Minneapolis, Minnesota (Miles to date: 5100)
We had decided try yet another place in the Road Food book for breakfast – we find the breakfasts in the 4 Star hotels very pricey. This time the choice was Al’s breakfast (14th Street & 4th Ave SE, in Dinkytown, Minneapolis). En route we passed across the road that leads to the bridge that recently collapsed in Minneapolis killing 13 people – even some weeks later the extent of the damage can still be clearly seen. Al’s is in a district of Minneapolis called Dinkytown, which is best described as a cosmopolitan and student area of town. The restaurant is very non descript and is squashed in between two other buildings. As you go in the room is about 40 feet long and about 10 feet wide. Everyone eating 
sits at counter and those waiting line up behind them, virtually leaning over the shoulders of those eating. It is all very cosy – but people are prepared to wait. Eventually we get to sit and order our food – this time myself and Karen choose scrambled eggs and pancakes with blueberries and walnuts, affectionately known as “wally blues”. As the orders are taken they are shouted out to the cook, who is at his grill sitting in front of you in some strange culinary code. As the cooking takes place the chef shouts out instructions to the servers and staff working in the back kitchen for more eggs, pancake batter and anything else that comes to mind. When the food comes it is absolutely delicious. Karen and Emily are sitting at another spot on the counter from myself and Jack, and Karen as usual gets into conversation with a man who explains about the tickets strewn on a shelf at the back. These are tickets purchased by people to build credit up that can be used in Al’s – allowing for the patrons to pay at the beginning of the month when they have money and still having the opportunity to get breakfast at the end of the month when the money has run out. Apparently one former frequenter of came back 34 years after his last visit and jokingly raised the question of his ticket with a fellow diner.... and they hunted through and found it … still with 90 cents left on it (would have probably bought breakfast 34 years earlier!!!).
Completely satisfied for the day we set off on the next mission of the day to get some more storage for our trip. As we have gone along it has become more obvious that we needed some more space in the van – particularly for Jack and Emily (to stop the fighting and also give them some more spread room). We decided that the best option, well at least I did, was to get a roof box for the van. We managed to track down a store called REI that sold such boxes and went there and found a delightful man to help us – unfortunately they didn’t have the size we wanted so we had to go a few miles to their sister store which had just the one. Fortunately one of the men in the store help us fit the roof box – which was quite tricky mainly due to the height of the van.
Now happy that we had some growing room we set off to find the Mall of America, which has more than 500 specialty stores, 50 restaurants, 7 nightclubs and 14 movie theatres and a theme park and aquarium under one roof. Not that we are particularly big fans of shopping malls but we simply had to go and see the biggest one in the US. We only had a couple of hours to spare so it was a bit of a whistle stop tour of some of the stores – our main stops were the four storey Lego store and the Apple store. It is just one of those things you have to do.
Our plan for the evening – being Halloween – was to go to the Rocky Horror Show in St Paul. We again were in search of another restaurant from Road Food, this time a diner called Mickey’s Dining Car. The style of the restaurant is a trolley bus in the Art Deco style. Again, like Al’s Breakfast, the eating space is
limited – these are probably the two narrowest restaurants to eat in. Mickey’s has been there for over 50 years serving food 24/7 to the less discerning people of St Paul. It is most definitely not haute cuisine but it is an experience. The food is cooked in front of you but is best to turn a blind eye to the food preparation and the cleanliness of the surfaces (every thing is covered in grease). The people working there are very pleasant if not missing a few teeth and short of a penny or two. The food is definitely fast food so we are soon done and have some time to spare so we decide to check out the State Capitol building. Night was setting in so the buildings were lit-up and quite beautiful. Close to the Capitol building is the Roman Catholic Cathedrals of St Paul, which was open so we went inside. The decoration was ornate is a very tasteful way and we spent a short time soaking in the atmosphere, until Jack and Emily became unsettled and started making some noise,-singing hymns actually- so for the benefit of the members of the congregation we left.
We didn’t really want to take Jack and Emily out trick or treating around a strange city so we decided to ease the disappointment by taking them to a show for the evening. By searching around the Internet we found that the Rocky Horror Show was on in St Paul. Now both I and Karen had seen the show before and were aware of the adult content, and we hoped that the majority of this would go above their head. Fortunately the audience was not as outrageous as we had experienced in the past, although there were a smattering of gay couples, men in lingerie and a transvestite or two. Being Halloween we could explain some of this away. Whilst we were waiting for the play to begin two gay men came into the waiting area dressed as the King and Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Emily, in her innocence, comes out and says (fortunately quietly so only a few people around could hear) “ha ha that man is a queen!” Of course she could not understand why her parents rolled around in laughter – we don’t normally react quite so strongly to her quips. The theatre itself was very intimate and the performance was pretty good, and thankfully a relatively tame interpretation so we didn’t have to provide too many explanations of the events as they unfolded. Also there was the usual level of audience participation, which acted as a bit of distraction – so everyone enjoyed the show at their level of understanding.
