Minnesota

This past weekend I went to Minnesota for some family stuff and of course I went to the Mall of America. Did you know that in 1956 in Edina, MN (a suburb of Minneapolis) the first fully enclosed mall with a two level design was opened…so it makes since that the Mall of America is in MN. I thought the mall was a bit over rated (which is what I expected). It is HUGE that’s for sure, but other than that is was just another mall. It did have a few stores that would have been awesome 10-12 years ago (i.e. American Girl and Lego) but American Girl is getting a store in Houston soon anyway...about 15 years too late for me. It does have the theme park in the middle but all that does is add to the amount kids there are running around getting on my nerves (I don’t have kids yet so I haven’t built up that patience for them yet).

After doing the mall thing we had family business to attend too, we drove up to Hewitt, MN where we saw the farm my great grandparents had and where my grandma grew up. And then we headed east to a family reunion full of people I had never met before…FUN…not. Really, it wasn’t too bad. The majority of the day was spent in the car looking at farm land.

We flew United and although the planes were very small the service from the flight attendants was great. While we waited for our flight I got to see an On the Fly type situation. A woman who was accompanying three minors that were traveling alone had missed their flight by a few seconds. She was begging them to open the plane door and let them in (since the plane had not taken off) but they didn't and the plane left without them. I can't help but think, "that sucks!" and "well, it's your fault." I say it's your fault because all three kids had food and drinks..obviously they didn’t get those through security so that means they had to stop and get it after security and before heading to the gate…maybe if they hadn’t stopped they wouldn’t have missed their flight.

Happy Travels!

Way up North

this is love: a few days after surgery

Why would you want to spend your official honeymoon in Minnesota you ask? Well my husband was donating a kidney to his father 11 days after our wedding. What a wonderful man I have chosen. Some background here, in the fall of 2009 my husband found out that he was finally going to be able to help his dad by donating a kidney. And before this was going to happen he said he wanted to get married just in case the worst happened (which has never happened at the Mayo Clinic by the way). 

So after our May 2010 wedding we headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for the operation. What a nice little town! We enjoyed all the sights they had there and once his dad was feeling up to it we took a trip to La Cross, Wisconsin where we took a ride on the mighty Mississippi! This ride was a big deal for me; I got to see Bald Eagles in their natural habitat! I had never seen them in the wild before! It was quite nice, we packed a picnic lunch and then found a homemade ice cream shop with homemade everything…even soda (not as good as coca cola). Had lunch and desert on the Mississippi and watched the barges and tug boats go by. And on the drive back to MN I had to drive in this awful storm, honestly some of the most intense driving I have ever had to drive through. While we were there we stayed at The Gift of Life House where you have to be either donating or receiving to stay there. What a place to recover! So peaceful and clean and for only $25 a night. We left about a week after surgery, I was so glad to be home and have my little Lola (dog) back home with us too!

my eagle!