Our first encounter took place on the outdoor patio of Vintage, a now-defunct wine bar in a charming Victorian house in St. Paul's Cathedral Hill neighborhood. Sensing that Vintage was perhaps a bit too classy for us, our second date took place in the Saints' Midway Stadium, nestled between the Burlington Northern tracks and the Saint Paul Fire Department training facility, where we cheered for Wilbur the pig and pined for better baseball. Date six took us to the Art Car Parade on Lake Street in Minneapolis, and within a few months we were on our first road trip, to Owatonna to see the Orphanage Museum and the Louis Sullivan bank and to Austin to visit the SPAM Museum. One month later we were on a plane to Boston to see the Twins play the Red Sox at Fenway Park, walk the Freedom Trail, sit in JFK's booth at the Union Oyster House and be denied the oppurtunity to take the Duck Tour (dang planful tourists who bought tickets in advance!).
Our courtship continued along the back roads of the upper Midwest that led to various gigs Gary played with Lucky Town, a Bruce Springsteen tribute band (also now defunct). Although gainfully employed as a trainer and instructional designer during the day, Gary turns into a bass player at night. His passion for low notes took us to such exotic locations as Hayward, Wisconsin, Spirit Lake, Iowa and Alexandria, Minnesota. These and other destinations proved to be a treasure trove of misguided civic pride and quirky community passions that we found irrisistable.
For example, Hayward lays claim to the World's Largest Muskie and the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame. We could barely contain our enthusiasm as we pranced from giant fiberglass fish to giant fiberglass fish. Not only can you step into the 1930s at the Lake Okoboji Historic Arnolds Park in Spirit Lake, but just down the road is West Bend, home of the Grotto of the Redemption, which really is the Eighth Wonder of the World. And Alexandria? Big Ole the giant Viking and the Runestone Museum sent chills up our nordic spines.
We got married on June 11, 2005 at the Minnesota State Fair. Not during the fair (we're not quite that crazy), but in the Progress Center, which was originally built in 1916 to be the Poultry Barn. Our guests wore pig ears and pickle hats, ate food on a stick, and enjoyed a puppet show featuring King Boreas and Vulcanus Rex from the St. Paul Winter Carnival. We honeymooned in Pipestone, Minnesota so that we could take in the annual Song of Hiawatha Pageant, which sadly ended its 60 year run in 2008. And we entered into married life with not only our love for each other, but with our mutual love for the American experience in all its bizarre, absurd, beautiful, ignoble, magnificent, quirky, and resplendent manifestations. And of course, with our love of baseball, which you don't need me to tell you is the American experience, and for cats, which, well, what can we say? We don't own any purr-niture yet, but it's probably only a matter of time . . .
This blog is a record of our travels and other adventures. Most of our destinations are NOT on the list of 500 things to see before you die, but all of them are extraordinary in their ability to delight and amuse us. Lest you worry that we are provincial rubes and odious xenophobes, please know that we each have spent considerable amounts of time in various foreign countries and have delighted in the cultural riches we discovered there. But that's not what this blog is about. This blog is about the America that lurks behind the super highways and chain restaurants and suburban sprawl; the America that is a collection of individual passions and regional distinctions; the America that surprises and scintillates us with its energy and eccentricities. This blog is about the America that we love, with the occasional non sequitor tossed in to keep things lively.
Please join us. If you too have delighted in (or been disappointed by) the same places and experiences, please share your thoughts. If you've visited an attraction you think we would enjoy, please pass on your recommendations to us. We hope our ramblings will inspire you to explore some of the same destinations that delighted us.
And please accept our apologies, in advance, for the gratuitous cat references . . .
