Day 44 (Our surrogate home)

Day 44
August 4, 2006
Twin Cities

Today started out mostly cloudy—the first clouds we’ve seen since we arrived in Minnesota. The overnight dew wasn’t as heavy, though, making it a little more pleasant for sleeping. By 10 AM, the clouds had cleared and blue skies prevailed.

We drove to both of the Twin Cities today and checked them out. St. Paul has a population of about 285K, and Minneapolis has 385K—both seemed smallish. We always thought that the two were on opposite banks of the Mississippi River, but actually, they both straddle it. Although Minneapolis is technically upstream from St. Paul, the river makes a couple of 180 degree turns within a few miles so that the two cities are actually next to each other, with their central business districts about 9 miles apart.

We liked Minneapolis more overall, but St. Paul had its strengths, including several historic steamboats moored in the Mississippi near its downtown, the State Capitol and Cathedral Hill, a beautiful, historic residential neighborhood which resembled Rolland Park in Baltimore and Upper Northwest in DC. The Riverfront in Minneapolis, dubbed the “Mill Ruins District,” is undergoing a redevelopment that is transforming a blighted industrial area into a high-end residential neighborhood. The centerpiece of this district is Stone Arch Bridge, a curving former railroad bridge that has been refurbished and is now for pedestrians only. We walked across to the East Bank where we could look back across the river at the skyline.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was ugly. It looked like a low-budget, worst-of-class monstrosity that even a Twins fanatic couldn’t really ever learn to like. The city is planning to build a new stadium and it is needed.

On the way home from the cities we had another family council meeting to plan out the rest of the day. The results were that Frank would take the minivan for an oil change while Sessy, Elliot and Emily went to see Barnyard at a nearby theater. Then, after the movie, we agreed to shop for groceries and then return to the community swimming pool in Apple Valley followed by Chinese carryout for dinner.

The movie was a hit with all three of them. And we all loved the pool, although the air was not as warm as it was yesterday. After asking several people where to go for good Chinese food and receiving three recommendations for Big Bowl, we decided to give it a try. We have concluded that there is a dearth of good Chinese food in Dakota County—the first strike against the place. Emily said today that it was “the best day of [her] life” because she was with her family, got to see a movie and got to go back to “that awesome pool with four water slides.” Although pleased that she was having her best day ever while on the vacation that we so carefully planned, Frank and Sessy were left wondering aloud “Why have we driven more than 7,000 miles?”

Of all the places we’ve been on this journey, Apple Valley not only reminded us of home, but in many ways seemed better than home to us. Emily said during dinner tonight that she was ready to move here. Frank reminded everyone that it might be a good idea to spend a week here in January before we put a for sale sign in front of our house.