Why Everybody Loves Winona, a Blog

As summer draws into fall I am especially appreciative of a growing commodity in Winona, and the thing I might miss the most once the snow flies: outdoor patios.

I swear, it used to be that if you wanted to eat or have a drink outside in Winona you had to sit on your car in the parking lot. It might have been that the city was stingy with permits, or it might have been that restaurant and bar owners were leery about sinking money into square footage that would only get used for half the year, or maybe it was a little bit of both. But for a long, long time in Winona we were relegated to the great indoors when we wanted to get out in public.

But no longer , and I am oh so thrilled to take you on a little walking tour of my favorite patios in Winona:

Green Mill – perhaps the grandfather of outdoor restaurant dining in Winona – offers a lovely view of Sugar Loaf and sunsets on its pretty wrap-around porch. Good food, great wine list, interesting people watching – this place hits the spot more often than not for me.

Signatures – those not golfing at the Bridges might forget that on the back side of this historic restaurant is a breathtakingly beautiful patio that offers about the best views one can get in Winona. With flower beds, expansive views, sunsets and a killer wine list, it is quite possibly Winona’s best-kept secret on the patio tour.

Mangos – my new favorite patio when I want to nosh on something interesting in a festive, friendly place. The people are sweet, the food is great, and it’s hard to beat watching the sun set with a big fat margarita in your hand.

Minnesota Marine Art Museum – kind of like Brigadoon, this lively patio for drinks and a bite to eat only appears on Tuesdays throughout the summer and into September, but this is a stop on the tour worth working your schedule around for. The riverwalk is always available for a contemplative stroll along the banks of the Mississippi, but each Tuesday it springs to life during happy hour, and when it does there isn’t a better spot to get outdoors in Winona.

Jefferson Pub and Grill – a standing ovation for the patio addition at Jefferson’s which is now an awesome outdoor spot for a bite to eat before a movie or after a stroll through Levy Park. And the walleye sandwich is to die for.

Lakeview Drive Inn – of course. Across the street from Lake Park, Lakeview is a fun spot for a burger and an ice cream treat. And while you can eat in your car with the help of a good, old fashioned carhop, they also have some tables if you’d rather just sit outside.

Ed’s [no name] Bar – no secret that’s about my favorite place to see and be seen in Winona, but maybe a little more of a secret that they have a nice, big outdoor space attached where you may even find a fire burning in the outdoor fireplace. And the wine special on Wednesday nights is the best deal you will find in Winona, anywhere, ever.

The outdoor patio walking tour would not be complete without mentioning some of the quicker-fare options like Culvers, Godfathers, Schniepps, even Westgate Bowl has a couple of tables outside.There might be others, and if I’ve missed you I’ll find you, because I’m a junkie for sitting outside on these gorgeous days.

And for the record, I don’t really think you should try this as a walking tour, per say, unless you’ve got all day, because this tour stretches from one end of Winona to the other. But when you’re ready to get outside, no matter where you are in this great river metropolis, there is somewhere to sit yourself down and enjoy the view.

A view from the riverwalk at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum

You know, when I moved to Winona 16 years ago, the chief complaint I heard from everyone was that there was no fine dining in Winona. At the time it was pretty much true – if you wanted a linen napkin you were getting in the car and heading for Wisconsin.

There was, of course, the Winona Country Club, a beautiful private enterprise tucked in a valley just on the edge of Winona. But the thing was, you weren’t eating at the Country Club unless you were a member or a guest of one, and plenty of Winona’s regular folk who just wanted a little good food weren’t.

Something kind of magical for Winona happened a few years ago, though I think some people still don’t realize it. The Winona Country Club transformed itself into Winona Golf and Dining, which doesn’t sound like a big whoop-de-doo until you know what that *meant.* No longer was this jewel shielded by the invisible gates of privacy – for the first time in history the doors were flung wide to all comers and oh man, I’m there.

