Sis had the day off work today for Shavuot, so we took a little road trip to Stillwater. Thought we'd look around a little, then grab some lunch. But after we picked up some cool notebooks at the delightful Mara-Mi and some fudge at Tremblay's and sat by the river for a spell, we decided to split. Stillwater was seeming a little ragged, run-down and dirty.

Main Street -- Stillwater, MN

Unsure where to go next, we headed back to the Cities and ended up in our old neighborhood in South Minneapolis. Of course we had to drive by the house. There was NO ONE around on our street. Seriously not a soul. We had driven by the old place many times, but for the first time we parked and walked up the sidewalk a bit to check things out more closely.

The house looks great, except they painted it a bluish-grey, which is wrong. It is supposed to be white. It was white for over 85 years and it should have stayed white. It looks nice enough, it just blends in more, looks less special. I am not sure it was so striking on its own or if it was the contrast between the paint choice of our next-door neighbors. I remember telling people coming to my house for the first time: "Go to 41st and Wentworth, it's the big white house fourth from the corner...next to the green house." Don and Bev's electric green house is now beige. 

The lilies of the valley still line the depth of the house on the north side, along the path to the back, but the lilacs have all been removed from the south side. The house looks so bare and exposed. And they've added some sort of central air and ugly external duct work. The lilacs would come in handy to cover some of that up. Now there are just some hostas, or something. 

It was so quiet in the neighborhood. We remembered summer afternoons from our youth on Wentworth Avenue and: kids running through sprinklers in the front yard, playing tennis in the street, running games through neighbors' yards, shooting hoops in the backyard, digging up worms, riding bikes and just "playing". 

Sis said she felt like some septuagenarian recalling her childhood in the 1950s. We decided our youth was more like our parents' than kids today is like their parents'. I don't actually care about all that. When I go to the old neighborhood, it is all about my memories. They play through my head, not like grainy home movies (as you might expect) but like crisp, highly produced scenes. I don't see myself, but I know I am there.

To cap off our trip down memory lane, we had lunch at Harriet's Inn on 40th and Lyndale. Great spot, but hard to get around the fact that I am eating fish tacos and drinking a craft beer in the old Super America convenience store...

Harriet's Inn -- South MInneapolis

Summer Begins

Absolutely gorgeous Sunday afternoon in Minnesota. We had a delightful lunch at Admiral D's in White Bear Lake, followed by peach cobbler, tea and inspirtational conversation on the front porch of The Cottage. 

We discussed several summer road trip possibilities including Lanesboro, MN, Itasca and Mineral Point, Wisconsin. 

A few potential screenplays for Hallmark Channel movies were mapped out - fascinating story lines involving illiteracy, a one-hit-wonder, lost love and Vietnam,

Bernadette Peters as "Aunt Carol" a one-hit-wonder from the 1970s who is in danger of losing her crumbling lake-side estate, but instead of telling her niece who comes for guidance and inspiration of her financial woes, Carol takes off for Portugal, leaving her niece to pick up the pieces. An illiterate son of a Vietnam War veteran college English professor figure in somehow...

Great day today, and I look forward to many more like it this summer...