Minneapolis, June 2022
Late this past June, my wife Anné was invited to speak as a part of an internship-team at the “ASEE” American Society of Engineering Education convention in Minneapolis, MN. Neither of us travel much, but with her program covering many of the costs involved and my having started a remote job, we decided it would be a fun trip for us both to go on.
I hadn’t written about or taken photos of a trip in many years now, but I did pack my camera, and it felt natural to pick up and shoot some photos again. You’ll see those sprinkled throughout this post, and while I didn’t take photographs of everything that I would’ve liked to looking back (a summery rooftop-Italian dinner likely could’ve used a snap or two), I’m just glad to have shot anything at all.
The Drive
The actual trip over was uneventful. It’s around six hours of highway driving from where we live, mostly through scenery that looked something like this:
I’d visited Wisconsin briefly last year to pick up a trundle-bed couch off Facebook Marketplace, but aside from that, both WI and MN were entirely new states to Anné and me. Unsurprisingly, they look not all that dissimilar to our home state of Michigan, which isn’t far away as another part of the US’s Midwest.
Upon driving into Minneapolis things did pick up quite a bit, with lanes being added onto the highway and several freeways intertwining to whisk folks around the city. The actual driving around Minneapolis reminded me a decent bit of driving around the more populous parts of the metro-Detroit area, but seeing as Anné and I live in a tiny college town nowadays it was a bit of a shock at first. So many lanes, cars, one-way streets, turns coming up too quickly, the list goes on. I did eventually acclimate to the pace of things, and felt better about some of the more assertive navigation required by the end of the trip.
Having arrived mid-afternoon, we spent some time meeting up with another member of Anné’s internship for dinner. While waiting for an open table, we checked out a sort of sunken-park built into a city block. It was about 25 feet below street level, sported many steps and benches, was ringed with different kinds of greenery, and held a skim-shallow wading fountain. The first of many green spaces that surprised me with their frequency around Minneapolis.
Sushi Train
And oh man — dinner! Food in general was a highlight of this trip. With Anné busy at the conference each day and me handling work remotely, that left evenings free for us to enjoy. I wish I’d photographed more of the food, but this meal from the evening we arrived will have to do.
Where we live in Michigan’s upper peninsula is fortunately one of the larger cities in our part of the state, so it has a Chinese place, a few Mexican-food restaurants, and even a sushi place of its own, too (though the grocery store’s sushi up here is nearly as good)! There’s definitely a few types of food we don’t get to eat a lot of upstate, and so Indian, Italian, Lobster, and Sushi were all things on our short list (though we didn’t manage to have Thai or Vietnamese this time).
Our dinner that first evening in the city was at a place called Sushi Train, which was a dining experience unlike any other I’ve had. Rather than order a few sushi rolls off a menu to be prepared for you, this place sported a dedicated conveyor belt of freshly-made sushi that trailed through the entire restaurant and past your table setting. Each small plate of sushi told you what it was with a label, denoted its pricing via color, and all one needed to begin eating was to pick something up and have it. Once the meal was over they would tally up the plates you’d consumed for your bill. It was definitely a case where smaller portions per roll and the ease of eating led to it being all too easy to rack up a huge tab.
While leaving we saw a table that had clearly been there awhile with a stack or two of plates almost as tall as they were while seated! We mused that it might be a great time to come and sit a long while, reading a book or otherwise catching up with a good friend for hours, though the gradual allure of sushi might make such an idea… quite expensive.
The sushi itself was quite good. I’ve had slightly fresher-tasting fish or fancier rolls elsewhere, but there was a large variety of both sushi and nigiri to choose from as they cycled by. There were a few more general sides, too, like edamame, seaweed salad, and even a peanut butter and jelly “roll” (they were more like “bites”, but it was a cute presentation all the same). Just about any type of sushi with eel is some of my favorite, and this place delivered it both in roll and nigiri form. I was a happy customer.
