On occasion I have had the good fortune to travel with my Bride on some of her business trips, if I can get my work schedule to coincide.   Prior to her current position, she had a position that required some out of state traveling.  One of the trips entailed a journey to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After checking into the hotel and availing ourselves to the facilities of the adjoining health club, we had a brunch at The Women’s Club of Minneapolis where some business was conducted without my concern.   Afterwards we made a side trip to the Mall of America, which is a Mecca of shopping that was calling my Bride from the time we landed at the airport.

That evening we met some more people for a dinner at Yvette’s which was located in the Theater District in the downtown area.  If you have never been to downtown Minneapolis, the first time you may be in for a surprise.  There are “tunnels” on the second floor of a lot of the buildings that inter-connect other buildings, which makes it convenient for visiting different locations downtown without having to brave the elements.  I admired the concept, thought it was very ingenious idea, especially with the winters that they are famous for.

I wandered a bit, from my train of thought and that was about having dinner at Yvette’s.  It was a wonderful French/American restaurant with wonderfully prepared dinners.  Everyone was very happy with the venue.  We were seated at one of tables that were located near the front windows, and half way through our meal we were entertained with a “conga-line” that emptied out onto the street for a little bit from the dinner theater across the street where “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” was being performed.

The wine for dinner that evening was a Merlot from Clos Pegase from Napa Valley.  Merlot wines sometimes get maligned as a wimpy choice, as the fads in wine change.  I am not into the fads, as I tend to choose wines that I think will work best with several different entrees, and sometimes that can be quite a challenge.  The Clos Pegase wine has all of the qualities that I admire from the Saint-Emilion district of Bordeaux, and it is a wine that makes most people very happy when they are trying it for the first time.  This is especially true from people that tell me that they do not like a Merlot wine, but I always presume (right or wrong) that the only times that they have had it, is from generic house wines.

Our trip was a whirl-wind affair, packed with a lot of activity for a long “day trip” as we flew back the following day.