Today's Celebrity Sighting

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0072344/

I dig him. I've always dug him. I've dug him since he was on "Parker Lewis Can't Loose." Dug him on "ER." Almost watched "Men in Trees" because when I stumbled upon it, he was in the scene. But yeah, saw him in Century City today outside of J.Crew....currently he more looks like the 2nd picture in his Photo gallery, only more gray hair, not that its a bad thing. I thought he looked great.

So yeah, there's today's celebrity sighting...

Mackinac Island, MI

First a lesson: Mackinac is pronounced MAC-in-aw. Ok, now that we have that straight we can move on.

I was lucky enough to spend 2.5 days on this lovely island. The only way I've been able to describe it is Catalina crossed with St. Thomas. I mean, for all of those who have only been to Catalina, its what I think Catalina should be. Its clean, fairly priced, has yummy food and very friendly people. For those of you who have only been to St. Thomas, it has the same colonial feel in regards to the buildings but, unlike St. Thomas, there are no cars allowed, only bicycles and horses so its not nearly as crowded. Take the best part of both islands and you have Mackinac Island.

I dug this place. It was cool, a total pain to get to, but cool nonetheless. From Minneapolis, we had to drive across Wisconsin and Michigan to get there. Flying really wasn't possible and it still would have included renting a car and driving across Michigan. As far as I'm concerned, its the perfect revenge wedding location since it would involve planes, cars & boats to get there. For all of you who have made me cross the country for no good reason other than a view, suck it up.

Back to how much I dug this place. It is gorgeous. The island is 8.4 miles around, about 500 year-round residents, and TONS of history.

8.4 miles - We rented a tandem bike (yeah, we're dorks) and went for a spin. When you get about .2 miles away from the town, you feel like you're on another island. You have the lake for days on the left and wilderness on the right. There were houses here and there, but for the most part, the houses are on the center or the other side of the island. There were several obvious hiking trails and even more not so obvious. Biking around the island at about 5:30pm on a Wednesday evening afforded us most of the island to ourselves, which was quite a luxury unto itself. About 3/4s of the way through our ride we stumbled across Arch Rock. That was worth the hike (we went the difficult way) as the rock itself is very cool and the view is just amazing.

500 year round residents - So yeah, most of the people who work on the island, are seasonal. There were quite a few kids from other countries working, which begged the question, how did they hear about this odd little island? I meant to ask but never quite found the right opening. So, the housing was split into AMAZING houses, hotels, B&B's and these dorm sorts of places for the seasonal kids to stay. Don't get me wrong, the dorms were just like the B&B's in that they were converted houses done beautifully and several of them are right on the water...it was just a different vibe. But for the rest of the residents who own businesses and such what not on the island, they mainly live in the center of the island. And then all the AMAZING houses with the beach front property, we could only guess those were the sorts of places families had owned for years or the newly-monied MI people owned. They were beautiful, and many were already "closed up" for the season.

TONS of history - Most obvious, the fort is awesome and they really have done a great job with both the grounds and keeping it interesting to visitors. I'm not into history but I was really facinated by this place, much in the same way that I adore the War Rooms in London. Also, most of the houses and B&Bs and hotels are hundreds of years old. Now, they've been renovated many, many times over the years but the building itself is true to the original. It was pretty amazing staying in a hotel that was about 200 years old, especially since our room had a jacuzzi tub.

To wrap up, we had a great time. And, to experience Mackinac fully, it was manditory to buy the fudge. (They don't let you leave the island if you don't buy any.) And, I must admit, it was damn tastey.

The Golden Child

Ok, if you've seen the Eddie Murphy masterpiece The Golden Child read on. If you haven't, go onto the next blog post...

Ok, so you know that guy, he's a bad guy, who has this incredibly shrunken head. Litterally his face is like twice as small as it should be. Remember him? Well I saw him today outside of CVS and no I'm not kidding. And he had a girlfriend.

I LOVE L.A.

The day I lost my will to live

No, they didn't cancel Grey's Anatomy or America's Next Top Model. Its much, much worse than that. They opened Cusp in the Century City Mall. For those of you that haven't heard of it, its the Neiman Marcus version of Urban Outfitters. I could easily be happy with ANYTHING in this store. But, really, there's nothing I can afford. And I don't say that to sound melodramatic. It really is super-spendy. I'm keeping my eye on a super-cute 7 for all Mankind denim skirt (not yo mama's demin skirt, let me tell you)...that's about $325. There are some cute C&C striped cashmere sweaters that I put an order into Grandma to keep an eye out for. But yeah, pretty much EVERY clothing crisis ever imagined could be solved in this store.

If only I could afford it.

Its both why I can't handle living here and can't imagine living anywhere else.

Hmmm, better check my lottery tickets....