Flock
One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to find neat places to sit and use a computer. I couldn’t tell you exactly why, aside that I really like using computers, and getting to use them on-the-go and in a new place is sort of exhilarating for me still. All the hardware and software you’ve spent time selecting there with you, but out in a new place removed from the troubleshooting security of a home setup’s spare parts, extra drives, fallback machines, and reliable power and internet. Sort of like a nerdy little adventure, I suppose.
There’s something that’s always slightly bothered me about this brand of nerdy excursion, and has kept me from being able to feel fully justified about it. I spent time in cafes editing photographs or writing old blog posts in years gone by while on the occasional trip, but I’ve never had a job or work that I could use as part of my reasoning for holing up on a computer somewhere while others traveling might’ve wanted to bask on a beach or visit a landmark. That is, until now.
This summer I’ve been trialing doing some remote work for the small mechanical keyboard company ZSA. They make the ErgoDox EZ, the Planck EZ, and Moonlander keyboards, and I’ve been working there as one of a few folks who interface with customers both for more traditional order support, and more organic tech support and recommendations. It’s been pretty neat (and I may blog more about it sometime)!
This trip coincided with the week or two after I’d finally received a Moonlander of my own, and I’d only just begun learning how to type on it. The board being split was already a little weird for some of my less-disciplined typing habits, but it had keys in straight ortholinear columns instead of staggered rows, and multiple layers of keys to remember instead of only shift. It really was totally re-learning how I type.
In any case, having actual work to do on this trip and wanting to continue practicing that new keyboard’s layout meant that I felt a little cagey about the idea of relying on hopping around various cafes in the Minneapolis area. Sure, I’d be swimming in a veritable sea of great coffee in many kinds of brews from various shops, but I didn’t want to worry about having enough space for my setup, or how I’d need to pack the entire kit up every time I needed to use the bathroom — having had all those delicious cups of joe’. Thankfully, the local co-working space Flock was just what I needed.
Only about a 10 minute drive from our hotel, Flock is located in Minneapolis’s Whittier neighborhood, which felt a lot closer to some of the smaller metro downtowns I’m familiar with back in Michigan. The co-working space itself is nestled into a neighborhood not far from the main street’s restaurants and cafes, and was yet another place I was thankful to find a surprising amount of greenery. Flock’s driveway was ringed with tall fir bushes, the building was covered in vines, and a smattering of flowers dotted around some beds. I got there early on my first day visiting the space, and couldn’t help but enjoy sitting there in the summer morning with the plants.
Now back to the computers. Flock offered a variety of working spaces from simple tables like the ones you’d find in a coffee shop, to more built-out full desk spaces for folks in need of renting a more dedicated office space. I was thankful that they let me purchase a few single day passes and not some kind of weekly/monthly membership, as I just wasn’t going to be in town that long — nice and flexible. Signing up for a longer-term access membership would surely be more economical over time, but individual days worked well for me.
To be totally candid, I felt a little odd working from a coworking space the first day — like I was still a teenager enjoying using their computer among the adults getting actual work done, but… that’s not the case anymore. I did have work that needed doing, and it was genuinely nice to have a quiet, spacious place to do it in where I didn’t feel like I constantly had to be watching to make sure my stuff wasn’t stolen. It also felt nice to have a small “morning routine” of getting up and driving over to Flock after having had some breakfast at our hotel. It felt like a small taste of what a big-city morning might be like if one were to actually live and work there. I really enjoy getting to have small “lived experiences” in a new location like that, rather than only hitting up the “must-see” sites. I’m glad my remote work gives me a justification to slip into a routine while traveling, and it was a neat experience while in MN.
Steelcase Think
And now, for a nerdy aside about chairs.
A few years ago after having started streaming regularly, I spent some time researching ergonomic chairs for the first time and fell in love with some of the designs from brands like Herman Miller and Steelcase. Chairs like these had ergonomic comfort, adjust-ability, were well made, and often were designed to look as striking as they were comfy. The only problem with them, of course, being that they often cost nearly $1000US — way too much for a then-rock climbing gym instructor / barista’s hourly rate to justify.
