Minnesota Nice

I’ve been putting off writing this post, because I hardly know where to start. There’s a meme on the internet that describes Minnesota as “Nice.” What they mean is that there’s a tendency of Minnesotans to be agreeable, to not rock the boat, to step just a little out of their way to be friendly towards their neighbors. Normally, I’m not a fan of being “nice.” I much prefer “kind directness.” If I say I need to go, I need to go; don’t walk me through an hour of goodbyes that slowly move towards the door (also known as a “Minnesota goodbye”). As a kindness to each other, we can say one goodbye and simply leave! But it was a rough week on which I found myself in Minnesota, and a little niceness from old and new friends went a long way towards soothing my soul.

The trip started earlier than most of my trainings. Cousin J3 had a football game on Saturday, so cousin J1 and I flew out late Friday night on a red-eye for Minneapolis. Fueled by one of the hundreds of “original” pancake houses, we drove to Iowa, cheered, hugged, crashed, and bombed back to the MSP airport to get J1 home in time for work.

Normally, dropping a travel buddy off at the airport would kick off my week of solo hotel life and work. Not so, this week. I went immediately to where one of my best friends from high school was staying, just 15 minutes from the airport in St Paul (did you know that some people live close to an airport? It’s amazing!). We made soup, then went for an early Fall walk by the Mississippi. The colours change first where cold air sits in the trough formed by the river, and sure enough there were splashes of gold along the banks.

I was pleasantly surprised to find an Army Corps of Engineers sign as we walked to the water. It turns out that one of the reasons for Minneapolis’s existence in its location is a set of falls and Rapids. We were at “Lock and Dam No. 1”, which once powered a Ford plant on the St Paul side of the river. When we went to the Guthrie Theater in the evening, I could see the mills on either end of the Stone Arch bridge, framing the locks at St Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis. The falls are the tallest on the Mississippi river, and their potential energy powered the lumber and flour mills that fueled the city’s economic boom in the late 19th century. To me, it was a perfect fusion of engineering and history!

The rest of the week is a bit of a blur. Monday, I spent an entire afternoon with family friends northwest of town. Drinking tea, catching up, having a home-cooked meal… I felt so at home. The next 3 days I worked, but each evening I had dinner with a different group of friends in NorthEast Minneapolis. I could have eaten there for years! Any type of food you can imagine from the river to St Anthony. Brian made us Pad Thai, Vera and I rehashed more travel adventures than we had plates of Tapas on Central Ave, and Marie took me to one of her favorite breweries. Live music rang off fermenters and pallets of beer, filling in the small gaps between groups of friends in the neighborhood’s living room.

My week ended where it started, back in my friend’s kitchen with soul-warming soup and a fall walk. It was the perfect way to wind down a week of an exceptional version of “Minnesota Nice.” What I experienced was a week of genuine kindness and warmth from a loosely connected web of family and friends. I am deeply grateful for each of them.