Wayne and Erika Pfeiler

Sunday Erika's ADSA/ASAS conference started, so I was on my own most of the day. I decided to walk around and explore a bit. I found a cool two-story Target store downtown. I expected the prices to be higher, reflecting the real estate the store was sitting on, but everything cost about as much as I'd expect in Raleigh. Some things were even cheaper. There was a little cafe downstairs with Jones soda and four kinds of Icees on tap.

Next I checked my map and decided to walk over to Loring park. There was a cool dandilion fountain near the entrance to the park, and a flower garden inside. Walking through the park, I came to a big pedestrian bridge that crossed a highway and came down into the MN Sculpture Garden.

This was a treat. I saw a bunch of cool sculptures and a greenhouse conservatory. Apparently, the cherry and spoon sculpture is an unofficial symbol of Minneapolis. If you have time in Mpls, definately check it out. The Walker Art Museum was right beside the sculpture garden, but I planned to go see that with Erika later on. I took a bunch of pictures and walked back to the hotel.

We met up with Adam, another NCSU student at the conference, for dinner and headed to the M&S Grill. The weather was awesome, so we ate on the street-side patio. The food was also great. I discovered Summit, a local beer from St Paul, and I'd recommend it.

Later, we met up with Adam again, and rode with him from the Convention Center to his hotel in St Paul to check out the area. He was staying at the Radisson on the UMN-TC campus. The shuttle driver recommended a club called Sally's Salloon. Their logo has a funny cartoon character that's supposed to be a girl gopher, but looks more like a squirrel. It wasn't too crazy, since it was a Sunday night, but the list of drinks included a 50-ounce "Volcano" for $27 or so that included lots of liquors. They said it had to be shared by two or more people, but none of us were feeling wild enough to try it.

After the bar, the shuttle had quit running, so we had to find a taxi. Trouble was, the streets were relatively taxi-free. So we decided to walk a little bit until we came to one. We walked through the UMN campus and across a cool pedestrian bridge. The bridge had an enclosed center walkway with all sorts of student organizations advertised by little paintings on the lower panels. Soon after the bridge, we found a taxi and rode back to our hotel.