i heart minnesota

I don't think I've ever had such a white, snowy Christmas vacation. Not inches of snow...feet.

We flew into Minneapolis late Friday night, and with a 45 minute delay to find our luggage which had been misplaced on another baggage claim conveyor, we finally made our way to the Hilton. It's so nice to have a sister who can get us discounts there. We checked in around midnight and decided to unwind with a complimentary nightcap at the Bluwater Lounge in the hotel, where we met some random folks who'd also flown into town that day. One couple was from the LA area, but had spent some time in Silverdale, so we talked a bit about Seattle.

The next morning we woke up to room service knocking on the door. I wanted an early start so that we could go check out the Mall of America (since I've never been there) before the crowds set in. We hopped on a shuttle bus and took a five-minute ride to the Mall which opened at 8 am for the last-minute holiday shoppers. We had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. I peeked into H&M, but wasn't really in the mood to actually shop. I just wanted to see. The roller coaster and rides in the center of the mall. The indoor aquarium. The holiday decorations. The plethora of shops. We had to check out of the hotel by noon, so with just two hours at the MoA, we jumped back on the shuttle, returned to the hotel to check out, and immediately got on another shuttle to the airport to pick up our SUV rental car for the week. Good thing I planned ahead and got the SUV. We ended up putting on 1,000 miles during the course of the week traveling throughout Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin in snowy conditions.

The Weekend - Davey & Angie's
We spent Saturday and Sunday up in the Twin Cities, or rather the "Cities" as they call it, visiting with Rick's friends. We stayed with Rick's friend Davey both those nights. Rick, Davey and a bunch of their friends had a boys night out at some of their favorite haunts in north Minneapolis. I was tired and so went straight to bed as soon as they left. I think they came home around 2 am, and I don't think I've ever seen Rick so boozed up. All them reeked of Captain Morgan's. Kent and Giefer crashed in the basement just outside the guest room we were staying in. Rick came stumbling in, tripping on our suitcases. Trying to cover up for his staggering, he started a long tale. "Did you see that? Did you see that raccoon. It just jumped right in front of me." He kept going on about the "raccoon" that supposedly caused him to trip. Nevermind that I sat there laughing, not even responding to what he was saying. He then went into the bathroom, and behind the closed door, I could still hear him muttering about the 'coon, which quickly turned into a cougar. "No, it's not a 'coon. It's a cougar. I've got a cougar on my back." Oh my God. The hysteria. He finally came to bed and I to face the other direction so that I wasn't inhaling the rum fumes from the rum & Cokes consumed all night. Thank goodness they'd take a cab home. I don't think they even remembered the cab ride. It was probably midday the next day before the rum perfume began to subside.

As you can imagine, Sunday was a low key day as Rick and Davey recovered from their debaucherous night out. We hung at the house most of the day, and then for dinner Rick took me to a great restaurant near the University of Minnesota called The Loring Pasta Bar. It was snowing quite a bit and hardly anyone was about. I loved the ambiance. Almost a more demur Icon Grill decor. Subtle Christmas lights were draped from the high ceilings. A Spanish band played while we ate our dinner, and I drank my wine. Later some other couples had come to eat and tango for Tango Night, and boy were they into it -- dressed to the nines and twirling and kicking their heels to the music. Now that's live entertainment!

Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve day was spent on the road. We left Monday morning, and made a pit stop in Uptown for breakfast at the Uptowner, a quaint cafe that boasts of the best Screwdrivers and Bloody Mary's. We stuck to good ol' skillet cooking with scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. Man, this was a brutal trip for the waistline. On the road by 11 am, we headed to La Crosse, WI to pick up Rick's mom and then backtracked to Lanesboro, MN to Grandma's. Rick's uncle Pat and his wife and son were there, along with his cousin David, his girlfriend and their 2-yr old. His aunt Joanie who lives next door to his grandma, and the of course him mom who we'd brought with us. We only had a couple of hours there before we jumped back in the car to head up to Rochester, MN to have Christmas Eve dinner with his uncle Jerry and his family -- three adult children with their families and their youngest children (high school aged triplets).

It had been years since Rick had seen this uncle, his Dad's brother. Rick didn't know his Dad and he hadn't spent much time with his cousins from this side of the family. So it was great to get reconnected with these relatives. There was little talk of his father, who had strained relations with his own brothers and their families. They hadn't seen Rick's dad Don in many years and weren't even sure where he was. But from what I could gather, he wasn't in the best of health and that his mental state was not good either. Rick's uncle Bobby said the Vietnam War had really messed up Don. Not that it makes it better for Rick and his non-existent relationship with his father, but at least it was some context.

