As the holiday tune says, "it's the most wonderful time of the year. " Cold enough for snow but not so cold that you have to don a space suit (we call that January). We started (and ended, actually) the week with our "citizen walk," picking up meats, coffee, cheese (mmmm, Ros) and other sundries from our favorite shops, and en route saw some migrating Scaup mixed in with the Canada geese (aka the usual suspects) on the Mississippi.
Winter also means lots of activities, indoors and out. It had been a couple of years since we saw a Timberwolves game, and we were hoping to catch a rare victory against the hapless Sixers. As it turns out, we had centre court tickets for what has since been anointed "worst NBA game ever," which I suppose is a superlative, of sorts.
Although there aren't a lot of trails open yet, Highland Lake Park in Bloomington makes its own snow, so we got to strap on the boards for the first time this winter, and in the process rediscover some leg muscles we hadn't used since March.
Of course, no Minneapolis December would be complete without some form of Holidazzle-related activity. We took a couple of runs at the Bavarian-style Holiday Market whenever we needed a cider and candied nut fix.
One oft-neglected winter gem in the MN Zoo, which not only has a great Tropical House, but also the Northern Trail, whose denizens hail from semi-polar regions and hence are much more active this time of year.
Early winter also is a great time to visit museums and dine with friends (okay, really any time of year is good for this, but I am trying to develop a theme here). We caught the Italian Style exhibit at MIA with friends Doug and Linnea, followed by dinner at Icehouse, where Matt Bickford's culinary skill and bonhomie always shines.
We followed dinner with yet more arts, a reception at the Pryor Kolman gallery, and followed up with
PK and Jodi on Sunday for the British Arrows Awards at the Walker. We snuck into the exhibit hall afterwards to see a short by Chris Larson, a St Paul artist featured in this year's Whitney Biennial. We moved on to dinner at the Third Bird on Loring Park and finished with sublime cocktails at Eat Street Social.
