Local Holiday Bliss

Today was a very rare treat for the adults in this household. For four blissful hours this afternoon, my husband and I cavorted around town, sans child. It's one thing to go out at night, but it's another to experience a holiday afternoon together in a way that you might have before the child arrived. So here's what two urban exploring geeks do when they have a free afternoon...

We began our "holiday" with lunch at the recently City Pages reviewed Mexican joint, Tacqueria Los Ocampo on Lake and Chicago. I could go back for dinner right now--it really was that good. Then we took surface streets, traveling through South Minneapolis neighborhoods, to get to the Museum of Russian Art on 55th and Stevens. What a gorgeous building--an old church, then a funeral home, now a stunning gallery. Interesting exhibits--Russian Impressionism and Ukrainian printmaking--both radically different artforms, but both suffering under Soviet censorship and dictates of what constituted art. We tried to check out Twin Cities Green in Uptown, but they were closed. So we took Franklin Avenue all the way back to Prospect Park (with me pointing out the places that we need to eat at next--Maria's Cafe, True Thai, and the Franklin Street Bakery) where we stopped in at Cupcake for a latte and the obvious cupcake. As always, delish.

Realizing that the clock was ticking on our allotted child care, we hurried to St. Anthony Park to pop into Micawber's Books. What a lovely place to while away time during a snowy afternoon. We indulged and bought Kevin Kling's new book "The Dog Says How" along with a ridiculously marked down copy of Alex Kotlowitz's "Never a City So Real: A Walk in Chicago." Kotlowitz's book is part of the Crown Journeys series--where they pair good writers with interesting places. And we had to pick up the latest issue of National Geographic since we needed to read the North Dakota article ourselves and see if all of the brouhaha was deserved. IMHO, NoDak should be happy for the publicity--I know that the adults in this household will now add touring the rural remnants of our western neighbors to our great Western road trip of the future.