Downtown

We continued our home vacation yesterday with a trip downtown to gawk at the tall buildings. This is kind of a reunion for me since my favorite job locations have all been down there. I just love the hustle and bustle.
We decided to take advantage of some free passes and used the light-rail. It's not that easy to drive somewhere to park and use the train. The farther you are from downtown the easier it is to park. Which means longer train rides. We drove to Fort Snelling to use their park and ride. It's located a convenient half mile or so from the station. It must be a joy in winter or other bad weather. (Too be clear, I'm not against mass transit. It's just that the light-rail line here is a string of really bad choices. It's made traffic worse. It does nothing to help commuters. Other than that, it's fine. The proposed route along University Ave will be just as bad. Run the damn thing along the interstates! [end of rant])
We got downtown just in time for lunch. L. Phillips is one of my favorites and is regularly voted best burgers in town. The FP Gal hadn't tried it before so we gave that a shot. Our reviews were positive. After that we walked the skyways a bit. It's amazing to me how much the skyway system has blossomed. It might be the most vibrant shopping system in the metro area.
We took a break at Peavy Plaza (pictured above). The FP Gal told me that he dear father broke his leg there once. Seems they used to have ice-skating before he filed a class action suit and closed it down. The Plaza is one of the things I miss about downtown. They have live bands down there in the summer. Very nice.
And then we walked down Nicollet Mall. Sarah wanted to pick up something at Target. I tried going to their corporate office but she insisted that we go to their retail location. I let her win. We picked up some candy at Candyland and then back to the train. A short vacation day but I'm still getting over sunburn.
On the drive home, the FP Gal was trying to compliment my lack of passive/aggresive behavior. I told her that it's just very subtle. She countered by telling me that she's 'living in her own bubble-worm'. I don't know what that is but it doesn't sound comfortable.