Category: Blog Post

HAPPY LABOR DAY!
It’s Labor Day, and if you’re lucky you have the day off. Enjoy the day with plenty of fun and relaxation. This is your day, your tribute, for all the hard work you’ve put in, for your share in “strengthening our country” — whatever that means to you. It’s going to be a beautiful day, with a high of 83 degrees (F) — pretty darn near perfect — so get outdoors and enjoy these last few days of sun. Most pools will be closing up shop for the winter after today, so if you have a favorite soaking zone, you might want to have a splash.

FOOD
Threaten with Heat, Celebrate with Joy

Today is the perfect day for a picnic. Gather your resources and pack up the basket; but remember, don’t go too cheap, you’re supposed to be pampering yourself today. I suggest stopping by Coastal Seafoods for supplies. They have twenty percent off all shrimp and Kobe beef on Mondays, and a perfect kebob recipe on their website. Otherwise, you can use this grilled shrimp recipe (number eight on the list) with a spicy peanut sauce. The sauce is truly delicious — although it does overwhelm the shrimp just a bit.

10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Coastal Seafoods, 2330 Minnehaha Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-724-7425; and 74 S. Snelling (Grand & Snelling), St. Paul; 651-698-4888.

PARK
Once you have the picnic basket packed and ready to go, head out for one of the great nearby parks. What would you prefer — an intimate splash behind a roaring waterfall, or a more social venture, with free live music?

Behind a Wall of Water

When I first beheld the falls at Willow River State Park, I wondered how I’d lived in the Twin Cities for a decade without having visited this wonderful place. I simply didn’t know about it, as I suspect many others might not. Just outside of Hudson, Wisconsin, Willow River State Park has hiking trails through buzzing prairie grassland and lush forest. A highlight of the park is Willow Falls, which is not only spectacular to look at, but a wet paradise you can actually immerse yourself in after a sweaty hike. Hide in the roaring space between the rock and cascading water, or wade in ankle-deep water under the sun. Be adventurous and try some of the whirlpools and rushing places in the area. The tiers continue further than you can see, and with just a little trepidation you can climb above to explore higher and wade through the less traveled river parts above (although I’m sure this is considered unsafe by park authorities, and a misstep could cost you dearly). Though perfect for a day trip, the park also includes a campground, a lake and swimming beach, and many other features you’d expect at a state park. If you don’t manage to make it there this weekend, don’t despair; apparently, the falls are even more breathtaking when encumbered in snow and ice. –by Eeva-Liisa Waaraniemi

Willow River State Park, 1034 County Highway A, Hudson WI; 715-386-5931.

MUSIC
Bluegrass by the Falls

If Hudson feels like too far a drive for the day, you can take in some great waterfalls closer to home. Forget about bathing behind them, but you can still take a nice cold dip in the river — and you’ll get the added benefit of some great bluegrass music to set the mood. Today is the “Laughing Waters” Bluegrass Festival at Minnehaha Park. Enjoy the old-time sounds of blues, ragtime, and jazz, with high lonesome vocal harmonies accompanied by fiddles, banjos, acoustic guitars, mandolins, Dobros, and upright bass. Today’s bluegrass extravaganza features music by the Becky Schlegel Band, the Middle Spunk Creek Boys, Tangled Roots, Ivory Bridge, Free Range Pickin, the Platte Valley Boys, and Nuvo Buffalo.

2-7:30 p.m., Minnehaha Park, 4801 Minnehaha Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-230-6400.

Looking for more free outdoor music today? Head over to Lake Harriet at 5:30 p.m. for some pop-rock alternative music by The Abdomen, with an opening performance by Catchpenny.

A Fool for Ben Harper

Of course, the real show to see tonight is Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals. Harpers latest album, Lifeline, just hit the stores last Friday; and his mellow music has already earned him two Grammy Awards — one for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and another for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album — and a Rolling Stone (France) Artist of the Year award in 2003. He’s a fabulous singer/songwriter and a great performer; what else can I say. “I’m your fool for a lonesome train. I know it sounds crazy but I’m painfully sane.”

7:30 p.m., Orpheum Theatre, 10 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-339-7007; $35-$50.

POETRY & STORYTELLING
Ancient Celtic Traditions

Looking for an entirely different way to end a beautiful day? What about the good old fashioned children’s way — with stories and poetry? Don’t worry, I’m not sending you off to a reading of Mother Goose nursery rhymes — although that might actually be quite fun indeed. No, tonight’s event is far more inspired. Join storyteller/mythologist Martin Shaw and poet Jay Leeming for an evening of Celtic storytelling and poetry. Both are here on a rare visit, and apparently, both are exquisite “performers” as well.

6 p.m., Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-4611.

Traveling by motorcycle has many advantages: open air, engagement with the environment, and gas mileage about one-third that of most mid-size cars. There is one downside, though. You’re at the mercy of small towns when it comes to things like coffee, wine, and food. My husband and I have toured most of the Midwest, and our biggest problem historically has been Wisconsin.

First, everything you order is likely to come beer-battered and smothered in cheese. (I once ordered what I thought was plain, broiled whitefish, only to be served something entirely covered in cheddar.) Second, the wine selection often is edged out by library-like shelves of Blatz. But most critical is the fact that most of the “non-smoking sections” — an antiquated concept, which I never remember until I step out of the Twin Cities — are tiny annexes stuck on rooms full of acrid smoke.

Many’s the time we’ve scoured a town for up to an hour, looking for one enlightened coffeeshop or an outdoor cafe, only to end up eating yogurt while leaning on the Triumph in the parking lot of a monster grocery mart. But today, we discovered something wonderful.

Ashland, Wisconsin, an industrial port town of approximately 8,600 people, has gone smoke-free! We were informed by Paul Levelius — owner of the 2nd Street Bistro — who told us Ashland was the third city in the state, after Madison and Appleton, to ban smoking in restaurants.

Levelius’s restaurant was terrific, by the way: a BLT with smoked pepper bacon, fresh arugula, and avocado mayo on Texas toast; bouillabaisse in a saffron orange broth; house salad made of organic greens, red peppers, scallions, and a tangy homemade rice wine vinaigrette. 2nd Street also features live music on Wednesdays and weekends; and half-priced bottles of wine on Monday and Tuesday nights.

But better even than finding fresh vegetables in Wisconsin (not drenched in cheese sauce!) was leaving the restaurant without a headache, our clothes free of the lingering stench of old tobacco, our lungs clean rather than lined with other people’s breathed-out cigarette fur.

And according to the website Smoke Free Wisconsin, many other cities are considering following suit.