55403

When I arrived yesterday, I more than half expected the airport to be wall-papered in that distinct purple and yellow combination otherwise known as the Minnesota Vikings' colors. Sadly, though the colors were present in gift shops and the occasional sticker on a car, I was underwhelmed to say the least. Blame it on a friend named Troy, but if I lived here, I'd probably drive a purple CRV with yellow racing stripes. Which is yet another reason why I love living in Texas.

The whole Twin Cities thing was lost on me from the start. I loaded myself with maps and directions, and when I saw the 7th Street exit, I took it. Just as I was told to do when I confirmed my directions at the rental car counter, just to be sure I knew where I was going. When I took the exit, I chuckled to myself that I'm used to big Texas maps where everything is much more spread out, because this exit seemed to come along a lot sooner than I had expected, though 7th Street oddly seemed to stretch longer than it appeared on my map. Still, I found 5th Avenue and turned right. As I had been told. When I hit a dead end in a fairly industrial area on the Mississippi, I asked of a man in a parking lot, Excuse me, can you tell me where the Guthrie Theatre is?

He stopped to get a better look at me. It's in Minneapolis. You're in St. Paul.

I need to stop thinking that just because I can find the shortest routes in Houston blind-folded, and drive across Texas without so much as a missed farm road, it does not mean I can find my way around in any other city even when armed with maps and directions. Well, okay then, but in my meager defense, why do both cities have a 7th Street exit off of M55?

Oh, right, twins...

Eventually, I found what I was looking for. The new Guthrie Theatre, an architectural wonder by French Architect Jean Novel, completed just six weeks ago. I'd read about in Time Magazine and was intrigued, but did not know then I'd have the opportunity to see it so soon, on an unexpected side tour from St. Paul.

When a screeching alarm went off in the building and I heard two attendees say to each other they weren't sure what they were supposed to do when that happened, and then get into the elevator, I took the stairs down and walked along the Mississippi River to (safely) catch the view from there.