Living the Dream

It's so hot, there's nothing to do but hang out at the pool. Hope you enjoyed our adventure!

PS. One of us has to go back to work. I wish we could keep Chinooking.

Comments from the Internet:

Facebook:

• I'm proposing a Tour de Cities in September, lead by you of course...
• I heart your blog & I don't want it to end.
• I just read every post. Love it!
• I just gave your blog props! It's da bomb!
• Must visit Twin Cities ASAP!
• Your blog is a great reminder about all of the exciting possibilities in the city.
• These two are not only clever, but quite awesome. Follow their blog about their adventures with the Chinook Book. Love it.
• Just found it today... it's great! What a cool idea. Now I'm looking into getting our Local First coupon book to try something similar
• I heart the blog and only wish it included recipes because I'm strangely hungry after reading it.
• I applaud your creative way to play-keep it up
• I can't find words to express how much I love this!
• Although I do not like the shutdown and what it is doing, I have been enjoying your adventures. What a great thing!
• Hey, you're famous! a great blog, you two...clever and fun!
• Holy crap!
• Your blog is makin' me smile. So Kate & Pippish! Where are we going later this week? I want to see you two in action. :)
• What's the blog address? I'd love to read it.

Twitter

• Glad you're making light of a bad situation. I'm gonna pass your blog to a couple @KSTP reporters...it'd be cool to feature
• RT @ChinookBookMSP Check out this awesome blog. They're using @ChinookBookMSP to save money during the shutdown.
• @CatRichert thanks for the blog coverage today and for all your coverage of the #mnshutdown
• @grinnelldan Read blog by #grinnell alumnus @plannerdeacon as he staycations during the #mnshutdown
• That's me... RT @MPRnews #mnshutdown blog: For one laid off gov't employee, a silver lining http://mprne.ws/1dEsJ
• @katherineemoss Hold on to your hats, @plannerdeacon just got a call from the news. @ChinookBookMSP #staycation #MNShutdown

What's in a Blog: A Review

When we decided to do a blog, I knew the most important part would be to start. I have thought about starting a blog several times but, you know, too many other great ideas to pursue.

This has been a very positive experience for us and here are a few bullets that I think led us to success:

• Don't over think it. Picking the blog title was the hardest part. No proofreading just post. We both wrote and editing was only allowed post post. This allowed us to retain the confidence to keep writing.
  
• Keep it simple. We used blogger, a pretty easy and standard tool. We tried to limit each posts to 2 paragraphs and a few pics. We didn't concern ourselves with blog design, though I suppose that's personal preference really.
  
• Go Social. Though it was hard at times to be so exposed, Twitter, Facebook and Email helped us spread the word and reconnected us with both Minneapolis as well as friends and family.
  
• Stick to the Theme. We talked about our staycation and reviewed our adventures. Not a lot more. This made it easier to decide what to write about and prevented writers block.
  
• Little bit of discipline. We blogged for 2 hours each night, mostly in our front porch with limited distractions. Gave us time to think and a bit of personal space during a week of togetherness.

The results? 60 some posts, a dozen FB posts and a few more tweets. A zillion comments from friends and strangers. Oh and a little press. Just about 3000 hits folks, in 9 days. Not bad.

We recommend blogging during your next adventure.

Staycationonomics: It's all about the Benjamins

I've already covered chinookonomics (part 1 and part 2), but the point of our staycation wasn't to save money per se. We were on vacation and using the Chinook Book gave us a great theme for the "trip."


However, even though we spent more than we normally would have in a week here in the cities, we still saved a ton of money. Here's the run down on our 8 night staycation:

• We didn't buy plane tickets. Savings: $450 - $700
• We didn't have to stay in a hotel. Savings: $700 - 900
• We didn't have to rent a car. Savings: $200 - $350

Also, like any week-long vacation, we didn't buy groceries (Savings: $100). Here's where the coupons come in...on dining and entertainment (excluding bike and home improvement purchases) we saved $120 plus our two discounts for laid-off state employees of $58.

To sum it up, by opting for a staycation, we saved close to $2,000. How do you like them apples?!

Wait an Hour for the Magic: St. Paul Cheese Shop 2

We posted earlier on our trip to the St. Paul Cheese Shop on Grand to get their Signature Chevre. Tonight we got our chance to enjoy the cheese with Jeff and Maureen.


The chevre came with various dried fruits and nuts and some olive oil drizzled on top. Our instructions were to lit it sit out at room temperature for at least an hour, at which point the magic happens, and serve with warm bread. I picked up a baguette from New French Bakery (which are on sale after 1pm on Saturdays!) and we dutifully took the cheese out of the fridge half an hour before we left the house.


The chevre was truly magical - smooth and creamy with a little sweetness from the dried fruit. This is definitely the start of a long relationship!