Thankfully, I was living near metro Detroit at the time, and after a few months of scoping out pricing online I was able to snag a used Herman Miller Mirra 1 and Aeron Classic for Anné and me to use (both for around only $100). Since then they’ve been making both of our long hours in front of computers at home far more comfortable. Particularly for my Twitch streaming, I don’t think I could put in the kind of hours I do (about 25-30 hours every week) without a chair designed to promote proper posture and allow for adjustments to fit different desks, arm positions, etc.
Jump forward several years, with me now working full time for ZSA and still streaming, and I’m now more thankful than ever to have my reliable Mirra 1. It’s genuinely one of my favorite purchases of the last few years, and a tremendous value. Spending that much time holed up in my office away from Anné has felt a bit stuffy, though, and I’d been planning to find a way to spend more time in the rest of the apartment with her. This brings us back to Minneapolis, and my months-long plan to snag another task chair while visiting that would allow for me to work comfortably in multiple parts of our apartment back home.
I’d been watching chair listings for weeks before our arrival in Minneapolis, and by the time we’d arrived in the twin-cities area I’d narrowed down my search to an office that was in the process of clearing out much of their furniture since having gone remote during the pandemic. There were listings for chairs I’d tried before like the Mirra 1, Aeron, and Steelcase Leap, but the Steelcase Think stuck out to me for being a good deal cheaper than the other chairs on offer around MN, for its slightly smaller size, and for its more straightforward adjustments. The Think is positioned as a kind of mid-ranged model in Steelcase’s offerings, so it’s not quite as substantially built or as adjustable as something like their Leap or Gesture chairs. For what will amount to a secondary desk chair, I thought that sounded just fine.
The office space must’ve had close to 30 Think chairs they were trying to sell off. Some had slightly different configurations like a mesh back, leather seatpan, or Steelcase’s 4-way adjustable armrests — all of which I’d been eying as features I might want. I found only a single chair with the Think’s optional lumbar support insert, though unfortunately that specific chair had optioned out of the awesome armrests, instead. I deliberated for a bit on if I’d rather have nicer adjustments for my elbows or for my back, before thankfully realizing that the lumbar for the Think 1 chair was fairly simple to swap out. I managed to transfer the lumbar to another chair that did have 4-way arms, and frankenstein-ed together the best chair I could from what was there. The office manager facilitating the local sales was kind enough to let me kick in a few extra dollars for having salvaged the parts together, and with that we were on our way. The Think’s smaller size and light weight made it easy to transport back to our hotel, and much to Anné’s chagrin I brought the chair through the lobby and up to our room. I didn’t mind looking slightly odd in the process, I had to try it out!
I may write more about the few task chair options I’ve tried some other time (the Mirra 1 really does deserve more praise online), but suffice to say that the Think is quite comfortable, even as it doesn’t allow for quite the same degree of tension-adjustment and tilt control as something like the Mirra or the Leap does. It’s counter-weight based tension does feel a good deal firmer than I usually keep the resistance on my Mirra, but I’ve spent a few days working from the Think now, and I’m quite happy with it as a chair to use away from my main desk.
I can’t recommend secondhand task chairs enough. So much more comfortable than the kinds of chairs you’d find at bigbox stores or on Amazon, and potentially cheaper, too — with a good amount of patience and the right find online. Do your back a favor and look into one if you do any real amount of sitting in front of a computer. It’s worth the effort.
Back home
Speaking of sitting at home, that’s of course where I am now. Anné wrapped up her conference on our fourth day in the city, and we drove our way back through the many Wisconsin fields to Michigan again. I think we both enjoyed getting to see a new place and travel together, despite both having responsibilities during the day. It’s always neat visiting a place so wildly different from one’s day-to-day, and actually having work to get done while being in a new place was something I’d looked forward to for awhile now — it didn’t disappoint. I’m so grateful for the blessing a remote work job has been, and will continue to be as Anné searches for a job next year.
On that note of being grateful; after the bustle of the city and the long hours driving in the car (both downtown and on the highway), arriving home to our quiet apartment in a small town where everything is less than 5 minutes away felt like releasing a breath you didn’t realize you were holding. Travel is neat, but home sure is nice, too.