Now the restaurant is called Signatures, and any Winonan can sit on its elegant porch and gaze off at the rolling green of the golf course with deer prancing around on it (seriously) and song birds flitting by while polite servers bring you another mint julep. I’m just kidding about the mint julep, I don’t even know if they make them there, but it sounded like something wealthy folk who sat out there in the 1920s would have drank.

The place has come a long way since the 1920s, besides the fact that it is now a public restaurant. There is no more swimming pool but there is a sunny patio with brilliant gardens and a spectacular view. And there is no more “men’s” room for cigars and brandy – ladies can have all the cigars and brandy they want in there too. Haha, okay, kidding. You can’t smoke cigars indoors in Minnesota anymore.

The one thing that is probably exactly the same as 80 years ago or so is that the food there is local, like right next door local. Chef Doug grows an herb assortment outside the back door, and many of the ingredients in his signature dishes come from growers around Winona.

It would be hard for me to overstate how much I love the food out there… I’ve just never had a bad meal no matter what was being thrown at Doug. Mediterranean theme? Okay. Venetian? No problem. I was out there a couple of weeks ago for the Winona Community Foundation annual dinner – a celebration with a Taste of Brazil theme. Now, I’ve never had Brazilian food, but if it tastes like what those servers brought me I’m in. Skewers of grilled meat, salads, polenta, potatoes, the spread went on and on – and these amazing little cheese rolls that we sent our server back for more of. I mean come on, they were *warm*, and I could actually hear myself getting fatter but I didn’t care – it was the best thing I’d tasted in forever. If there had been another basket I would have put them in my purse. Okay, probably not, but they were really good.

I swear, if you get in your car and drive to La Crosse looking for a nice place to eat you’re crazy. Guess what, Winona: There IS fine dining here, a place that puts every other restaurant in 50 miles on notice. Winona is on the Foodie Map, and restaurant reviewers are raving, the people who discover it are raving, I’m raving… wouldn’t you love to find something new to rave about too? This, my friends, is it. Thanks Doug and Dave and gang for an awesome place with linen napkins and everything good that goes with it.

Gone fishing...

This town is so cool. Everybody has Fridays, right? Yeah, big deal. Winona takes that whole Friday thing to a new level with its Fringe Fridays, occasional cut-loose-and-get-around-town days that spring up to fill art galleries and coffee houses and local haunts with stuff, stuff and more stuff.

Last Friday was just such a day, the kind of day with so much going on that I wished I could clone myself. And quit my day job. Okay, not really, because I kind of need that, but seriously, who WOULDN’T want to sit and Blooming Grounds and decorate cupcakes on a Friday afternoon and then eat them. Yeah.

There was so much going on Friday that I couldn’t even keep track of it all — it wasn’t a matter of finding where there was something, it was a question of where there wasn’t. The event was dubbed Flooded River Fringe Friday because, aside from the fact that we’re a little flooded down here in these parts right now, you couldn’t swing a stick and not hit a musician, an artist or a poet in Winona that day. But please don’t try that – the stick swinging part I mean, because, well, it’s mean, and you could hurt somebody. Just trust me on this one.

I have to take my hat off to the group behind all this, or groups, I should say. The instigator is the brain trust of the Frozen River Film Festival – Crystal Hegge, who I ran into at the tail end of Fringe Friday listening to Gospel Gossip at Ed’s (no name) Bar. There’s a chick who needs to be cloned – how she kept those juggling pins in the air all day long I have no idea.

But while the impetus may come from Frozen River, the action comes from the growing number of artists and businesses in town who have taken up the mantra that it is time to reinvent this river town into a music mecca.

Truth is, they’re doing a pretty good job. Crystal and I were ruminating about a few years ago when on any given night you were unlikely to find live music anywhere, much less a choice between places. Aside from occasional coffee house performances and bands at The Bar in Goodview there really wasn’t much of anything. Nothing against coffee house singers or foot-stomping in Goodview, but Winona needed more.

