N

It is Alex's persistance that I am here today about to begin the blog life. I hope that he will like what I have in store for my wee blog and that it binds the gap of the west coast and the midwest.

A great question arose while sitting on the sofa on my day off - what do I do? I realize now that in order to have a worthy blog, I need to do interesting things with this time, so this weekend I was on a mission for adventure and itchy with curiousity. Jakes family was away to Hawaii, sending Jakes younger sister to school and visiting his brother who lives out there already, so we went up on Friday (1/16) until Monday (1/19) to housesit Angelo, their dog.

Now, when your in up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, you have to find a CITYPAGES http://www.citypages.com/ or vita.mn http://www.vita.mn/, free weekly zines with information on local events, food, arts and much more of the metro area. On Sunday, after checking out the CITYPAGES, we were lucky enough to find a place to eat, La Loma Tamales http://www.lalomatamales.com/cafeteria_meat.html. Jake called Carlson to see if he would like to join in on the fun, and we picked him up on the way to the MetroTransit stop in Bloomington, MN. We took the rail to the Lake St. stop, shuffled about a mile through wind and snow and ended up at the underground gateway to Mexico in Minneapolis - Mercado Central http://www.mercadocentral.net/. Now, when we started out on this journey, I believe that all of us were expecting to walk up to a restaurant, so we had no idea what we were walking into and I'll tell you right now that this marketplace was far better to stumble upon. There were two levels, little shops tucked away with trinkets and clothes for sale, little kids running and laughing, and delicious food all around. After wandering for about ten minutes, there was a small sign spotted, hung from the ceiling with the words La Loma. It was a quick stop shop for tamales and coffee drinks located right next to a bakery with traditional Mexican breads and pastries on display. We ate delicious tamales and fruit popsicles while deciding on what to do next. Jake remembered seeing an article on local places with great beers posted in vita.mn so, with my great phone, he was able to find the directions to The Common Roots Cafe, about 2 and a half miles away from Mercado Central. Out into the snow we went once again, not knowing what to expect on the way. Another great discovery was ahead - the Midtown Global Market, http://www.midtownglobalmarket.org/. The yellow awnings were so enticing, I had to find out what was inside. Because it was later on Sunday, there was not much going on then, but I assume that during the morning and warmer months this place is filled. Much like the Seattles Pike Place, the Midtown Global Market has many vendors from all over the place, selling organic produce and goods. This day kept getting better and better! We exited the MGM, and Jakes friend Wenner decided he would join in for the beers we were headed for, and picked us up in a McDonalds parking lot (nice!). We walked into The Common Roots Cafe and walk right out - just a trendy coffee shop scene with beer on tap, but no beer listed on the chalkboards of choices. Across the way, another place mentioned in vita.mn about their hot dogs, was The Bulldog Restaurant. Great European beer on tap, reasonable pricing, and I tried a beer called Maredsous, very very delicious - if you like New Castle, this ia a notch greater than that. Wenner drove us to the car afterwards, we went and hung out at his place for a bit, then home.

I found that Sunday to be blogworthy.

Noel says: Think positive thoughts today.