meandering in minneapolis

Day Two in Minneapolis was spent doing more non-touristy things in the Mini-Apple. As my mom lived here for many years, I generally am able to go to a few of the better shopping centers and find a shortcut or two.

Sunday we first went to Ridgedale Mall. If you've seen the movie Juno, a few scenes are set and filmed there. Most notably was the part when Vanessa feels the baby kick. Later in the day we headed down to downtown to pick up my credentials (yay!) and afterwards had a few minutes to burn so we went to the Nicolett section of downtown. Another little bit of Hollywood- this is where the opening part of the Mary Tyler Moore show was filmed, the part where she flips her beret in the air.


That night I went to CivicFest- I don't really know how to explain it. The only thing I've been to comparable was Atlanta Braves FanFest. It was essentially a giant traveling political museum with such items as a model Air Force One, a C-SPAN political bus, replica of the Oval Office and museum style display of political memorabilia. As it was put in by the Convention and Visiters Bureau, it was pretty much non-partisan.

The other part of CivicFest was a political flea market of sorts, which was 100% Republican. All sorts of memorabilia dealers sold every manner of GO Paraphernalia. Buttons, pins, and shirts were the most common items, but there was everything from pillows to end tables to purses to breath mints.

The select few memorabilia dealers with Sarah Palin memorabilia were the cream of the crop. In part because of the universal support for Governor Palin (literally have not found a person who isn't thrilled with her on the ticket) but mainly because the event started roughly 55 hours after she was picked, Palin related items were hot sellers. Literally having her name on something made the price triple. After realizing their scarcity, I scrambled and swiped up the last two "TICKET FOR AMERICA" buttons I could find. The vendor selling them had two signs above his buckets of buttons- "Buttons: 10 for 10 dollars- all Palin buttons: 3 for 10 dollars"


Surprisingly, I heard nary a complaint about Day One of the being cancelled. While I know that everyone was disappointed and that everyone realized that this was the right thing to do, I expected a grumble or two. But I couldn't find a single one.