At the same time, a curious thing was happening in town. Maybe it was because of the Great River Shakespeare Festival or the Minnesota Marine Art Museum or the Beethoven Festival or Frozen River or those fabulous blue heron statues in the Blue Heron Project, or maybe it was a mystifying twist in people’s psyche, but people started talking about art. More artists were hanging out shingles, more musicians made themselves known, and Winona was starting to take on the vibe of a really cool place.

What happened last Friday wouldn’t have been in the faintest imagination of people here four years ago. Galleries all over town opened their doors for musical performances and socializing, coffee houses and bars hosted full line-ups too, even Yarnology, a trendy little knitting shop, had music. Seven Hawks Vineyard donated wine that was given away, photographer Shannon Porter (my brutha from anutha mutha – just ask him) took free Fringy Photos, Bluff Country Co-op donated proceeds, Beno’s Deli gave double punches… Oh yeah and there were poets and readings and a midnight showing of a film — I’m telling you, this town was humming.

I love, love, love what this coming together of great minds is doing to Winona. What is so incredible, so amazing about the success of it all is that it completely organic – from the people for the people. There is no committee at City Hall or the Chamber of Commerce pushing this effort forward, it is bubbling up from people who live, work and play here who really, really want this town to be a little more awesome. I love you guys. Thanks for giving me a fun town to live in. And please, please tell me when the next Fringe Friday is, and tell my boss I’ll be sick that day.

Stay in touch with Fringe Friday events here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fringe-Friday-Winona/114162715264302#!/pages/Fringe-Friday-Winona/114162715264302

One of the fabulous birds of the Blue Heron Project

So I was at a little shindig this week at the Winona County History Center with about the biggest group of tourism movers and shakers this community has seen, and in between meatballs and Summit we paused to give a community hug to our sweetheart, the Great River Shakespeare Festival.

GRSF walked out that night with the Visit Winona Tourism Award, an annual nod to the entity that best embodies the spirit of community tourism.

After seven seasons there is no question that Winona has a love affair with Shakespeare, but it’s not because they sweep into town each summer and put on some plays that we like. Well, that’s a little bit of the reason why, but it’s just a slice of the Shakespeare pie that Winona loves to devour. Okay, weird analogy, but I haven’t finished my first cup of coffee yet so my caffeine-deprived brain can’t come up with something better. And I haven’t eaten carbs for a week so I must be craving pie.  But let’s focus…

Winona loves GRSF because GRSF loves Winona back in ways that make this community more vibrant, more interesting, and, well, more fun to visit. Those visitors, who come by the thousands each season for some Shakespeare, pump cheerful tourism dollars into our restaurants and hotels and shops, and stop to visit some of our other attractions like the Minnesota Marine Art Museum while they’re here. For the community it is like being infused with rich plasma, or probably gasoline, which I think is more expensive than plasma right now.

But even visitors don’t just come for the plays, they come for the Shakespeare Experience, and if you haven’t had it, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Here are a few of my favorite things about the Shakespeare Experience:

Concerts on the green. GRSF throws these cool little parties outdoors near the theater, and everyone, whether they are headed for a play or not, is invited for free. Sometimes they turn it into a picnic, which even non-play-goers can eat at for a couple bucks, and other times it’s just music and people and fun.

The Front Porch Series. GRSF is making us smarter by bringing in all kinds of speakers who talk about not just theater but the world and all sorts of interesting topics. Oh yeah and guess what? If they aren’t free they are just $10 – which is soooooo cheap for what you’re getting.

Access. I can actually afford to go to these plays, which is saying something. GRSF has regular ticket prices of $20 to $40, but also has $10 Tuesdays, student rush tickets, and even gives bundles of tickets to local libraries to give away for FREE. Who can’t afford that? On a Saturday night $40 will get you in the front row, and I recommend the front row, which leads me to my next reason.

