The City! The City!
On Saturday, we charged up North to the twin cities, Minneapolis and St Paul.
They are actually very different in nature.
St Paul, which is the state capital, is like the older - and rather matronly - sister. She has the majestic St Paul Cathedral for instance, which looks like something like out of the Vatican's St Peter's Basilica. St Paul is primarily Catholic and of Germanic/Irish stock.
Minneapolis is the younger, artsy little sister. There are theatres on many street corners, people ride around on bikes, they are young, blonde... there are cafes on corners, and everyone's sipping something - wine, beer, coke light... you get the idea. Minneapolis is primarily Nordic.
And for the first few hours of the morning, Eugene was actually happy...(everyone now: "whoooooo!") He kept going: "THIS is more like it. The city, THE CITY!"
*** aside: Eugene was also talking to his buddy, Alan, in KL, just before we drove up to MSP.
And Alan was ribbing him non-stop: Esp since Squeaky became the car of choice. Gene's more a Lotus/Dodge Viper/Corvette, Porsche Cayman type of person. And Brock came into the family.
And these are Gene's own words and I quote: "Dude, if you were in Alor Star, you'd also drive an SUV and get a new pussy TOO." ***
The sight of tall skyscrapers were enough to make us Sua-Kus (Hokkien for Mountain Tortoise, also read "country bumpkins") go "whaaaaaaaaaa".
Tall buildings plus sidewalk cafes and an alcoholic drink at a pavement cafe in the middle of the morning: Double "whaaaaaaaaaaa".
Cheap shopping plus tall buildings plus sidewalk cafes: A great recipe for smiles all round.
Saks 5th Avenue has an outlet mall in Minneapolis. And there, I bought a pair of Guccis to replace my sunnies that went bye bye in the canoeing disaster for $60 USD.
Jimmy Choos were also on sale.. too big for me, but they were on sale. Fuaahhhhaaa. Also Marc Jacobs etc etc..
But soon enough... we ran out of things to see and do. We ate, we drank and we shopped. We looked at several artsy buildings. And it was too late to go into the museums... so... we gave up and headed home.
We couldn't eat anything anymore. Nor drink anything without exploding.
Am sure there are other things - like there's this Segway tour, check out www.HumanOnaStick.com - that warrants a second trip back.
They are actually very different in nature.
St Paul, which is the state capital, is like the older - and rather matronly - sister. She has the majestic St Paul Cathedral for instance, which looks like something like out of the Vatican's St Peter's Basilica. St Paul is primarily Catholic and of Germanic/Irish stock.
Minneapolis is the younger, artsy little sister. There are theatres on many street corners, people ride around on bikes, they are young, blonde... there are cafes on corners, and everyone's sipping something - wine, beer, coke light... you get the idea. Minneapolis is primarily Nordic.
And for the first few hours of the morning, Eugene was actually happy...(everyone now: "whoooooo!") He kept going: "THIS is more like it. The city, THE CITY!"
*** aside: Eugene was also talking to his buddy, Alan, in KL, just before we drove up to MSP.
And Alan was ribbing him non-stop: Esp since Squeaky became the car of choice. Gene's more a Lotus/Dodge Viper/Corvette, Porsche Cayman type of person. And Brock came into the family.
And these are Gene's own words and I quote: "Dude, if you were in Alor Star, you'd also drive an SUV and get a new pussy TOO." ***
The sight of tall skyscrapers were enough to make us Sua-Kus (Hokkien for Mountain Tortoise, also read "country bumpkins") go "whaaaaaaaaaa".
Tall buildings plus sidewalk cafes and an alcoholic drink at a pavement cafe in the middle of the morning: Double "whaaaaaaaaaaa".
Cheap shopping plus tall buildings plus sidewalk cafes: A great recipe for smiles all round.
Saks 5th Avenue has an outlet mall in Minneapolis. And there, I bought a pair of Guccis to replace my sunnies that went bye bye in the canoeing disaster for $60 USD.
Jimmy Choos were also on sale.. too big for me, but they were on sale. Fuaahhhhaaa. Also Marc Jacobs etc etc..
But soon enough... we ran out of things to see and do. We ate, we drank and we shopped. We looked at several artsy buildings. And it was too late to go into the museums... so... we gave up and headed home.
We couldn't eat anything anymore. Nor drink anything without exploding.
Am sure there are other things - like there's this Segway tour, check out www.HumanOnaStick.com - that warrants a second trip back.
