Twin Cities, Day One

Business brought me to the Twin Cities. Since there were two cities, I gave each one a day. Years of listening to A Prairie Home Companion had given me a picture of Minnesota in my head, and I was curious to see how the real thing compared.

Minneapolis met me in the dead of winter, under clear skies with the cold in everything. Downtown was a mix of grand old stone buildings and sleek glass towers. A Bob Dylan lyric was painted across a wall, and the stadium looked like a ship made of glass. Down by the river, the old Gold Medal Flour sign stood over the mills, and the water at Mill Ruins Park had frozen into curtains of ice over the stone.

It was not quite Lake Wobegon, but it had the same quiet, sturdy charm. It was a city that does not mind the cold and does not apologize for it.