Al Franken Sighting!!

My wife and I, while navigating downtown Minneapolis, ran into (not over, although the thought crossed my mind) none other than Air America's own Al Franken. He was looking a bit more gray, a bit more disheveled and sporting a backpack while standing on the corner, no doubt spouting lies and other garbage, just off Hennepin Avenue.

My wife noticed him first saying, "Wow, that guy looks like Al Franken." I said "That is Al Franken." Note: He looks nothing like the picture above. I kept driving and, honestly, I am surprised I even remember the brief encounter. Maybe a nice gallon of prune juice and an Ex-Lax will help me purge the memory from my system.

St. Louis Missouri

This is a new realm for me. Never before have I reviewed an entire city. Actually, I was only in downtown St. Louis so it was not the ENTIRE city.

Downtown St. Louis is an arid, desolate wasteland. There is nothing. The first day I was there I asked about finding a movie theatre. They looked at me like I was from another galaxy. I found the nearest theatre to be 10 miles away.

In the first hour I was approached by two nice young men asking for change for a $10 bill. So I opened my wallet and was beat over the head and robbed. Not really, but that would have happened. How dumb do I look. 30 minutes later I was asked if I had any change. I asked "Change of underwear, change of mind? What kind of change?" He left me alone. He probably thought I was crazier that he.

At one point in my trip I went to "The Mall". It was two blocks from my hotel and is a four story mall with a lot of shops and food...100 years ago. Now there are five stores open and one restaraunt in the food court. There is also a ghetto Walgreens on the fourth floor. No escaltors and one dirty elevator is all there was to get up there. I sacraficed...I needed munchies and batteries.

I stayed at the Renaissance Grand Hotel. This is a very nice hotel with very nice ammenities for about $149/night. Good food and good service with clean rooms in a lousy location. It is the main stay place for any convention at the Americas Center so I guess it needs to be where it is.

The glutton for punishment that I am, I wandered out of my hotel and 10 blocks away to go to dinner at an Italian restaraunt. The food was fine, nothing special. On the way back I saw two horse drawn carriages and no cars and no people. St. Louis: Population 348,000 people and on a Saturday night, for 10 blocks I see no one? Are they in their caves at night or what?

I also visited the Arch. The arch is cool but getting up to the observation deck is another barrel of monkeys. $10 gets you the opportunity to be sandwiched in with four other people in a space the size of dixie cup. It is an egg shaped "pod" that elevates you 600+ feet to the top where another 1000 people are crammed onto the observation deck trying to look out of rectangular port holes located at a height where your knees have a good view of the city.

Overall St. Louis was OK at best. Weird mostly, but if you can get past the weirdness there are some nice buildings and cool things to see.

Royal Pacific Resort, Orlando

Submitted by Doug Kindseth:

Last week we took our 10 year old granddaughter to the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios theme park in Orlando Fl. Aside from the incongruity of a pacific theme on the east coast our granddaughter enjoyed the pool immensly. The rest of the shebang, hotel, park(s) etc were pretty much a bore, a very expensive bore at that.
The hotel was $275 per night for a Days Inn size room that was slightly shabby and marginally dirty. Not hugely shabby or dirty, just slightly so. The food was a joke, very expensive and tastless to the point that we were angry about it. The Hamburgers at the poolside "shack" were actually quite good, and ironically were the only reasonably priced pieces of food available. The "gourmet" restaurants were uniformally bad, but with poor service to make up for it.
The parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure were ok but were about as standard as can be with the usual rides abundant at any park. The Dualing Dragons ride was worth the price, however, and it alone made the trip. It is a absolutely great ride and you should bring along clean underwear for this one because it will make you gasp. My daughter and I were the only two with the cajones to ride this one and we were weakneed when we finished. Terrific fun!!!
Overall the 4 days there were ok. Very overpriced, VERY overpriced but if you have budgeted for it it can be fun, especially the parks. I would stay in a nearby hotel at a much reduced overnight rate but in central Florida touristrap land they will get you coming or going, so be prepared to spend money any way you go.