A tour of Minneapolis

I met with Kelly and Meredith tonight - and Corryn in spirit - to discuss our Minneapolis Marathon Relay on June 3rd.  Kel & Mer promised that I'd love their dinner suggestion:  Mill Valley Kitchen, a restaurant in St. Louis Park which offers local, sustainable foods with all the nutritional information on the menu.  Perfect for a trio of health-minded, aspiring longer-distance runners!

An unsweetened club soda with lime seemed perfect to go with a light, healthy meal. (Wine would have been better, but I had to work at 11pm.)  I ordered a mixed green salad garnished with pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and red wine vinaigrette.  Meredith ordered the same but with slices of grass-fed local sirloin.  The smell alone was nearly enough to make me throw my no-red-meat-flexitarianism out the window! 

When my soup of the day arrived, an East-coast-inspired fresh fish stew loaded with massive chunks of vegetables and white fish, I realized one thing was missing: some bread to dip in that loveliness!  I opted for a side of fresh pita, which arrived warm, crispy, all bubbled up and sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt.  Be still my heart! (Thanks for not letting me eat all that alone, Kel...)

I was so full, but Kelly's miso-glazed sea bass on gingered-shitake quinoa deserved a big, rounded bite.  I can heartily recommend that dish too.

And how can you leave without trying dessert, especially when they're the little shot glass kind?  There was no way I could pass on maple panna cotta, presented with what looked like a colored sugar garnish striped across the top.  Imagine my surprise when I spooned in and realized it was black sea salt, a contrast in taste which totally worked.  Kelly ordered the fresh banana pudding - a house-made custard with real pieces of banana, layered with granola and crushed vanilla wafer, and topped with - what else?  Fresh whipped cream.  Num.

I left with a happy belly and a contented heart after some much-appreciated girl time and drove home through Uptown.  I got to thinking about things - you know me.  I'd been up all night at work, snagging about 2 hours of sleep (and only 4 the night before).  Then, I'd gone from work straight to a funeral.  I managed another 2 hours once arriving home, then did a little yoga before heading out for our awesome dinner.  I had to return to work in just 2 more hours.

I passed Moksha Hot Yoga and remembered my first class there with Jen and Ann (and...Alisha?).

I have never sweat so much in my life!

I circled around the north shore of Lake Calhoun and relived my long early morning training runs with Jen last summer.

Red, sweaty, and happy.

I remembered to glance over at Amore Victoria, where I dined on the rooftop with my sister Shelly and her friends Brooke, Lauren, Angie, and John (and...Cassie?) on a beautiful fall evening this past Labor Day weekend.

Wine and tapas before going to the club anyone?

I turned on Hennepin just before I passed Stella's Fish Cafe, where I enjoyed a blackened catfish po' boy with Zach on a warm and breezy summer morning last August.

Just after the turn is the sparkling gold doorway of Chino Latino, where I celebrated my 32nd birthday with Jean, Matt, Jeremy, Nick, Kim, Kristiina, Amy, and Lorrie.  I enjoyed not only the wild mixture of "hot zone" foods and but also the mixture of wild and unique friends that day offered me.

Birthday burrito! (Amy wants one.)

I saw Kinh Do's awning approaching.  This is really an aging memory, for I ate there with Nate back in the winter of 2005.  We hung out all over Uptown after a late Third Day concert, including an artsy coffee shop in NE that was open all night.  All night!  Loved it.

I passed Liquor Lyle's where we had quite the adventure back in 2006, celebrating...well, something I can't remember!...with Jean, Krissy, Andrea, and, um, others.  Haha.  Just before turning onto the freeway, I glanced down Hennepin and saw the open space where Cirque du Soleil's tent was staked back in 2005, and across from that, Bar Lurcat where Tom, Dan, Lorrie and I indulged in a few over-priced, high-society, pre-show cocktails.  Yet another great night.

I've had a lot of fantastic nights with even more fantastic friends in a city full of fantastic places.  As I drove out of Uptown and onto the freeway, I remembered the words of Father Jensen during the morning's mass:  "Our greatest act of faith is to love the people God places before us."  I'm not known for being a fan of Catholicism, but having been a music student at a Catholic university, it all came back to me.  The beauty of the Ave Maria, the sacred rituals, the incense, the blessings.  I must say, I was impressed that we were instructed to kneel during prayer "...if that is in accordance with your faith tradition..." and I was welcomed to the front for a blessing during communion.  Those were firsts for me.  I let the tears fall more than once, in respect and gratitude for having had the privilege of hearing Ruth's life story, shared with me for a school project during what turned out to be the last year of her life.

Jeanie and Grandma Ruth

As I enter my last regularily scheduled overnight shift tonight in ten years, in the hopes that I will become a regular sleeper and have a more normal life to interact with and love all the wonderful people placed in my path, I am a very grateful soul tonight for the life I have, and the beautiful people whom I get to love.