Category: Minneapolis

Travels With Charlie Part 2. Day #6 “Home Sweet Home”

by reissmd, posted in Minneapolis, Toronto

Blog followers know that my last post of our trips I devote to interesting pictures I have taken along the way. You might also recall that in Travels With Charlie Part 1 I devoted a post to interesting questions that Charlie asked during the trip. This post will show both.

This sign says it all, I won’t be moving to Toronto.
Not moving to Minneapolis either.
Found a bunch of these at the airports. Not that my wife will be needed one in the near future but glad to see they are available for those who do need them.
Many of the Minneapolis sidewalks have designated areas for bikes. If you walk on them a cyclist might put you in your place.
We saw this lovely mural of Bob Dylan entitled “The Times They Are A Changing”. It shows Dylan at 3 stages of life. We found out that he was born in Duluth.
No trip to Minneapolis would be complete without a visit to the Mary Tyler Moore statue.

The Target Field (Minneapolis) scoreboard filled us in on some crucial information about the players on both teams. Here are a few tidbits.

Carlos, thank you so much for sharing that sleep advice.
I don’t think Willi would be someone with whom I would want to be in a room alone.
How did I live without knowing this about Byron?

Now for Charlie’s questions:

As you might know that a common statistic in baseball is how fast a pitch is thrown.  Charlie asked: “In Canada do they report the speed of the pitch in MPH or KmPH?”

“If I punched the dashboard really hard would it deploy the airbag?”

“Do you get hit more by rain if you’re running or walking?”

“You know what would be weird? Having Christmas in the summer. Seeing Santa in a bathing suit would be weird. Christmas comes during the summer in Australia”

“Why do people say bless you when they sneeze?” 

“How come most major countries have their own language (Italian in Italy, Russian in Russia, Japanese in Japan, etc.) but we speak English. I think we should have a language called American.” 

“What’s the first palindrome that comes to mind?”  I answered “A man a plan a canal, Panama.” I then asked what did he think of: “racecar”

“Grandpa who do think came first the Reds or the Twins because they have identical C’s”. To explain further see the Twins logo and the Reds logo below.

Minnesota Twins
Cincinnati Reds

“Why does TSA have stupid rules like having an old man like you take off his sandals before going through security?”  Okay, okay, that was my question not Charlie’s. 

Finally this picture of a fan in Toronto prompted a question.  As you can see he is wearing a Houston Astros jersey but with the name of their former player George Springer on the back. Springer now plays for the Blue Jays. 

Charlie wanted to know: “Do you think he is an Astros fan or a Blue Jays fan?

Another trip has been completed and we are going home to rest. Travel is so exhausting.  I don’t think I have enough energy to retire.  I better keep working so I can get some rest.

And finally, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is the case, the picture below tells you why all the work involved in putting this trip together was worth it. 

Charlie in the Niagara City Cruise.

See you soon, when we next travel to ………….

Travels With Charlie Part 2, Day #5 “The Bitter and the Sweet”

by reissmd, posted in Minneapolis

One thing I can always count on for our trips is that Patrice will find something interesting to do.  They don’t always work out but usually they do.  For example last night she found “Taste of Minnesota”.  Although we didn’t spend a lot of time there it was interesting.  She also found a show for us to see at the Guthrie theater.  

The theater is named after Sir William Tyrone Guthrie who was an Irish director who as evidenced by his knighthood was quite accomplished.  Apparently in 1959 he took out an ad in the drama section of the New York Times looking for a community interested in developing a residence theater.  He was contacted by the people of Minneapolis and in 1963 the theater was completed.  Guthrie worked as the art director for a number of years.  He died in 1969 but the theater and his legacy live on. 

Last night we saw “The Little Shop of Horrors” at the Guthrie.  We got great seats for the very modest price of $36.  The production was excellent and best of all Charlie had a good time.  The theater was walking distance from our hotel so we got a chance work off some of the calories from our dinner at Murray’s. 

Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Breakfast this morning was at the Hen House Eatery (114 S 8th St, Minneapolis, MN 55402).  The place came recommended by the same friend who recommended Murray’s. Breakfast was great. We had an apple cinnamon roll as a starter. I also had oatmeal to pretend I was being healthy.

Apple Cinnamon roll. It was even better than it looks.

Enough about food, today was about baseball. We were fortunate to see the Astros play the Twins at Target Field today.   Everything went smoothly, the seats were perfect, and it was a great game.  Unfortunately the Twins won with a walk off home run.  At least the majority of the fans left the stadium happy even if we didn’t.  Actually Patrice was happy.  She got a lot of reading done and the game didn’t go extra innings. 

