Red Cow

Burgers!

This has got to be one of the best burger places in the city.  Red Cow takes burger accoutrements to a new level.  Pork belly, bacon confit, prosciutto, candied bacon, pulled pork... pretty much anything you can do with pork.  There are three locations in the metro and we visited the one in South Minneapolis on 50th street after a motorcycle ride.  I had the Royale with pork belly, brie, arugula, and tomato jam.  The hubby had the special which was a bourbon infused burger with cheese.  Both were amazing.  We were ready to get our check when the waitress suggested we try the avocado cheesecake parfait.  Dang.  That was delicious.  And shout out to the fries!  And we got to sit on the patio!!!  I love summer.

ACME Comedy Club

Where is the comedy scene in the metro?  One place is definitely the ACME Comedy club in Northeast!  The most exciting part?  During the month of your birthday, you get four free tickets.  My sister was kind enough to invite us to go with her so we enjoyed dinner and a show!  There were four stand up comedians that performed that night and we liked three of the four a lot.  The headliner, Tim Harmston, was excellent.  As far as food goes, we ate at the adjoining restaurant Sticks which actually has really good ribs and reasonably priced cocktails.  I will definitely head back, especially in January! <wink>

Chicago

We took an anniversary trip!  Somehow we both had a long weekend off so we decided to make the most of it and travel to Chicago over our anniversary.  I LOVED it.  It's a lake city, it's a super metropolis.  Pretty much my favorite things to visit.  Here's what we did on our trip.

Lake Michigan
We woke up on Saturday morning and decided to go for a 5.5 mile run along the lake shore.  I was absolutely delighted to see the vast sandy beaches.  Lake Superior beach is definitely of the pebble/rock variety so this was quite the welcome sight.  The trail was really nice too - most of it just along the lake.  Later in the day we went back and enjoyed laying out in the sand on the perfectly hot, sunny day.  We also got a cocktail at Oak Street Beach club. 

Magnificent Mile
We stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites on Ontario St.  just off Magnificent Mile.  Nice hotel in a perfect location - few blocks from the beach, one block from the Mile, and less than a mile from Navy Pier.  We were able to enjoy some shopping as we wandered around.

Gino's East
Well you can't go to Chicago without checking out the deep dish pizza situation.  We decided on Gino's East and really enjoyed it.  The crust is almost like dense corn bread, the sauce was thick, the cheese was perfectly melted mozzerella, the meat was a smoked beef brisket.  Perfection. 

Navy Pier
We watched the sun set and the fireworks over the lake.  We weren't that interested in the rides, but just enjoyed being out on the Pier.

Signature Room in the Hancock Building
On our actual anniversary, we went up to the 96th floor of the Hancock Building to the Signature Room.  We got to the tower at 8:00 on a Sunday.  I didn't make reservations; oops.  We waited in line for the elevator for about 30 minutes.  We got to the top and waited for a table for about another 30 minutes.  In the meantime, we were able to enjoy the amazing views of the city far below.  Then we were seated at enjoyed cocktails and dessert.  Thankfully there isn't a charge to go up, but the food and drinks are expensive.  Cocktails are all about $15 and dessert is $10.  Not horrible considering if you go to the top of the Willis Building, it's $20 per person.  I'd rather put that toward food :)

Divvy Bikes
You can rent bikes and ride all around the city for $7 for 24 hours!  We ended up traveling 16.5 miles on foot on Saturday so we decided to bike all day on Sunday.

Millennium Park
The bean!  They also have a rock climbing wall, concert venue, mini golf, play ground.  

Argo Tea
Seriously.  The best tea shop ever.  They make the most amazing tea mocktails - fruit juice, fruit chunks, sparkling water, tea.  I made sure to stop here at least once a day.  

Next Trip:
Willis Building, shopping at Lincoln Park, harbor cruise.  I feel like we saw and did a lot for the two full days that we were there. 

Brewer's Bazaar

Boating and beer.  Summer match made in heaven.  We checked out the Brewer's Bazaar beer tasting event on Saturday in Stillwater.  It took place on the Avalon which is the biggest boat in Stillwater's riverboat fleet.  That was a fun setting.  You had the option of hanging out on three floors with the third floor being the outdoor top deck.  The event was put on by the local Rotary Club and the proceeds benefited polio prevention.  In addition to beer, our ticket price also included a tasting glass, lanyard to hold the glass, pretzel, and a brat.  Some of the top breweries in the state were there - Summit and Surly.  There were also a bunch of smaller breweries from Minnesota and Wisconsin.  A lot of breweries were featuring their summer beers - hefeweisens, blondes, pilsners, and fruit infused ales.  Honestly my favorite beers of the day were from Stillwater H20 which is the Stillwater home brewers association.  They had an epic apricot beer and a jalapeno beer.  The jalapeno beer packed a serious spicy punch!  I liked it because they just really went for it and make the jalapeno flavor quite strong.  The ship didn't leave the dock, but it was still fun to be on the water, check out the bridge construction, and have a reason to hang in Stillwater.  Apparently this was the ninth annual event and based on the number of people there, it was successful.  Despite the number of people, everyone was pretty spread out so I never felt like it was too packed.  It was a fun afternoon, but I think if you are looking for a better representation of the greater craft beer scene, probably the Beer Dabbler would be your best bet for a tasting event. 

Mendota Crossfit

This morning my husband and I checked out a yoga/crossfit class at Mendota Crossfit right off of Pilot Knob in Mendota Heights.  Did you know they offer free community classes on Saturday mornings!? Check out their website for more information.  Everyone was quite welcoming and the workout was good.  I'm quite familiar with yoga, but not so much crossfit.  Since that portion of the class was only 30 minutes, we didn't have much time to really get into it, but we did a quick jog and dynamic stretching warm up.  Then we did a cross fit circuit before moving on to yoga.  I think I want to go back and check out a full cross fit class at some point.  It was a good start to the day!  Oh and an added bonus is that the studio is kind of a warehouse space and has two garage doors.  They open up the doors in the summer so you get to work out with fresh air instead of stuffy gym air. 

Twin Cities 1 Mile

Yesterday I braved the rain and cold and ran my first race of the season!  I have done this one mile race twice before and have really enjoyed it.  This year they switched up the location with the start at Dunwoody by Loring Park.  The first quarter mile is actually a gradual uphill and then levels off after that.  Most of the race is on Hennepin Ave going through the theater district of downtown Minneapolis.  The entire route was lined with cheering spectators offering encouragement despite the rain.  Twin Cities in Motion put on the race with Medtronic as the major sponsor.  The t-shirts were really cool this year - black short sleeve tech shirts with the skyline drawn on the side of the shirt.  I ran in 6:51.  Can't wait to do the Duluth Mile in September and see how much I can improve! 

Food Truck Extravaganza

On Saturday, Harriet Brewing hosted the first big food truck event of the summer with the Minnesota Food Truck Association.  Who doesn't love 15 food trucks all parked at the same brewery!   Grabbing a quick lunch or dinner at a food truck is definitely a welcomed sign of summer!  We enjoyed a Hawaiian pulled pork sandwich from Tiki Tims which was absolutely divine.  The next big event is on June 6 at Summit Brewery in St. Paul, and there are other events throughout the summer.    Look for your favorite food trucks at breweries throughout the metro, downtown Minneapolis at lunch time, and as new brick and mortar restaurants!  Several very successful food trucks are now making the leap into actual restaurants.  Fabulous.