Chris Gerson is hot. I’m just sayin. As one of the core actors for past GRSF seasons he has become a darling in his own right in Winona, and though they haven’t announced the cast for this year yet, I think I speak for all women (and a few men) when I say we hope he will be back. Yes, yes, we know he’s married to a beautiful girl who also happens to be with GRSF, but he’s still fun to watch. Okay, I admit that thing he did with his back in The Tempest gave me the creeps, but I’m over it.

All kidding aside (you’re right, I was only kinda kidding), the actors for GRSF make this place their home for months and besides mingling with the locals they give a little something back in other ways too. Like… in a couple of months I and a handful of others will have dinner with two of GRSF’s actors (Chris Gerson??!!) (kidding – please don’t get a restraining order against me) because GRSF donated it as an auction item to Big Brothers Big Sisters Taste of Winona. We will be noshing on Chef Doug’s food at Signatures (also donated) with the actors because we won the item in the auction. Seriously, how cool is that? These actors are busy and they don’t have to give up their precious free time but they do, because this has become their community too.

There is more, so much more, to Winona’s love affair with Shakespeare, the summer learning programs for youth and the Friends of Will coffee talks and the time the company gives to local schools, but really, you need to just come experience it for yourself.

Go here to find out more: http://www.grsf.org  I promise by the time you leave you’ll be in love too

…I went through Winona to a bar with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain… (Okay, I took some liberties with this America song, and, yes, I crack myself up, because really, it’s been raining here, and really, this bar has no name)

Wellll, kind of. As the story goes, Ed Hoffman opened a cool little speakeasy in 2007 in downtown Winona, but the place was finished being remodeled before he had finished noodling around what he would call it. So he opened anyway, with just a Prohibition-looking sign that featured a liquor bottle with XXX across it, a guitar, and a feather (okay, I don’t know why a feather, but hey, he’s an artist, and the sign got the point across).

In what has to be the most complete act of faith ever, he unlocked the door and opened for business without a name, with nothing really except some word of mouth from people in the know.

But it turns out this place is so cool it doesn’t need a name. Slowly but steadily people started to wander in, having heard about Ed’s live music or his urban palate of micro brews or the moody decor that is a deliberate blend of Victorian splendor, retro glamor and warehouse district grunge. Yeah, you kind of have to see it to get it, but trust me, it’s pretty cool.

Fast forward four years: The bar still has no official name and has evolved to be known as Ed’s (no name) Bar. It is the heartbeat of Winona’s music scene and the darling of a cross section of people so wide you could never list all their walks of life. On any given night, old timers sip Grain Belt at the bar while young guns sample the latest IPA, or vice versa, and the elbow rubbing is the coolest in town.

And I mean cool. On Friday night, there was a guy with a Mohawk on one side of me, a museum curator on the other, and a 70-year-old guy in front of me telling me why he loved the IPA on tap. I mean seriously, where else can you go that you can change the conversation and the vibe by 180 degrees just by turning around? On Friday the joint was jumping with a funkadelic DJ, Saturday is the 80s Prom, and next weekend the bar will play host to a full line up of diverse musicians coming to town for the Midwest Music Fest. On the calendar going forward is everything from metal to gospel, with beer tasting nights, comedians, readings, you name it. Ed’s events fill up Winona’s dance card in a way no place in town has done before, and Winona is loving it.

Now that the weather is nice, the fenced in garden out back with it’s big clay fire pit will become the city’s hot spot for a beer under the stars, or a glass of wine, or a bottle of wine, which you can buy at Ed’s instead of going back for a bunch of glasses. Now don’t go there thinking you need to drink a whole bottle of wine, and if you do for God’s sake don’t drive, but I’m just saying it’s an option if you are with FRIENDS. But hey, I’m not your mother.

