Well, we didn’t win the lottery.
Friday was mine and Josh’s first wedding anniversary. Since the traditional first anniversary gift is paper, I bought five lottery tickets and put them in a card for Josh before I left the house this morning. Alas – no luck. We decided it’s too bad, because it would have made a great story for the media.
Our anniversary weekend was good. Josh had Friday off from work, so he came and had lunch with me in Saint Paul. We went to Salut on Grand, and had a nice table outside in the shade. Dining al fresco reminded us of many of our meals in Napa Valley on our honeymoon, so even though we didn’t have wine for lunch, it was a nice break in the day.
After work we had an appointment for a couples massage and then went to Chatterbox I in South Minneapolis, site of our first date. Had burgers and beers and played a few games of Yahtzee. Came home and popped open a bottle of Cabernet from Kuleto that we have been saving for the past year. It was… pretty terrible. Turns out it tasted *much* better after it had been allowed to breathe for a bit.
Also busted into the top of our wedding cake, which I was positive was going to be disgusting but somehow was not. I opened the tin it had been in for the past year and was very disapp
ointed to see the cake hadn’t been wrapped up in layers of plastic at all, like they tell you to in all the wedding propaganda. It was just placed in the tin, which was far from air-tight. I had never bothered to open it because I assumed the wedding venue had packaged it properly. Anyway, I was fully expecting to take a bite and toss it directly in the garbage can. However, it tasted pretty darn good! Almond torte with strawberry filling.
Josh and I also exchanged gifts. I had found an artist on Etsy to pencil sketch one of our wedding photos (again, sticking to the paper theme) and had it framed up along with an Emerson quote: “People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance, at precisely the right moment. – The Law of Spiritual Gravitation". Which I think sums up our meeting and courtship pretty well. Josh went the paper route as well, getting me a wine poster print by an artist I had expressed interest in a while back. Both pieces are now hanging in our home.
Saturday
Saturday we planned to recreate our honeymoon in mini form by visiting two wineries. The first was Crofut Family Winery near Jordan, which we had never been to, and the second was Morgan Creek Vineyards near New Ulm. While this was a great idea in theory, New Ulm is a bit of a drive from E.P., and even from Jordan, and it ended up being kind of a long day. No matter.
Crofut was having a little event, which included grape stompers, a little flea market and music. The wines were better than expected and we bought a bottle of their La Crescent. I thought the grape stomping would be great fun, but nobody really “stomped” – they just kind of casually walked in the grapes, so it wasn’t much of a show. Still, I would like to do that some time. The flea market was dreadful, and there was a chef who was attempting to make cayenne chocolate mousse, and everything that could go wrong did –
the power kept going out on his mixer, the cream curdled, etc. He seemed to take it pretty well in stride.
It was a long drive down to Morgan Creek but at least it was a beautiful day. The tasting room was pretty crowded when we got there so we waited a little bit. We bought a bottle of their Zeitgeist and wandered outside to sit by their bonfire. They have a really nice outdoor area, it’s a farm and so they have this huge lawn with a red barn and a giant tree that we both love (we had briefly considered getting married here). After we finished eating our wood-fired snacks (and a few we snuck in) we wandered down to the tree, drinking our wine and sitting on the wooden swing they have there. It was a pretty nice way to spend the afternoon.
Sunday
Sunday we planned to go to this Oktoberfest celebration down on St. Anthony Main in
NE Minneapolis, along the Mississippi River. I had never been but they had been advertising it as this three-day event, so we figured it was worth checking out. It wasn’t. There were about a handful of booths and probably even fewer people there. Strange. Maybe it will get off the ground in a couple more years. Fortunately, Josh had suggested taking the motorcycle so we just drove past and kept cruising. Got back to the house and watched the last half of the Vikings game. Took a nap, made dinner and otherwise had a leisurely night.
Friday was mine and Josh’s first wedding anniversary. Since the traditional first anniversary gift is paper, I bought five lottery tickets and put them in a card for Josh before I left the house this morning. Alas – no luck. We decided it’s too bad, because it would have made a great story for the media.
Our anniversary weekend was good. Josh had Friday off from work, so he came and had lunch with me in Saint Paul. We went to Salut on Grand, and had a nice table outside in the shade. Dining al fresco reminded us of many of our meals in Napa Valley on our honeymoon, so even though we didn’t have wine for lunch, it was a nice break in the day.
After work we had an appointment for a couples massage and then went to Chatterbox I in South Minneapolis, site of our first date. Had burgers and beers and played a few games of Yahtzee. Came home and popped open a bottle of Cabernet from Kuleto that we have been saving for the past year. It was… pretty terrible. Turns out it tasted *much* better after it had been allowed to breathe for a bit.
Also busted into the top of our wedding cake, which I was positive was going to be disgusting but somehow was not. I opened the tin it had been in for the past year and was very disapp
ointed to see the cake hadn’t been wrapped up in layers of plastic at all, like they tell you to in all the wedding propaganda. It was just placed in the tin, which was far from air-tight. I had never bothered to open it because I assumed the wedding venue had packaged it properly. Anyway, I was fully expecting to take a bite and toss it directly in the garbage can. However, it tasted pretty darn good! Almond torte with strawberry filling.Josh and I also exchanged gifts. I had found an artist on Etsy to pencil sketch one of our wedding photos (again, sticking to the paper theme) and had it framed up along with an Emerson quote: “People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance, at precisely the right moment. – The Law of Spiritual Gravitation". Which I think sums up our meeting and courtship pretty well. Josh went the paper route as well, getting me a wine poster print by an artist I had expressed interest in a while back. Both pieces are now hanging in our home.
Saturday
Saturday we planned to recreate our honeymoon in mini form by visiting two wineries. The first was Crofut Family Winery near Jordan, which we had never been to, and the second was Morgan Creek Vineyards near New Ulm. While this was a great idea in theory, New Ulm is a bit of a drive from E.P., and even from Jordan, and it ended up being kind of a long day. No matter.
Crofut was having a little event, which included grape stompers, a little flea market and music. The wines were better than expected and we bought a bottle of their La Crescent. I thought the grape stomping would be great fun, but nobody really “stomped” – they just kind of casually walked in the grapes, so it wasn’t much of a show. Still, I would like to do that some time. The flea market was dreadful, and there was a chef who was attempting to make cayenne chocolate mousse, and everything that could go wrong did –
the power kept going out on his mixer, the cream curdled, etc. He seemed to take it pretty well in stride.It was a long drive down to Morgan Creek but at least it was a beautiful day. The tasting room was pretty crowded when we got there so we waited a little bit. We bought a bottle of their Zeitgeist and wandered outside to sit by their bonfire. They have a really nice outdoor area, it’s a farm and so they have this huge lawn with a red barn and a giant tree that we both love (we had briefly considered getting married here). After we finished eating our wood-fired snacks (and a few we snuck in) we wandered down to the tree, drinking our wine and sitting on the wooden swing they have there. It was a pretty nice way to spend the afternoon.
Sunday
Sunday we planned to go to this Oktoberfest celebration down on St. Anthony Main in
NE Minneapolis, along the Mississippi River. I had never been but they had been advertising it as this three-day event, so we figured it was worth checking out. It wasn’t. There were about a handful of booths and probably even fewer people there. Strange. Maybe it will get off the ground in a couple more years. Fortunately, Josh had suggested taking the motorcycle so we just drove past and kept cruising. Got back to the house and watched the last half of the Vikings game. Took a nap, made dinner and otherwise had a leisurely night.
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