SOm folks call Minneapolis the ‘Mini-Apple’.. because its the New York of … Minnesota maybe ? I love the city.. lots of parks and pathologically nice people. We had fun today . We started with a walk with my Mom.. she does 3-5 miles every day at 89.. then we all met up with our old friends Jeff and Karen for brunch. Jeff and Karen are good friends from the time we all lived in Winchester UK at the same time while I worked at IBM and Diane did her Grad School. . Jeff and Karen  brought a surprise for us.. their .. and our.. friend Anna who lived with us for a couple of weeks pre-covid while she took a furniture making class. She’s a fine woodworker… it was great to see her evolving portfolio. 

Brunch was an adventure.. the place had a great bright vibe.. but it also had a new ‘order at your table system.. that didn’t work well at all. 

Our meal order got all messed up.. things came at odd times.. and over an hour an a half. The staff was super nice and very  apologetic.. and eventually comped half of our meal for the trouble..   
All in all it was great because we had longer to talk 🙂   we all then headed back to Moms Condo which was fun too !

That night we all went to Mary and Johns for take out Chinese.. It was great seeing everybody.. It was also the first time we got to meet their new puppy Belle.. such a cutie !

Tee night ended with a hailstorm… .. how cool is that ? 

 

More tomorrow.. nite all, nite sam

-me

Our early flight got delayed, so we had a nice slow morning at the hotel.. We went on a nice run exploring the neighborhoods around SFO.  We got to  Minneapolis around 7, UBER’d to my mom’s condo.. and went out for a nice Thai  dinner nearby..
Great seeing Mom and relaxing a bit

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

From China Cat yesterday to China Camp today.. we headed to the  site of one of the first 19th century  Chinese settlements in the area. We took about a 5 mile hike through the beautiful forest there to the Bay and back

 

After the hike we headed down to the airport, dropped our car and took BART back to the new hotel.. BART had seen better days it seems

we settled into the hotel.. and waited for my friend Rafe. Diane had kindly offered her Phish ticket for tonights show to Rafe. He showed up and we headed up to Berkeley

 

 

it was a GREAT show. and it was fun being with friends. I missed Diane.. but she was happy that I was there with Rafe..

Great Day !

nite all, nite sam

-me

We had an amazing day today,. and I’m sorry to say.. I cant talk too much about it.   Diane and I were helping our  friend  Mike, his friend Bobby with a musical project along with a team of talented new friends. Greg, Suz, Phoebe, Nitin, and Seth. .  Its not my project to talk about.. but  I’m hoping someday soon I can share some  more details and pics..  
Mike posted a little teaser  about it here ..

It was such a fun and interesting day… great people , great music.. and some cool tech wizardry.. Many  thanks to Mike, Bobby , Natasha, AJ, Vadim, Jared and the tech team for their time  and interest  in making this happen !

Diane and I left super excited about he project and grateful for making new friends. We went from China Cat to a great hikeup a fire road to watch the sun go down.

What a long strange trip it’s been

nite all, nite sam

-me