saintpaulitan
by nick and patty

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the hassle of dealing with airlines and airport security; if there’s another, it’s the rage-inducing mishaps that occur when you ride on Amtrak. And although I’ve never ridden a Greyhound bus before, I’m pretty sure I’d hate that too. Consequently, I was genuinely interested — albeit skeptical — when my wife proposed an altogether different means of transportation for our trip to Chicago last weekend: The Megabus.

The Megabus is a double-decker bus service that shuttles people to and from various cities throughout the United States, Canada and Britain. It’s incredibly cheap: round-trip tickets for two adult passengers from Minneapolis to Chicago cost us a paltry $65.50. That’s even less than we would have spent on gas money if we had driven the same route in my 40 mpg Toyota Echo. And since driving in Chicago is a nightmare and parking there is financially ruinous, it wasn’t much of a choice.

Still, I had doubts. The thrifty price tag raised a red flag with me; why were tickets for this thing so cheap? Is their clientele so unsavory that they have to offer discounted tickets? I wondered. The image of my fair wife and I being accosted by lonely, desperate and/or unwashed lunatics for eight hours flashed grimly in my mind. On second thought, however, this potentiality seemed pretty manageable when taken in the context of my prior experiences with Amtrak in particular. I decided to chance it.

As it turns out, the Megabus is pretty awesome. The seats were more comfortable than your average 767, and there were no metal detectors or TSA employees to make me throw away my shaving cream and shampoo bottle. There were no lonely weirdos or gibbering sociopaths — or, if there were, they managed to stay quiet for the entire trip. I sat back and listened to an audiobook on my iPod for almost the entire ride, taking naps whenever I got bored. Patty did pretty much the same. There’s a small-but-functional bathroom on board the bus, and we had a half-hour lunch break at a truck stop just outside Madison. If I have a complaint, it’s that we arrived at Union Station more than an hour late; however, this appeared to have more to do with Chicago’s horrific construction-related traffic congestion than anything else. Also, getting our luggage on and off the bus took a long time because the driver, a friendly and competent guy, had to handle all of it by himself.

I’m trying hard to think of something I didn’t like about the Megabus, and I’m failing to come up with anything significant. Of course, it might be that after several years’ worth of miserable and harrowing travel experiences, nothing short of being knifed by a disgruntled passenger would faze me at this point. Regardless, I have only good things to say about the Megabus, and I would definitely ride it again.

Oh, and by the way, Chicago rules.

Way back in May, at the Living Green Expo, Patty and I ran across a map of all the geodesic dome houses in Minnesota, and we noticed that one of them appeared to be in our own neighborhood, just a few blocks from our apartment. We literally spent two months looking for it — on walks, on bike rides, in our cars and on Google Maps. What started as a passing curiosity quickly became a kind of ludicrous obsession, as we simply could not find the thing.

Finally, via the “Neighborhoods” application available on Facebook, Patty was able to find somebody who knew where it was. Much to our chagrin, it was even closer than we had thought. It’s wedged into a corner at a six-way intersection, which is apparently what had made it so difficult to find.

Tonight, while out on a walk, we finally decided to see it up close and in person. The place is tiny. The owner happened to be out in his (equally tiny) yard doing some gardening, and since he noticed us gawking rather bizarrely at his place of residence we decided we might as well introduce ourselves. I forgot to ask his name, unfortunately, but he was a nice guy. He said he’s been living in the house since 2000; prior to his moving in, the house had been built on what was apparently an old parking lot. He said his lawn and his gardens literally sit on dirt planted over asphalt. His bedroom sits in the top part of the dome, apparently, in a loft.

Well, there you have it. Mystery solved.

The amount of cool places that I continually discover within just a few miles my house never ceases to amaze me. Tonight Patty and I took a walk through some trails at the Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul. It’s an environmental education center for school-aged children, but it also offers free hiking trails for the general public. Apparently, it’s a bit under-used; as with most places we go to in St. Paul, Patty and I were literally the only people there tonight.

