Mystery trip

Mystery Trip

I spent the last two days with my mother on a mystery trip through their bank. The fun of one of these trips is you don’t know where you are going. There are a few clues given in the months leading up to the trip, but they are very vague!

We jumped on the bus in Sheldon, and headed out on hwy 60, so we knew it was at least north and east. Our first stop was at Hardees in Windom, MN, for breakfast, still no hints as to our itinerary other than Minnesota. We played a couple of fun little games, one all about Minnesota trivia; no one did very well on that! And another word game with the names of Minnesota towns and cities.  We weren’t able to figure out our next destination from either game. We were wishing for a Minnesota map, to maybe give us a hint!  Second stop was in Willmar, MN.  Here there were two choices. The Mikkelson Collection of Classic and antique boats. Or Mr. B’s Chocolate shop. The majority of my travel mates went to the chocolatier, while a handful of us went to the boat museam.

I went with the small group to the boat museum. Paul Mikkelson, (in red) showed us his vast collection of antique toy boats and real boats, including the first boat he ever owned as a senior in high school! His collection included a tribute to Minnesota native Charles Lindburg, and one boat that never went into the water. It was very interesting!  Want to learn more about it? Visit his website: http://www.fallsflyer.com/

The rest of the bus went to Mr. B Chocolate. A little about their goodies: “Our chocolates are all hand made daily with only the freshest ingredients from around the world. Minnesota dairy cream,  European style butter, Marzipan from Germany, Wild Strawberries & Cherries from Italy, Vanilla Beans from Madagascar, Flavorings and cocoa butter from Switzerland, Cocoa powder from Holland and candied flower petals from France.” Mom brought some back, and yes, it was delightful!  You can order your own goodies online: http://mrbchocolates.com/

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We didn’t know where we were going from Willmar, but we were definitely having a good time!    

Our next stop was the Stearns County History Museum, This is a BEAUTIFUL facility!  Here we heard from a reenactor who portrayed Sam Pandolfp, a fellow who meant a lot to the St. Cloud community and should have been as well known in the car business as Henry Ford.   He built beautiful cars in St. Cloud:  This was very enjoyable, a well laid out museum with wonderful exhibits!  “Main Gallery Two floors of exhibits provide the visitor with an entertaining learning experience. Walk through a natural environment inFlowing Through Time. Examine the granite industry in a full size model of a 1930 working quarry. Learn about Sam Pandolfo and the Pan Motor Company, an early St. Cloud auto manufacturing enterprise. Controversial Sam Pandolfo went to prison because of his business practices. Solve the puzzle in the Museum's version of the children's favorite "I Spy."”  Check it out! http://www.stearns-museum.org/index2.html

We also enjoyed root beer floats at the museum, At my urging, she shared her soda jerk knowledge with the young lady making them… put the root beer in the glass first, then the ice-cream, so it doesn’t fizz over!  As we left the museum, they told us we’d be staying in the St. Cloud area, but no more hints than that!

We stopped for lunch at Perkins, tasty sandwiches, For some reason, I don’t remember if that was before or after the museum…. ANYway. We checked in to our hotel, and were joined by Jean from the St. Cloud Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for the rest of our stay. As we traveled to our evening destination, she shared St. Cloud history, apparently Stearns County was a hotbed of moonshine and intrigue during prohibition! And of course the granite and the quarries.  As we travelled we watched a short video about modern granite quarrying methods. Our destination was Millner Heritage Vineyard and Winery. John Millner was our host for the evening. The plan, a five course tasting and wine pairing. Ready?

Our first course was cheese and crackers, swiss, pepperjack, co-jack and cheddar, paired with MIllner’s Draga wine.  “Drága translating roughly to precious in Hungarian it is our fullest bodied dry red. This wine is made with Marquette. Matured primarily in both Hungarian and French oak for seven months, this is a very complex red with nice big soft round tannins. It should age quite well.”

Our 2^nd course, was a sweet pea salad on crusty bread paired with Freizeit. “Freizeit – Meaning Free Time, this wine is made with Prairie Star which is a full bodied grape that often does not present an overabundance of fruity tones. To bring complexity to the table, it was put through malo-lactic fermentation, and barrel aged.  As this is dry, fairly neutral, and has a nice body, it makes for an excellent wine to have with a meal… or whenever you have a littleFree Time. Serve chilled.”

