Adam and I had been looking forward to our trip to Minneapolis for a long time, so we got up bright and early on Saturday, handed Ryan over to Adam's parents, and were on the road by 6:30am. Unfortunately, it began to rain on our drive and was in a pretty good downpour by the time we neared the stadium. However, we could see people inside and the Jumbo-tron going strong, so we paid to park in the ramp, gathered our raingear, and entered the ballpark. Only then did the screen turn to say they were in an official rain delay and the first pitch would be delayed. Great. The forecast was 39 degrees and 90% chance of rain for the next few hours, so we were pretty sure the game would not be happening, but after finding out that if you leave, you cannot re-enter the park, we stuck it out with the thousands of other (drunk and/or miserable) fans, ate some lunch sitting on the floor by a bathroom (key to rain delays=find a warm hallway and stake your claim), and after about 2 hours, found out the game was postponed until June 30.It was a nightmare getting out of the ramp so we got stuck in the wrong ramp out and ended up on 394 in a traffic jam and pouring rain. Between the stop-and-go traffic, the rain, and trying to figure out a map on my phone to see how we could get to Ikea, my car sickness took over. Let's just say we arrived at Ikea with a full Twins souvenir cup, and it wasn't full of Sprite.
Our hour-long trip through Ikea resulted in a lamp, which doesn't sound too exciting until you know we've been meaning to buy a bedside lamp for oh, about 8 years. We currently use a floorlamp to read at night and when we're reading to turn it off, I just tip it over to reach the switch. As a result, it permanently stands at about a 20 degree tilt. Adam got me a Kindle light for my birthday so now I have a light, but he doesn't. It was time to just pick one out and get it over with. We saw a desk we loved, but the price tag was too high, especially for something we'd have to put together ourselves.
We checked into our hotel--the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites--which is a good option if you want to stay by the mall. The parking ramp is a little sketchy and it's near the airport if planes bother you, but otherwise, it's a perfectly good option with nice rooms-ours included a microwave and mini fridge-, a pool, and you can usually get it on Hotwire for $55. (Pick the 3.5 star hotel in Bloomington East near the Mall of America/Airport). Although, there's always the chance that you'll see this in the hotel lobby:
We were getting pretty hungry, since the pretzel I had eaten for lunch was now residing in a trashcan in the Ikea parking lot, so we headed to the Mall to eat. We ended up at Ruby Tuesdays and had some decent steaks, then randomly ran into our family doctor from Sibley right outside the restaurant. It's pretty funny that every time we go to Minneapolis, we end up running into someone we know.
The only shopping we did was for a few shirts for Ryan at Children's Place, then we decided to go watch The Hunger Games. I'm on the 3rd book right now, Adam hasn't read them at all, but we both enjoyed the movie. All the stores were closed when our movie got out, so we just headed back to the hotel.
I can't explain how much I enjoyed sleeping until 8am...I really can't. It was kind of the highlight of the trip. We packed up and took a meandering way home, since I missed the 169 exit off 494 (it's currently a disaster area) and ended up in Plymouth before we realized it. Yikes...guess we were talking too much! But, we eventually got back on track and stopped at Emma Krumbees for breakfast which was decent, but slow, and most of the patrons were at least double our age. After a DQ fix, we picked up Nika, then went home to unpack since Ryan was still taking a nap at Grandpa and Grandma's, then I eventually went to get him. He didn't seem that excited to see me, but had a great time at Grandpa & Grandma's and we are so thankful they were willing to have him for the weekend.
So, although it was nice to get away for the weekend, it felt like a lot of driving just to go out to eat and see a movie. Hopefully we'll be able to come back up for the June 30 game.
I'd like to actually see the Twins play instead of just puke up their pretzels.
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