I have fallen in love with this little no name place. It’s one of the few places in town I feel like I could sit in by myself and not feel weird. Uhh, I’m not saying I do that. Okay I’m not saying I do that often. But I think it’s a pretty big statement about a place to think that you could. It’s better with friends though – I suggest you bring a couple with you. That is, after all, how this little bar made its name, or rather managed to thrive without one.

You can find out more about the place on Facebook, or check them out here for a little peek: www.edsnonamebar.com

And this photo was taken at a different rock concert in Winona, but Ed has cool bands like this too. I just haven’t photographed them because I’ve been too busy daaaaancing. 

Winona's music scene is coming to life

Finally.

As I stood on the banks of the Mississippi River at Verchota Landing last week soaking in the sunshine I felt the chill of winter melt off me and I knew – THIS is spring.

In front of me, literally hundreds of birds of every sort were angrily swimming and flying away from me after I disrupted their peaceful float into the shallows of my favorite landing on Prairie Island Road. Before I clunked down there with my noisy boots and my big, shiny camera, the birds were clustered in the warm, shallow water right next to shore, I’m sure loving the spring sun as much as I was. From the looks of it, no one had bothered them in a while, because where they were floating was actually over the parking lot thanks to a spring thaw that has filled the Mississippi beyond its banks.

Okay yes, I might have been kind of breaking the rules going down there, if the barricade going across the road meant anything. I mean, I did have to climb on rocks to go around it because I guess the landing is closed, but it’s not like I was going to walk out in the water and sit on a half submerged bench because I couldn’t tell it was flooded. I just wanted to see that gorgeous display of spring migration a little closer.

The birds, of course, had other ideas. As they hurried for a safe distance from the intruder, I spotted canvasbacks, or maybe they were redheads, or wigeons – because frankly I’m not that good, along with mallards and some geese and one lonely swan, and a bunch of other ducks I couldn’t begin to guess at. Whatever they all were, it was beautiful watching them lift off the water en mass, even though it meant all those pretty pictures I was going to take flew away with them.  The geese were thoroughly chewing me out as they went, and only the lonely swan seemed unfluttered by my presence and actually came a little closer for a look. It was so calm and so strangely alone I wondered if it used to be someone’s pet, and one day decided to answer the call of the wild. Or maybe it thinks it’s a goose like that Ugly Duckling story – but then I guess it would have to think it’s a duck… whatever.  Or maybe it just doesn’t like other swans. 

Anywhoo, I was sad that I didn’t have more time, because I knew if I just sat down and was still long enough they’d probably all come back in and let me have a closer look at them. Maybe. I did hear once that birds view a big, round camera lens like a predator’s eye, but who knows if that’s true because hey, ducks can’t talk. I do know that in late spring and early summer I can go sit along the side shallows of this landing and watch a pretty spectacular display of egrets, who use it as a rookery, and a bunch of their duck friends without them getting too excited. 

On this day there were no egrets – I thought they’d be wandering back by now, especially since I saw two sandhill cranes (!) fly over me two weeks ago on the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge. And I’ve seen a handful of blue herons – my favorite river bird – flying around. I wish someone would send a memo to the egrets and tell them spring is here in Winona and it’s time to get crackalackin. 

In the meantime, if you feel like trying to sneak up on one of nature’s best displays on the Mississippi River, you can’t do better than Verchota Landing, underwater or not. But if you go, you’d better wear quiet shoes and bring a folding chair and a snack – patience is a virtue here. And save me a spot, but if I’m not there say hi to my buddy the swan for me.

A lonely swan at Verchota Landing

No, this is not a post about horror movies, silly. It’s a post about music, namely the Midwest Music Fest, although I realize my Sound of Music reference title might be dating me a bit.

Yeah, I am outside the age range one typically imagines when you hear the words “music festival” — a term likely to conjure up images of hip 20-somethings with little square glasses, a couple of extra piercings, a degree in earth science and a taste in alternative music far cooler than I’ll ever understand.

