Lynden's Soda Fountain

Just because Wynn is still on a liquid diet doesn't mean she can't have fun - after dinner tonight we tried Lynden's Soda Fountain at the corner of Randolph and Hamline in St. Paul.  I can't believe none of us have been there before - this is an honest-to-goodness ice cream counter like in the old days that can do all the phosphates and specialty drinks, plus a heavy-duty espresso machine too.  Ann & Wynn had cups of ice cream and I had a waffle cone - came to $12.75.  We shall return!

Green Line Opening

Much anticipation for the opening of the Green Line linking downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul - not too far from our house & the redevelopment along University Avenue is astounding. So we braved the rain and wind to check out our new trains!

The trains were PACKED despite the rotten weather.  Wynn ended up dancing to the buskers' music...

MSP is becoming a REAL city - we have two metro train lines now!

 

We got off in the Little Mekong neighborhood and had lunch at Mai Village, a large and beautifully-decorated Vietnamese restaurant.  Service was good as well as the food.

 

But despite good food, the weather got to be too much so we called it quits for the day instead of exploring several more neighborhoods...

Mouth surgery recap

This summer's operation is to take a small chip of bone from Wynn's leg and graft it into the gap in her upper jaw. At the same time, the fistula will be closed up (that little hole between the inside of her mouth and her sinuses, just big enough for a strand of spaghetti to sneak through).

Ann and I were prepared to spend the whole morning waiting, but the surgery was over in about 45 minutes!  Wynn and I spent the night at Gillette Children's Hospital - mostly for observation's sake, as she was up and walking the floor by dinnertime (and I had to hustle to keep up with her IV drip and monitor...)

No complications at all with anaesthesia thanks to the short duration of the surgery; we had also briefed the team about how that has been the roughest part of prior operations for her & they adjusted her ventilation tube to irritate her throat less. Seems to have worked.

Ann got to be the parent to go into the O.R. with Wynn this time to help her fall asleep

Bored the next morning - she's on a smoothie diet but for some reason Gillette seems unable to make them. Ann brought one in from Starbucks and Wynn wolfed it down. We got home around lunchtime.

Art-a-Whirl 2014

Living inside the city allows us to participate in so many more activities - one of our new favorites happens each spring in Northeast Minneapolis - only a few blocks from Yinghua - Art-a-Whirl is the kickoff summertime festival & lasts 3 days. Hundreds of galleries in NE Mpls participate; there are several stages with live bands, pub crawls, food trucks - it gets really crowded despite taking place over several square miles!

There are several large buildings in NE Mpls that have been converted into studio space - the Northrup King Building is from the seed company of course - 4 stories tall and fully occupied. Awesome place to explore...

Cherry Blossom Season at Yinghua

No cherry trees here in Minneapolis - all the celebrating was done inside at Yinghua:

Triptychs in the hallway outside the 2nd-grade classrooms

For English class, introduction to haiku

All the flower petals are actually thumbprints

Wynn with her poem

More cherry blossoms inside Wynn's classroom

With Chinese poetry hanging from the ceiling

National Train Day

The renovated Union Depot in St. Paul was abuzz today for National Train Day. It's convenient to us (we park there when we go to the Farmers' Market) and it fit into our "take a vacation in the city" plan for the day ... lunch at Obento-Ya, ice cream in St. Anthony, and then take in the sights in St. Paul.

A beautiful day for everything too:

Equipment from the nearby Minnesota Transportation Museum was brought over to Union Depot

Checking out the legroom on this 1950s-era coach...

No air-conditioning on this hot day - I can't imagine it would have been all that warm in winter either. But the colors and metal trim were SO mid-century...

Amtrak had just started service to the Depot - they dropped off some Superliner coaches for people to walk through

More comfortable than the old Great Northern seats!

Checking out the sights from the dining car...

Egg-citing Easter 2014

The snow is gone - so a proper easter-egg hunt could be had.  Kind of hard to miss that first one - yep, she made out like a bandit. We'll be working on this well after the 4th of July...

Ooh, the international Kit Kats - Ann & I will hide those away for our own stash...

 

So excited she kicked off one of her shoes!

Quiet time afterwards with a fashion-drawing book - look at that focus

Absorbed!