Practicin' Up and Rockin' On! - Wednesday, 15 June

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that traveling is glamorous again, as it was in the really good ol' days, but I am happy to report that one can steel oneself for the journey (I intensely dislike the actual traveling part of vacation) and do a bit of "training" for meals-to-come with a pretty darn good lunch at Surdyk's Flights at MSP airport!  Service at the tables can be pretty slow, but the little patio out in the middle of the main concourse actually provides a nice place to sit and eat and read and recharge your laptop.

Surdyk's cheese shop in "Nordeast" is one of my favorite spots in town - cheeses, olives, sausages, groceries, prepared foods and sandwiches are spot-on!  This sandwich of salami, mozzarella, roasted peppers and arugula on crispy chibatta was very good; a nice serving of roasted beets, some cornichon and a couple herbed olives topped it off nicely.  And a nice dry Barbera tied it all together.  OK.  Ready to board.

First leg of the journey: Minneapolis to Cincinnati.  Not too bad other than the fact that I had to depart from distant gate A2.  Who knew MSP had gates in Iowa!

Second leg: Cincinnati to Paris.  A bit of a zoo!  Not an empty seat on the plane, and huge numbers of families with small kids (including the cutest one-year-old twin boys I have ever seen - wish I had gotten a picture of them) and teenager school groups (guess the economy isn't THAT bad in some areas).  I sat next to two rock musicians (of the heavy metal variety I think, but I really wouldn't know) who were on their way to some festival in France.  An aging rocker from another band saw them and recognized them and kept stopping by for a chat and for party planning (booze, drugs, etc.) to the point that my row-mates were getting embarassed and started ignoring him.  My guys were chattering almost the whole flight, recounting their prior shared adventures to each other ("remember the time when ..."  "I was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a skull..." "oh, yeah, I remember that shirt..."  "that chick 'x' just wouldn't leave me alone..."  "you were really wasted that night..."  bla bla bla).  I got glimpses of some creepy-looking magazines and tatoos.  Gotta say I got an education!  And that I'm really thankful for the fairly civilized conversations I have with my classical musician friends!