Christmas Day
We slept in, and slowly got ourselves dressed. Grandma will feed you anything baked or sugary, and so I spent the next few days in Lanesboro grazing on lemon cake and other treats just laying on the countertops. Again more snow. By the end of the day we were getting a little stir crazy, and since there didn't seem to be any plans for dinner, we suggested driving the 45 minutes up to Rochester to get dinner. We'd intended to go to Uncle Jerry's restaurant thinking it would be open, but once we got there, we immediately needed a Plan B. Identical to the scene out of the movie, A Christmas Story, we ended up at the only place open....a Chinese restaurant in town. Grandma, Aunt Joanie, Rick's mom, Rick and myself. 8 pm. Chow Mein, Cashew Chicken, Garlic Chicken, Egg Rolls, Spring Rolls, you name it.

Week in Lanesboro
We were making plans to see more of Rick's friends and over the course of the next few days, we were back in the car driving to Trempleleau, WI to see his friend Cory and his family. Over to Rochester to see Willy. Dined in another great neighborhood restaurant called the Redwood Room in Rochester. Rick recognized the guitar player who'd been playing there even the last time Rick was there eight years ago. One morning we met his friend Kent at the local bakery for a huge omelet breakfast that the three of us split. Kent is quite a character. Boisterous, loud and usually inebriated. Several times we saw missed calls on the caller ID at Grandmas from the pub and saloon in town. Both times it was Kent calling us. And on our last night in town, we'd stopped over at Tim's house (someone who Rick once played in a band with) and they jammed on their guitars together. Tim's wife yelled down that Kent wanted us to go to the saloon. Even at Tim's house he tracked us down. Before we left town, we made sure to take out the video camera and tape some areas of town meaningful to Rick, though we did forget to tape Grandma telling her aimless stories over and over again.

Back to the Cities
There's not much going on in Lanesboro, so we headed back up to the Cities, but had to detour to drop off Rick's mom in La Crosse, WI, then backtracked again to Rochester. We made one last stop there to see Trevor and his wife (who is a cousin to Rick's ex). Great visit with them and then up to Lakeville (outside of Minneapolis) to see John and his girlfriend, and finally ending up at Giefer's place in town. We had dinner reservations at 8 pm at a great Spanish place where we think we had a celebrity sighting. I didn't know her shockingly, but Giefer and his girlfriend thought she was on ER. I never watched the show. It was an early night, as we were heading back to Seattle the next day and Giefer was heading up to his cabin in north MN.

Giefer made us some yummy breakfast burritos and by mid-morning he was out the door and we were heading over to West St Paul to visit the last of Rick's friends for this trip. Chad and his family, including a Boxer which took immediately to Rick. Had a great visit with them and still had a few hours before needing to head back to the airport. Ate at a great place in St Paul called the Highland Grill, stopped at a T-Mobile store to get Rick a new cell phone, and before we knew it, we were back at the airport and on own way home.

On our second to last day in Minnesota, Rick got a call from his aunt informing him that they got word that his father was found in Hawaii in a church courtyard. He'd had a heart attack and was brain dead and was in the hospital on life support. He thanked her for the information, but since he didn't really know his dad, really didn't react too much. The next day they called to say that Don had passed away.

Aftermath
Smooth sailing until we landed at the airport. Andrea called to say that the battery died on their car while waiting for us at the airport cell phone lot. They finally got it started again and we waited outside where we were greeted with sirens and emergency vehicles. Rick overheard a woman talking on her cell phone that someone had been tasered down the way. Traffic to the Arrivals was horrible, so we skipped back upstairs to Departures to meet our ride home. By now we were starving and wanted to stop by Subway to get a sandwich. Of course at 10 pm there's a line of 10 people with only one person making sandwiches and ringing up orders. It took forever and he was a snit. The girl in front of us didn't want mustard and he put it on anyway and refused to start a new sandwich. If I wasn't so hungry and there had been other options, we would have walked out.

We got home, opened the garage and were locked out of the house, so had to walk all the way around to the front door with our luggage to get in. The dogs were excited to see us. We let them out, and then I saw the pile of bills that I thought I'd mailed before I left sitting on the table. Dammit. And I was mailing them because our Internet was down before we left and they were due. I was so ticked that I'd gotten distracted and didn't mail them, knowing that it would result in finance charges and late fees on one of the credit cards.

I went upstairs to deal with the online bill pay. Rick went to the living room, where our tv was on the fritz, not playing any sound. So I had to go down and troubleshoot that. Only to be called back downstairs 15 minutes later where Rick pointed out to me a HUGE pee spot on the ottoman from one of the dogs. Lake Pee on our ottoman. As if the dog just sat there and let loose, despite that we'd just let them out. And upstairs the crate reeked of pee. And sure enough Zoe had at some point peed on her sleeping bag, so that had to go in the washer. Back to bill pay, my bank was undergoing maintenance and so I couldn't download my transactions. Uggh. Midnight and I was all wound up. Only to be waken up by Beaux barking at 7:30 this morning.

Welcome home! I'm really missing Minnesota right about now. :)