We enjoyed our chevre with homemade margaritas - thanks Mo!

We said it before, but we definitely recommend the St. Paul Cheese Shop.

How to Move a Couch, Central style

We stopped over at Ranisha's garage sale this afternoon. She lives in the Central neighborhood of Minneapolis. Let's call this a colorful location. Not really part of Chinooking, as we have come to call it,  but definitely part of staycation. Here is a clip of what was happening on 3rd ave.

The Color of America: Ace Welna and Abbott Paint

Although we've focused our staycation activities on exploring the cities and enjoying ourselves, we've lined up one home improvement project for tomorrow: painting our bathroom. Today was about supplies, tomorrow will be about actual work. Two local shops: Ace Welna and Abbott Paint.

Ace Welna, 24th and Bloomington, Minneapolis
Agenda: Mirror


We have a wooden frame (courtesy of Tutu) that we wanted to convert into a mirror for our bathroom makeover, so to Ace we go. Welna has two locations, the closer of the two doesn't carry mirrored glass, so I had to go to the slightly further away location. I got immediate and wonderful service. There was even free popcorn.

Coupon: $5 off $20 or more.

Abbott Paint, Grand and Fairview, St. Paul
Agenda: Primer


We had enough leftover paint from previous painting projects to cover our small bathroom project, but we were fresh out of primer. Our Chinook Book coupon got us $6 off per gallon of their Elements, zero VOC paint. As with Ace Welna, we got great service.

While we waited for our tint, Kate decided we needed these stylish painting shirts. Abbot let us know, btw, that they have the Colors of America.


Coupon savings: $6

We'd recommend both.

PS. Before and almost after bathroom shots...

The Blogosphere

Greta came over and tiptoed through the front door, "Can I enter the blogosphere?" This is where we have been setting up shop this week. When you play hard all day, you need a place away from the bugs and any other distractions to make the magic happen.

Seward, is that Where that One Street is?

On our stroll to breakfast, Pip and I passed by a Minneapolis hidden treasure. In between 22nd and 23rd Ave S is this 2 block stretch called Milwaukee Ave Historic District. Just a simple note here to meander this way next time you are in the neighborhood.

Cool street with cool houses. Step right out onto the sidewalk. No streets and no front yards with a park in the middle. Fun to imagine a different way of living.

Along The Midtown Greenway

Of the many reasons to bike the Twin Cities, the Midtown Greenway is pretty high on the list. Especially in the Summer.

I refer to it as the bike super highway connecting to the Mississippi River on one end and the Cedar Lake Trail on the other. Every time I bike the trail, I think about stopping to take pictures. So that is what we did. That's me and the carbon up above.

Moss Lady Legs

While Pip was otherwise occupied, I spent a refreshing hour at the pool with my mom and sister. I'd say I've got some pretty good genes. Lookin good ladies!

I'm Full. What Else Can We Do?

I have to admit, one of the hardest parts of this blog business for me is striking a balance between food stuff, personal stuff, and shameless self promotion. After lunch, I needed to blow off a little steam before jumping into Bike Coupons.

On the way back from North East, we pedaled through the U of M TC campus. In addition to The Race, we made some stops. First up, Feat of Strength..

Did I mention, that the weather has been pretty much perfect...

Pip took a brake from his normal bike to try out one of these...

We can't wait for 2014 when the second light rail line (Central Corridor, soon to be a.k.a. Green Line) opens which will go right across this bridge...

I'll close with this beauty to remind us to stop and take pictures of our selves when the flowers are blooming...

The Race: Who do you Think Wins?

This may be a minute of your life that you can never get back but we sure thought it was fun. Turns out that the U of Minnesota campus can be a pretty great place to play.

Thirsty?

This blog has been brought to you by the following:

Tanqueray, Jameson, Malbec, Surly, Fat Tire, Odells, Peace Coffee and a tall glass of Minnesota Tap Water.

Silver Lining

Today started off with a little excitement. Twitter brought us to the attention of MPR reporter Catherine Richert (@CatRichert), who's managing the Minnesota Public Radio Shutdown blog. She called during our lunch at Trotters. We had nice conversation about our blog and staycation, and then she blogged about us (read it here).

After the MPR blog post went up, our page views jumped from a couple hundred to over a 1,000 - whoa!

Very fun and an honor to be part of the larger story.

Fun with Fish

As previously mentioned, our trip to Sea Life was a pleasant surprise. I was a skeptic as we fought our way through rush hour traffic to go to the Mall, of all places. This place was simple and fun and we liked it so much we went through a second time. With our wrist bands, we could go through as many times as we wanted until the Mall closed.

Our first stop was to take a closer look at the Garden Eels...

