Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning. She had the entire day off since it was Saturday. It was also reunion day, so she had a lot of plans for us.
After breakfast, that I made because we both agreed I was a much better cook, we hit the town hard. Summer Saturday mornings mean a trip to the Mill City Farmers Market at the Guthrie Theater. Chelsea is surrounded by fresh produce all the time, and can go to the farmers market any Saturday, but this was the only day for me. Where I live, there is nothing like it. We have plenty of produce markets all year long, but that is like comparing homemade tagliatelle with canned spaghettios. One of those life ironies is that I make 90% of my meals with ingredients that are nowhere near this fresh, while Chelsea has produce picked from the farm that morning, but mostly eats out. The farmers market also had cooking lessons, but we did not have enough time.
The thunderstorms and ominous clouds of Friday were gone. This was a typical sunny and hot summer day. Chelsea and more than a few others complained about the humidity, but it felt pretty mild to me. And it was not especially hot. This Saturday was also the opening of the beer festival, international food truck rally and the tequila & taco festival. There were plenty of arts and crafts fairs, movies in the park and block parties. Things would really start get going after I left. The city does more than enough to keep people active and engaged. Summer is not such a bad time to go to Minneapolis. Then there is the Minnesota state fair. Our state fair is a great state fair, but I missed it. I was too early.
There were a million live performances that night, but that was also reunion time. I would have loved spending the evening at the Cowles Center, Orpheum or State Theatre, but I flew halfway around the world for the reunion, not to see a show.
Chelsea did not want to spend the afternoon running around some lakes or doing anything particularly energetic. She was looking forward to being wide awake at the reunion. So we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Not only does it require no exertion, but it is indoors and air conditioned. We have museums in Hong Kong, but nothing like this. I have nothing against Chinese art, but it does not move me the way Rembrandt, van Gogh, Manet, Gauguin, Matisse and Goya can. Ironically, MIA brags that they have one of the largest Asian art collections in the United States.
Chelsea's house is only a few miles from the museum, so we had enough time to go back and get ready before heading out.
Farmer's markets - yeah that is something that is a bit different than what exists in Hong Kong. I mean, they have wet markets there, but it's just not the same.
ReplyDeleteA farmer's market, particularly in the Midwestern United States, is one of the greatest inventions of man. There are markets all over the world, of course, but they're not the same. Paris and Amsterdam have some great street markets. Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem is amazing.
ReplyDeleteHong Kong is a little disappointing in the street market department. Almost all produce is imported, so you're not going to pick up an apple from a stall and eat it right then and there.