Well yes, the Midwest Music Fest appeals to those cool alternative music aficionados, and they have plenty to love over the weekend’s festivities, which this year are scheduled for April 15 and 16. But the beauty of this festival is that it’s even cooler than that.

Last year in its inaugural year, Midwest Music Fest swept into Winona like Zeus’ Hecatoncheires (which, for those of you not up on your Greek mythology, were 50-headed, 100-armed giants who fought with Zeus against the Titans. They were also enemies of Uranus because he forced them back into their mother, Gaea’s womb, but let’s focus here…). For two days, Winona’s venues large and small were filled with music of every style – 14 venues and 77 groups in all – and more than 1,100 people came to hear it play.

This year promises to be bigger with more venues and new musicians, and what is the coolest part of it all is that the proceeds from the festival go to local charities. Last year they gave away about $7,000, not a small chunk of change, which might make one think it’s kind of spendy to partake of these musical festivities.

Au contraire.

Twenty five bucks. You can see every single performer, listen to music to your heart’s content for two days, for $25. AND the money goes to charity. Seriously folks, if that doesn’t get you out of the house, maybe the lineup will. Local favorites like Patti Darbo, Gregg and Nat, Chris Kendall and the Beef Slough Boys perform at local favorite haunts like Blue Heron, Acoustic Cafe and Blooming Grounds, with bands and performers from all over joining them there and at other cool venues like Ed’s No Name Bar, the Winona History Center, the Masonic Temple, even churches and art galleries.

This is not just a music festival – it’s like music-palooza with melodies drifting from every conceivable doorway in town. April 15 and 16 the hills WILL be alive with the sound of music in Winona, and if you don’t come I think the only thing missing from this music-packed event will be you.

See for yourself here: www.midwestmusicfest.org — you can buy your pass there and even sign up to volunteer, either of which will undoubtedly help your taste in local and regional musicians become a whole lot cooler.

It’s beginning to look a lot like spring out there, and you know what that means…

You’re right. I’m totally lying. It doesn’t look like spring at all, in fact it still looks a lot like December, which means we are wringing our hands with anticipation at the thaw we all know is just around the corner and looking for ways to while away the last few weeks of winter.

The remnants of snow are getting a little slushy for winter sports, and the ice is about to get a little too thin for traipsing across to fish or ice skate, it’s a little early for barge or bird watching… but we are active creatures down in these parts and we need something to do.

Thankfully, we’ve got some awfully good stuff indoors here, stuff that will give your brain some exercise on those slushy pre-spring weekends, places so good you’ll want to come back when the weather’s nice too.

My newest favorite place is the beautiful Winona History Center, a brilliant merging of old and new into a showpiece that not only tells Winona’s story, but IS Winona’s story.

For years the Winona County Historical Society was bursting at the seams in the old National Guard Building on Johnson Street. With stained glass, lovely architectural accouterments and ever-changing historical exhibits it was a fun place to visit, but they definitely needed more space.

The Laird Norton Company gave the society hope with the promise of a building grant for an addition if the Historical Society could raise $1.5 million with a challenge grant. Winona, it turns out, loves its history, and more than 1,000 individuals and businesses answered the call for help.

The result is a 12,000 square foot addition to the Johnson Street facility that adds new display areas, meeting space, a sunny balcony and a fancy new gift shop area to the building. But wait, there’s more… this isn’t just more space, this is *gorgeous* space that actually called on one of Winona’s historic old buildings to help it come to life.

You see, a few blocks away there was an old car dealership being torn down to make way for some parking. But hidden in the frame of that building was the timber of an old livery from Winona’s horse days, and hidden inside those old timbers was stunning old growth Minnesota lumber that had lots of life still in it.

The wood was lovingly salvaged and planed to make richly colored flooring for the new History Center. Architects brilliantly wove the beautiful old wood into the airy, elegant new space, and the result is jaw-droppingly lovely. It’s the kind of room you wouldn’t mind just standing in for a while, soaking it all in, even if the room was empty.

