A Month of Fundays: Day 29 – Go Someplace in Your Town/City You’ve Never Been Before

This was a funday activity originally suggested by my friend Matt. I instantly thought it was a good idea, but since I’ve lived in the same town for most of my life I also thought it might not work for me.

I’ve been everywhere in Bloomington, MN, haven’t I?
We moved to Bloomington at the end of my first grade year of elementary school; I’m guessing May of 1982. I’ve lived in five different locations in Bloomington since then – but always the same city. To be fair, this town isn’t small. It fights with Duluth on a regular basis for bragging rights at the third largest city in MN (after Minneapolis and St. Paul – the Twin Cities) and usually wins (says the girl from Bloomington). It also has a large land area and encompasses MN landmarks like The Mall of America and the Minneapolis / St Paul International Airport (MSP) as well as the only IKEA in the state – all locations I’ve been to more times than I can count.

Maybe I haven’t been to EVERY place; there are a lot of places to go here. I made a list and came up with a number of local businesses I haven’t been too because they are new and quickly planned to go to one of these. I think this might be cheating. It’s not really surprising that I haven’t been to Poor Richard’s Commonhouse or Cowboy Jack’s because they’ve both only been open a year or less. And then I realized I have been to both – at least in the buildings, they were just known as Major’s (Ah, crappy hour: Lots of memories there.) and Steak & Ale then.

I thought about some older locations and pondered the living in the same place for nearly thirty years dilemma one more time. I think I need to move. But then Stacy and Amy and their families are both back in Bloomington now and I can walk to the part-time job-hobby and I like it – Chris and I are quite happy here. Maybe I’ll stay for a little longer then...

In the end I did cheat, but only a little. I went to two places in Bloomington. One I’ve never been to before and the other I’ve been too, but not for at least 25 years.

Where did we go today?

Scoops Ice Cream & More
This place is almost as much a Bloomington icon as the Mall of America and it’s only been open since 1994 – the year I graduated from high school. Granted the Mall of America has only been open since 1992, but who’s counting. What in the world did we do in Bloomington before MOA and Scoops? Wow, I would hate to think that these two institutions put us on the map…that probably didn’t happen until IKEA in 2004. Regardless, ice cream was the chosen venue today.

Scoops is small but homey: A sort of ma & pop location with a candy store type display on one wall and two counters of ice cream from local creameries to choose from. They have a wall (Well, I counted three walls.) of signed photos from celebrities – local and international stars of sports, acting, music and politics all made out to ‘Scoops’ with lots of love and ice cream. I’m guessing about 10 people standing fit into the store front, but there are four tables nonetheless: two more table out in the hallway and two more Adirondack-type chairs outside and across the boulevard with ‘Scoops’ written on them. Chris and I both had waffle cones – I had “Pirates Booty” and Chris had “Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake” – and yes, the ice cream was scrumptious. IT’S ICE CREAM!

What astounded me was how similar the entire experience was to the going-for-ice-cream-funday in Duluth. That Malt Shop – the one in Duluth, a good two hour drive from Scoops – which is possibly 2 miles from my house, give or take a bit. I’ve been to that Malt Shop in Duluth at least 12 times in my life. Why do we constantly look outside of our own home-sphere to find these experiences? Maybe we don’t, maybe it’s just me. I just said I’ve lived in the same place for almost 30 years – but if you add up all of the time I spend traveling, including studying and living in London, you could easily shave two years off of that total – maybe more. Maybe all of you have been everywhere in your towns; in which case this is a ridiculous blog post and you should stop reading it. This IS a ridiculous blog post because I’m wondering these big, huge things after going to get ice cream at a place down the street I’ve never been to before – but there it is.

Also, I really don’t think I’m alone in this. We all get trapped in our paths and routines. I’m all about breaking the routine frequently. You see and experience so much more when you look up every once in a while. I’m nearing the end of this month of fundays which has been a self discovery journey as much as a writing/blogging journey and a having fun journey. In the end I had to come away with something, didn’t I? Otherwise why are you all reading this?

Normandale College’s Japanese Garden

With ice cream in hand Chris and I drove over to Normandale Community College and walked around the Japanese Garden. Yes, of course I’ve been to the Japanese Garden. It’s like 6 blocks from my house. I mean that would be crazy not to go in a place I drive, walk, bike or bus past at least twice everyday. Actually, I haven’t been since like 1984 and Chris – who went to college at Normandale when he moved to this country because he was still too young to go anywhere else – hasn’t been since he graduated in 1995 (The year we started living together). Oh, those Japanese Gardens.

