The GirlAlive Blog

My Vacation in Minnesota

October 14, 2008 on 9:28 pm | In Life In General | 3 Comments

I was in Minnesota visiting my family and friends. I miss all of them already, and I’ve only been home about a week. Here’s how the vacation went, pretty much. Keeping in mind that I don’t remember much the further I get into a vacation, cause I just stop thinking.

Day 1, Tuesday

Got up at 2am to go to the airport. Hadn’t slept at all before that, so it was looking like a long day. Caught
early flight to Amsterdam. Then caught flight to Minneapolis from there. That flight took about 9 hours, but it
was good. We had nice flight attendants and the food was fantastic. Got to choose our own movies, so I saw a few
good ones.

Sharla picked us up from the airport, and kindly brought us to Target, so we could buy all the liquid toiletries

that the airline wouldn’t let us pack. I immediately got a bit of culture shock. I had forgotten how much stuff

is in American stores, and how big all the bottles of shampoo are. After Target we went to Mark and Sharla’s*

house and had pizza and watched a DVD of Big Bang Theory (which was really funny).

* For those that don’t know, Mark and Sharla are friends of mine who live in St. Paul. I went to high school with

Sharla and we were on the knowledge bowl team together. Then she attended InterVarsity at UMD, where she met Mark,

who is one of my brother’s best friends. Did you get all that? Good. There will be a quiz later.

Day 2, Wednesday

Sharla brought us into St. Paul when she went to work in the morning. She also supplied us with coupons for the

History Museum and the Science Museum. We visited them both, and in between had some lunch and located some

sunscreen, cause it was sunnier than I expected, and I am very pale.

In the evening, I went out for dinner with Sara (another friend from school, but we know each other all the way

back to the enrichment program in 5th grade) and her husband Fred. I also got to meet Sara’s pet rats, which made

me miss my rodents a bit.

Day 3, Thursday

We were supposed to go to the Mall of America, but my feet were killing me, so we stayed at Mark and Sharla’s house

instead, and played board games and waited until my parents picked me up to shift to a hotel.

Day 4, Friday

Stayed at a Comfort Inn, that was nicer than most. I think it was in the process of being converted into a Quality

Inn, or one of the more expensive ones, but it wasn’t finished yet, so it was still reasonably priced.

Met up with my aunt and uncle, Cheryl and Phil and their kids Raeanne and Erin and Raeanne’s boyfriend Roy. We all

went to the Renaissance Festival. My uncle Larry and aunt Karen joined us for a while. I had an entourage. A lot

of the food stands were closed because it was the only Friday that the Festival was open. So I had Ye Olde Fajitas

and a traditional Medieval blue slushy for lunch. My husband laughed and mocked all the people wearing kilts and

tube socks. We saw the best Storyteller ever. A grand time was had by all. The professional insulter called some

woman a “tree-humping hermaphroditic weasel.”

We drove to Duluth, with a stop for dinner at Toby’s in Hinckley.

Day 5, Saturday

The day started kind of early, when I woke at 4am to the sound of a small dog barking in the house. My parents do

not have a dog, so I quickly surmised that my brother must have arrived with his wife, two kids and schnauzer

(Hooch). Lest there be any confusion, it was the schnauzer barking.

Later in the day, we went to a football game at UMD. The UMD Bulldogs beat the visitors so bad that I felt sorry

for them. 44 to 7. And the 7 was scored when UMD had given up and started putting in all their injured players.

Day 6, Sunday

Went to church. Went to a party my mom threw at the Encounter. Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks to my

cousin Peter for all his help. It was fun.

Day 7, Monday

Took Hooch for a walk. He was so excited he nearly exploded. Went to WalMart and had pictures taken of

everyone, against my will. But when it comes to pictures, it’s easier not to argue with Jaime. Then went home and

had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. With pumpkin pie and can-shaped cranberries and everything.

Day 8, Tuesday

My brother had to go home, so the morning was spent with the chaos of packing up two kids and a dog. Was very sad

to see them go because Zach and Rissa are so darned cute. And I even miss Hooch. He’s a very sweet dog. After

they left we hung around and went out for dinner and pretty much relaxed.

Day 9, 10 and 11, Wednesday – Friday

We spent these days chilling and doing tourist things. We went to the Depot Museum and the Aquarium. It was all

very fun. I liked the otters at the aquarium. I was amused to find a picture of my mom in the museum. To be

honest, I’m getting a bit foggy on what we did those days. I think there was a lot of shopping. It’s all a blur.

Day 12, Saturday

Went to the Bayfield Apple Festival in Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was lots of fun and a very American thing for my

husband to see. We had apples with caramel and cinnamon ice cream. I also had a big bowl of Wisconsin for lunch.

By that I mean, deep fried cheese curds. (I think they need to add some apple to the curds though. They would

have been 46% better with a spicy apple chutney.)

Day 13, Sunday



Went to church. Went home and packed.

Day 14, Monday

My parents drove us back to the Twin Cities. We got checked into a hotel with an airport shuttle, and my parents

went back to Duluth.

Day 15/16, Tuesday/Wednesday

Flying home. Ugh. I hate flying. I really really hate the Amsterdam airport. You can’t just go from one gate to

another in Amsterdam. We were early for our flight to Edinburgh, so we had to stand and wait for them to open the

gate so they could security screen us, even though we’d already been screened in Minneapolis. The whole place is a

bleak horrible place, like an abandoned warehouse. They tried to cheer it up with creepy bronze sculptures and

identical fake trees in every gate area. And every 30 seconds there’s a hostile announcement over the loudspeakers

in a Dutch (nearly Nazi-German) accent saying something like, “Passenger Smith you are delaying your flight!

Report to Gate 12 immediately! Your luggage will be off-loaded!” I kept expecting someone to herd me into a room

to have my head shaved and a number tattooed on my arm.

So then we got home and I vowed to never fly through Amsterdam again. Overall, I had an excellent time, and I

didn’t want to come back to Scotland. If I still had my former job, I probably wouldn’t have come back. Having a

better job with co-workers who behave like normal adults makes all the difference.

Now I’m back at work and things are getting more “normal”. The guinea pigs are acting like spazzes. Jayne the

hamster keeps climbing the walls and falling on her head, as usual. And no, I didn’t end up getting a tattoo. Never settled on a design, and didn’t really find the time.

Alana