Mỹ Hương Kitchen - A Slice of Vietnam in Minnesota

I've eaten at hundreds of Vietnamese restaurants all over North America and the Asia-Pacific regions, ranging from holes-in-the wall to high-end, and hands down I've had no better Vietnamese food or dining experience than at Mỹ Hương Kitchen in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Pardon My Dust

Tumbleweeds.

Crickets.

Dust balls.

It's been a little quiet in this space, but I can't always be busy on "social" media. It's been five rooms, two hallways, a stair, four colors, and walls for +1600 sq. feet of floor space painted since Tuesday night. And that's on top of a full-time job. Thank God the spring weather has been miserable in NE Minnesota.

But trade-offs are real life, and so is work. This is a travel blog that's never pretended that life is an endless adventure, where toil is for misguided souls stuck in the rat race. Even when I'm on holiday, I'm reminded that people need to work--to make things and provide services--for the benefit of others. There are no airplanes, cruise ships, mountain bikes or iPads without miners, engineers and labor. And, the work itself can be as emotionally satisfying as a sail in the tropics or camping under desert stars. 

So I'm tired but satisfied with the results. Now, more than 600 feet of pine trim await shellac. Then three boys want Dad back.

For Frequent Fliers, is Paradise a Parking Lot?

"Getting away from it all" is one of the main reasons for travel, and "it all" normally includes work, urban sprawl and the weather. Human Canadians who annually escape the harsh northern winter for sunnier climes are known as "snowbirds," and just like these natives, they always come home to roost. Canadian geese are found all over North America, but their adaptability makes them one of the most recognizable urban birds. Migrating flocks are a common sight in spring and fall, noisy v-shaped formations reflective of the order and free discourse of the Canadian people, and its willingness to stay in queue.

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary -Two Millennia of Tradition in Minnesota

Magnificent cathedrals are not only confined to Europe or the great cities of Latin America. North Americans can find similar architectural treasures just around the corner, possibly places of worship they attend weekly or pass by without a deeper appreciation of the landmark's beauty. Lovingly crafted, places of peace and contemplation open to all comers, they share 2000 years of tradition with the more venerable churches of the old world. Such a place is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth, Minnesota.

From its magnificent seat atop the hills overlooking western Lake Superior, the gleaming Italianate-style Roman Catholic cathedral was completed in 1957, and its ministers shepherd the Diocese of Duluth. 

Here is a brief photographic tour; my images can't do the church interior justice.