Spring Break 2011: Madison & Minnesota

Day 1 Friday:

Katrina takes bus to Chicago

Drive back to Madison

This year Brad and my spring breaks were at the same time, which meant we could both get away from school! Last year I had spring break, then we both had a week of school, then Brad had spring break, so one of us was always in school. Fortunately, UK offered a spring break bus going to the Chicago area. Brad had to drive a little ways to pick me up, thank you Brad! Considering gas prices, the cost was about the same, but I didn't have to put as much wear on my car or be totally exhausted. Plus, I love riding coach buses! Brad picked me up at the Cracker Barrel, where we decided to have the Friday Fish Fry. It was okay...but I think we'll stick to local fish fry's from now on.

Day 2 Saturday:

Breakfast at Farmer's Market

Protests at Madison's capital

St Vincents Thrift Store

Willy Street Coop

Bellinis Italian Restaurant

Movie- "Donnie Darko"

Like always, Brad and my travels are always packed with lots of things we'd like to do. Saturday started off early with a breakfast at the Farmer's Market. The market goes inside in the winter, and a breakfast from all the farmer's produce is made. It was wonderful! We had a spring salad with vinaigrette, sweet potato hash, cornbread, and an egg omelet with salsa. We could really tell a difference in how it tasted with the fresh ingredients.

Protesting at the Capital

After a few weeks of being a part of the protesting at the capitol, Katrina finally had the chance to experience it. It was a very entertaining day with farmers driving their tractors around the square and others marching and singing in protest. We met some friends of mine there and walked around for a bit listening to the protest music and speeches.

Then we made our way up to the capital square to see some protesting. There were some pretty clever signs and a huge crowd! We didn't stay too long, it was pretty cold outside! After a siesta, we went down to the St. Vincent thrift store, where I like to go every time I go to Madison. While we were there we found a deep dish pie dish, which we made cherry pie in later. We then went to the Willy St Co-op for some cherries. It was a lot like Good Foods Coop here at home since they're both part of the Coop, except here it is only $10 to be a member for a year, and if you aren't a member, you have to pay 5% extra on your purchase. In Lexington, membership fees are $200 a year, but non-members don't have to pay extra. Not really feasible for someone like me!

Later that night Brad took me to a nice Italian restaurant near the capital, called Bellinis. It reminded me of Joe Bolognas back home, because both are in an old church. It was pretty cold that night, but it was cozy inside the restaurant with the nice atmosphere.

Day 3 Sunday:

Cook dinner for the potluck

James' home for Dinner

Farmers and Merchant Union Bank by Louis Sullivan

Downtown Columbus, WI

Sunday was a very nice relaxing day. The semester must have caught up with me at the beginning of the week because I just wanted to sleep! Today we had planned a potluck dinner with one of Brad's professors, James, and his friend. We got a few things from the farmer's market on Saturday to cook for the potluck. I really enjoyed waking up late, and spending part of the day cooking in pajamas! In the afternoon we met James (and his dogs!) and took a walk through his small town, Columbus, a small commute from Madison. It has a nice and quiet small town feel. An apartment in the middle of historic downtown is only $270 a month!

Dinner was quite a hit and pretty much everything was eaten. We had baked salmon, baked asparagus, roasted potatoes, coleslaw, Mediterranean spinach salad, bread, cherry pie, and apple cake.

Over the course of the trip, Katrina and I at some pretty good food. I think this potluck was among the best (and simplest) we enjoyed. Getting to see Columbus, WI, visit with some friends, and have great food is an awesome time.

Day 4 Monday:

Meet with Sam, Professor at UW

Lunch w Brad's friend Robbie

State Street

Children's Museum

Dinner- Mushroom Soup/Bread/Salad

Movie- "Willow"

Children's Museum

Today was our last full day in Madison before we left for Minnesota. In the morning I met with a professor from the Landscape Architecture Department at University of Wisconsin to talk about graduate school there. Brad and I then walked around State Street for a while and ate a Mediterranean lunch with his friend Robbie. Then Brad and I went and checked out the children's museum. Admission was only $3.14 since it was Pi day! It was pretty neat, not too much to do for adults (duh!) and there were lots of little kids. I liked the rooftop garden the best where they had a chicken coop!

Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera to the museum to capture any of the cool things they had there. I found myself wishing that my community would have had such a neat place to play and discover things. This one even had some vintage areas, spaces for arts and crafts, and party rooms! I am a bit jealous of the children of Madison...

Day 5 Tuesday:

Drive to Minneapolis

Mall of America

Mall of America

Tuesday was mostly spent traveling to Minnesota, where we planned to tour around for a few days. In the evening before getting to Minneapolis, we went to Mall of America, which is located about 30 minutes south of Minneapolis. The mall really is huge, but wasn't like I imagined. The outside area around the mall is pretty desolate and surrounded by highways. But the inside of the mall is wild! The mall is a 4 story basic square shape, with an amusement park in the middle. There are 4 anchor stores at each corner, and the shops go round the perimeter up to 3 levels. We think the 4th floor was for reserved for parties or meetings. It seemed a good portion of the stores were for apparel and most were stores you would find in other malls. Visiting the mall was pretty neat. Wouldn't want to be there during Christmas season though!

I would have to say that as annoying as I find shopping malls to be, this was a very fun experience. The exterior and parking was horrible, but the interior was 4 floors of glorious entertainment. Passing through the Mac Store, the Lego Store, and snacking at an Auntie Anne's pretzel were highlights of this visit. It puts any mall that I have ever been to, to shame!

Day 6 Wednesday:

Minneapolis

Mill City Museum

Skyways and Nicolett Mall

Walker Art Museum & Sculpture Garden

The Local

Guthrie Theater- "A Winter's Tale"

View of Mississippi River from the Mill City Museum

Mill City Museum Glass Elevator

Our residence for this trip was the Days Inn on University. This hotel had a good rate for its location, and we got a few discounts which made it even better. However, there is a reason why this hotel had cheaper rates... It wasn't anything too horrible (scratchy sheets, funky drain, 8am cleaning duty, flat mattress, no outlets, and smoky smells)...but it did have free parking, internet, a free shuttle up to 3 miles, and a fridge! It was located right by a good pizza joint and a few blocks from the main part of Dinkytown district in Minneapolis.

Today began pretty exciting. We first went to the Mill City Museum, which is were the main flour mill was located (Gold Medal Flour). It had a lot of history within and it had a pretty nice museum, and an elevator theater. I really enjoyed seeing how they blended the historic part of the mill (which a lot had been burned or fallen down) and with the modern structure of the museum and elevator.

Hennepin County Public Library

Nicolet Mall

Being a history buff, I really enjoyed touring the Mill City Museum and took a walking tour around some of Minneapolis' riverfront and Loring Park areas. It was especially intriguing to see some historical footage of the city and how it was developed. Using the skyways and Nicolet Mall to get around as a pedestrian was a retreat from the cold, traffic congestion of the rest of the city.

Parking Garage outside of Loring Park

Next we walked through downtown Minneapolis along the skyways, which was a really neat concept. You can pretty much walk all through downtown Minneapolis without going outside! We then walked all the way to the Walker Art Museum. It was quite a hike (distance wise and through traffic)...from Mill City where we parked. The sculpture garden was neat, except it was pretty flooded with snow, water, and mud. It would be nicer to see during the summer. We then went inside the art museum, where we walked through the entirety of the museum in about 30 minutes. We didn't really think our experience here was too great. They had some pretty weird things and only a few things by artists we had heard of. Needless to say, we wished we hadn't walked that far to see it. We probably would have gone to the Wiesman Art Museum, except it is being updated with a Frank Gehry addition!

Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden

On our way back we stopped at a bar and grill, The Local, on the Nicolett Mall Street in downtown. It was a nice place to rest and Brad got an Irish beer and me a 2 Gingers with Ginger Ale. We then kept on walking the hike back. It was a great moment when we could rest our feet back at the hotel. We freshened up a bit and went to the Guthrie theater, which is a neat place. It is right by the Mill City on the river. It has a huge escalator! which takes you up 4 flights to the theaters. It also has a cantilevered deck which looks out onto the river. We saw a modern Shakespeare play "A Winter's Tale", which was partly a tragedy and partly a comedy.

