WOW! Now that's a LOT of lakes!

Since Brad is working with the Concordia College football team, he gets the opportunity to travel with them too. Once Jenni heard that they would be playing at a school near Minneapolis, she decided to tag along too! After successfully securing the day off of work, we book the hotel (Days Inn of course!) and got ready to head out East!

 After a few weeks of excited anticipation the day of our departure finally arrived. We stopped for lunch at Subway, then hit the road. We drove past Barnesville, at which point Jenni got maybe a bit too excited at the fact that this was the farthest into Minnesota she had ever ventured! Next came the blasting of the Kia Soul hamster commercial song, which seems to be have become one of the theme songs to our trip...here's the commercial so you know what we are talking about:

After dancing our way through the next few miles, Jenni started to notice the scenery and proclaimed (multiple times) WOW! Now that's a big lake! The license plates of Minnesota sure don't lie...the land of 10,000 lakes...this is definitely true. The views were amazing the farther we got into the state. Picture open land punctuated with huge lakes surrounded by fall colored trees...magical! Here are some examples of what you should be imagining right now...

Sadly, Jenni is not the best moving car photographer

So these are the best you get...

A couple of hours, and a snooze for Jenni, later, we were greeted by this glorious sight...A REAL CITY SKYLINE!!!

It was this amazing sight that made both of us realize that we are, in fact, city mice. We both came to the conclusion that the country life is really not so much for us...we need this kind of environment to be happy mice!

We easily found our hotel, thanks to Google Maps and Jenni's amazing (sometimes) navigation skills. After resting and taking a quick power nap, we got ready for a night on the town. First stop, Panera! Jenni got inspired to look for a Panera in Minneapolis after seeing the cast of NCIS enjoy some delicious goodies from this happy place. Turns out there were so many to choose from! We picked the one right downtown, walking distance to the British pub that Jenni wanted to visit.

Oh Panera, it had just been too long!

After enjoying our delightful soups, sandwich and salad, we took a stroll down the Nicollet Mall (an outdoor AND indoor area downtown) to the Brit's pub! Brad had a nice glass of Guinness, while Jenni enjoyed a Strongbow with blackcurrant. YES they had Ribena...this pretty much made Jenni's year :) We enjoyed our adult beverages while watching the Wales v. Australia rugby match having intelligent conversation about the huge size of #4 on the Australian team. Seriously, this guy was a beast!

Cheers!

SO happy! :D

The next day, Brad had to work the football game, remember the ACTUAL reason we went to Minneapolis. So Jenni dropped him off, then used her Sat Nav to get her safely to Starbucks for a much needed coffee delight. While Brad worked, Jenni decided to take this time to wander around the Lake of the Isles in Uptown Minneapolis. This place was ahhhh-mazing! Jenni took 2 hours to slowly stroll around the 2.6 mile loop around the lake, admiring the dogs, the houses, the geese, and the views of downtown. It was the perfect day for admiring so many things. Blue skies, sunshine and crisp cool air. HEAVEN! The lake was surrounded by colorful trees (the show probably would have been better if we had made it out there a few weeks ago), which meant many chances for photo opps!

LOVE IT!

Over the years, Jenni has become a self-picture taking pro!

A Loch monster in Minneapolis!?

Artsy goose shot!

After a nice morning at the lake, Jenni then went back to pick up Brad from his victorious football game. After pissing off the Sat Nav, "GO BACK TO SNELLING AVENUE, GO BACK TO SNELLING AVENUE" the woman bellowed at me, as I tried to veer off course to avoid traffic, Jenni made it to Hamline University to Brad and a much needed loo break! We went straight from the university to downtown Minneapolis to spend some time admiring the view of the Stone Arch Bridge. Thanks to Jenni's navigation skills, or lack thereof, we stumbled upon the most amazing spot to look at the bridge and the skyline of the city.

From our perfect viewpoint, we spied a nice grassy mound across the Mississippi river, and said..."we must go there". So we busted out the smartphone, and found our way back across the river into downtown to the Gold Medal Park (named after the flour!). We walked up the sprial path to the top of the mound and got some more shots of the bridge (see the last few photos above). On our way back down, Jenni declared, "This is a perfect hill rolling hill, I'm going to roll!" and roll she did, giggling the whole way down! Here are some action shots...

And she's off! 

Roly-poly!

Ending with a giggling fit!

After the excitement of the hill roll, we headed back to our hotel to rest and watch some much needed NCIS (yes, we are quite addicted to this amazing show) before heading into St. Paul for a delicious Italian (pronounced "eye-talian" by some out here) dinner. We ate a restaurant called Cosetta, which was recommended to Brad by the freshman kicker, who Jenni misheard his name as "Vader" on their Concordia team. All we can say is thanks to "Vader" for a great eye-talian meal! After dinner we strolled down the block to the Xcel Energy Center, where the Minnesota Wild hockey team plays. This is where 2 of our beloved Sharks, Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi, now play so of course we had to photograph our visit to their new home ice!

The next day, we got up, had breakfast, Brad enjoyed the complimentary Days Inn waffle bar of course, before heading back into the city! We started out at Lake of the Isles. Jenni wanted to share the gloriousness of this place with Brad, including the mansions surrounding the lake. He was of course impressed by Jenni's wonderous discovery. 

After admiring the lake once again we headed to Starbucks for a mid-morning delight, then made our way to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Brad had heard about this amazingly random sculpture...you know how we LOVE random sculptures, so we decided we MUST visit this random sight. Here it is...

Yup, that is a giant spoon complete with giant cherry!

