Mellow Yellow After Dark

Tonight I decided to treat myself to an evening of enlightening entertainment. I decided to participate in an evening tour of the home of Alexander Ramsey, the first Territorial Governor of MN, second Governor of the state of MN and former Secretary of War. Ramsey was also credited for being the first Union governor to commit troops to the Civil War (a letter you would be able to view at a recent exhibit at the MN History Center).  

Well, I decided that due to the excellent weather and the close proximity (Ramsey House is 1 mile away from home), I decided to walk to Cossetta's for dinner, then walk the last 5 minutes to the Ramsey house for the tour and walk straight back home afterwards.

Well, I guess I can now show pictures how the evening went:

This is the LRT stop that has been established a half block from my condo.  Next year I'll be able to take the LRT from home to Downtown Minneapolis, which essentially means that I'll never have to worry about driving to Downtown Minneapolis again, that saves on parking fees.

I walked by the Xcel Energy Center on my way to Cossetta's, apparently there was some country music concert scheduled to the evening.

I reached Cossetta's on West 7th Street.  It's a nice Italian restaurant, although the prices appeared a bit inflated.  But I generally think that's because of the high cost of business having some knowledge of the business myself.  

It was getting busy when I left around 6 pm.

I arrived at the Ramsey house about 5 minutes later.  I was able to get a view of family tree (this is the whole line in MN).  However, there were no photos to be taken inside the house.  I'll just say it was an impressive Victorian structure.  The tour emphasized Ramsey stint as Secretary of War from 1879 to 1881 under the Rutherford B. Hayes Administration (what makes President Hayes different from most is your trivia question). President Hayes actually visited the Minnesota State Fair after taking some time with Ramsey in the house.

This is the only photo I took of the house, as I was leaving: the front door.

Here are some pictures I took on the way back

Can you find St. Paul's Cathedral?

With the Minnesota Orchestra disintegrating these days, I'm glad I'm a member of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, which plays many of its concerts here at the Ordway.

Landmark Center, home of the Schubert Club, various galleries and the Saint Paul Conservatory

Park Square

Dropped by Candyland candy store

Candyland was bustling

As I made my final turn home, I saw the Capitol lit up.  What decisions have been made there?

So that was my evening.  Have a good day :)

Calvin Coolidge Quote of the Week

After last week's break, this week's quote comes from an address President Coolidge gave at the Massachusetts Republican State Convention (there is one apparently) on October 4, 1919 talking about the public's obligation regarding public assets.

"What the public has, the public must pay for.  From this there is no escape."

Wonder what Silent Cal would say about today's debates over public assets.  Hmm.

Shutdown tidbits

Since we're in day two of the partial shutdown and I haven't personally interacted with some to effects, I did some research.  Although I would guess some essential services may not be provided, here are a few that I found that I don't think Calvin Coolidge would think of as essential services on the taxpayer dime.

* Election Assistance Commission - research for improving federal elections.  To me it appears we are not getting the expected Return on Investment (ROI) for this investment anyways, but that's my myopic opinion.

*National Gallery of Art

*Office of Government Ethics - Government ethics?

*Smithsonian

*Udall Foundation - educates on environmental issues.  Don't we have nonprofits doing this already?

*US Commission of Fine Arts

*Holocast Museum - Its a fine museum that I have visited, but should taxpayers fund a nonprofit-like entity?

*US African Development Foundation - I think we have many NGOs doing this already.

A short list from a quick scan.  I do think we'll survive this patch okay.