The Gutherie Theater

Day 7 Thursday:

St Paul

Como Zoo and Conservatory

Downtown

Science Museum

Dinner at Origami

Dessert at Annie's

Como Zoo and Conservatory

By Thursday, Brad and I were pretty exhausted from the trip catching up to us, but we were still enjoying our tour. We began the day off at the Como Zoo and Conservatory. It was pretty awesome, and one of my favorite things we did! The zoo was pretty nice, and the conservatory was even better. They had a really nice flower show in one of the rooms. The Como was even more awesome because there wasn't an admission fee, only a $2 suggested donation, even though I would be willing to pay admission!

Downtown St. Paul


Landmark Center

We were quite surprised as we made our way to downtown St. Paul. It was St. Pattie's Day, and evidently there is always a huge parade a celebration downtown. It was really busy, but also somewhat exciting. There were tons of people, all in green, and a lot of them were already enjoying the local fare around the bars and pubs. Because of the event we couldn't make it to the Schubert Instrument Museum since it decided to close, but we did grab a late lunch and went to the Science Museum. We were glad we made it to the museum because we got a big discount since it was Thursday after 5. We got to see the regular exhibits, along with the King Tut special exhibit and the IMAX. We were totally worn out and we didn't even see everything! We made our way back to the hotel, and barely made it out in time for a late dinner at Origami, a really good sushi place. It was located in the Warehouse district. Afterwards, we wanted some ice cream, and we eventually found Lexington's Tolly Ho equivalent. At Annie's we ordered a real hot fudge sundae and a half order of fries. We were astonished at the how many fries were with the half order...they were really good, but we only ate a few since we were so stuffed!

I must say that, besides the visit with Jake, the science museum was my favorite part of the whole trip. I am crazy about history and getting to see the most important parts of that history excites me. This tour was reminiscent of the History Channel specials I would watch with my grandfather. It was an amazing exhibit and would encourage anyone to check it out if they are visiting the cities!

Minneapolis Museum of Science

Seismofon

Day 8 Friday:

Schubert Museum

Stillwater

Shop/Dinner/The Madcapper

Bowling

Schubert Club Instrument Museum in the Landmark Center

The third day of our tour ended in Stillwater, which is about 30 minutes outside of St. Paul. This is where Brad's friend, Jake, is from and lives. First we went to the Schubert Instrument museum in St. Paul since it was closed the day before due to St. Pattys. The museum was really awesome (and free!). It didn't have a lot of things, but what they had was exceptional. They had a room full of antique pianos and harpsichords, a room devoted to a collection of 200 letters they have that composers had written to various people, a room full of antique music players (which they played for us!), a room with an Indonesian gamelan set (that we could play!), and several sculptures made of instruments (I made Brad find an oboe).

Liftbridge in Stillwater

After the museum we headed to Stillwater, which is a very nice town located off the St. Croix River. It was really busy town! Jake said a lot of people come from out of town to enjoy the restaurants and shops downtown on weekends. There were quite a few antique malls, and specialty stores like a nice kitchen wares store and bead shop. Jake, Brad, and I ate at the Freight House, then stopped by a diner for the After Dinner Mint Oreo Malt, and then to Jake's favorite hangout, the Madcapper. It was a nice place and had all you can eat popcorn! Brad sampled some Minnesota beers and I got a local favorite, the Madcapper (Peppermint Pattie) which is hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. Jake's wife, Meg, came and joined us for a while and it was fun hanging out with them. Afterwards, we went cosmic bowling with Jake, Meg, and some of his coworkers.

This is my second visit to Stillwater. I find the place very interesting and entertaining. This time around I was able to enjoy a bit more of the night life at the Mad Capper and then bowl with a whole group of Jake's friends. The town sits on the river and make for some interesting open spaces and history, both of which I find very exciting and photogenic!

Hanging out with Jake at the Mad Capper
*A special thanks to our friend in Stillwater (Jake & Meg) for showing us around town!