Oh, but it’s not. Folks at the History Center rotate in all kinds of new displays that you aren’t going to see anywhere else in Winona. Right now there is an art show up of work from high school students, and some interesting textile displays available to ponder. I hear a steamboat display is in the works, and who knows what else. With all that space, the sky is the limit for what we’re going to get to see now.

In the original museum room there’s still plenty to see too. When I was in there last week a collection of old carriages caught my eye… that must have been a cold ride 100 years ago. We are certainly spoiled today by comparison… I get mad if my seat warmer doesn’t get hot fast enough, when 100 years ago I’d have been freezing to death wrapped in blankets on my way to the store and liked it.

The archives in the basement is one of my favorite places and that’s getting a face lift right now too with all new shelving on big fancy sliders where everything that ever happened in Winona is preserved. Seriously. There has not been one thing that those archive magicians have not been able to pull out for me, and for curious minds it’s the kind of place you could spend all day.

We are really so blessed to have a resource like the History Center in our community, not just for residents but for people who wander into town and want to get the low down on what this town is about. If your timing is good you could hit any of a number of presentations they have too on everything from birds to embroidery. That means you could leave this town more relaxed AND smarter, and who can complain about a vacation like that?

But really, you have to see this place to appreciate how wonderful it is. You can start here: www.winonahistory.org, but don’t stop until you’re standing in that beautiful addition for yourself.

So I was up in the Twin Cities last weekend with a cadre of newspaper people, and I was reminded all over again how special this place we live in is.

Inevitably when I go to gatherings around the state of any sort I get the same thing – people who want to know about how Winona started rocking the arts scene. Either they heard something or read something or know someone who came here, but somehow, no matter what, Winona’s name comes up in the context of “Wow, you guys really have a lot going on down there.”

Well yes, thank you. We do.

The topic on the table last week was the Frozen River Film Festival, which was going on at the same time as the convention, and a person I’ve never met before sees my newspaper badge and says to me, “Winona…don’t you guys have some kind of mini version of the Sundance Film Festival going on down there?”

Ahhh. To me a moment like that feels like all is right in the world. We are doing it and they are talking about it, whomever “they” might be.

So I told him yes and no — Sundance was started by movie stars and has got decades and hundreds of thousands of visitors on us. Winona’s Frozen River Film Festival was started by theater gurus and is slightly more than half a decade old, but the quality films and the standing room only crowds they attract are nothing to sneeze at. Give us two more decades, I said, and we probably won’t be far off.

I believe that because I am continually amazed and heartened by this community’s willingness to keep raising the bar for how we entertain ourselves. Shakespeare, Beethoven, Van Gogh, and now films, some heady, some fun, others emotionally charged, and people are lining up to see them. The people of Winona have a propensity greater than any other town I’ve ever seen to create and nurture the arts, and they have done so with careless abandon for the reality that towns the size of Winona just don’t typically have that kind of stuff.

But you know what? It’s how every legendary arts tourism destination was ever created — Sundance, Ashland Oregon, even Galena, they all have the same common thread: The people there believed, even in the beginning when what they were doing was small, that the world would eventually take notice of how special what they were offering was. And they would come. And it would become the lifeblood of the community. And it would be cool.

Frozen River Film Festival has been expanding its reach and depth over the last six years, blossoming like a flower. Organizers have been intuitive about what film-goers want to see, and what sort of extra things they want to do when they are there. This year, in addition to a weighty lineup of films and speakers, they arranged a relaxation and reflection space complete with free massages and acupuncture. And roots from the festival have worked their way into the community, with Fringe Friday events occurring throughout the year and a concentration of music and entertainment events during the festival at area establishments.

And what was going on in Winona was cool enough that someone from Perham, which by any definition is across the state in the middle of nowhere (sorry Perham, it’s true), heard about it. That, folks, is the coolest thing of all.

