Last week, I had the opportunity to visit a state for the first time (which hasn’t happened in a long time). A project for 318 took me to a client in north-central Nebraska, which turned out to look a lot like southeast Minnesota. The towns we stayed in all had populations under 3500 people and all the people we met were very friendly.

In hindsight, it probably would have been quicker to drive, but we flew Air Tran to Omaha (via Milwaukee) and drove about three and a half hours from there. Lodging for this trip was the Super 8 in O’Neill and our Mazda 3 came from Enterprise. Not a perfect travel experience, but nothing too awful either. Side note: Budget at OMA rents all three current MINI models.

You know you are in a remote area of the country when the nearest Walmart is almost two hours away. AT&T’s cell coverage was surprising good, though, and it seemed like every restaurant had free wi-fi. We ate at all the local spots in O’Neill and Atkinston and I sampled the Nebraska beef more than once.

With Nebraska off the list, I’m down to 11 states left to visit. A drive from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast (via Kansas City) would cross off half of them, but I’m not sure when (or if) I’ll try that. Might be fun, though…

I’ve in the middle of a long training trip to California (more on that soon) and thanks to my brother and his wife, I got to spend Sunday at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. The weather was perfect – the sun burned off the early morning fog and temps were in the upper 60s with sunshine all afternoon.

Driving to Anaheim from the LAX side of town always seemed like too much work to me – today I took the 90 to the 405 to the 105 to the 605 to the 91 to the 5 to Disneyland Drive. Parking in the main resort parking area now costs $14, but I did get a close surface lot spot right next to the tram stop.

I arrived about 15 minutes before the 9:00AM official opening time, so I stopped at the La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney for a chocolate croissant and some cranberry juice ($7.74) before going through the main gate on the Disneyland side.

The first part of the day was spent hitting some of my favorites: Space Mountain, Matterhorn, It’s A Small World, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Jungle Cruise. Not much new to report: they are prepping for the return of Captain EO, Haunted Mansion was back to the original, non-Nightmare version, the Rivers of America were drained and the Jungle Cruise had a new (for me) piranha feature towards the end.

I had lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country (chicken sandwich, fries and a coke, $11.94) and did some shopping for a shirt Colleen wanted me to look for that she saw last June. The stores on Main Street were fun to go through, although I’ve decided you need to buy what you want when you see it, as every store seems to have unique things and size selections on more common items can vary wildly between locations. And even though it wasn’t terribly busy for a Sunday, this place moves some serious merchandise.

In the afternoon, I did a “park hop” over to the California Adventure side and got a Fast Pass for Soarin’ Over California. That must be one of the bigger successes in DCA, since the return time was about five hours later in the day. I set off from there to the Tower of Terror, which was incredible (as usual).

Much of DCA is under (re)construction, which created some tight confines in parts of the park. Walt Disney Imagineering had a great center set up, though, called the Blue Sky Cellar, which contained lots of information about their plans for the next few years (World of Color, Little Mermaid, Cars Land, etc.).

I walked around Paradise Pier and hit some rides I had never tried (Golden Zephyr, Maliboomer) and one I had (California Screamin’). The roller coaster was super-smooth this time and didn’t give me a headache (thankfully). DCA now has their own Toy Story Mania (like the one at Hollywood Studios in Florida) and the line was ridiculously long here as well, so I skipped it.

I took a break from the parks and walked over to Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Hotel. The World of Disney store didn’t really have anything different from what I saw in the parks and seems to pale in comparison to the one in Florida. The new D Street store was really awesome, though, and I almost walked out with two nerd-tastic retro shirts (Space Mountain era 1977 and a sweet Tron design).

I caught the monorail back to Tomorrowland, walked through a few stores in the castle and Frontierland, then went back to a store in New Orleans Square to buy this awesome Shag Haunted Mansion limited edition shirt:

How cool is that? I also stopped back at a store on Main Street for a different shirt for Colleen (the original one she wanted was nowhere to be found). Thankfully, they still had the size she wanted – I think it was the last one in the whole joint.

The fast pass was burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided to go back to DCA before heading out for the day. The information desk had no suggestions for an indoor, sit-down restaurant, so I went over to the Grand Californian Hotel and ate at the buffet served in the Storytellers Cafe. It wasn’t super great food, but it was comfortable, warm, quiet and away from the hustle and bustle of the parks.

After dinner, I used the fast pass, jumped on the tram back to the parking area and hit all of the freeways again in reverse order to get back to Venice. Fun times!

The week of birthday dinners started Sunday night when Colleen surprised me with a 5PM reservation at Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis, the Star Tribune’s 2009 Restaurant of the Year. I had read some of the reviews and was excited to check it out.

We found street parking directly across from their building at 800 North Washington Avenue. They also had valet parking available for $3, but with the meters not enforced on a Sunday, we just took an open spot.

