Mermaids are real. One lives in Minnesota.
Hope McAllister had enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Training for amphibious and expeditionary warfare is hard work, and our hero was feeling a bit burned out after waking up at 0400 hours every day. In her few free moments Hope liked to unwind while looking at photos on Instagram – particularly those of mermaids.
Two tickets to paradise. That Eddie Money oldie hummed through my mind all morning as I cheerily dressed for a Sunday brunch aboard Paradise Charter Cruises’ boat on Lake Minnetonka. The weather was cool and overcast skies threatened rain, but nothing was going to discourage me from going. After a long year of pandemic isolation and six months of cold weather, I was desperate for a good time out with my partner. This brunch cruise offered a perfect launchpad back into life – an affordable luxury just a few minutes from home. It turns out I need not have worried at all. Perfect weather is not required for a pleasant time on a Paradise cruise.
If Jessica Huang’s creations don’t magically come to life in the middle of the night and go on heartwarming adventures together, then they really ought to start doing so. Any one of the St. Paul-based artist’s creatures would look right at home in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood of Make-Believe, dealing with some inconvenient natural phenomenon in the Hundred Acre Wood, or waiting for Alice to happen by them in Wonderland so they could shatter her ego with a cryptic allegory.
“I hope there’s pie for breakfast, Neighbor Stone.”
-The Devil and Daniel Webster
Pies have never been a small part of Braham’s social scene. They are social currency in the town of 1,800, where a gathering of any size has traditionally called for pie. To make an exemplary pie is a badge of honor in Braham.
Some things are okay to cheap out on. A gas station hot dog will do just fine when you’re not going to make it until dinner, and a toddler is quickly going to figure out how to ruin any shirt you put on them.
Minnesotans are the masters of lakes. We skate and goaltend, swim and boat, surf the North Shore and bother the fish all year round. When someone invents a new way to enjoy our profusion of lakes, Minnesotans must master it too.