I didn’t really know what the place was before we went (I’d never even heard of it before), and I was pretty amazed to walk up to the map board, look to my left and see a hawk, an owl and a Bald Eagle sitting in a series of raptor mews. (Man, that eagle! I’d never actually seen one up close before. They are beautiful — and huge.) Apparently, the birds are all injured or imprinted. We also ran across a functioning apiary (bee colonies), animal barns, ponds and a variety of wildlife. We only walked through about a fourth of the trails there; we’ll have to come back for the rest.

Any place you can walk around and run into a Bald Eagle is pretty cool, so you outdoor enthusiasts out there should check it out for yourselves. One word of caution: I did pick up a wood tick. MPR says there is an abundance of them this year because of the cool, wet weather. Yay for Minnesota.

More pictures here.

On Saturday, Patty and I took a tour of the Wabasha Street Caves. We got the idea last weekend when we went on a long walk around our neighborhood and came across a group of people standing outside the entrance, waiting for the tour to start. I had heard of the caves before, and without knowing much about them, I thought it might be interesting to see them. What I found, however, was totally unexpected.

When I heard “caves,” I was thinking something along the lines of cold, dank, dimly lit corridors filled with bat droppings and some weird rock formations. I didn’t realize that the caves are actually home to a full nightclub that once served as the hangout for the likes of John Dillinger and practically every other gangster who ever crossed through St. Paul (and there were apparently a lot of them).

Bullet holes, famous criminals, ghost stories, a full-service bar — who could ask for more? My pictures, frankly, didn’t turn out so great (who would’ve thought that the lighting in a cave would be so difficult?), but it’s just as well you go see it for yourself anyway. It’s only $5 per person, lasts about an hour, and runs Thursdays at 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. No reservations are required; you can just show up.

A quick word of praise for our tour guide, Dawn, who was terrific. She obviously knew her stuff, and did a good job of keeping our attention. Make sure you tip her!

More pictures here.

For Mother’s Day, I wanted to do something a little more original for my stepmother than just buy her a run-of-the-mill Hallmark card, so I decided to check out the St. Paul Farmers’ Market and see what they had to offer.

My wife goes here virtually every weekend. It’s a pretty cool farmers’ market, if only for the reason that it has its own dedicated space right in the middle of downtown. Patty also says they have rules about how far away the products can come from — as opposed to other Twin Cities farmers’ markets, some of which apparently allow produce from as far away as California.

The pictures I took didn’t turn out so well, in part because I was in a hurry and in part because the lighting was a little challenging. Also, I’m not a very good photographer… Anyway, I bought my stepmother a pair of handmade soap bars from the White Bear Soap Company (sorry, no Web site) and a jar of Moroccan Orange Chocolate Sauce from the River Chocolate Company. Hopefully she likes them. Either way, the St. Paul Farmers’ Market is worth checking out.

Last night, Patty and I took a walk from our house down to Harriet Island Regional Park (and oddly enough, ran into our state representative along the way). Despite living less than a mile away from the park, I’d never actually bothered to check it out. (Come to think of it, I didn’t really bother to leave my house much at all until after I got married.) Anyway, it’s absolutely beautiful.

The park sits on the riverfront and claims a fairly spectacular view of downtown St. Paul — even more impressive in the twilight. I made the panorama below using some photos I took down by the river. (You can click on the image to navigate to the larger photo on my Flickr photostream.)

The boat on the left is a bed and breakfast called the Covington Inn. Across the docks from that boat is another whose name I forgot that has a full restaurant and bar. Patty and I decided we’ll have to come check it out in the summer.

Here’s another view of the Covington Inn:

And another:

It’s amazing what you can find when you’re not looking for anything. We came across a couple of musicians rehearsing in the park, on this really cool stage that I had no idea was right near my house:

Also docked at the park is the U of M’s Centennial Showboat:

Finally, there’s this place — a reception hall called the Clarence W. Wigington Pavilion, which you can apparently rent out for weddings, parties et cetera:

All in all, a pretty cool place to just happen upon randomly on a walk. I know there are several more parks within walking distance of our house, including at least one big one. It’s astonishing how ignorant I’ve been of my surroundings after more than a year and a half on the West Side. I’m looking forward to finding more.