The restaurant didn’t open until five and a fairly large crowd was waiting outside the locked doors. We were seated almost right away, though, and had a great table near the wine rack. The room has a lot of atmosphere, including a giant picture of Johnny Cash. How can you go wrong with that?

Our server was very friendly and informative. He helped us pick almost everything we ordered:

• Antipasti – Apple and Prosciutto with Gorgonzola Parmesan Dressing ($6)
• Bruschetta – Olivada and Goat Cheese ($7)
• Fresh Pasta – Fettucine Alfredo ($6) & Gnocchi with Cauliflower and Orange ($8)
• Secondi – Chicken ($18)
• Dessert – Butter Salted Caramel Crespelle ($6), Carrot Cake ($8)
• Cocktail – Poway Sunset ($9.50)

Being a picky eater, I wasn’t too sure about the antipasti or the bruschetta, but both were incredible. I’ve never seen apples sliced so thin and I’m a huge fan of prosciutto, so that is a dish I could eat every day. The fettucine was the best I’ve had outside of the original Alfredo’s, which is saying a lot. The Star Tribune story said the desserts were a weakness, but the caramel crespelle was a perfect end to a great meal.

The room was packed the entire time we were there, but the noise was never too bad. They do occasionally play music, but it was very much in the background. Bar La Grassa is a fun place to people watch, too, with a lot of diversity in the clientele.

Highly Recommended

Yesterday Colleen and I made our annual trek over to the Walker Art Center to see the British Television Advertising Awards in the beautiful McGuire Theater.

Before the show, we spent some time going through the galleries, including the new Benches & Binoculars exhibit. The layout reminded me of museums we saw in the UK and was well done. Be sure to pick up the handouts if you go – they have a lot of great info in them.

After the galleries, we had lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s 20.21, which was surprisingly crowded for that time of day. Colleen tried the tasting menu and selected pot stickers, salmon and chocolate cake (with a 20•21 bellini to drink). I had the Singapore style street noodles with masala braised short ribs and the cookie sampler for dessert. Pastry chef Corinne Sherbert helped us select the desserts and brought them to our table. They were all good, but I really liked the cheesecake brownies.

As for the awards, it seemed to be an average year. I had already seen the advertisement of the year online and didn’t think it was very good. As usual, the public service announcements were shocking and effective, while VW had some of my favorites:

The show lasts about 80 minutes and tickets are $10 for the general public ($8 for Walker members). The last screenings are on Saturday, January 2, but many of the remaining dates are already sold out.

Last night I took my mom to see the live stage production of It’s A Wonderful Life at the Saint Paul Hotel. My friend Phil Callen plays George Bailey in a cast that also includes Wild and Twins regular Jim Cunningham, Adena Brumer, Jennifer Edward-Hughes, Christopher Whiting and Ross Young. This is the fourth year of this production, but my first time seeing it.

The performances are held in the Promenade Ballroom on the main level of the hotel, with tables of eight people set up around the room. For the dinner performances, Executive Chef Lance Kapps created the following menu this year:

• First Course: Sliced Roasted Beets with Feta Cheese and Haricot Verts with Baby Greens served with Horseradish Vinaigrette
• Second Course: Chicken Breast filled with Spinach Mousse with Roasted Shallot Demi-Glace, Parmesan Risotto Cranberry Glazed Baby Carrots
• Third Course: Chocolate Dipped Ginger, Snap Mini Cranberry Trifle Martini, Candy Cane Chocolate-Raspberry Roulade

The food was excellent and the servers were swift and unobtrusive during the performance. An open bar was available in the foyer for drinks before the show and during the two short intermissions.

The performance itself was split into two parts: Christmas carols at the beginning, followed by the entire It’s A Wonderful Life play. The fictional radio station WBFR serves as the backdrop to the entire night and was reminiscent of watching A Prairie Home Companion – right down to the live sound effects performed by the very talented and funny Mr. Whiting and the radio notes from the audience read on stage after the second intermission.

The cast mingled with the audience during breaks and after the show, which was refreshing. Phil’s wife was there with her mother and I got to talk to Mr. Cunningham about the show I saw him in at Dudley Riggs a long, long time ago. He even remembered the name of the show, once I mentioned it had a lot of songs by Bread. Sex, Lies and Videogames was one funny show and was his first with that theater group.

It’s A Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play runs through December 23. There are only a few tickets left for selected performances, so check out the schedule and call 651-228-3860 if you want to see the 2009 edition of this new St. Paul tradition. The afternoon tea performances are $55 and the dinner shows are $70.

7MM It’s A Wonderful Life Photo Gallery

Colleen and I eloped 18 years ago today at the courthouse in downtown St. Paul (more pictures here).

We are planning to celebrate tonight with our first ever visit to Mancini’s for dinner, then maybe a movie at the Uptown theater. This is also the 23rd anniversary of our first date – a screening of the classic movie Three Amigos at the old Har Mar theaters.