The Pleasures of Minneapolis Saint Paul

I recently had an opportunity to visit the Twin Cities again and update my article on the "quality of life" vision of these two cities.  Of particular interest to travelers is the developing Riverfront District of Minneapolis, which now has a Mill City Museum, explaining the flour milling story.  You can walk out on the Stone Arch Bridge and see the present configuration of St. Anthony Falls, the only cataract of rushing water on the entire Mississippi.  Because this waterfall could be harnessed to create mechanical power, flour mills were built in Minneapolis, and the city became the flour milling capital of the world.  Adjacent to the Mill City Museum is the Guthrie Theater.  I enjoyed dinner in its Cue restaurant and then saw a performance of 1776.  The Guthrie is one of the outstanding repertory companies now flourishing.  One specialty of Minneapolis, incidentally, is fine dining in its major cultural venues.  The other restaurant I savored was Wolfgang Puck's 20-21 in the Walker Art Gallery.  The Walker now hosts a special exhibit about Picasso's influence on American art .