These were the craziest little guys I've ever seen. I really wanted the gift store to have a tiny snow globe version to put on my desk. No such luck :(

After passing through the Sea Horse tanks,  Pip pointed out the sign of the Sea Horse King...

This is where it goes from good to great. Sea Life has an underwater tunnel where the fish swim around and over you. We're not sure what type of fish this guy was but he sure wasn't shy about showing us his under carriage.

I'll leave you with this final photo of Pip and the Jellies.

There's a Place for Fun in Your Life: A Review

Flipping through the Chinook Book, we have Grocery, Dining, Entertainment and Family, Health and Style, Travel and Recreation, Yard and Garden, and Home to choose from. For our purposes we have been focusing on the Dining section but it never hurts to flip through the options just to see what's out there. Today was forecasted to thunderstorm so an indoor activity was in order.

As a giant departure from our regular habits, we picked Underwater Adventures now known as Sea Life, which Minnesota's version of an aquarium and is located at the Mall of America. When the Mall first opened, it's marketing campaign included the a catchy little tune whose main line was, "there's a place for fun in your life, Mall of America." My present day self wonders regularly why teenage self never thought to buy a t-shirt with that logo. It sure would be sweet to have something like that now.

Back to Sea life. This is by far the hardest post to keep succinct. So much to tell perhaps I will split it up. Basically, it was totally fun. Highly recommended. We went with a coupon for each of us, $4 off the price of admission. Lucky for us, today was Laid-Off State Employee Day. That meant Pip was free and I was half price. Sweet!

Great fun, take your kids or partner or friend and have a good time with fish!

1/2 Off for Laid-Off State Employees: Heidi's - A Review

This morning, I noticed a tweet from @hotdishblog that Heidi's (29th & Lyndale) was offering laid off state workers (that's me) 50% off tonight. Kate's sister Maggie also alerted us to the offer. We had never been to Heidi's, but a quick review of their website was enough to know this would be a place we'd like.


For a Tuesday, this place was hoping - almost a full house. We managed to grab a table on the patio shortly before 8. We were delighted to learn that Heidi's is brought to you in part by the letter Y and the number 13.


First course: Although we were tempted to roll the dice on the "Shefzilla Surprise" appetizer, which our waiter indicated was "exotic," we instead opted for Beets 2.1 The 2.1 is significant - this was a step up from a typical beet salad. I could say a lot about this dish, but the key ingredient for me was the truffled golden beet sorbet. Hard to imagine without actually trying it - it was a powerful, sweet ice cream that hit the taste buds fast and delivered immense flavor.

 *perhaps, the beet schmear was a bit much

Second course: Kate had the black truffle pappardelle (thin strips of pasta) with lobster, which was rich and smooth. I only had a couple bites, but it was amazing. I opted for the special of the day: pan roasted quail with baby artichokes in a rabbit/bay leaf sauce. It was hearty and very tasty.

Dessert: we finished the meal with donuts, but not just any donuts: honey-cream filled donuts. They were served with a blueberry ice cream and a candied mint leaf. Really wonderful - we fought over the last drops of melted ice cream.


We'll definitely go back.

It's Lunch Time, I'm Starving! Anodyne Coffeehouse: A Review

Today we spent the morning at home, left over bagels and stump grinding from previous posts. By the time we got out the door to start our Chinook Book adventure, we were starving. For lunch, we headed to the Kingfield neighborhood which is just east and south of Uptown, to a neighborhood cafe called Anodyne Coffeehouse.

Much like May Day, I really enjoyed the environment and the people watching and spent some time wondering why there were so many people hanging out on a Tuesday at 2. The staff was friendly and excited about our adventure.

They recommended we try the specials. Turkey, Bacon, Arugula, Pesto sandwich with Blue Corn Chips and a pickle for me (not a fan of pickles but am a fan of the clean plate club). Pip had Spicy Chorizo wrap. Mine was good though could have used a better bun. I find hamburger buns really only fitting on a cheeseburger. Pip said his tasted like a taco bar and was easily more than enough for one meal.

Overall, we liked it as a good neighborhood joint but probably won't go out of our way to go again.

The coupon was buy one sandwich, get the second half off. Total savings $3.75.

Fixtation

While in Uptown, we walked past the new "Bike Fixtation" in the transit center above the Midtown Greenway on Hennepin and decided to check it out. There's an air pump to fill up your tires and tons of tools attached to a stand to make adjustments.

Missing a part? No problem. There's a vending machine stocked with tubes, patch kits, lights and snacks. It's pretty sweet.




Definitely need to remember this exists - could be a life saver.

Stumped

This morning I was greeted by the sound of the city grinding the stump of a boulevard tree that had been cut down last summer. The timing was great, because over the weekend I had bought some mulch but hadn't bought nearly enough. So in the spirit of a staycation focused on deals - here was a deal on mulch - free already delivered.