5 Days With My Wife

Saturday, August 11th

I love my wife.
I love when she comes to visit.
It's not like being home at all, but it's pretty great.
We had a really wonderful 5 days - like a vacation without leaving the tour.

Friday:
I had an understudy rehearsal on Friday afternoon and a show that evening, so wife-time was slotted around work-time. We began the day with a visit to Mickey's Dining Car. Even at 10:30 on a weekday, Mickey's was hopping. We snagged some seats way down at the end of the bar and tucked in. We were down in the land of the short order cook. The space behind the bar is so narrow, I'm not sure the waitress could have squeezed by the cook - even if she'd wanted to. It was a pleasure to watch this guy work. He was turning out all the food for the whole diner in what was, essentially, a hallway. (Sheila Marie leaned over the bar and closed the refrigerator door for him a couple of times. She could easily reach it from her seat.) The kitchen's layout was so ergonomic and smart, and his motions were so practiced, that it became a sort of dance. (Much like the work backstage during a busy transition does.) It was fun to watch. Oh, and the food was delicious, too.

Sheila Marie took this photo inside Mickey's. You can get a sense of just how close you are to the man making your food.

After rehearsal, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and ate dinner outside at El Patio. What a treat to find authentic Mexican food! Sheila went out on a limb and ordered pork and potatoes stewed in salsa verde (heaven) and I enjoyed a combo centered around a chile rellano. As wonderful as the dinner was, sitting outside was equally grand. The locals are all telling us how unseasonably hot it's been here, but this feels like summer used to feel when I was a kid. It's been around 90 degrees every day, it's been hot, but not awful. I've been glad to be back in the sort of Midwest that I grew up in. (I'm still not going to order a "pop", no matter what the waitress says...)

After the show on Friday night, Sheila joined a bunch of the guys and I for drinks. We went to McGovern's Pub with Tony, Mike, Cuz and Maggie. Maggie is Cuz's awesome wife. Since we've been in St. Paul for three weeks, lots of Spouses of the Spamily have been out for visits. It's really fun to meet everybody's special someones. Maggie is one of my favorites. She and Sheila Marie ended up entertaining each other quite a bit this weekend. We all spent a really fun evening chewing the fat at the pub: watching baseball highlights, cursing Barry Bonds (he hadn't yet broken the record and I was still angry at him) and laughing a lot.

Saturday:
Saturday morning, we headed out to the local farmers' market. Along the way, we passed through some sort of street fair that the local PBS station was holding. It was geared specifically toward the younger viewers, but I have to admit, I was pretty excited to catch a glimpse of Mr. McFeely. David Newell was signing autographs dressed in his "Speedy Delivery" outfit. If the line hadn't been so long, I'd have insisted on a picture with Mr. McFeely (he looks just like you'd imagine.) Of course, we'd also have had some fried cheese curds if the line hadn't been so long...

The farmers' market was charming. More traditional than the street fair atmosphere in Des Moines. We enjoyed some fresh roasted corn and Sheila Marie picked up some creamed honey. Mostly, though, we just enjoyed the atmosphere, the flowers and bustle of the place.

Another in our "camera at arm's length" series. This time enjoying some fresh sweet corn.

Glads, my favorite.

On the way back from the market, we explored the St. Paul skywalk system. Like Houston's tunnels, the skywalk lets locals escape the elements. (Here it's the slush and snow; there it's the awful heat and humidity.) Unlike Houston, the skywalks are open on weekends and evenings. Purportedly, they're open until 2 AM! They also give you a better sense of the architecture here as they pass through the buildings themselves. Sometimes you're walking through what would be an interior hallway, other times the outer edge of a building has been retrofitted so you're passing along just inside the windows. We especially enjoyed one of the buildings where, rather than knock a hole in the side of the building, they retrofitted the windows to be doors to the skybridge! The antique shutter hinges were still there. Like Houston, many of the buildings have retail space lining the skywalk, making it feel like a tiny shopping mall.

Ken gave me Saturday evening off, so Sheila Marie and I enjoyed another rare evening together. (It's sort of scandalous fun to be out and about at 8 PM on a show night!) We waited until after the show rush had subsided and went to dinner at the St. Paul Grill inside the St. Paul Hotel. We enjoyed a proper cocktail before dinner (a Negroni for her and a Manhattan for him) and took our time with our meals. The vibe in the Grill was wonderful - the exact opposite of Mickey's. The whole thing felt very grown-up and more like a dinner on vacation than on tour.

Dinner at the St. Paul Grill. That's some of the most delicious cauliflower I've ever eaten in the foreground.

Sunday:
Between the hotel and the theatre lies a magical place: the aptly named Candyland. You can't walk along the block of Wabasha street it inhabits and not be attracted to the smell. They roast their own nuts and make their own caramel corn, so no matter what time of day you pass by, there's a delicious aroma coming out of their storefront. They've been in business there since 1932 and they are candy experts. Sheila Marie and Maggie discovered one of their homemade treats: the Carmallow. A caramel covered marshmallow. Yum. They have all manner of sweets: salt water taffy, swedish fish, turtles, on and on. I love it there.

