Camping at Mona

It feels like the past month has flown by. This is probably the result of me flying to and from Minneapolis every weekend, coming home for a few days, and then going back to work again. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday always seem to go by faster than the rest of the week (probably because Jeff and I try to do as many fun things we can together before I go away for work again). This week we decided to take a quick trip to Mona, UT with the Stewarts. We found a great little campsite and set up the tent, then we headed to the reservoir for some rope swinging!

Caitie had a hard time getting her air mat blown up.

There was a large group of people just leaving when we arrived so we had the big rope swing all to ourselves for awhile! The sun was just setting, casting beautiful colors over the water.

 

The campsite facilities.

We made some delicious tin foil dinners and cobbler for dessert!

We love peach cobbler!

Happy campers playing Phase 10 by glow stick light.

Glad we could make quick getaway for some summer camping!

Week-end Avec Maman

Earlier this summer when I found out that I would be working in Minnesota my mom decided she would use some of her air miles and join me there. We met at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport on thursday and had a fantastic weekend. It was so much nicer to have someone to tour around with and it made staying in the hotel much more like a vacation. My mom kept herself busy while I was teaching my reading classes (I think she probably saw more of Minnesota than I have in the past three weeks), and in the evenings we headed into the city.

One of the things I had on my to-see list while in Minnesota was the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden - the largest urban sculpture garden in the country. We parked above the Walker Art Center and walked down to the garden. I wish we would have had more time to tour the whole thing!

The iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenbur. I remember learning about this in my humanities classes!

We made reservations at the 508 (named so because of it's location on 1st ave) which my friend Kelsie had highly recommended to me. She and Jared ate there when they were visiting Minneapolis this past winter and she could not stop raving about the burger she had ordered. So I made a point to find that restaurant and try the burger.

The Juicy Louie, it was called, and the patty itself was stuffed with American and White Cheddar cheese and topped with thousand island dressing. Kelsie was right. It was great.

 

After sharing the Juicy Louie, we ventured down Nicollet Mall for some sight seeing. 

We decided to have a progressive dinner of sorts and stopped at a French restaurant called Vincent's for some appetizers and dessert. We elected to dine outside along the street to watch the passersby and take in the Minneapolis night. Escargot and Poutine with a sample platter of french desserts. Delicious. 

Burgundy style escargots in garlic parsley butter. Yum!

On left, vanilla ice cream with warm chocolate sauce & madeleine cookies. On right, creme Caramel, creme brulee, and pot de creme.

On Saturday I taught from 8:30am to 5:30pm, but I took a quick lunch break with mom in between classes and it was very nice to get out of the classroom and enjoy some good company. In the evening we went back into the city for a night at the theater! We saw Pride and Prejudice at the Guthrie Theater and it was very entertaining. I wasn't sure if I would like a play adaptation of P&P but I was pleasantly surprised.

The Guthrie Theater

The theater itself was amazing. I snapped a quick photo of the set before the show started and an usher promptly scolded me saying that there was to be no photography as everything was copyrighted. As the theater became more full there were people taking pictures left and right and the usher was too busy directing people to their seats to scold everyone. I wished I would have waited until then to get a better picture of the two of us there with the scenery behind. Alas, this pixelated photo from my non-smart phone will have to suffice.

The set was so cool! The whole stage could swivel around!

After the play, we ate a late dinner at an adjacent restaurant called Sea Change. I'm sure you can guess that there was sea food on the menu there. We split an appetizer of oysters (after picking one slimy oyster out of its shell and letting it slide down my throat I confirmed that it tasted too much like the ocean for my liking), potato gnocchi with crispy sweetbreads, mustard, and caramelized onion (which I much preferred to the oysters), salmon, chicken breast with bandaged cheddar and cauliflower, and a sampling of their desserts which looked very strange but tasted very good. We headed back to our hotel with full bellies and happy hearts after a lovely cultural evening well spent.

Playing it safe and ordering chicken at a sea food restaurant. At least I tried the oysters!

