Wednesday, February 11, 2004

For our fifth anniversary, Kate and I stayed at a B&B in Red Wing called the Candlelight Inn.  A fine place to stay.  We went out to eat at the St. James Hotel there and had a decidedly mediocre meal.  The service was just weird, like we were somehow shitheads for not ordering drinks or something.  My steak was OK but walleye that Kate got was dry and boring to the point of being unedible.  The next day we drove to Winona.  On their main street deserted storefront follows deserted storefront.  We went to the Watkins museum. Then we went to the Polish museum, which was the most confusing museum I have ever been to.   "Sign The Guestbook!", shouted the crazed attendant as he barred admittance to those who dared pass unregistered.  He then went back to watching a TV program that featured someone being strangled under water.  I signed my name as Zybignew Scoobidooski.  The museum was confusing.  There was a priest named Paul Breza and there were some logs and there were lots of pictures of sports teams, but nothing to tie it all together.  I guess it had some value;  I learned that there is a Polish history to Winona and that the timber industry helped grow Winona.   One of the logs had the following plaque:  This log was found in 1932  by Stan Breza (1911 - 1967) buried in the mud by the Misssissippi river   I had to read it three times before I figured out that it was not Stan Breza  buried in the mud, whether by his own people or by the river itself, but the log. We ate lunch at the Acoustic Cafe in Winona.  A clean and sunny hippie establishment that plays Neil Young albums and serves great coffee. 10:21:26 AM    comment []