We just got back safely from a very fun weekend trip to visit Kyle and Maretta in the Twin Cities!
They moved into an apartment on Grand Avenue in St. Paul after getting married in May. We stayed with them on Friday and Saturday nights, sleeping on an air mattress in their new dining room. We arrived late on Friday, so just had a little while to chat before going to bed around 1 AM.
We were up by 9 or 9:30 the following morning and went out around 10 to visit a friend of Michael and Maretta’s mom, Betsy Carter, who owns Legacy Art & Gifts, just a few blocks down from Maretta and Kyle’s apartment. Her shop wasn’t open yet, so we took a detour trip a little farther down the street to Irish on Grand, where I noted that I would be inclined to spend a large chunk of my salary if I were living within easy walking distance of it … mostly on jewelry, music, and sweaters.
Betsy was opening her shop when we walked back by, so we spent half an hour or so talking to this very friendly and entertaining lady, who had known Michael and Maretta’s mom for many years.
Then we walked back to the front of the apartment building, climbed in Kyle’s car and headed out for lunch at the Chatterbox Pub, where we had some delicious sandwiches and played the board game Sorry as we waited for and ate our food. On the way to the Chatterbox, we drove by the gates of the beautiful campus of the College of St. Catherine, which Maretta graduated from in May.
In the afternoon, we spent time at Minnehaha State Park (just across the Mississippi River from St. Paul, in Minneapolis) and shopped at an impressive gaming/comics/anime store called Source Comics and Games. I was drawn to the huge selection of dice and bought a set of pink & black six-sided dice as a souvenir. I was thrilled that I limited my purchase to one set ($11) and did not spend $50 or more on dice.
Maretta and Kyle are considering adopting a kitten or two, so we stopped at the pet store they have been visiting of late with their kitten yearnings. Oh! There were several kittens in a variety of colors, all cute and sleepy, playful and cuddly. It made me miss our cats and also want to take them all home with me. I am a sucker for cats.
I pulled out my phone in the pet store to take some pictures and also checked my email and saw that one of my friends from high school had emailed me a photo of the new teacup chihuahua puppy her family recently adopted. We were also looking at miniature breed puppies in the back of the pet store, so I was amused at the coincidence.
We headed back to Maretta and Kyle’s after severing ourselves from the pet shop. Maretta had left a pot roast cooking all day, so we had that wonderful smell to meet us when we got back. She and I ran out briefly to Kowalski’s Market, the terribly convenient grocery store a block away from their apartment, to pick up bread and salad. This shop reminded me of Fresh Market, the place my sister likes to shop in Tallahassee.
We had dinner and took a nice long walk through the neighborhood down to a fabulous ice cream shop on Grand called The Grand Ole Creamery, where the waffle cones are made as you watch and the ice cream is damn good. I think they have every place in Madison beat, except maybe the Chocolate Shoppe. We slowly walked back to the apartment as we ate our ice cream and then spent the rest of the evening watching The Simpsons Movie and Saved! There were thoughts of playing a game, but we ran out of steam. It was a busy Saturday!
We all went to bed a little earlier than the night before and slept really well! This morning we slept in late and went to the Copper Dome (another favorite place of Maretta and Kyle) for waffles and pancakes. Michael and I left around noon and made it back to Madison (to an empty house, wow!) in time to work on laundry and organizing the new dresser Michael acquired on Friday.
I think I will mosey upstairs soon and throw some pizza into the oven. It has been a splendid and restorative weekend!
EDIT: I have added a new album with “weekend action shots” to my Picasa gallery: