Weekend with Family in Minnesota

Friday, November 11th (11-11-11) was Veterans Day and I was blessed to have the day off from work. It had been a busy week for me, so I wasn't terribly surprised when I slept in until 10:30 a.m. Once I was up and awake I got right to work on a few projects - cleaning, editing and packing.

This weekend Dan and I were all set to join my parents for a weekend getaway in the twin cities to visit Kathleen and Brad. Unfortunately, Dan did not have the day off from work, but we were all set to go so that once he got home we would be ready to leave.

My parents arrived at our house at about 3:30 that Friday afternoon. Dan got home around 4:30 and we were in the car and on our way by about 4:50. Minnesota, here we come!

The drive wasn't bad. We hit some traffic on I-90, but once we got close to the state line traffic eased up and we were smooth sailing.

We stopped twice. Once for dinner (at Arby's) and once for gas. We got to our Double Tree hotel just before midnight. Kathleen and Brad were already there - sleeping. With some playful teasing, we woke them up once we got to our adjoined rooms. Naturally, we stayed up to visit before going straight to bed.

Saturday, November 12th we were all up by 8:30 a.m. and out the door just after 9:00 a.m. Our destination: The Mall of America! The mall was rather close to our hotel, so it was a nice, easy drive.

Once we arrived at the mall we had a nice, easy-going breakfast at McDonald's. Stores didn't open until 10:00, so we had some time to chill before we got our shop on. At about 10:00 a.m. we devised a minor shopping plan and went on our merry way. While casually riding the escalator down to the 2nd level, Kathleen pointed out, "Isn't that the McKenzies?" I caught a brief glimpse of our family friends and started to call out to them. They heard my calls and turned back to see us. We knew that they were in the area but we had no idea that they were at the Mall of America! Seriously, in such a huge mall, what are the odds that we could run into someone that we know - on accident! It was awesome!

We walked the mall, attempting to do some early Christmas shopping, and took a break for lunch at about 2:00 pm. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at Twin Cities Grill in the Mall of America. It was delicious!

Just after 5:00 pm we ventured to another nearby mall to stop at Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids. We ventured back to the hotel at about 6:45 so that we could meet up with Lauren, Kathleen's former college and post-college roommate. Once Lauren arrived at our hotel we all got back on the road and made our way to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.

The Old Spaghetti Factory was extremely packed and our wait was expected to be about 45 minutes to an hour. Fortunately, we were able to snag a table in the spacious bar area. While we waited for our group to be called we enjoyed some drinks and appetizers. We also watched as the newly engaged, Lauren, opened a gift from my parents. Below is a typical Lauren-style smile - she's a blast!

Once our name was called (about an hour later) we sat down for a delicious dinner filled with good food, good friends and lots of good laughs! Everyone got a kick out of Dad's spot at the table. We all agreed that he looked like The Godfather sitting at the head of the table with the light shinning down on him. Even our waiter suggested it when he took our group photo - and he made that call without any help from us. Super funny!

And here is a photo of the Godfather, himself - looking rather tough.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and said our good byes to Lauren. The rest of us stayed up a while longer looking at various photos that others had brought to share. At around midnight, we all made our way to our beds and called it a night.

On Sunday, November 13th we got up and got ready to leave the hotel. Brad snuck out to pick up some Starbucks coffee (for me, Kathleen, Mom and himself) and some orange juice for the non-coffee drinkers (Dan and Dad). What a great surprise!

Once we were all packed and ready to go, we made our way to Keys Cafe and Bakery. Breakfast at Keys is almost always on our schedule when visiting Minnesota. There was a pretty lengthy wait for a table but Dad and Brad made the most of our wait by stepping out to fill the cars with gas. They made it back with plenty of time to spare so they stepped into a nearby Ace Hardware with Dan. When our group was finally called we sat in a cozy booth and enjoyed a yummy breakfast!

After breakfast we went to Stillwater, Minnesota to do some light shopping in this beautiful, historic city - which is certainly not short on delightful antique shops. No one was hungry for lunch so we all just sorta skipped it.

We stayed much later than we originally planned, but we still managed to drag out our good byes by venturing up to the Stillwater scenic outlook before leaving. After taking in the view and a number of hugs, we parted ways and headed home in opposite directions.

The drive home was fine - Dad did all of the driving, just like the drive up. Dan and I both offered to take the wheel but Dad politely declined and drove all of us home safely. We stopped once in the Wisconsin Dells to eat dinner at Culver's and gas up our vehicle. During our drive home Dan and I even managed to catch a few Z's in the back seat.

We pulled into mine and Dan's driveway at about 10:15 p.m. After we got our items unloaded from my parent's car we said some more good byes and my parents went on to finish their remaining venture home.

Dan and I got ready for bed almost immediately. We laid in bed and watched two episodes of The Wonder Years on Netflix before we fell asleep.

The weekend came and went too fast - as usual. Thankfully, we'll be seeing Brad and Kathleen in about a month for Christmas! Can't wait!