Day 9 Saturday:

Drive Back

Fish Tacos

Movie- "The Producers"

Saturday was spent driving back to Madison, going by the grocery, and cooking dinner. On the way home we stopped by Culver's for a fish sandwich where Brad tried to order 'a number 7'. The lady looked as confused as I was and said 'Sir, we don't have numbers here". Brad was thinking we were at McDonalds (where the fish combo is really an 11!). It was pretty hilarious. We were pretty exhausted after the trip and decided we needed a break after spring break! Tonight we made some fish tacos, broccoli casserole (which Brad gets to eat all week!), and some chocolate chip cookies.

Day 10 Sunday:

Back to Lexington

Sunday morning Brad and I woke up early to drive to the Chicago area where the bus was picking me up. We couldn't believe how much we had done in the week, and that a week ago we were in our pajamas cooking! Even though we both have to get back into the routine with school tomorrow, there is only about 6 weeks left of it. A good thing, but also bad cause there is so much to do!

The bus trip back was nice. It was strange coming back to all this green, blooming greenery, and really warm temps. It means allergy medicine is going to be taken everyday! I've gotten sick from allergies for the past 7 years this same exact week! Hopefully not this year! I felt funny getting off the bus in a pea coat, hat, and scarf, while everyone here was in t-shirts.

Atlanta for the Holidays

Recently Katrina and I had the pleasure of traveling to Atlanta to visit Chase, one of our friends I graduated with at the University of Kentucky. Chase has recently moved to Atlanta taking a job at Jacob's Engineering working as an Urban Designer. Our first day was spent mostly on the road. It was a six hour drive from Lexington, KY where Katrina and I were spending the holidays at her apartment. The drive was an incredible trek through the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. We were even graced by some light snow that made the scenery even more spectacular. I never get tired of driving through the Smoky Mountains!

Once we arrived in Atlanta, we unpacked our stuff at Chase's place and headed to dinner at the 5 Seasons Brewing Co. If you are ever in Atlanta and looking for some really good food (and wonderful beer) this is the place to be. I had the best Portabella Mushroom sandwich with some awesome sweet potato fries, Katrina had the Black Bean Burger with coleslaw, and Chase had some Rabbit Enchiladas. This place goes highly recommended on my list!

Our first full day of Atlanta adventures started out with a trip on the MARTA train. The public transportation in Atlanta doesn't really compare to much larger cities like NYC or Washington, D.C., but it was very impressive nonetheless! It seems as though at every stop there is some type of mixed use development going on and the trains were spacious and comfortable.

Once we were in downtown Atlanta we made a transfer and headed to the Georgia Aquarium to pick up a CityPASS. The CityPASS let us see the most tourist attractions for half of the price it would be to see everything separately. If you have a few days and are looking to checkout lots of interesting things, I would grab it. It was well worth the money. The aquarium was pretty amazing. Although I have been to a few others in Milwaukee and Baltimore this one was definitely worth it. What made Georgia's standout was the huge tanks and the 35' whale sharks they had swimming around. The also had some crazy otters and some rather large beluga whales. It was also interesting to see the divers free swimming with all the sharks and fish in their larger tanks.

After our visit to the aquarium, we stopped at the World of Coca-Cola to take an intimate look at this history of Coke. Once you get inside they show a pretty neat animated (and lets hope fictitious) video of how these little creatures make vending machines work. It was pretty comprehensive and had everything from Norman Rockwell paintings to delivery trucks to old soda shop memorabilia. At the end, they let you sample every beverage that Coca-Cola makes around the world and let you choose a free bottle of Coke that was made there.

Next, we headed through Centennial Park to the CNN Center to get the Inside CNN Studio Tour. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos while we were on our tour, but I did snap a few while we were waiting on the tour to get started. The building is pretty amazing and open. It also boasts the largest free standing escalator and some very state-of-the-art studios. The guide told us the secrets behind making the news and how they use the same 2 or 3 studios for all of their shows by having different camera angles. Being an avid watcher of CNN, I would have never guessed that all of their programming is done in one building.

We then headed to Atlantic Station to meet Chase after work. After such a busy day it was time for some shopping and food. Atlantic Station is a smart growth development which means that it has lots of opportunities to work, shop, and live. If you are interested in learning more about the concept visit SmartGrowth.org We made a few stops at West Elm to look around and the Body Shop to pick up a few things.

