A Miracle on Harriet

The Guthrie Theatre's Endless Bridge provides a great
spot to enjoy Old Man River in Minneapolis. That's
Umesh in the foreground. Click to enlarge.

 He's a world traveler from the other side of the earth, this 35-year-old Indian in town for a month to train newspaper employees. When asked what he'd like to see while he was in Minnesota, he knew one thing for sure: The Mississippi River.
So off we went to the very best vantage point to view this world famous feature: the Endless Bridge at the Guthrie Theatre.
Umesh was suitably impressed, he enjoyed the river, the Minneapolis skyline, hearing the flour-milling history, and looking down on the doomed metrodome, which looks like an over-puffed out-dated Pillsbury item. He toured the Midtown Global Market, of course, where we split a basket of french fries, and looked over all the ethnic offerings there, but failed to locate any authentic curry dishes.
Umesh probably won't return to start an Indian cuisine restaurant there, however. He's already the proprietor of the Blue Sea Beach Resort on the Arabian Sea, just south of Bombay, India, so he's got his hands full. (Click here and you can see his web site.)
It would be a shame for Umesh to leave the City of Lakes without driving around Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, so we headed over there on our way back to Shakopee. Joggers and walkers were going about their business as we cruised along.

Lake Harriet Band Shell

Suddenly, Umesh sat bolt upright in the passenger seat. "There are people walking out there," he said. "Yes," Stan responded, "they're just getting some exercise."
"No!" the stunned East Indian exclaimed. "THEY ARE WALKING ON THE WATER!"
Stan pulled the car over immediately, laughing all the way to the curb. Sure enough. Umesh had never seen much snow before and he was just getting used to seeing it everywhere. But this was something else. A couple of fishermen were out on the ice with buckets and lines. You'd think it was Jesus Christ himself out there to see Umesh bound from the car to cross the street and photograph this miracle.
Too bad it's not February. We could have taken him for a drive on Lake O'Dowd to visit a village of ice houses. That would have really blown him away.