It was the evening of Monday, June 3.
My son David, his wife Marleen and I just completed a full outdoor day
trip to the north and east into Wisconsin, and had just returned to our suburban
Twin Cities hotel room. Since we had eaten a fairly late lunch, we decided to
watch the first period of Stanley Cup Finals game 4 in the room.
The pressure was definitely on the St. Louis Blues, trailing 2-1 in the
series. Over the long history of Stanley
Cup playoffs, a very small percentage of teams had battled back from a 3-1
deficit to win the title. The Blues needed to come out flying.
That’s precisely what happened.
Blues center Ryan O’Reilly, acquired from Buffalo in the off-season,
latched onto a rebound behind Boston’s net, whirled around and beat goalie
Tuukka Rask just inside the goalpost for a 1-0 lead just 43 seconds in. Bruins center Charlie Coyle tied it and winger
Vladimir Tarasenko regained the lead for the Blues with 4:30 left in the
period. At that point, we walked a
couple hundred yards for dinner at Green Mill Restaurant and Bar.
We were immediately razzed by the restaurant’s manager, a Chicago Black
Hawks AND Cubs fan. He told us he was
for ANYONE playing St. Louis just as I am nearly always for ANYONE playing a
Chicago team.
I immediately fought back, mentioning that it was horrible when the Cubs
eked out an extra inning win over Cleveland in game 7 of the 2016 World Series
because we used to love to see the Cubs at Busch Stadium to keep mentioning
1908 as the last year they won a title.
For this occasion, I also added that now I couldn’t refer to the Blues
as the Cubs of the NHL (National Hockey League), which I had previously done
for some 10-15 years!
We continued to watch the second period just after ordering. I had to substitute one thing for another and
asked the manager how good it is. I also
asked him how could I know he wouldn’t try and poison his sports rival. His response, “You really don’t!”
St. Louis still held a 2-1 lead past the midway point of the period.
Moments later, Boston got a penalty. The
Blues power play had been awful for most of this post season. This one was no different, as Bruins
defenseman Brandon Carlo scored a short-handed goal to tie it 2-2 with 5:41
left in the second. Instead of ordering
dessert and more drinks, plus possibly facing additional torments from the
manager, we walked back to the hotel to watch period three.
The Blues outfought the Bruins in
all three zones, but Rask had the answer for every St. Louis scoring
chance. That is, until O’Reilly struck
once again on a rebound just past the midway point of the period.
Brayden Schenn notched an empty net goal at
the 18:31 mark.
Just
like that the Blues won 3-2, to even the series at two games apiece! It was also their first Stanley Cup Finals win
EVER at home!
Our GPS was set for downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday morning, June
4. Spoonbridge and Cherry was definitely
the highlight of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Other than that, it drastically failed in
comparison to Franconia Sculpture Park, an hour to the north!
We were not disappointed at all by The Bell Museum of Natural History
and Planetarium! In fact, we spent 3
hours and 40 minutes there! David and I
were very into the astronomy section, while Marleen, a biologist in training,
most enjoyed the Plantae/Protista/Animalia exhibit and similar items, plus the real-life, jumping up and down while
imitating the large-screen goose!
The museum also featured beautiful dioramas, the North Woods Garden, and
a sign entitled, “Most Species are Still Undiscovered.” It follows with: “We continually discover new
branches on The Tree of Life. Every
year, scientists catalog 15,000 to 20,000 new species. That may seem like a lot, but there are
potentially millions yet to be named.”
My absolute highlight was the planetarium show. It was about life in the universe and lasted
a full hour. It not only discussed and showed a vast array of projected images of
space craft and everything between Mars and Saturn, but it was also the only
totally interactive planetarium show I had ever attended. It was highly educational with actual
questions and answers involving audience members.
After a late lunch at New Fresh Wok, it was threatening rain. So, it was a perfect time to head to Mall of
America! I had visited there some 30
years ago, when it was already the nation’s largest mall. Since then, it has expanded to about 550
stores, roughly 100 places to eat and/or drink and 12,500 parking spaces!
Some of the highlights there are Nickelodeon Universe, which is the nation’s
largest indoor theme park; 5D Extreme Attraction by Matrix Technology, Sea Life
Minnesota Aquarium, Flyover America and Crayola Experience.
There were several other nice decorative touches to Mall of
America. Perhaps my favorite was the
beautiful array of various sizes of synthetic Monarch butterflies occupying the
ceiling space on own end of the mall! There
were also wide murals of the region, including Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe,
and ones of plants in shades of blues and grays.
After relaxing a bit in our room, we enjoyed a dinner of great food,
atmosphere and a very friendly waiter at El Parian Mexican Restaurant. The black-and-white and color paintings and
photos over the booths reminded me of 1950s and 1960s era western movies and TV
shows.
Wednesday, June 5 was our final day in the area. After work traffic had abated, we drove to
downtown Minneapolis and found a good parking place around 10:00. Over the next 5 ½ hours, we did a
self-walking tour.
We walked on and around bridges, by the Mississippi River with St.
Anthony Falls right next to one of the bridges, past old Gold Medal and
Pillsbury flour factories, the Heritage Trail, Boom Island Park, Nicollet
Island, Outdoor Stream Lab and parts of downtown away from the river, including
Our Lady of Lourdes Church, dating back to 1857.
There were so many great views of the falls, which would have been that
much more dramatic before Minneapolis became such a large population center.
A sign there mentioned “Owah-Menah,” a Dakota word for “falling waters.” According to the sign, St. Anthony Falls was “an
untamed cascade extending from shore to shore until the mid-1800s. Major Thomas Forsyth visited the falls in
1819:”
“The sight to me was beautiful…the white sheet of water falling over the
different precipices like so many silver cords.
Large bodies of water were rushing through great blocks of rocks,
tumbling every way, as if determined to make war against anything that dared to
approach them.”
German native Marleen chose New Bohemia Wurst and BierHaus for
lunch. While there, we decided to play
Oregon Trail among the dozens of free games for visitors to enjoy while
dining. We got as far as western Wyoming
or eastern Idaho, then walked back to the car by way of the Grand Rounds Scenic
Byway and Mill Ruins Park, and headed back to the hotel for a couple hours.
Our final Twin Cities area highlight was a return to Lebanon Hills
Regional Park to enjoy a different hike.
There were fantastic reflections and a good number of mosquitoes while
walking the 2.2-mile Jensen Lake loop trail.
A couple of the signs along the trail, ‘Bird Bonanza’ and ‘A Forest of
Ferns’ were quite appropriate! 
We left around 7:30 the next morning for home. After all, prior to the start of the series,
we wanted to be back for Stanley Cup Finals game 5, never knowing when such a
series might end. After waiting nearly
50 years for another shot at Lord Stanley’s Cup, who wanted to be away from
home? Game 5 in Boston was several hours
away as we began our 535-mile return trip.
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