All of us then went to a rather nice sushi place called Shout!. This restaurant had a wonderful selection of sushi and Asian-America fusion cuisine. If you visit Atlanta and are into the sushi thing, I would recommend this place.

Once we were finished eating, we decided to go down to Centennial Park to try ice skating. Unfortunately, we were unable to skate, but we did get to see a pretty amazing musical water fountain show in the park and hang out for a while.

The next day was spent touring the city by car with Chase acting as our chauffeur and we got to see a lot of the town. We started at Atlantic Botanical Garden and Conservatory. This was an amazing place. The tree walks, vegetable garden amphitheater, outdoor kitchen, and orchid garden were pretty awesome. The place also had one of the largest conservatory exhibits I have ever seen and is worth seeing if you are a plant geek like me.

We then ate lunch at this cool little supermarket/cafeteria called Alon's. The food here was very awesome as well. It was sort of an a la carte experience that had lots of options. It took everything in me from venturing over to the bakery section to try some cheesecake or pie. I think if I had it to do over again, I would choose that route, but the tuna and yogurt I had was a very nice and light lunch.

Next we ventured off to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History to check out some interesting stuff about Georgia. We also had the chance to see some cool modern day exhibits and some neat science type stuff. The exhibits also featured a sampling of the dinosaur and large mammal species that were thought to have lived in Georgia. There was also an interesting presentation on human migration and an interactive exhibit on water.

We also had the chance to see where Chase spends all of his time at Jacob's Engineering at their office on the north side of town. He showed us the office and also gave us a glimpse of the types of projects he works on. This probably the largest company that I had never heard of!

After our trip to the office, we stopped at the local Taco Mac to grab some beer and appetizers before heading back to Chase's apartment. The food was great there, but a little commercialized. Anyway, once back at Chase's we decided to have another rendition of Frostys, Forties, Flick Fridays just for old times sake. We watched Precious, which was a very heavy, but great movie. I would definitely recommend catching this film sometime.

Our last full day in Altanta was quite exhausting and went well into the night. This was also the coldest day while we were down.

We started the day by stopping at this little taco bar called Cantina Tacqeria or something like that. Contrary to the reviews, this place had wonderful food and exquisite fish tacos. I would say giving this place a try for lunch some time would be a great investment!

We then ventured to the south part of town to see the Atlanta Zoo. This was a very typical zoo set up, but it was somewhat disappointing. The cold weather streak meant that most of the interesting species were inside and were not viewable. However, we did get to see the Panda, which was quite an amazing site and made the whole trip worth it.

Needless to say, Katrina was hard to miss that day because she wore all red!

Once back in Atlanta we headed to Decatur to check out the sights. Once we got there and drove around for a bit we were all hungry again. So we decided to forgo any more exploring and just grab a bite to eat. We chose this cool pizzeria called Zucca's. We had a crazy specialty pizza with some pesto and some bruschetta for an appetizer. The place was reasonably priced and very, very good! I only wished we would have had more time to explore some of the shops and atmosphere that Decatur is famous for...

Our last stop that day was by far the most interesting of the entire trip. The Salvador Dali exhibit at the High Museum of Art. The museum had a last minute marathon of operation to ferry in those who had been postponing the visit. Over Saturday and Sunday the museum was open 31 hours straight.

Like most museum galleries I couldn't take any photos inside, but believe me, they were all amazing. If you ever get a chance to see a Dali Exhibit, DO IT! One of the paintings on display was the Persistence of Memory, which I think is Dali's most famous work. It was much smaller than I thought, but still impressive. The exhibit focused on much of his later works and also tried to paint a picture of the troubled genius. We also got to see a glimpse of the new Dali Museum being built in Florida which is set to open this year. I'll have to make a trip down there soon and put that on my itinerary!

Early the next morning we ate at the Waffle House with Chase and said good-bye to Atlanta (or more like 'see you later'). We were actually chased out of town by a wild winter storm that swept through the south that day and paralyzed the city. But in any case, I can definitely say that the whole experience changed the way I see Atlanta. It is a lot more progressive than I thought and has come a long way since the Olympic Games. I look forward to visiting my friend and the city again when the weather is warmer.