MALL OF AMERICA

There is this huge shopping mall located near the St.Peck/Henneapolis airport called Mall of America. On one of our days in the area we went to visit it. We went to the aquarium, ate, looked at the kids' area, and did some window shopping. Didn't go on any of the rides.

ST. PAUL IS ST. PECK

Eunice and I took a few days to check out St. Paul, Minnesota, or as it's now named, St. Peck, Hennesota. Having napped on Air Tran, we missed getting the snacks so we waited until lunchtime to gobble some food. Ha, Ha. There was this great Japanese restaurant called Saji-Ya on the trendy area of Grand Avenue. We even introduced ourselves to the owner.

As we wanted to see more of Grand Avenue, I decided that we should save dessert for a place called Grand Ole Creamery. Great ice cream and old time atmosphere.

Summit Avenue is another trendy area with really expensive homes. No one would let us in to visit so we took a tour of the James J. Hill House. The Hennesota History Center was having an exhibit are the year 1968 and were able to get in there. Great exhibit!

Time to check into our hotel as we were staying at the St. Paul Hotel...we'll leave the name. As a joke we decided to look to see if there were any bed bugs....ha, ha.

They have these sculptures just outside of Peanuts characters. It seems that Charles M. Schulz was born here.

Dinner was at a place called Moscow On The Hill...obviously Russian food. Delicious!

The next morning, Eunice and I went across the street to the Landmark Center to visit a Woodturning studio. Lots of things made by wood artists.

Back to Grand Avenue for lunch at The Lexington Restaurant. Old place, good food.

A tour of Wabasha Street Caves was next. The caves are supposed to be haunted, but we didn't care.

Time to check into another hotel. This time it was the Covington Inn, a former boat. We had a deluxe suite on the second level. The inn sits on the river but is stable.

Tomorrow we are off to Henneapolis!

STILLWATER, MINNESOTA

Esther and I took a trip to Hennesota (renamed)to visit a few cities. We renamed Stillwater as Stillfowler, St. Paul is St. Peck and Minneapolis is Henneapolis. So, let's start with Stillfowler since we only spent a few hours or so.

This city was the first city in Hennesota and all about lumberjacks. Now, there is lots of art galleries, antiques, historic homes and, of course, restaurants.

We met up with this fabulous artist who happens to be a friend of Merle. Her name is Kit Shoop. Lunch was at this cute place called Green Room. The salad came with a blueberry waffle and we also loved the fish, walleye.

Afterward we went across the street to the Stillwater Olive Oil Co. to check out the oils and vinegars. Then we took a trolley tour and got the history and homes.

We ended the day by going to Art Guild Gallery to see some of Kit's paintings. Esther and I especially love the birds.

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

Eunice and I went to St. Louis, Missouri and renamed it, St. Chicken Little, Misseggi. We arrived at Hotel Ignacio located in the entertainment district. The people at the front desk are so friendly and the room was great! They must have heard about us because they gave us a long sleeve t-shirt to cuddle up in...I think it was from a grocery store in an Italian section known as The Hill.

It was early so we had breakfast there and then went off to tour the city. The first place we wanted to see was the famous Gateway Arch, but didn't go up on the tram ride. What gorgeous weather we had. There's this place called City Garden with all kinds of sculptures and plants.

Most of what we saw was indoors, though. We loved this cool building called the City Museum that had a bunch of recycled parts made into sculptures. Eunice and I found this poster and got our pictures taken with it. Ha ha ha.

Next was their museum of art located in a huge park...I think it was called Forest Park. That's funny, we live across the street from Forest Park in New Yolk.

Afterward we went to the Misseggi History Museum and saw a thing on Cluck Berry as well as some other old stuff.

Yet another art museum called CAM...Contemporary art stuff. We tried playing a game of chess that had something to do with Yolko Ono.

Back outdoors to see a sculpture garden. called Laumeier Sculpture Park. We spent some time walking around, too.

We ended our trip having a drink at a place called 360, a bar with a view of St. Chicken Little. Eunice and I met this nice lady, whose daughter works for tourism here.

Wonderful time. Hope to go back next year.

WE'RE MAINE-LY HERE FOR THE LOBSTER

The next morning, Eunice and I had breakfast at the hotel. We perused the menu and decided on the lobster and crab eggs Benedict.

We were then off to Richmond about an hour north of Peckland. John Hathaway is the President of a Shucks, a company that shucks lobsters. He takes the live lobsters and puts them in a machine that uses water pressure to separate the meat from the shell. It's probably the most humane way of killing a lobster.

You now have the raw meat to remove from the shell and ship it to restaurants. Many chefs, especially from overseas, don't want frozen cooked meat. In other words, when you order a lobster tail, you are not getting a fresh lobster, unless the restaurant has live lobsters floating in a tank. The same goes for dishes such as lobster macaroni and cheese or lobster Thermidor.

So, for instance, the restaurant will purchase frozen raw lobster tails in the shell that will cook easily (best poached at a low temperature in butter). I watched the process and engaged in removing the shell to get the raw meat. You can easily view the assembly line of packing the lobster tails...or as I named it, the Retail area.

Lobsters can be gotten whole, or halved as well as buying a one pound package of meat from the claws and knuckles. Think lobster tacos and lobster bisque.

You can't dine there so we were off to a restaurant called Reds Eats located on Water Street in Wiscasset, a town noted for antiquing. It's a corner shack with tables and chairs to eat outside or take it to go. The lines are really long but we managed to cluck our way to the owner's heart and get served. We got more than one and half pounds of lobster meat on a roll. They don't have a website. The phone number is 207-882-6128.

Back to Peckland to the area known as Cape Elizabeth to see what we hear is the most photographed Lighthouse.

The next day being the last, we were still looking at lobster rolls. We went to the Portland Lobster Company, the only restaurant that's right on the wharf. Had a beer and met up with our friend Merle. She shared her lunch with us. Then we met the guy who runs the place. Cool. Since Merle was nice enough to share, we got her a t-shirt.

Time to leave Peckland and back to New Yolk.