Stage 1 - Minnesota

The only snafu on our flight to Minnesota was that I did not realize that we were landing in a different terminal than I had rented a car.  So we had to schlep our bags across a parking garage to the light rail to get to the main terminal.  During this I got the first "I knew this trip was a bad idea" look from my lovely bride.  

I have been in Minnesota the last two weeks for work - so it was difficult to get the vacation vibe going - especially since I had to go into work for a couple of meetings in the morning before we could really kick off the vacation.   We went to a 50's style diner for lunch.  My wife got a salmon burger - which I am pretty sure was not a staple of the 1950's.   

It was then off to the Mall of America - the biggest mall in country with an amusement park in the middle. We met my sister Nancy and her two kids at the mall. 

The kids had a fantastic time at the mall and we closed the place down at 10pm.  Brett thought it was ridiculous that they were not open to "at least midnight".

 The next morning my Dad, Jake and I got up to go to breakfast at Al's Diner.  Al's is a legendary place down by the University of Minnesota that was placed in a alley between two other buildings.  There is room for 14 stools and if they are full you have just enough space to stand behind them and wait your turn for a seat.  We then went to Jake's first official college tour at the University of Minnesota.   They young lady leading the tour told us that on average - students admitted to UofM are in the Top 15% of their class.  I hope Jake was listening...

We then headed over to my Mom's for lunch. My Uncle Gary joined us for lunch and a game of Kuub (a traditional Swedish lawn game).

The final stop of the Minnesota leg was the Twins-Indians game.  This was the third Twins stadium that I have been to - as my Dad took me to the old Met when I was young and I have attended several games at the Metrodome.  It was a perfect night for baseball and my sister Nan gave us some great seats in the club level.  The Twins won 11-0 and there were fireworks after the game.  A perfect end to a very busy first two days.

My MO is that I usually need a vacation after my vacation but the early pace of Westward-O is not sustainable.  Outside of breakfast - I don't think I stat down for more than 2 minutes at my Dad's house.  Looking forward to slowing the pace down a bit when we hit South Dakota.