Maple Plain Made my Afternoon

Argh! Strip malls! Too many strip malls! Another Starbucks. Panera. Brugger's. Ugh!

For the past two weeks, I've been in and out of these places meeting folks I'm writing stories about.

Starbucks and the like always make for good meeting places when planning an interview with a stranger. The chains are on key intersections, obviously marked, well lit and well attended. Or in other words, easy and safe.

But by noon today, I'd had enough. Eight such meetings in the past ten days had sent me over the suburban edge. I needed OUT!

I decided to head for the small town of Maple Plain.

It's not too far from my house, maybe half an hour away, but somehow it has escaped urbanization and standardization. Plus, I'd been meaning to get out that way.

I stopped by Kathie's Finds, a funky, eclectic boutique in an old creamery.

Kathie was there, chatting with everyone, and some how I got invited into the back of the building to an old part of the creamery in disrepair. The owners are getting ready to fix it up and expand their store.

While on this "behind the scenes" tour, I also got to meet Kathie's four dogs -- two toy poodles and two great danes -- all of them rescue animals.

Next, I headed "downtown" to The Fairy Garden, a business run out of an old Episcopalian church.

And then I hit up Web of Charlotte, a boutique liberally sprinkled with pictures of pigs. The owner, I learned, named the shop after her deceased but dearly loved pot bellied pig, Charlotte. Hence the pigs.

The only thing that could have made my day any better would have been a tour of the Maple Plain Museum. Sadly, it was closed.

Even if it had been open, though, my tour surely would have only taken two minutes. The museum is an itty-bitty little building smaller than my bedroom.

Nevertheless, Maple Plain, even in its semi-run down, over-looked state, was a total pick me up and the perfect remedy to my suburban frustration.