Gregory Alan Isakov has topped my end-of-year Spotify “Wrapped” lists more than once, so when I learned that he’d be at the Excel Center in Saint Paul the first weekend in November tickets were soon acquired. (This is my favorite album.)
It wasn’t until later that we discovered he wasn’t the headliner!
The main act was Nathanial Rateliff & The Nightsweats! They’ve never landed on my “Wrapped” lists, but they do show up on my playlists often enough… and they put on a very enjoyable show!
The concert happened to be on a Saturday night — the weekend before my birthday — and by a stroke of luck, even though it wasn’t a “vacation weekend,” I did have Friday off, so it wasn’t even quite as quick a trip as it might have been.
Kate treated me to birthday dinner on Friday night at Chloe by Vincent… oo la la! I can’t remember the last time I was at a French restaurant, and it was amazing — the food was excellent, service was terrific.
Our hotel was in Minneapolis, so on Saturday, we made our way to Saint Paul via some book stores, coffee shops, thrift shops, an antique shop, and a yarn store!
THE YARNERY was celebrating their grand opening in their new location! I’ve been following all along on IG, but somehow missed that detail. What a lovely shop — each of those alcoves is dedicated to a particular weight of yarn, which is really nice. And there’s so much more — kits, samples galore, and lots of room for community.
We found a couple of new places to eat/drink* and we’ll definitely return! Well, lunch was a return visit… to Lake & Irving. We stopped at Estelle for before-dinner drinks (will stay for dinner next time). Dinner was at due foccacceria… those foccaccia sandwiches were HUGE!
Little (or big) trips are a deliberate part of the Winter Happiness Plan (and, likely, for the How I’m Going To Make It Through the Next Four Years Plan). Eagle River counts. Minneapolis-Saint Paul counts. Dyeing Day with Ali counts. There’s a #whirlwindarttripwithkate (& probably Kai) coming up in a few weeks. Charleston in January. Chicago with the kids (& maybe Ali) in February. Perhaps a hunker-down (& knit) trip to the North Shore in March.
And I just read that Gregory Alan Isakov is going to be (headlining) at Red Rocks next summer… that’s a bucket list venue! We’ll see.
*For various reasons and by choice, alcohol consumption has been limited since the beginning of the month, and I’m happy to report that not only are NA/AF options more plentiful everywhere, they can also be amazing (Estelle, especially, made some very fine cocktails).
