The Annual Pilgrimage

It may be just a hole in the wall, and it's not exactly in the classiest neighborhood, but this is THE place to go for middle eastern food in Minneapolis. Almost every year since 1995 I've gone there to spend a weekend with Lynda, a very dear friend I have known since high school. We both love gyros, falafel and hummus, so we start every visit with a pilgrimage to the Holy Land Deli!

We also went to a couple places that were totally new to me. Both are chain restaurants, but they haven't made it to the Green Bay market yet. The first was a brew pub called Granite City, where we had some really awesome burgers. The nice thing is that they offer a smaller version of all their burgers on the lunch menu, and they even let you substitute fresh fruit for the fries. Overall it was a great lunch! The next day we went to Baja Sol, which was also really good. I'd have to say Mexican food is near the top of my favorites list, right next to German, Italian and Middle Eastern. Believe me, I never went hungry anywhere in the world the Army sent me!

By now you're probably thinking that all we did all weekend was eat, but we were merely fueling ourselves for some serious power shopping. Here's a photo of Rosie checking out all my bargain scores ......


Honestly, this was all stuff I really needed. Well maybe not the two books I bought, but books are never a waste of money, right? Also, our coffeemaker was about to die any day and I found the programmable, auto shut-off one I really wanted - on sale! You set it up the night before and wake up to freshly brewed coffee keeping itself hot in a stainless steel carafe. How cool is that? And did you know that in Minnesota there is no sales tax on clothing? Just another good reason to stock up on some new sweaters for the winter if you ask me. I can justify anything!