We had decided try yet another place in the Road Food book for breakfast – we find the breakfasts in the 4 Star hotels very pricey. This time the choice was Al’s breakfast (14th Street & 4th Ave SE, in Dinkytown, Minneapolis). En route we passed across the road that leads to the bridge that recently collapsed in Minneapolis killing 13 people – even some weeks later the extent of the damage can still be clearly seen. Al’s is in a district of Minneapolis called Dinkytown, which is best described as a cosmopolitan and student area of town. The restaurant is very non descript and is squashed in between two other buildings. As you go in the room is about 40 feet long and about 10 feet wide. Everyone eating 
sits at counter and those waiting line up behind them, virtually leaning over the shoulders of those eating. It is all very cosy – but people are prepared to wait. Eventually we get to sit and order our food – this time myself and Karen choose scrambled eggs and pancakes with blueberries and walnuts, affectionately known as “wally blues”. As the orders are taken they are shouted out to the cook, who is at his grill sitting in front of you in some strange culinary code. As the cooking takes place the chef shouts out instructions to the servers and staff working in the back kitchen for more eggs, pancake batter and anything else that comes to mind. When the food comes it is absolutely delicious. Karen and Emily are sitting at another spot on the counter from myself and Jack, and Karen as usual gets into conversation with a man who explains about the tickets strewn on a shelf at the back. These are tickets purchased by people to build credit up that can be used in Al’s – allowing for the patrons to pay at the beginning of the month when they have money and still having the opportunity to get breakfast at the end of the month when the money has run out. Apparently one former frequenter of came back 34 years after his last visit and jokingly raised the question of his ticket with a fellow diner.... and they hunted through and found it … still with 90 cents left on it (would have probably bought breakfast 34 years earlier!!!).Completely satisfied for the day we set off on the next mission of the day to get some more storage for our trip. As we have gone along it has become more obvious that we needed some more space in the van – particularly for Jack and Emily (to stop the fighting and also give them some more spread room). We decided that the best option, well at least I did, was to get a roof box for the van. We managed to track down a store called REI that sold such boxes and went there and found a delightful man to help us – unfortunately they didn’t have the size we wanted so we had to go a few miles to their sister store which had just the one. Fortunately one of the men in the store help us fit the roof box – which was quite tricky mainly due to the height of the van.
Now happy that we had some growing room we set off to find the Mall of America, which has more than 500 specialty stores, 50 restaurants, 7 nightclubs and 14 movie theatres and a theme park and aquarium under one roof. Not that we are particularly big fans of shopping malls but we simply had to go and see the biggest one in the US. We only had a couple of hours to spare so it was a bit of a whistle stop tour of some of the stores – our main stops were the four storey Lego store and the Apple store. It is just one of those things you have to do.Our plan for the evening – being Halloween – was to go to the Rocky Horror Show in St Paul. We again were in search of another restaurant from Road Food, this time a diner called Mickey’s Dining Car. The style of the restaurant is a trolley bus in the Art Deco style. Again, like Al’s Breakfast, the eating space is
limited – these are probably the two narrowest restaurants to eat in. Mickey’s has been there for over 50 years serving food 24/7 to the less discerning people of St Paul. It is most definitely not haute cuisine but it is an experience. The food is cooked in front of you but is best to turn a blind eye to the food preparation and the cleanliness of the surfaces (every thing is covered in grease). The people working there are very pleasant if not missing a few teeth and short of a penny or two. The food is definitely fast food so we are soon done and have some time to spare so we decide to check out the State Capitol building. Night was setting in so the buildings were lit-up and quite beautiful. Close to the Capitol building is the Roman Catholic Cathedrals of St Paul, which was open so we went inside. The decoration was ornate is a very tasteful way and we spent a short time soaking in the atmosphere, until Jack and Emily became unsettled and started making some noise,-singing hymns actually- so for the benefit of the members of the congregation we left.
We didn’t really want to take Jack and Emily out trick or treating around a strange city so we decided to ease the disappointment by taking them to a show for the evening. By searching around the Internet we found that the Rocky Horror Show was on in St Paul. Now both I and Karen had seen the show before and were aware of the adult content, and we hoped that the majority of this would go above their head. Fortunately the audience was not as outrageous as we had experienced in the past, although there were a smattering of gay couples, men in lingerie and a transvestite or two. Being Halloween we could explain some of this away. Whilst we were waiting for the play to begin two gay men came into the waiting area dressed as the King and Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Emily, in her innocence, comes out and says (fortunately quietly so only a few people around could hear) “ha ha that man is a queen!” Of course she could not understand why her parents rolled around in laughter – we don’t normally react quite so strongly to her quips. The theatre itself was very intimate and the performance was pretty good, and thankfully a relatively tame interpretation so we didn’t have to provide too many explanations of the events as they unfolded. Also there was the usual level of audience participation, which acted as a bit of distraction – so everyone enjoyed the show at their level of understanding. 
1 comment:
What a great way to spend Halloween! Just had a quick wizz through some of your posts. What an awesome experience for you all.Hope Karen and kids are keeping their own diaries too.
Will look in again soon
Gael x
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