Sexy Minnesota Trip (See Reason for Title in Previous Post!)

Well here is a recap of my fun wedding weekend in Minnesota!!

Thursday (July 3, 2008):
I arrived pretty late in Minneapolis and headed to my hotel near the airport. It was crazy to see all of the foreign tour groups that were headed to the Mall of America. I later learned that there are a ton of charter planes from Japan that have one mission: MALL OF AMERICA!!


Friday (July 4, 2008):

Alisa and I headed out in our Chevy HHR for Walnut Grove!! Here is a pic of us before our crazy journey and our trusty rental car with Florida license plates!

We had a fun rural route to Walnut Grove where we saw lots of corn fields ("knee high by the Fourth of July") and cute farms. We passed a crazy large rabbit outside Wabasso, MN and then saw two random exercise bikes in the middle of a field. The rabbit kind of scared me with its big pink eyes. Do rabbits really have pink eyes?



When we arrived in Walnut Grove, we first headed to Nellie's Little Cafe on the Prairie. I ate broasted chicken (definitely a Minnesota/Wisconsin thing!) at Nellie's. We then headed to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. It was tons of fun! I think we brought the age range down by about 30 years! I don't care...I am a true aficionado of Little House on the Prairie!! Here are some fun facts that I learned at the Museum:

• Charles Ingalls (Pa) helped pay for the Congregational Church bell by donating his last $3.00 which he had intended to use for new boots. The bell continues to call people to worship every Sunday morning!


• The family depicted as the Olesons on the show were really named the Owens.


• People in Minnesota cannot use a camera and have a great talent of taking pictures of Alisa and I that say "corrupt file." That is why we have no fun group pictures!

I also included a pic of Doc Baker because that is what a co-worker like to call me! It appears that the actor who played Doc Baker really enjoyed coming to visit the real Walnut Grove!



It was then time to head to the wedding at Lake Shetek State Park in Currie, MN. It was a perfect day (about 80 degrees) for an outside wedding! Julie and Jake had a beautiful ceremony and then we headed to the Key Largo Ballroom for the reception. The pictures of me at the reception are horrible. I look like I am scared! Maybe it was a combination of me thinking about the size of the mosquitoes in Minnesota as well as my exhaustion from all the fun at Walnut Grove. We got to see fireworks over the lake, but I unfortunately did not get to hear my two favorite July 4th songs: "I'm Proud to be an American" by Lee Greenwood and "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond." Maybe I'll download these wonderful songs to my iPod now!

I really roughed it after the wedding and stayed overnight in a cabin. No bathing for 24 hours was hard, but I accomplished it well!

Saturday (July 5, 2008):
We headed back to Minneapolis to stay downtown. My pictures of all the bridges in downtown did not turn out because it was too dark. I did get my picture taken with the Mary Tyler Moore statue (long live the TV Land Summer of 2008!). Alisa and I also randomly stumbled upon the headquarters for Al Franken for Senate. That scares me greatly people!




Sunday (July 6, 2008):
We arrived at the Mall of America when it opened at 11 AM. The number of stores was overwhelming, but we managed to see almost all of the stores. There is a Nickelodeon amusement park in the middle of the mall and a fun Lego Land exhibit.

We then had to head back to the airport!! I had great fun on my adventure to Minnesota! Some random things that I learned about Minnesota include:

• Women are TALL in Minnesota. I felt really short a lot of the time while I was there! I even saw a shop called Tall Girl!
• Mosquitoes are definitely the state bird of Minnesota!
• Women don't wear makeup in Minnesota.