It's snowing!

You'd think after living in climates where snow is a regular occurance for 26 years that I'd be used to it. Not so. Every time it starts snowing I feel the need to run around annoucing to everybody that "It's SNOWING!" I don't want a joyous event like a February snowfall to go unnoticed. Just another reason why it's so easy for me to love this city.

I had the pleasure of walking through the skyways for lunch again today. Do other cities have skyway systems like Minneapolis? Maybe some do, but I'd find it hard to believe if any were as advanced or extensive as ours are. Ok, according to Wikipedia, Minneapolis has over 5 miles of skyways and 62 blocks are connected. Seriously. You can get almost anywhere downtown in the skyways. It's fantastic! Especially during winter. Taking skyways during lunch isn't the quickest route, but it's a must if it's raining or cold out... or hot out for that matter. You're forced to zig-zag around buildings and across streets, but I figure it's good exercise and a great way to break up a long day of sitting at a desk.

This is a picture of a double-decker skyway connecting Gaviidae Common's two buildings. I think it used to connect Sak's Fifth Avenue with Neiman Marcus, but Neiman Marcus isn't there anymore and Sak's is now "Off Sak's" an upscale outlet store.


This is a map of the entire skyway system. There are few new ones since this map was drawn. The Target Center is now connected directly to the City Center through Block E.


I also don't mind making the long walk for lunch when I'm going to ABP in the City Center. Especially when Corn Chowder is back in the soup rotation! Mmmm... creamy, corny, goodness. I've been waiting since November for it to come back. It's been a long 4 months with Pumpkin Harvest as it's replacement. Not my fav.

Speaking of rotating... Something strange happened in Uptown in... I think it was August. The 2800 blocks of Irving and Humblodt Ave's (in between 28th Street and the Mall) have always been oneways. Or at least since I've been driving on them. One day in August last year there was a car driving towards me on the oneway. At first I got a little road-ragey at the driver's apparent ignorance. Then I noticed the cars were parked facing the other way on that side of the street. Apparently they changed both streets to two-ways. In theory this is a good idea. Actually no. In theory it's still a bad idea. Both streets are very narrow with parking on both sides and a sharp curve half way through the block. It's impossible to see if someone is coming in the other direction unless you've already passed the bend. I never understood why then drivers would try to go as fast as they can down this block? Are they afraid of head-on collisions? Are they going faster to avoid them? Numerous times during the first few months of this directional change I was forced to slam on my breaks or swerve to the side to avoid hitting one of these speeding cars or smashing the review mirror of a parked car. (Which I've done before. Don't worry, I'm 100% MN nice and I left my business card with a note on the back saying I would pay for whatever damage I had done. The girl was so taken aback by my attempt to right my wrong, that she told me to forget about it and said her boyfriend could probably fix it. Awww!) Other people might have felt the same as I did. Last week both streets changed back to oneways.

Ok so that had nothing to do with rotating.