city day, country day

Friday was a city day, Saturday was a country day. How fortunate I am to be at least slightly a part of both worlds.

City (Minneapolis): I felt like a hip urban chica hanging out in Minneapolis with my friend and former roommate Katie. The day included a walk to the new frozen yogurt bar Cafe Kem (Vietnamese for Ice Cream, I believe) on Nicollet and 25th-ish. There's nothing cooler, to me, than discovering a hole-in-the-wall gem of a restaurant. Located on Eat Street (aka Nicollet), this one was new enough that you had to hit the handicap button to get in through the sliding door, and it looks, briefly, like you're about to walk into someone's town home. But, turn right and there's a sleek, posh-looking cafe that sells espresso in its various forms, bubble tea, and soon-to-be gelato. The highlight was the self-serve frozen yogurt, which actually tastes likes yogurt and comes in such fun flavors, that week, a lychee and salty plum, as well as old standards like plain and mixed berry. The topping bar included candy and fresh fruit. At 46 cents an ounce, the pricing was about the same as a sundae, and the result was delicious. Check it out, those of you in the area.

Add to that experience a rooftop picnic, writing time in a cafe in the warehouse district, a jucy lucy for dinner from the famous Matt's bar, and a poetry reading at the Loft, with good friends included in all of those activities, and I was having a grand old time, missing the city life quite a bit.

Country: June is Dairy Month, folks, an in celebration we gathered our neighbors and headed to the family dairy farm in Elmwood that was selected to host this year's 17th Annual Dunn County Dairy Breakfast. We feasted on all-you-can-eat waffles with eight or so different kinds of syrup and fresh whipped cream, accompanied by coffee and four other forms of dairy: milk, pudding, fresh-fried cheese curds, and ice cream (if you could fit it in, which we couldn't). Add to that a car show (is it just me or are car shows often a big part of small town events?), a nice line-up of tractors, a church bake sale, a wagon ride, a petting zoo, and a man trying to collect enough ballot to run for...shoot, something in November. It was beautiful to drive through all the farmland in the drizzling rain and know that waffles awaited us.

Of course, what makes both days wonderful, when it comes down to it, was activity with good people, featuring good food. Hard to go wrong in any setting when you have that.