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April 12, 2007 | 2 Comments

Dear Garrison,
This weekend I'm traveling to St. Paul with my family (wife and two children ages 8 and 11) to attend your live broadcast at the Fitz. This is a longstanding dream come true for all four of us and I'm wondering: are there any pre- and post-broadcast activities? Is it a merriment free-for-all at all bars and restaurants near the theatre before and after showtime, or is there a particular well-loved place people go to after the broadcast?

Byron M.
Chapel Hill, NC

First of all, there is snow on the ground here and it may be cold on Saturday, so dress warmly. The show starts around 4:45 and goes on the air at 5, and I imagine those kids will want to eat something pre-show. There's a nice Japanese restaurant, Sakura, a few blocks south of us on St. Peter Street, or an Italian joint Pazzaluna, from either of which you can walk a block to the high bluff of the Mississippi River, very much worth a look, and if it's not too cold and not too late, you could walk across the Wabasha Street bridge to the West Side. Of course you'll want to circle around by Rice Park and say hello to F. Scott Fitzgerald who is standing there in front of the old courthouse.

After the show, I always hang around and talk to people, so hang around. Some people like to go to the St. Paul Grill in the St. Paul Hotel afterward. That's the hotel where out of town guests stay — this week, Frigg, from Norway — and it's good food and there are big windows through which you can look out at the park in the dark with snow in it. Very pretty. The Science Museum is a stone's throw away, overlooking the river, and I think the St. Paul Cathedral up on the hill is always worth looking in. There is a popular Mass on Saturday night around the time of the show. You could hike along Summit Avenue and look at the big houses and when you got tired, you could take the Grand Avenue bus — Grand Avenue is parallel to Summit, a block south — downtown where (I imagine) your car will be parked or you'll be staying.

Hope you enjoy the show. I'll get to work on it right now and try to get it up to standards.

2 Comments

Karen Mincarelli | April 15, 2007 7:18 PM

What a gracious host you are! I will use the information in this letter for my dream trip to St. Paul for my 50th birthday in June. I want to see your show and stay at the St. Paul Hotel. I want to see the statue of F. Scott Fitzgerald whom I have admired since I was 17. My mother suggested I read The Great Gatsby and I was reluctant. The cover protrayed a badly illustrated character in a yellow hat in front of a Model T Ford. I lost all interest looking at that cover but her second greatest gift to me was telling me never to judge a book by its cover and so I am grateful I took her advice. I will take in Summit Ave. and Laurel Ave. and maybe drive to "Lake Wobegon" to see where through you my imagination has been taking me all these years. Thanks. Karen M. Lancaster, PA

James Lehman | April 22, 2007 8:55 PM

I saw the wonderful P.I.T.T.S. show on Friday the 20th. I was one of the out-of-place youths in the second row happy to meet you face-to-sneaker.

Thanks for your recommendation of Sakura. I was able to give some of my travelmates their first taste of Japanese cuisine. Dinner was so good we lost track of time and, bulging with fish and rice, sprinted to catch "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time."