Horsing Around

 


It's been a hard week with a lot of Big Bad Things happening, but  have spent the last three days at a conference and it was great!

The statewide preservation conference was a lot of fun, and I gained a ton of appreciation for New Ulm. My friend Chrissy and I stayed in a cute AirBnB right downtown, which made everything super-walkable. My presentation, on Pill Hill in Rochester (with the community leaders and city staff who really made it happen) went swimmingly.


I learned a ton in the various presentations (sometimes even when it was least expected) — my fellow preservationists are smart and doing so much! I got to experience Schell's taproom. I went out with tons of fun people to the Kaiserhoff Restaurant and the Grand Arts Center and the Black Frost Distillery. I got tons of time to spend casual but valuable time with folks talking about preservation issues and that was really important, and a lot of fun too. I got to go on a residential historic district tour by horse drawn carriage in the pouring rain.


I got to see the Wanda Gag house.


Thanks so much to so many great people I got to hang with, and especially to Chrissy for being so much fun!

--

Tonight, Patrick and I had to drop off B to see Hamilton with a bunch of theater kids, so we took the opportunity to go check out a speakeasy in Lakeville. It might look like any old Amoco convenience store from the outside, but if you're clever inside you can find a speakeasy, which was truly lovely and served great drinks.




So let's hear it for some varied experiences to make everything seem a little more fun!

(I guess you should always Attend the conference...)



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