Finding America

Day 79 – Saturday

I drove a few blocks from the rv park this morning to get cup of coffee and a newspaper from a shop nearby that was having their grand opening. After a bit of breakfast back at the ranch Kam and I wandered over to Gander Mountain, an outdoor sports and recreation supply store to pick up some much needed black water sanitizer for the trailer. It was getting a little stank.

The next order of business was heading into St. Paul to Billy’s American Grill on Grand Ave. The plan was to meet up with Jenny, one of Kam’s former MBA classmates. The shopping district around Grand Ave was really cool and looked like a great place to take a stroll. The street was hopping with Saturday shopper and Billy’s was filling up quickly once we were seated.

The weather was incredible and the smell of burgers and beer in the air made us long for football season. It wasn’t too long before Jenny joined us and we all caught up on the latest happenings. We ordered some lunch and we were all pleased with the grub.

We took a tour of the city on our way to Jenny’s house and arrived in time to meet her brother and his buddy that were settling in to watch the Preakness horse race. We didn’t stay long at the house and were on our way again off to Lake Calhoun to lounge on the lawns overlooking the lake. I can’t stress enough what a beautiful day it was. I mean it was the epitome of a perfect spring day. We lounged on out blanket and I played with a caterpillar passing by, I digress…..

We got a phone call from another one of Kam’s classmates saying they were in the area so we walked back over to the Tin Fish restaurant that overlooks the lake and met up with Faith and Brian and their two Aussie Sheepdogs Azule and Apache. Faith, knowing mind fondness for the microbrewed suds bought us a growler from Summit Brewery as a welcome to St. Paul gift.

We all packed up and drove over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden to let the dogs run and for the adults to have a stroll through the artwork. The Garden was really cool. Sculptures were place throughout the beautiful grounds and the center piece of a huge cherry on a spoon served as an avant-garde fountain in the reflective pool.

The Garden was also full of highs chool students getting pictures taken all gussied up before their prom. It was a site, to be sure. Boy am I glad those awkward days are over and I’m not scheduled to wear any $3 boutonnieres anytime soon.

We headed our separate ways and agreed to meet up later for some dinner. When we got back to Jenny’s the Preakness had just finished in a flourish of dust and hoofs. The guys were all excited because the race was such a stunner. We cracked open our growler and shared our beer with the gang and just chilled after our busy morning. Jenny’s brother showed us their dog Lexy’s trick of fetching a beer from the fridge. Amazing! Basically he puts single cans in zip-lock bags and places them in the bottom hydrating drawer. Lexy goes over pulls the drawer out and grabs the top of the bag and delivers a cold one right to your lazy ass. Two thumbs up for that trick.

While we lounged I noticed quite a bit of action across the street. What I mean is about every 3-5 minutes a car would pull up, a well dressed black guy would get out go to the door knock and be let in. 45-60 seconds later he would come out with a paper bag in hand, get in his car and drive off. Now repeat this scenario 10 times (no exaggeration) and you pretty quickly notice there is a pattern here. Yes my friends welcome to St. Paul’s drug den. LOL – I felt like a cop on the sting.

After our little show we drove over to a restaurant called Chatterbox. This restaurant, bar and lounge has a bunch of old console games that are playable from you seats and a large assortment of board and card games. We all had a blast here and it was a great way to spend an evening with friends. Check out the video below.

We played the old school Atari while we waited for Faith and Brian. Once they arrived we ordered our food and the played Scategories and Taboo. So much fun. After that it was goodbye and goodnight.