MN State Fair

First, go read this. Not only will you read a good wrap up of the fair, but you'll see me in my fabulous allergetic glory. Since that was written by someone who grew up in Minnesota and loved it there so much that he went screaming back earlier this year, I'll give more of an outsider's view of the fair. Here are my random observations:

Parking: Ok, when I heard that they had parking lots in all different parts of the city, miles & miles away from the fair, I thought that was cute...a nice convience, if you will. When I heard of another lot about 2 miles away, I thought, good use of the university parking, keep the crowds down at the actual fair. And then when I saw that all of that SOLD out and people who live across from the fairgrounds charge people to park on their lawns, I fully understood the magnitude of the fair.

Size Matters: Ok, this thing is huge, larger than life if you will. And, I'm not just saying that after not sleeping well for a week and then flying the redeye into Minneapolis. Its seriously big. And, for me to say that is something special since I'm from the land of nothing-phases-me-'cause-I've-already-seen-it-bigger-faster-and-more-expensive. Ok, once you get over the fact that its a) huge and b) you'll never see it all in one visit, you're good to get started.

Very Serious Event: Ok, I don't say that in a somber event sort of way, I say that in more of a Minnesotans take their fair very serious sort of way. This isn't like the L.A. County Fair that we all laugh at in a city-folk kind of way. Noooooo. The fair is No. 2 in the country and in their opinion, Texas cheats by putting their state fair at the same weekend as some huge game that everyone and their mother attends. So, Minnesotans console themselves knowing that they do have the best fair and that they are ranked No. 1 for food. So, don't diss the fair. You're bound to get your ass kicked for doing something like that.

Food: Ok, this is the reason I don't eat at Applebees or Chilis or any other place that tries to pass off fried food as good food. They just don't do it right. The MN state fair does it right. So, my suggestion is to save up all of your fried food cravings for a year and then eat until you cannot eat any more. OMG, so good. The blog I referenced above notes all the food I ate (other than the corn dog, but his looked better than the one I had so I was a wee bit jealous) so I won't go into that here.

Entertainment: They have scheduled entertainment but I just couldn't be bothered. With the crowds & all the people watching and just the random sightings, you really don't need to plan out your day. The oddest "entertainment" I saw were people watching people on the radio. And we're not talking aboug funny dog and pony sort of morning ha-ha radio, we're talking mellow political commentary on public stations. Very odd.

Rides: I don't know what I would do as a parent 'cause honestly, nothing looked safe there. And yet, any sort of shananigans would have made the evening news so I know in theory the rides were safe but...I don't know, maybe that's part of the thrill, to see if you'll survive.

So, yeah, that's my wrap up. Its huge, its crowded, its yummy and I can't wait until next year. I missed out on all the pet stuff. They had a whole section for dog adoption stuff. I got so into all the farm animals that I missed out on seeing all the puppies and such what not. That'll be next year.

Flyover Syndrome - Addendum

In 9 days I set foot in 4 states (5 if you count my starting point in California). Although I *loved* my vacation and will ramble on about different details in the next week or two, one thought came to me over & over during my tour of the Upper Midwest.

"Flyover."

I can say this after driving across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

I'm not saying the areas aren't pretty. They are. The scenery made the drive quite lovely. But, if it were at all possible to fly to our destinations (I'm sorry, what NWA was going to charge us doesn't count as possible), I would have voted to go that route. And again, I'm not saying it wasn't lovely, it really was. The company was fantastic, the Diet Coke was abundant, but, there was just, nothing. I mean, there was a plethora of gas stations and really small towns, but that was it. And the gas stations and small towns really did all look the same. And I was really watching them, hoping for something new and different, a little mom'n'pop cafe that looked yummy or maybe a cute shop. I mean, even if you live in a small town, don't you have to eat?

Sadly no. None of the cafes looked appealing and even the one we stopped at, packed with locals, was mediocre. (Of course I could be biased since, as we were finishing our food, a pack of very sophisticated girls came in, all lit up and started talking about how fabulous they are. "We're high maintenance, but we tip well." Yeah, I'll second the former and object to the latter.) There were, of course, maybe one or two towns that defy my generalization, but on the whole, I'm sticking with my statement.

Some other oddities that add to my flyover statement which fall into the category of stuff I never needed to know:

Motels: We drove across Michigan, and did a fair amount of driving along the coast. Ok, there are about a thousand small mom'n'pop motels. (Dreamland being our favorite.) Ok, great, but there was no one staying at any of them.

Adult Stores: Ok, for the entire trip I was looking for a Target. I didn't see ONE TARGET. Not ONE. I was very sad. I saw Walmarts & Shopkos (and for those of you in CA, I didn't misspell Shopko) and even two Pigley Wigleys but sadly no Targets. I did however see two HUGE Adult Superstores in Wisconsin. That was rather amusing. One was next door to a Christian Supply sort of place. We weren't sure exactly what sort of supplies Christians needed, but hey, Christians need supplies too, I guess.

Restrooms: Ok California and Arizona, take notes from your Midwest counterparts. The restrooms across the midwest, freakin' fantastic. They were clean AND well-stocked. OMG. No matter how small the town was or how random the gas station was, it was ALWAYS a nice bathroom. Praise Jesus. And thank you midwest restroom cleaners, you seriously made my trip that much nicer.