Vacation

So Darling Daughter and I went on a little vacation to The wonderful world of my cousin Robin in Minneapolis. I just love the big city! It's always such fun to spend time with my wonderful cousin!

 There was bowling involved...not me! Robin had a tournament to bowl, DD and me just had snacks....It was a really nice bowling alley-clean and bright

 Look at the cute Formica table tops! So adorable!

 

There was a stop at the Mall of America ...of course....Lego Land

 And see those pretty blue handbags in the Micheal Kors Store? Lots of stores had that cobalt blue in handbags-I need to go find a less pricey version though!

 I'm always slightly in awe of the mall. There are a lot of things that are the same as any mall anywhere, but there's just so much  here all at once!

 We stopped in at Crayola-I love that crayon smell!

 Sesame Street was at the pop-up stage in the center of the mall.

 And we went to the aquarium. We took the tour that let us go behind the scenes and we could see the view from ABOVE the tunnel!

 It was such a good visit!

 We stopped off at the brand new Hy Vee to pick up a few things....and look they have a clothing store INSIDE the HyVEE!!!!!!They have kids clothes and adult clothes-an exclusive line from Europe!

 Of course we had to eat out...We had a little bit of everything -we had a burger at the Lucky 13, and we had Mexican late one night and we also had lunch a the Rainforest Cafe at the Mall.
Robin treated us to a special dinner at the local Steakhouse-Axel's.

 I can't ever remember getting a popover to start the meal before!

 And the food was so good! Such a great meal!

 And we split a delicious slice of cheese cake in honor of DD's birthday!

We also made a stop at the SR Harris fabric warehouse in Brooklyn Park...I could spend a lot of money here if I wasn't careful!!

 I did pick up a few zippers and got a couple of bits of fabric.

We also stopped at the location in Burnsville on the way home....

Well, it seemed shameful to drive on by!

And we took the opportunity to go to the movies! We saw Hidden Figures. It was a great movie! I just wanted to clap my hands when Kevin Costner's character, Mr Harrison says "Here at NASA we all pee the same color."! Go see it-you'll want to cheer too!

Ok, I Just Have to finish This Trip!

SO to finish off the trip to Minneapolis, we popped in to the Mall of America for lunch. 

 I just want to point out that at the Stitch It store, it's $20 to hem jeans. Just sayin'.

 So as always the mall amazes me! Where do all these people get so much money!???

 Who can buy a Micheal Kors bag? And then step next door to Kate Spade and pick up a little something? I'm in a daze every time I think about it!!!

 But the Turtles at Nickelodeon land are still there, and we head to the Hard Rock for lunch, because none of us has ever been-crazy right?

 Lego land is right outside the door...good to know, maybe needed for a future visit!

 The Hard Rock has a featured person every month I guess and lookie at that, it's Bob Marley this month!

 Pretty good service, and pretty good food and not too crazy prices.

 I really enjoyed this burger-I haven't had a good burger in quite awhile, and this one was good!

 So as we're leaving, DD pointed out these very cool portraits-here's Kurt Cobain

(kind of the dead artist month theme going here?)

 ANYWAYS....the portraits are made of chains

 see they just hang there and they have the image printed on the chain....

 See there's Bob(I think-or is that Roy?), and Elvis and Jimi, and George all captured in chains

 And since we are in the land of the Purple One, here's a display of Prince's wardrobe.

 Look Dora was at the Mall too! Hola Dora!!

 Then we HAD to pop over to IKEA! I love that place, there's just something alluring about it. I don't need anything, but it's a fun store to browse around in.

 And they take marketing to a whole new level-All retailers like to try to guide consumers through the store to see what they want you to see, but IKEA takes that to a whole new level with arrows and maps to direct you just where they want you to go.

 Always very organized and I think they have just about the right number of checkouts!

OK now I think I'm done blogging about my latest Minneapolis trip. It was WONDERFUL! I love to spend time with my favorite cousin and DD. There's so much to see in the big city!!

Travel Time Reporting

So I forgot to say, out of all that fabric at SR Harris, this is what I bought. 14 yards of taffeta & lace, and some quilt cottons. I do have some restraint, see!!

 So as we  travel to Minnesota we pass right through Clear lake Iowa on I35 North. I had been to the Surf ballroom-the place where Buddy Holly & Richie Valens & the Big Bopper all played their last concert before perishing in a tragic plane crash nearby in 1959. Well there is a memorial marker at the field where that plane crashed. It's giant pair of eye glasses-the iconic Buddy Holly style. We made a quick stop-it's just a few miles outside town...

 And I want you to notice that we were NOT the only people out there that morning!

 There was another group of folks who were hiking out into the field to have a look around too. Anyways on to Minneapolis. We arrived in great time and had some chat time with my favorite cousin in Minneapolis!

 Then we headed out to supper at Psycho Susie's! Uber Son and me had been to Susie's before-several years ago...well like 8 or 9, but she has moved to a new location!

 And they had a band!! Exotic-a-go-go was the band's name. They were really great! I mean how many times do you go somewhere and they play a MARIMBA? AND a MELODICA!??!!!!

 These guys were crazy talented-they all played several different instruments and it was like a fusion of Hawaiian luau music meets band class, meets classic beach movie soundtrack.

 See that green shrunken head beverage mug? Yup, you guessed it-adult beverage-but to me it tasted like green Hawaiian Punch-good thing I was driving!

 The pizza was great and I'm so glad we went to Psycho Susie's!

 So we had some time the next day and we wanted to stop at Duluth Trading Company-you've seen their commercials, right? No stink, no sweat, buck naked underwear? The cure for plumbers butt T shirts? Well we love the commercials and wanted to check it out!

 They have a very nice store and very nice people there too!

 We chatted with the employees and they knew all about how the company started, and how they came top have such great commercials and lots of fun things.

 They sell all kinds of rugged stuff-shoes

 and lots of bags....

 and outdoor gear in addition to the clothing they are famous for.

 I bought Hubs some of their underwear-just letting you know though, they aren't exactly cheap. About $17 per pair for underwear. Well, Hubs, you're worth it!!!

 So after we got done we popped over to the Texas Roadhouse for some supper. Now, you may know that we go to places we can't go to at home when we travel and yes, we do have a Texas Roadhouse where we live, but my favorite cousin in Minnesota, only has one and it's kind of far from her house, so she never gets to go there, so we bent the rules a little bit. It was delicious of course!!

Even though the wait was pretty long-and we called ahead too! Oh well, those rolls are totally worth it, right?!!