Minneapolis Day 2: Backstage Tour, Food Tour and Jazz Club

The sun was coming up.  We aren't faced quite the right direction to see the sunrise but I liked seeing the sun reflected on the stadium.

After our Starbucks run and breakfast we headed out. Kris usually went down to pick up stuff for herself and Sharon.  This is looking at our apartment.

Our apartment is the second one from the bottom, one chair on the patio, or the middle one on the right.

We got close up pictures of the sculptures in the Commons park right beside us.

 The participatory art installation “Radical Playground” by Candida Gonzalez and MaryAnne Quiroz has won the 2019 Creative City Challenge under this year’s Northern Spark theme of “We Are Here: Resilience, Renewal & Regeneration.” During the summer of 2019 on The Commons, participants will be invited to heal through play with whimsical interactive “alebrije”: animal sculptures inspired by dream creatures from the Caribbean, Mexico, the Pacific Islands and the indigenous cultures of Minnesota. “Radical Playground” will debut on The Commons June 14  and will remain on The Commons through August 2019 for a summer of everyday interaction and special programming.

We arrived at the Guthrie Theater in time for our 10 am Backstage tour .

Sandy was our guide.

There was so much to see.  I was very impressed with the Guthrie Theater.  They do all their own set construction and design.  Each play is unique.  Actors have to try out for whichever play they may want to be in. The whole process was amazing. My pictures just did not do justice to the space. They do not do many of the Broadway Across America tours.  They want to do their own.

On the stage looking out at the smaller theater.  

High ceilings so that things could be "flown" in.

 

Showing how a tree is constructed.

They build a model in miniature for each play. This one is for The Christmas Carol, which they do every year.  

They make their own costumes, hats, wigs, ... everything.  When they are done they try to repurpose and share what they can.  

They like to use old sewing machines.

It was supposed to be a 45 minute tour but we took about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  We weren't allowed to take pictures if there were any employees around.  After the tour we went up to the top floor to the Amber room.  The windows are all amber.  

The pictures almost look fake.

When we left the Guthrie we walked to Izzy's ice cream for a treat.  It is famous around here.

It was good ice cream.  I had the tiny Izzy scoop of Irish Moxie.

We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home to do more shopping, mostly to get more wine.

Kris now has a new best friend, Milo.

We only had about 45 minutes at home before we had to head out to our food tour.  

We were looking for a photo op of the Foshay Tower.

We met our food tour in front of the Angel Food Bakery and Coffee Bar.  It is owned by the same people who own Hell's Kitchen.

Nancy is our fabulous tour guide.

For Pride weekend.  Sharon took this picture.

We had coffee and bread pudding made with day old donuts.

Main downtown Target headquarters.

The music mural: "Gaspard de la Nuit.” by French composer Maurice Ravel.  The section depicted on the building comes from the third movement, called “Scarbo".

Pianos are all over downtown. They are painted and people are encouraged to sit down and play.

Next stop was the Radisson Blu hotel. That was surprising to go to a hotel restaurant on a food tour.  It was very good.

Spicy chicken wings

Cornbread

Some mixed drink called a Lake Superior.  It was pretty as well as being quite tasty.

First Avenue Nightclub. Prince performed here.  When he died someone painted his star gold.  We were too close to the building to get a good picture of the building.  Maybe we will walk by some other time.  We drove by it on our city tour but I was on the wrong side of the bus.

We saw a Pedal Pub go by.

At Candyland we had Chicago Mix popcorn and 2 pieces of their This and That chocolates.  They make the chocolate here.

We went to the original Rock Bottom Brewery

We had Firecracker Shrimp and 2 beers: the Northern Lights (a light beer) and the Paisley Tart (a sour fruity beer).  Angelina told us about Rock Bottom Brewery and the beers.  She was very animated and informative.

We ended our tour at Hell's Kitchen

We had their ham and pear sandwich, homemade chips and salsa and the drink was a Purgatory Punch (basil lemonade, black cherry infused vodka and white wine).  We were stuffed by this time.

Fun, touristy type place.

Bob Dylan mural.  

We did not see a lot of murals but the ones we did see were well maintained.  None of them were "tagged".  Next time in Minneapolis we could take a Street Art Tour.

We walked back to the apartment and had a little sit-down.  Since we had just finished our lunch at 4:30 pm we did not feel like we needed to get to the jazz club in time for dinner.  We got a Lyft to the Dakota jazz club.

We went to the Dakota Jazz club to hear "Greats Gone 2 Soon: The Music of Maurice White and the Emotions."

It was a very enjoyable evening.  They had everyone up dancing by the end of the evening.

We walked home.

The reflection of the Foshay Tower

It was fun watching the lights turn colors.  I did a movie. Kris took this picture.

The designer of the IDS Center put in 8 corners at each "corner", called 'zogs'.  This increases the number of people who can have a corner office (charge a higher rent).  It is the tallest building in Minnesota.  

Once we got home Kris and Jeanne went up to the sky lounge in our building and Sharon and I stayed in our apartment and worked on our pictures.

Trivia.  

Minneapolis is more of an intentional design. The streets are in a grid.  Numbered streets in one direction and numbered avenue the other.  The streets with names are alphabetical.  Once they get to Z they start over, 3 times.  The area with presidents names are listed in chronological order not alphabetical.  

The skyways are paid for and maintained by the 2 buildings that they connect.  We heard 8 and 11 miles of skyways.  The IDS building is the only one that connects to 4 other buildings.

StayAlfred is a company that was started in Portland, OR.  It is like an AirBNB but they only have apartments in the USA.  They have 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom apartments.  They are usually in downtown locations.  They are nice because you can have an apartment for any number of days, much better than hotel rooms.  The downside is that their website is not very helpful and all instructions are via their website which you can't access until 3 days before your trip.  But all of the apartments we have used have been comfortable and in good locations.