Sunday morning we thought we would drive north to see the head of the Mississippi River. What an amazing sight that would be, we thought! Google maps on my mom's phone directed us to Itasca State Park, in Ramsey, MN. When we got to Ramsey we could see what we thought was the Mississippi (though not the head of the river) but the final direction put us in the middle of a neighborhood where a kind stranger informed us that he had never heard of Itasca State Park. We later discovered that the state park, where the Mississippi begins) is located about 2 1/2 hours further north in Park Rapids. Not sure why google maps took us to Ramsey, but I guess it worked out for the best because there is no way I would have made it back to my teaching site in time if we had gone any further. We turned around disappointed, but the drive was not for nothing! We did discover a very cool Bruegger's Bagels along the way which had been transformed from an old fire station, and we drove all the way down Nicollet Ave and watched as the neighborhood architecture transformed from one era to another the closer we got to downtown. 

After teaching my last two classes we headed to the airport where we had a quick dinner together, then mom walked me to my gate and waved as I boarded the plane. It was really a wonderful weekend.  These will be some fun memories of being together. 

Farewell Roberts

The day is upon us that our dear friends Jared and Kelsie have moved. They are driving to Michigan as we speak! They have been the best friends anyone could ask for and we will truly miss them. 

We got them a little farewell gift to make them feel at home when they arrived in Michigan.

You guys will love it there!

Last picture in front of the Delawarde Apts. One day we will all live in the same cul-de-sac and name it Delawarde Court.

Dinner at Gurus, so Kelsie could savor those sweet potato fries one more time.

We miss these  two!

Eating dessert outside on a lovely summer evening.

We thought Monday night would be our last time seeing the Roberts before they left. But fate intervened and we had one last hurrah the next night! They were staying with Kelsie's parents near Salt Lake, so we met up at this cute little neighborhood custard shop on Tuesday night.

Caitie works at the children's hospital in Salt Lake City, and we brought Nate with us so we could all say a final farewell to the Roberts. Kind of ironic that we chose to meet up with her at the University of Utah, when we are all BYU students. But it was a convenient location and time was running short before the Roberts had to get back home to their family and to prepare for their early drive the next morning.

Just as we were setting up to take a picture of the six of us, our camera battery went completely dead. We tried to take one on Jared's phone but it just wasn't turning out. We were devastated. We had to get one more picture all together! Then a miracle happened. A family pulled into the same parking lot as us and Kelsie ran over and asked them if they would take a picture for us using one of our phones. The man who came over just happened to have camera that was very similar to ours and it also had the same battery! We swapped our battery out and he let us use his to get our picture. He even took it for us! We were so grateful and gave him many thanks before the family left. We have no idea why they pulled in to that parking lot because they left immediately after taking the picture for us, but I'm pretty sure they were angels, sent to help the camera-less in need. We got our picture after all!

So happy we could all get together once last time and say a proper goodbye!

B.F.F.'s for life! One day we will all live in the same place again and our kids will play together : )

Drive safe Jared and Kelsie! We miss you already and will visit you soon!

Dad Week

Somehow it worked out that my dad had a work conference in Minneapolis the same time I was working in Minnesota this week. So we got together on a couple of nights and made the most of our time together! We hit up a ball game and did some shopping at America's biggest mall.

Walking to the Minnesota Twins Game via Nicollet Mall

The Minneapolis Skyway System. Convenient during those cold Minnesota winters.

Tribute to the Mary Tyler Moore show which was set in Minneapolis.

There were so many cool buildings in the downtown area and all around Nicollet Mall.

We rode some of these bikes down Nicollet Ave after the game. Great way to see the city!

Entrance to Target Field

Beautiful Downtown Minneapolis serves as the backdrop to the ballpark.

The Twin Cities, Minneapolis & St. Paul

It was a really nice stadium! Seats 39,500.

On Saturday Dad took the light rail from Downtown and I hurried back after teaching my Saturday classes to meet in Bloomington at The Mall of America! That place is too big to visit every store in just one night, but we saw as much as we could. We did a lot of walking to be sure. We even rode one of the roller coasters!

I might have bought this if it hadn't been and X-Large

Here's the giant peep store I mentioned in the last post. A whole store just for Peeps!

It was great to spend some time with my Dad in Minnesota. While I was away for work Jeff's dad came and stayed with him and they had a father-son weekend too. They went mini golfing and saw the new Wolverine movie together. Fun memories with dads!