PicklesTravel

The Twin Cities Jazz Festival is on its 13th year and more fantastic than ever! The music this year was lively and made you want to move to the music. It included Gary Burton, Danilo Perez and Deodato (pictured above) as the featured artists as well as many more on multiple stages throughout St. Paul. The main stage is outdoors, in the green and open environment of Mears Park, in Lowertown St. Paul. So even if you can’t find somewhere to sit or stand in the crowd, you can hear the music from one of the outdoor patios of the nearby restaurants.

The Jazz Festival is mostly about the music, but the people that attend are what make it. I swear every year the number of people that attends doubles from the year before. I don’t know how many people were there this year, but I heard that they were expecting some 30,000 (though don’t take my word for it). I love the people-watching as much as I love the music. There were mohawks and babies, urbanites, suburbanites, and those from the more rural areas, couples and even a few horse-drawn carriages…

Did you go? What was your favorite part? Or do you have a favorite outdoor musical festival in your area?

I can’t think of anything better to do on a Friday night than to sit at Morgan Creek Vineyards, share a bottle of wine, a personal sized-pizza from their wood-fire oven and listen to live piano music (or jazz, if you go the first Friday of the month). Or just enjoy a wine tasting and the serenity of their crackling fire pit.

The best part- It’s still Minnesota! You wouldn’t think you would find a thriving vineyard like this in the heart of Southern Minnesota, but you won’t be disappointed. Their wines are award-winning and fabulous. The wood-fire cooked pizzas are equally tasty and the ambiance is peaceful and gorgeous. Come earlier on the weekend and you can get a thorough tour of the vineyard. The owners, Paula and George, are always around to chat about new events and dinners that are coming up at the winery, as well as answer any questions you may have.

Go. Eat. Drink. Relax and be merry!

You can get to Morgan Creek Vineyards by taking Highway 169 through Mankato. Turn right onto Highway 68 from there and drive about 15 miles. Turn left on Blue Earth County Rd. 47, then 101 South (you will be driving on some dirt roads). They have some nice signs posted to help you get there!

2010's Canned Pickles

A few days ago Slate published this article on a potential link between pickles and cancer, but only for those that eat a lot of pickled vegetables (Me). There really isn’t even much risk if you eat store-bought pickles- those that have been mass produced and “manufactured”. It really just affects those that eat a lot of home-canned pickles (or kimchi…). Yeah, me again.

I think I might be in the clear though. When I pickle my vegetables I do it fast. I pour over a hot vinegar solution and boil them for a short time in a hot water bath and am done. I mostly do this because I don’t have the patience to leave them in a salt brine for a day or two (I get too excited about the prospect of eating them). It sounds like the more time allowed to ferment the more risk involved. (This actually could be a good reason to eat the all right away too, I like the sound of that)

I figure anyone that comes to a sight titled “Pickles Travel” has to understand the need to eat all the great pickles of the world. I may cut back on my pickle consuming by eating one less pickle a month, but really, I’m going to live dangerously here – life’s not worth living without a good pickle! What do you think?

Project Bandaloop dances on Lawson Building, downtown Saint Paul, MN

After 8 months of cold and snow, summer in Minnesota shifts into full gear (for the 3-5 warm months of the year). In less than 24 hours Saint Paul became home to; an overnight light exhibit spread throughout the city, called Northern Spark; fun for the whole family, in the form of colors, games, and music at Flint Hills International Children’s Festival, hosted by the Ordway; and Grand Old Days- a block party including parade, beer gardens, and Minnesota’s favorite state-fair food, cheese curds. And this is only the beginning of the summer!

Immersed in Jim Campbell's Scattered Light

Northern Spark was an all-night event of different light installations throughout the Twin Cities. Scattered Light (above, by Jim Campbell) was one of those installations. It consists of some 1600 flickering LED lights that, when you stand far enough away, come together to create a slow-moving movie. When you stand close to the lights (see photo above), there seems to be no pattern to the flickering, but once you stand back and you see the “shadows” of the slow-moving video drift across the lights it all begins to make sense.

Grand Old Days is essentially a day-long, 2-mile block party on Grand Avenue. A parade starts things up strong in the morning. Followed up with eating greasy, but delicious foods, “bar-hopping” from beer garden to beer garden, being amused by street jugglers and performers, and enjoying the fantastic people-watching opportunities that arise.

Story-book art display at Flint Hills International Children's Festival

Flint Hills International Children’s Festival, hosted by the Ordway theater, was held in Rice Park and the Landmark Center during the entire weekend. There were activities for the whole family, including visual arts for the Northern Spark festival on Saturday night.  Through dance, they told excerpts of Corbian the Dinosaur, using black cloth and glow-in-the-dark costumes to eliminate the person wearing the costume, and bring the dinosaur to life. During the days there were several stages playing music or dance, including a non-conventional “stage.” The photo at the beginning of this post shows the Project Bandaloop dancers defying gravity on the side of the Lawson Building.

What are your favorite things about summer?

Minnesota Grown

I love that with every trip I take I see and do something that I never would have before. More than that- I get to do things that I never would have dreamed of doing! In Chile I took a 27+ hour bus trip from Valparaiso to Arica, sat on the beach in complete darkness when the electricity failed in the cities of Vina del Mar AND Valparaiso, and visited a salmon fish farm (and packaging plant) in Chiloe. Or eating a paella in Spain where the guests brought live chickens to kill, pluck and add to the rice…

That being said, I also love coming home. The state of Minnesota is my home, and it too has so much to offer in terms of history, beauty and stories. Sometimes the excitement of “new things” while traveling makes the “routine things” in MN seem rather, well, routine. But the more I travel, the more I realize that what I take for granted in my every day life is just as exciting and new to someone from another part of the world, and just as important to share. I hope to share some of it with you here.