Course #3 was a wonderful tomato-basil cream soup, served with Millner’s Salier. ”Salier - Salier is the name of the ship in which Anastasia Müllner and family made their voyage from Europe to the New World on, thus starting the Millner family tree in America. This wine is is made primarily with free run Frontenac Gris. It was fermented cold to retain its fruitiness. Apricots are the dominant flavor with hints of pear, melon, grapefruit and berry in the background keeping you enticed. This wine is finished semi-sweet. Just like the ship, this wine will surely take you on a journey. We recommend serving this cold with chicken and pasta dishes”

The evening was very enjoyable, both the food and the wine DELISH!

Course #4 was the main course, Beef Burgundy made and served with Millner’s Draga  The chef used all locally available ingredients for each course of the meal. I’m not sure, but I think they saved the best for last. Our 5^th and final course was a filled pastry served with Millner’s Norduss. Nordsüss - Translating to “Northern Sweet” in German, this wine is our sweetest red. It is made with Valiant, King of the North, and Bluebell. All three of these are Labrusca grapes so do not expect oak or tannin out of this wine, but instead foxy fruit forward tones. This is the quintessential “American grape juice” kind of taste that will probably remind you of the juice you had growing up. 

After we finished our dessert John gave us a tour of the wine making process: My favorite part?  His daughter’s artwork on the cases:  If you can see the actual label, THAT artwork was done by John’s mother.

Our first stop on Friday was at Quarry Park. It was beautiful. The park featured a century old crane used to pull the stone out. The machine is still used once a year. The park lets people see how granite was quarried at the turn of the century.

  

Since the St. Cloud Red was used for the fronts of buildings and decorative uses, so any stones that weren’t to the buyer’s specifications went on the waste pile. Modern uses of granite want more movement and color in the stone. Quarry Park was a beautiful stop, they have a celebration there every year demonstrating the old ways of quarrying granite. Want to learn more about the park? Here’s the website, http://www.co.stearns.mn.us/Recreation/CountyParks/QuarryParkandNaturePreserve I think we barely touched what this location offers!

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From there, we crossed the Sauk river and headed to Collegeville, of course, still our escorts and driver Tom were the only ones who knew where we’d stop!

We found our way to St. John’s University in Collegeville. This school started as a self sufficient institution in the 1800s, run by Benedictine monks. There is a Sister school run by Benedictine Nuns. In the 90s, the school was approached by the Queen of England’s scribe to create a hand written, illuminated bible. That book was begun in 1995 and finished in June of this year. It is incredible. 23 artists worked on the project. Here’s a sampling

ß- pages from the book are on display at st. John’s and in Minneapolis. This book will be around long after the rest of us are gone. It was written on vellum, using the same techniques used in the 1300s, and those books are still here!

A little more about the bible:  “The Saint John's Bible is separated into seven volumes. This was done for practical reasons—each completed, bound volume will weigh as much as 35 pounds, with a combined weight of more than 165 pounds. It also produced interesting artistic results. While images and motifs repeat across volumes, each collection of Biblical books takes on its own character. We can approach each collection and discover its particular character and place in the grand story of salvation.”   Find more information at www.saintjohnbible.org

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From St. John’s we went to Collegeville Orchard. There we were able to get some fresh picked honey crisp apples, by the way, that is the Minnesota state fruit. And other fall bounty. Visit their website. http://www.collegevilleorchardsmn.com/

From the orchard, we went to Cold Springs and the Grasshopper Church.  It’s really called Assumption Chapel, but is known by the Grasshopper name.    

The site also featured the stations of the cross, which were just refurbished in granite.  It was a lovely setting. The local parish holds mass out there at least once a month during the summer.  Here’s our group, we had a bus full of people and a busful of fun!    From there we had one more stop, we stopped for dinner in St. James. It was a good trip. The Iowa State Bank coordinators work hard to get us to see things that are off the beaten path, and that we might miss if we were traveling on our own.