and we're back

We are back from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Well, we got back on Monday, but it's been nice to have a few days to unpack and unwind before having to get back to work.

Day 1: Thursday
Drove from Spearfish, SD to Kennebec, SD, about a three and a half hour drive, 225 miles. We spent the night at the KOA in Kennebec, got eaten by mosquitoes, cooked dinner, and sweltered in the tent for a good 4 hours until the Sun went down and it cooled off. Sticky is not one of my favorite feelings.

Day 2: Friday
Drove from Kennebec to Minneapolis, which took a little over 6 hours due to road construction. We were up at the butt-crack of dawn, which is unusual for me, no matter how much sleep I've gotten. The drive was smooth and uneventful, which is always good. Once we made it to Shakopee, the rain let loose in sheets, and we made it to the edge of the city around 1:30pm and got INTO the city around 2:30pm because of the bumper to bumper traffic caused by the rain.

We'd wanted to go to the Minnesota Zoo before we met up with all of Aaron's friends, because most of them didn't get off work 'til late, but by the time we ate our lunch at Big Bowl (an Oriental place), it was starting to get late, so we skipped that idea.

We found Bret and Jess, the folks we were staying with for the first couple nights, some good friends of Aaron's, and met up with another couple to eat at a place called Pop! After dinner we headed to downtown Minneapolis and checked out Bret's office building, which was right next to Grumpy's, the bar we had some drinks at.

By this point, I had met at least seven new people and was having a hard time remembering everyone's names. At the end of the night, there were only two sober drivers, and two cars heading back to Bret and Jess'. I was one of those sober drivers, and we didn't have our car; we'd ridden in with Bret and Jess. So I got to drive Jay's Audi down the freeway at 2am. I don't remember what the model was, but all I know is that it was highly modified, had six gears, manual transmission, and was a ton of fun to drive, even though I was partially terrified of being on the freeway.

Day 3: Saturday
Bret, Jess, Aaron and I head to the Como Park Zoo because admission is free and we didn't feel like paying $12.50 each to go to the Minnesota Zoo. The zoo itself was kinda small and sad, and the animals were quite bored in their small areas, but the Conservatory was really cool. Actually, it was really hot and humid because of the millions of plants they were growing in there.

After the zoo, we stopped by Conny's Creamy Cone and got some yummy ice cream to cool off, and then headed over to Will and Vandy's house. They are also some friends of Aaron's, and are hospital pharmacists. We had vegetarian lasagna, with butternut squash instead of meat, which was actually really good. Then there were all kinds of crazy dips that Vandy had made, like a mango salsa, chutney, and some awesome guacamole, with homemade pita chips. Yummo.

Day 4: Sunday
On Sunday, we headed over to the other side of town to hang out with Jamie and Karlie, two more of Aaron's friends. Karlie is Aaron's cousin, and Jamie is the brother of one of Aaron's good friends here in Spearfish. We headed to the Minnesota Institute of Art and wandered around there 'til they closed, only managing to fit in the first floor's worth of exhibits. Then we headed back to their place for some barbecuing and booze. Jamie had all kinds of "Loki" or homemade liquor made from Everclear and flavorings. It's so good, you can't even taste the alcohol in it (and for me to say that must be true, 'cause I can taste alcohol in ANYTHING). Which makes it kind of dangerous, 'cause you could drink tons of it without really thinking about it.

Day 5: Monday
We headed back to Spearfish, calculating to get home around 10pm since we left around 11am and were only driving one day, instead of two. First stop: Famous Dave's for some barbecue. Second: Booze store. They have a lot of beers and liquors in Minnesota that South Dakota doesn't carry. I'm not sure what they are, but I just know both states have some weird alcohol laws. For instance; in MN, you can't buy Everclear. The stuff Jamie used was bought in Wisconsin. In SD, you can't buy Moose Drool (I think...either that, or Phat Tire), you have to go over to Wyoming to get it.

We arrived home around 9:30pm, and boy, were we glad to be home.

So there you have it. You can see pictures of the trip on my Dropshots page.