Between shows on Sunday, Sheila Marie joined the Spama-Management team for dinner at the Great Waters Brewing Company. They are Spam-mad around here. The show is sponsored locally by the Hormel Company, which is based nearby. So, the cross promotion is intense. At Great Waters, there was a can of Spam on every table, the waiters were in Spam t-shirts and there were special Spam offerings on the menu in honor of our little skit. We ordered the Spam Hush Puppies (aka Spam Fritters and Spam Balls). There were quite tasty. Cheesy hush puppies with just a "kiss of Spam" (thank you Jeff Dumas).

Monday:
Monday was, of course, my day off - meaning a whole day with my lovely wife!

We began the day at Key's Cafe. An unassuming spot recommended by Karl, Key's is only open for breakfast and lunch. Like Mickey's, the folks here know how to do diner food right. There's a greater variety at Key's, though, and they seem less likely to have a big pitcher of lard stashed under the counter (turns out that's one of the secrets of Mickey's Potatoes O'Brien: a honest to goodness pitcher full of lard to be poured liberally over the browning potatoes). This is not to imply, however, that everything on the menu at Key's is uber-healthy. Sheila Marie and I split a caramel roll that was unbelievable - a giant, homemade cinnamon roll slathered in caramel sauce. Imagine the clouds parting, a ray of sunlight descending until it spotlights the roll and the chorus of angels singing: this is how my wife felt about this pastry. (Now imagine the sugar crash that comes a half-hour later. Thank goodness we both had some protein as well!) They also make a pretty mean plate of biscuits with sausage gravy.

We decided to rent a car and take a drive. Cuz and Maggie suggested we head a little bit north to White Bear Lake. When we arrived in White Bear Lake we were happily surprised to find a retired caboose next to a tiny railroad depot. The depot was repurposed as the local historical society, but was not open on Mondays. The caboose, however, was open for exploration!



We drove back to Minneapolis along the Mississippi river. We followed the river through some industrial areas then into former industrial areas repurposed as luxury lofts. Eventually, we ended up exploring the campus of the University of Minnesota. We enjoyed a relaxed lunch at cafe tables along the sidewalk in "Dinkytown" and shared a couple of malteds in a rooftop diner. We spent the balance of the afternoon taking in the Hairspray movie (I think I liked it better than she did. Not sure why it needed to be a movie - but it sure is fun to see kids singing and dancing on the big screen!)

On the banks of the Mississippi. (Even with the drought, the Red Cedar it ain't.)

Sheila Marie relaxing curbside at lunch.

Monday night, we hooked up with Kari and Paul for dinner. They're both in Minneapolis working on the Target annual meeting (held, where else, at the Target Center). Kari's been Stage Managing the gig for several years. In addition to presentations by various Target VIPs, the meeting features lots of bands and entertainers of all stripes. They'll both be here more than a week working on the gig. The kids are staying up north with her folks, so we could share some adult time. We went to Murray's for dinner. Murray's was a roadfood.com recommendation. (The review is here.) It is unlike anywhere else I've been on a roadfood recommendation, however. It's an old school steak house. While none of ordered the signature butter knife steak (it comes sized for two - Sheila Marie likes her steak more well done than I do...), we all enjoyed generous portions of beef. After dinner, we went to Rock Bottom Brewery for more conversation and some cheesecake. It was so great to see the two of them (and a treat to meet up with them on the road). They are both great people in their own right (Paul had some cool stories to share from the Pan-American Games in Brazil) and their one of our favorite "couple friends".

Murray's has a classic, sort of Rat Pack, feeling. (The burned out neon makes this picture appear more delapidated than the real thing.)

Tuesday:
We drove back over to Minneapolis for breakfast on Tuesday morning. I had to share Hell's Kitchen with Sheila Marie. She was suitably impressed. My meal was just a wonderful as last time and she enjoyed the her lemon ricotta hot cakes.

Sheila's flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we explored one of Minneapolis' signature parks: Minnehaha Park. The park is home to the Minnehaha Falls (which the drought here in Minnesota had slowed to a trickle), Minnehaha Depot (a restored train station from the 19th Century), Longfellow House (a 2/3 scale recreation of Longfellow's Cambridge home - Longfellow wrote the Song of Hiawatha which immortalized the Minnehaha Falls) and the Steven's house (one of the oldest structures in Minneapolis and the site of the creation of the name: Minneapolis). It was a really beautiful park. We walked along the Minnehaha creek, read about the falls and the varying course of the Mississippi, and sat on the swings for a bit until we had to head off to the airport.

We had a lovely and relaxing visit. I miss her already. It's such a change of pace to have her out here on the adventure with me. I really enjoyed exploring Minnesota with her - I like it here a lot, and it was even more fun with her.

I'm glad that's she holding down the fort in NYC (it is, after all, my home), but her periodic visits make my tour life feel more like my real life.

JV