The garden was dedicated in 1976 – so no newness there. My opinion of the garden: Lovely, but much smaller than it seemed when I was six-years-old. There’s huge koi and Japanese maple and mugo pine – some of my favorite things. Seriously, what is wrong with me? Do I have blinders on! A garden and an ice cream shop – neither is a stretch for my lifestyle or anything. I spend many a day writing in, walking around or listening to an outdoor concert in gardens. I could – and would – eat ice cream everyday if it had the same calorie intake as tea. I mean yummy things and sunshiny nature places are all I’ve been blogging about this entire month; and yet here are two places literally in my backyard, both going unnoticed by me.

It does sound like my day was more aggravating than fun, but I promise it was a good day with new experiences in it. Try it. No, really. I would like other people to have as much as fun as I did today while also being annoyed with themselves and their own short sidedness. Please…

Picture: Where did you go today? A picture of yourself at the place you’ve never been before.

Song: R.E.M’s “Stand” and Mary Chapin Carpenter’s (because, really when is there not an MCC song for one of my blog posts) “I am a Town”.

Tomorrow: Attend a State Fair, County Fair or Renaissance Festival

A Month of Fundays: Day 15 – Go for Ice Cream

A mini-break should be about lazily wasting time; letting it spool out around you like golden thread. It’s about long walks and sipping lemonade on porches and swimming and sun bathing and also ice cream. On our way out of Duluth we hit some rush hour traffic, so Chris and I decided to go down near the Lake Walk again and uncoil a little more time before heading toward points north.

I’m not sure what it is about ice cream exactly, but it makes me think of summer fun-times more than almost anything else. In elementary school, we used to walk over to Bridgeman’s on one of the last days of school for ice cream. I remember I couldn’t wait for these walks and the ice cream. The Dairy Queen Dilly Bar treat day was a favorite at the corporate office job, and you can’t possibly visit Italy without stopping for gelato every two hours or so. Going for ice cream is something everyone likes (except the lactose intolerant. I’m glad I don’t have that allergy!) and it brings an instant smile. Who doesn’t scream for ice cream?

There’s this tiny little hole-in-the-wall malt shop in Duluth and I love it. Chris and I walked up to it and then back down as a farewell to Duluth. To start our walk, Chris pointed out the Cold Stone Creamery practically on top of where we parked the car. I shook my head at him disgustedly; we were going to enjoy a nice long walk to a ma & pop Duluth icon, dammit! Walking along the boardwalk watching the Lake Superior shoreline go by is really quite something. It was another beautiful day and since the seagulls were already busy harassing those people with mini-donuts, we got away with strolling while eating ice cream. Maybe their tiny bird brains get brain freeze? Remind me to force feed a seagull ice cream one day… As we were walking, we rounded a corner and saw the smoke stack for Fitger’s on the Lake; I was a little concerned. They have a Bridgeman’s stand on their deck and it seemed to be fairly popular. I like Bridgeman’s ice cream and everything, but don’t take away my malt shop. I shouldn’t have worried; we climbed the steps up towards the malt shop and found a plethora of ice cream fanatics standing by the little stone building, patiently waiting for their turn to order something sweet, cold and scrumptious. I ordered a Caramel Caribou shake – caramel ice cream with caramel swirls and caramel filled chocolate cups the ice cream people called truffles. Chris ordered the same but in a waffle cone. SO GOOD!!

The malt shop highlight: An inane conversation between the girl behind the counter and a man ordering for his family of four. Something about no vanilla flavoring just vanilla ice cream so he couldn’t order a vanilla malt with strawberry ice cream. He would just have to order a strawberry malt. I really thought we were in a Kafka novel for a bit. The next lady, from some central European country by her accent, wanted a float with coffee and the women behind the counter was really confused. Once she told the EU lady what a float was, she said, “Eww!” and made a disgusted face; then she asked for a double chocolate waffle cone instead – again proving the ice cream float can only be consumed by peoples of North America. We’re the only ones who can eat pickles too for some reason. I haven’t figured out why this is…if you have hard facts and truthfulness on the subject (root beer too. What’s wrong with you peoples not of North America?!) let me know in the comments!

We ambled back along the boardwalk and only felt guilty when the marathon runner ran past us obviously smelling our ice cream as he went. No, you don’t need a seaside/lake-shore view, seagulls or any scenery to go out for ice cream. I suggest picking a flavor that is new or strange to you. Getting a single scoop vanilla cone is NOT going out for ice cream. Enjoy summer in a cone, float, bowl or shake!

Picture: What flavor did you choose? Who are eating ice cream with? What are you looking at? Where did you go? The creepy ice cream truck in your neighborhood…these are all good choices.

Song: It doesn’t fit the picture I just painted, but Ani DiFranco’s “32 Flavors” works for me.

Tomorrow: Taking Time for Tea (and also celebrating my wedding anniversary)