Our trio getting ready to enjoy some baseball.

I mentioned yesterday that today was going to be a happy and sad day.  The sad part is that we had to say goodbye to Charlie.  We took him to the airport to fly home because tomorrow he starts baseball camp. 

Delta would not let both of us go to the gate with him.  Just wait until Delta’s public relations department realizes that Robert Reiss posted on his travel blog that he hates Delta.  I’m sure some heads will roll.  Sorry if you think I have become a power monger since my blog has become so popular. Yes, the power of being an “influencer” has gone to my head.

The only thing more annoying than Delta is TSA.  They insisted that I take off my sandals and go through the scanner barefooted.  To add to the absurdity in 55 days when I turn 75 I will no longer have to remove my shoes to go through security. America, do you feel safer now? Remember I am the guy who in addition to wanting to go through the scanner while wearing his sandals is the same person who tried to smuggle an unopened box of toothpaste through the airport security in Pellston, Michigan. Should they put me on the “No-Fly” list?

Although saying goodbye was a sad moment we did get to go back to our hotel room and use that gorgeous bed for something other than sleeping.  As you know 70 is the new 50 and we are both physically active so we looked forward to the alone time so we could…… you know.  See below. 

Use our devices of course.

Patrice and I return home tomorrow.  I’ll have my usual final post of the trip with interesting photos we have collected.

Travels With Charlie Part 2, Day #4 “Goodbye Toronto, Hello Minneapolis”

by reissmd, posted in Minneapolis, Toronto

Last night we had a wonderful dinner in Toronto with our friend Nick and his partner, Aldo.  Nick and I became friends when we met during a trip to Madrid, Spain when we both wanted to experience the country’s culture and study Spanish.  Apparently Nick did more studying than I did since he is now fluent.  At my current rate of improvement I should be fluent some time around the year 2060.  In Spain we were taught by a Reiss Travel blog follower, Angelica, who remains a friend and I affectionately refer to her as my “Spaniard mother”.  

Dinner was at Vos Restaurante Argentino-College (847 College St, Toronto, ON M6H 1A1, Canada).  They specialize in Argentinian food, great service, but not in great air conditioning.  We had a wonderful meal but were too busy talking about life and reminiscing about our times in Spain that I forgot to take any pictures of the food. Patrice did have the presence of mind to take a picture of us but declined a second photo with her in front of the camera.

From left to right: Nick, Aldo, Charlie, Me.

This morning we left the hotel early because of the awful traffic conditions we experienced yesterday. Of course things were much different today (a Saturday) and we got to the airport in about 20 minutes and much too early for our flight.  

We couldn’t get a direct flight to Minneapolis so we had a brief layover in Chicago.  One wonderful aspect of this part of the trip was that we cleared customs (via the Global Entry system) before we even left Toronto.  Many thanks to Charlie’s parents for enrolling him in the Global Entry program and kudos to Charlie for knowing he qualified. 

I had a window seat on the flight to Chicago and saw a great view of the Lake Michigan shoreline and of Wrigley Field (see below).

Lake Michigan and the Chicago shoreline.
Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.

In Minneapolis we are staying at the Four Seasons Hotel which is walking distance from Target Field.  This place is gorgeous.  There was a slight hiccup on check-in.  They had us set up for a room with a king-size bed but without a rollaway.  Hmmm, we love Charlie a lot but the thought of all three of us in one bed did not sound inviting.  We asked for two queen size beds as we had in Toronto but that was not available.  Luckily they found a rollaway and we were in business.  From our room we have a great view of the city which includes part of the Mississippi River which separates our location from its twin city, St. Paul.

Part of our city view including a glimpse of the Mississippi River.
Charlie enjoying the view from our room.

We didn’t have much of a lunch so we had an early dinner at Murray’s (26 South 6th St, Minneapolis, MN 55402). The establishment is about 80 years old and was recommended by a friend of Patrice. The food, the service, and the air conditioning were all spectacular. We sat at a table from which you could see the below photo. Patrice knowing how old I am said “I bet you know who they are”. I recognized the guy but not the woman. Patrice of course didn’t recognize either because she is too young (ha!).

Eddie Cantor on the left, and actress Joan Davis on the right. If you recognize Cantor you are old, if you recognize both, you are VERY old.

After dinner we walked through “Taste of Minnesota” a monstrous food faire with all sorts of booths to stuff yourself. They only managed to make me sick because we had just had a big dinner. They also had bands and a variety of entertainment venues including a zip line.

Tomorrow will be a happy and sad day. I will leave that for later.