I suspect we might take the spectrum and quality of art available to us here in Winona for granted, and it takes forays out into other communities for me to be reminded that what is going on in Winona is truly unique. When people ask me about it, there is always a tinge of wonderment in their voice, and perhaps envy. Why us, they wonder. I know why. It’s the people here – the believers who build things and the enthusiastic band wagon jumpers who say, “I love it. I’m in.” That kind of enthusiasm is contagious, even to the people who only visit, and it makes people talk.

I told the fellow that Winona is doing all this because the arts are becoming our lifeblood as much as the river that runs past us. We aren’t just a river town anymore – we are an arts river town. But like all good stewards of the arts, we love to share, so I told him to get in his car and come on down whenever he’s ready. We’ll be here all year.

Our snowy winter sets the perfect stage for the Frozen River Film Festival

I know – when you think of Winona you think of all our historic buildings, our hip arts offerings, our big beautiful frozen river, and how gorgeous this place is in the summer and fall. Well here’s a little secret for you: We have an awful lot of snow too, the kind that’s perfect for all you winter sports nuts (and I mean nuts in a kind way, not a ‘why are you into freezing outside?’ way).

Winona has some of the most stunning cross country skiing trails in Minnesota, miles and miles of them even. Trails snake up and down the bluffs behind Holzinger Lodge in Winona for more intermediate level skiers, and hug the bluffs behind Saint Mary’s University for skiing that ranges from novice to expert.

I have to confess, my few ventures with cross country skiing have all ended rather badly – usually with me face down somewhere with poles and skis tangled up underneath me. It’s one of those things I’m just not sure if I’m meant to do. But when I take my kids sledding out at the wonderful hill at Saint Mary’s I see people breeze by on the trail and I admire them – like how they can stand up and everything. To the south of Winona are the trails at Great River Bluffs State Park, and between the three spots you just won’t find a better assortment of trails or more beautiful scenery around them.

The thing about cross country skiing that seems so magical to me is gliding through a frozen landscape where the only sound is your breath and perhaps an indignant squirrel here or there. I’ve never skied those trails but I’ve walked them plenty during the spring, summer and fall, and if you’re quiet you run across all kinds of things. I’ve spooked up more deer than I can count, spotted eagles and hawks and fox — it’s like wild kingdom out there and you’re about two minutes from downtown Winona.

Having grown up in Northern Minnesota, I have to say I would much rather wander through the woods down here given the choice. I like wildlife and I think it’s cool to happen upon them in their environment, unless we’re talking about scary things like wolves and black bears. Yeah, yeah, they are supposedly more afraid of us than we are of them, right? Well you know what? I don’t want to find out, so I’ll take my blissfully safe walks down here in these parts.

The City of Winona makes Winona a little more fun in the winter by clearing and smoothing a big patch of Lake Winona and making a good old fashioned ice skating rink out of it. From high up on Garvin Heights you can look down and see tiny figures swirling about on the rink, behind them a warming building with hot chocolate and lots of heat for frosty toeses and noses. It looks like a Norman Rockwell poster, and it makes me wish I liked ice skating. Okay, it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that I have a low tolerance for hurting myself over and over.

For another few weeks or so East Lake Winona will also be dotted with a little village of sorts – ice fishing shacks of every color, shape and size. To be honest, I’m not sure what kind of fish they are pulling out of the lake, I’m guessing pan fish, bass and maybe walleyes, but from what I understand the fishing is actually a very small part of being in the impromptu community that ice fishing houses create each winter.

In a couple of weeks the city is going to cut a big hole in the ice and a bunch of people are going to jump in. I will not be one of them. In fact, you’d have to point a gun at me to make me do it, but these souls much braver than I will be participating in the Goose Bump Jump to benefit local park and recreation programs.

Soon it will be March, and all this white, fluffy snow will give way to bright green buds. When it comes to Winona’s winter wonderland, you need to get while the getting’s good, and that, my friends, is right now.

Even when frozen, Winona is beautiful