The cafe sleeps on one side of the river before a bridge that takes people from East to West and back again. Light shines through eight windows on the face of an old stone building, finally waking up to a golden alarm clock after a long hibernation. Steel chairs with latticed backs surround six tables just outside the cafe doors and up onto its deck, and couples gather with their friends and dogs to marvel at the recently returned sun and eat the arugula, prosciutto and pine nut salad that is served for $14.99.

It’s a nice day in Minnesota. Roller skiers are out, still clinging to their winter; the snow is gone but they’ve traded wax for wheels and zoom past, crouching their poles under their armpits, navigating cobblestones instead of freshly groomed trails. Two dogs from opposite tables meet in the middle by the side of an empty table in front of me, their owners loosely holding leashes, not realizing a friendship—rivalry?—is presently developing. The dogs smell each other and initially start to frown, but the sun and the air have beckoned them both to play and now they paw at each other happily, licking tails, forgetting they had not always known each other. The human child-sibling of the dog tugs a shirt and points, reveling in her discovery of pure joy. The owners make eye contact with each other and laugh. I watch as faces widen and shoulders go up and down, hands go up in the air, shrugging. “Dogs will be dogs,” someone says.

I sit on the deck and look at the string lights overhead that management hasn’t turned on yet. They are shining anyway, because of the sun that is now descending and glinting through their sides on this day that signals the eventual promise of spring. Beautifully uneven brown and gray bricks in front of the cafe spit out echoes of strollers with babies and tandem bicyclers slowing and turning toward the sound of the waterfall on the other bank. Across the way, dozens of heads bob up and down on the bridge as generations pass each other going back and forth over the river, continuously. I close my eyes and the warmth of the day blankets everything in a reddish, orange glow.