St. Paul & Minneaoplis

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Spent a fine week exploring the twin cities! The area has an amazing bike path system. We rode around Lake Nokomis Sunday and then drove to St. Paul where we sat on the terrace at W.A. Frost and had an appetizer. Afterwards, we walked across the street to Moscow on the Hill and sat on their back patio and enjoyed pierogis for dinner. Monday, I got called out for a pop up overnight trip to Anchorage while Ted and I were cycling to Cleary Lake so Pat spent that day and part of Tuesday exploring the shopping around the Twin Cities. Our host, Ted, took her back to Cleary Lake on Tuesday where she biked the trail while he rollerbladed (8 miles). They picked me up at MSP around 4:30 with bikes in tow and we headed for Masami's house in St Paul.  There we hooked up with Dave, Masami and their house guest Chuta from Japan for a ride on the Big Rivers Regional Trail (13 miles) and an eventual dinner on the patio of Lucky 13's, a trailside restaurant.

Wednesday, we dropped Ted off at MSP for his day turn to San Diego and, as Pat requested more shopping time, I dropped her at Edina's Crate and Barrel while I went to Starbucks to try to update my manuals to Delta's phase 3 transition specs. Oh, the pain of it all.....don't get me started! For lunch, we drove over to the U of Minneota area, Dinkytown, for a delicious Greek meal at Kafe 421. We then walked around the riverside campus of "The U".

Thursday evening we hooked up with our Lely Resort friends, Ben and Linda, for some tennis in Eden Prairie followed by a nice dinner on the back deck at Jake's Restuarant.

We loved the ambiance of St Paul so much we spent Friday looking at apartments in the Summit Hill area. Probably just wishful thinking by a tired, old pilot who has commuted all but 2 years of his 30 year airline career. Thanks to Dave for showing us around and introducing us to some of the local residents. We had a nice lunch at Billy's on Grand Ave and then headed back to Ted and Mary's (yes, she surfaced after her week in Maui and all night flight from HNL!) where Chef Ted treated us to a expertly grilled steak, fresh corn on the cob and red potatoes dinner on the back deck. Feeling a bit sluggish, we all then took Easy for a twilight walk in Ritter Park.

I dropped Pat off at MSP on Saturday morning for the flight to RSW and then Ted and I resumed sheetrocking duties on the new third bedroom we have been working on for the past 3 months when not riding the bikes (could have used more of your help, Johnny Boy!). One small area to go. We called it quits around noon and went for a ride to Cleary Lake and I then packed up for the evening flight to AMS.

What a nice week - thanks to Ted and Mary for their hospitality.