After the glory of the random spoon and cherry sculpture, we made our way over to the Mall of America! This mall is HUGE. It is one of the biggest in North America, second behind a mall in Edmonton...yup that's right, Jenni researched! Inside the mall is a theme park...in fact as we walked in, we were greeted by the sight of roller coaster tracks...which, yes we RODE! After wandering around the mall, we decided that a nice spin on the orange coaster was needed. So we bought our 10 tickets, enough for us each to ride, and walked right onto the roller coaster. Laughing our way around the track, we both posed with cheesy grins for the coaster camera, in true theme park style, then pirated said picture instead of paying the extortionate amount of money the park charges for proof of riding these rides! Enjoy!

Our pirated proof that we rode the orange coaster!

Jenni is apparently important enough to appear in TWO pictures!

WOOO!!!! One thing off that bucket list!

So that, in a very large nutshell was our Twin Cities adventure. But do not fret, Twin Cities, for you have not seen the last of us! :)

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives....Fargo Style

Since we have been here for 3 months now, we have had ample time to explore the dining options here in fabulous Fargo. We have learned a few things on our eating adventures:

1) There is no good pizza here

2) There are no good sandwiches here

3) Fargoians know how to make cupcakes

4) Small town living is great for finding amazing ice cream parlours

5) Indian folk like Fargo

6) Mexican folk don't like Fargo

So, going down the list....


There is no good pizza here...

We have decided that the best pizza we can find is Domino's. We tried a couple of the smaller, local places, and were quite freaked out when our pizza came to our table cut into bite-sized squares....really? What is happening, we felt like we had fallen into the twilight zone or something. After two twlilight zone pizza meals, we decided to stick with triangle pizza from Domino's....much safer!


There are no good sandwiches here...

Basically, we miss Roma's Deli in San Bruno. There are just no true Italian deli's around here...probably due to the distinct lack of real Italian people. We almost, key word here almost, went to what we thought was going to be a legit sandwich spot until we saw the drive-thru lane...a clear sign that this was not the sandwich establishment of our dreams, which we had hoped so much it would be. Turns out this place was a chain that just hasn't made it to the Golden State, hence us not realizing it was a fast-food chain. Our sandwich place of choice has thus become Subway...which also has a drive-through...it's no Roma's, but it will just have to do. We did also discover that our local cupcake bakery has a good lunch deal with a pretty decent sandwich, which leads us to our next lesson....


Fargoians know how to make cupcakes...


Meet Angel Cups...the Fargo version of Sprinkles, making it so much more affordable, thus making it that much more dangerous! The ladies here are very nice, and for $8 you can get a boxed lunch deal that comes with a nice plain sandwich on your choice of bread, a bowl of fruit, a pickle, a bag of chips, and a delicious cupcake. We go here way too much than is probably good for us, but we walk there so it's perfectly fine...right? Good thing we both have access to free gym membership really :) So bascially, we have been to Angel Cups so much that they know us, and a couple of weeks ago, during their anniversary extravaganza, we entered a raffle and each won a prize! Jenni got some yummy peach lotion and a $5 gift card, and Brad got a deceptively powerful mini-flashlight and a $5 gift card. Here are some pictures of us enjoying the wonder that is Angel Cups...

Brad likes to gobble his cupcake

Jenni opts for the proper way...using a fork

Small town living is great for finding amazing ice cream parlours...

One sunny day we had a craving for ice-cream, so we used good ol' Google Maps to find us a delicious place to get our fix. Introducing, Charlie's. Stepping into this place felt like we had arrived there via Delorian at 88MPH...all we were missing was Marty Mcfly by our sides and the image would have been complete. For those non-movie buffs reading, it was like going back to the 1950's. This place even makes their own waffle cones fresh when you order, and their mint-chocolate chip ice-cream is divine.


Indian folk like Fargo...

During our first few weeks here, we discovered a hidden gem in a shady parking lot next to a pawn store...Passage to India. Possibly the most delicious Indian food ever, and it was so authentic, we waited 30 minutes for the check to come when we were done. According to Brad this is always a sign of a true Indian restaurant. Besides waiting for the check for an eternity, the food here is amazing, and their chai tea is like heaven in a cup.


Mexican folk do not like Fargo...

We found the perfect Mexican restaurant...complete with Wednesday night margarita specials. Walking into Casa Ramos was like walking into a jungle, there was even a huge tree just chilling in the middle of the room surrounded by Mexcian beer flags. They served delicious enchiladas, and being that they were all California implants, they even made Brad burritos the way he likes them! The best part about Casa Ramos, besides the food, drink, tree, and awesome staff, was that it was stumbling distance from our apartment. So on margarita Wednesdays we could stumble home safely....sadly, however, our Mexican heaven has flown south for warmer climates. This past week they packed up the tree, beer flags, and awesome monkey chairs and headed for Mesa, Arizona. Sad days, we said our goodbyes to Carlos and Juan (and this sounds awful, but Jenni remembered his name was Juan because she knew it wasn't Jose and it started with a J) and watched teary eyed as they drove south into the sunset.

Brad in despair on our last night at Casa Ramos

Besides eating out, we have also been having some culinary adventures of our own. After watching cupcake wars, Jenni got the urge to bake cupcakes of her own. These were not your typical cupcakes either....they were Earl Grey cupcakes, and they were delicious.

Delicious Earl Grey cupcakes, waiting to be enjoyed

Jenni also tried her hand at roast potatoes. One Sunday, we enjoyed the poor man's version of a Sunday roast. We got a $5 rotisserie chicken from our local supermarket (pre-cooked of course) steamed up some frozen veggies, and roasted some potatoes. After setting off the smoke detectors and splattering hot oil all over, Jenni's roastie adventure turned out to be a success. All that was missing was some gravy, which mum sent over to us, so next time it will be complete and amazing :)

Brad approves of the deliciousness!

 That's it for now...stay tuned for more updates!