On Friday Mrs. Schmitty said she was feeling a bit better so we venture out for a look at a local museum and some lunch.
Week took a nice walk through Rice Park and stopped to say "Hi" to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
After our walk we decided to head to the Shubert Club Museum. We had the honor of being the first members of the public to visit the brand new Museum. We arrived on the first day at their new location but didn't realize would be the first people to get a tour (minus members of the board and major donors). What a cool deal!
We got guided tour through the museum. It was really neat! They have a crazy floor to ceiling sculpture right as you walk in. It contains everything from oboes to African drums made from gourds. From there you make your way into the piano room. They have several really old pianos on display, even a few harpsichords. I think this was my favorite room. These instruments are really works of arts.
Click here to hear University of St. Thomas professor James Callahan playing the piano.
I am pretty sure wife's favorite room came next. It featured one of America's most impressive collections of hand-written letters and manuscripts from the world's great composers. It was really neat to see how people corresponded and what they we writing about. Also, it would appear, everybody used to have beautiful hand-writing. Not very many were written in English but the ones that weren't were translated.
From the manuscript room you have to walk down the hallway to the recital room. In this room they have a ribbon winding across the veiling with pictures of some of the famous musicians that that have played there. Mrs. Schmitty was not on the ribbon but, she has played there! The main focus in the room is the piano. It is an 1878 Bechstein piano that has been played by Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms, very cool.
The next room was full of old phonographs and music boxes. We were lucky enough to have some of the antiques played for us! I am sure they don't do that for everyone. These music players were very old but all still sounded very beautiful.
The last two rooms were not really my cup of tea. One featured Asian bells and drums, called Gamelan, and the other featured a crazy mixture of Frankenstein instruments. These were all weird instruments that had been mated together to form a new one; the harp-cello being an example. They were made by Arthur Ferris was a self-taught musical innovator who credited the angels with guiding his work. Right....
After our museum trip we set out on a quest to find a real delicatessen. After several submissions from friends on facebook and twitter we made our way Cecil's Deli near Ford Parkway in St. Paul. I ordered a bowl a sweet & sour cabbage borscht, the Mrs. ordered a cup of chili. We both gave the first course high ranking and my wife says their chili was better than mine. Next we ordered sandwiches. My wife had the Monte Cohen, smoked turkey, white turkey, aged Swiss, and special dressing on grilled white egg bread. I ordered hot corned beef with coleslaw on caraway rye that was the size of my head. The meal was fabulous! After lunch we went home and took naps, ah the ever elusive giant sammich and nap combo. Life doesn't get much better.
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