggest lake near Minneapolis and the one where we went ice fishing) to the Mississippi. B and I had walked along Minnehaha Parkway before and seen some very nice overlooks of Minnehaha Creek, but somehow we never got to Minnehaha Falls before.

Minnehaha Falls is famous for inspiring Henry Wadsworth to write the poem "Song of Hiawatha," which became a national bestseller in November 1855. Check out this link for details.

On our visit the falls were half frozen over, which really made them look pretty cool, but alas I don't have pics.

Then B drove us over for a quick tour of St. Paul, during which I fell sound asleep in the car. I guess my family was tiring me out! Also the maragarita at lunch :-) Sunday night we again got dinner at Tracey's and basically took it easy.

On Monday I worked, and B and my family ate at Hell's Kitchen again (again they got very good food but bad service), and B showed them around the U.

Monday night we ate at The Sample Room. The restaurant feels kinda like a pub, but the menu is all small plates -- kinda like tapas, but the food is very American. So we got a little cheese plate, a little sausage plate, a little fish plate, etc., and it was fun.

Tuesday morning my family headed home. Whew!

So, as my family found out, if you visit us here Minnefabulous we will show you just as much as we can pack in, and you will not lack for good food. February is not so bad, but avoid March. April is probably OK, things are starting to get green again. . . .