it all ends with a bowl of pudding

I had such a nice time in Minneapolis this weekend, and I took so many fun and interesting pictures, and then I promptly left my camera (the one I travel with, not my real camera) at my grandma's. So I'm going to have to improvise here, borrow pictures where available on the web, and use my mastery of vocabulary, and my ability to search a good thesaurus, to create an image for you through descriptive words. Riiight. I guess I'll just tell you about my weekend. Please feel free to use this post as a travel guide if you have plans to visit Minneapolis. I insist.

I flew into Minneapolis late Thursday night, and arrived at my mom's pretty much just in time to go to bed. The Minneapolis airport is quite an experience. There's so many little shops and restaurants in the airport that you almost don't mind being delayed there (which, for once, I was not!)

Friday morning, we got up bright and early and picked up my grandma Ruthie and went out to breakfast at The Good Day Cafe (I had huckleberry pancakes. yum). While there, we perused catalogs of table linens available for rent for Ruthie's next birthday, her 90th, which we began planning. Following breakfast, we had a meeting to visit the venue for said 90th birthday party next November. The event is set to be catered by D'Amico, and in my book, you can't really go wrong with them.

That afternoon, we visited the Walker Museum for a docent tour of the Frida Kahlo exhibit. It was amazing. If you can't make it to Minneapolis, this exhibit will go on to Philadelphia and San Francisco. If you don't know anything about Frida, I'd really recommend reading a book or seeing the movie about her life.
While her paintings aren't necessarily ones I would want hanging in my living room (and there's that pesky issue of the millions of dollars needed to acquire one), they really depict her life as she experienced it. And that life was one I couldn't imagine living. It was fascinating.


After the museum, which by the way has the best gift shop EVER, we went over to my very favorite restaurant, Good Earth. I usually eat there every day when I'm in town.

That night, my brother came over and we stayed in and re-watched the movie Frida. It was really interesting to watch it again after having seen her work and talked to the docent, who of course was extremely knowledgeable about her life.

Saturday morning, my mom and I went out to do a little shopping. I love to go to a vintage mall on Xerxes Avenue called Hunt and Gather. The owner got a lot of press a couple of years ago, and I was worried that my little spot would become a mecca for thrift-seekers like myself, and that all the good goods would disappear, but that hasn't been the case. I got THREE new (old) paint by numbers and another quilt top.

Just around the corner from there is another of my favorite little spots, Gallery 360. That's where I always go to see new works by Jennifer Davis, a Minnesota-based artist whose work I collect. After that, my mom and I went to pick up my brother and his darling "lady friend" and we went out for some Indian food. More yum.

That afternoon, I visited a bit with my dad, and then went out for Ruthie's birthday dinner. We went to a fancy schmancy place where I usually would have ordered the lobster, but after the AMAZING lobster I had at Mesa Grill in the Bahamas (Bahamian lobster tail with red chile coconut sauce and green chile rice), I'm afraid to ever have lobster again, for fear of ruining the memory of the best meal ever.

And then we went to Ruthie's for some yummy lemon cake and present opening (and by the way, the walker bag was indeed a huge hit. I see a senior living Sensation in the works here!)

Sunday morning, bright and early: at the airport by 8am (Yay! The shops were already open!) came home (on time!), went out to lunch with my sweet family, hung out with the kids and the gogs, worked on some sparkly Christmas houses, celebrated the sixth night of hanukkah, and made some pudding. How I love a good bowl of pudding.

The end.