I am back from my vacation to Minnesota!! What an amazing time I had back in my home state over the weekend. Don't get me wrong there were some bumps along the way but it was possibly the best time I have had back in MN since I moved to New York over 4 years ago. No I am NOT moving back.
Wednesday was awesome as I worked from the Minneapolis office (located in the U.S. Bank Plaza) during the day and then met up with Staci and Lindsay for the Red Sox vs Twins that night. Sadly the Twins won but it was a good time. I even was able to see Joe Nathan break the career saves record for the Twins which was a nice bit of baseball history.
Thursday I went golfing with my friend Greg and had a blast. We played 18 and smoked two cigars. After about 3 nice shots and 80 bad ones it was off to the airport to pick up Sharlay :) Everyone was so nervous heading into dinner. I was nervous, my parents were nervous and Sharlay was having a heart attack (sorry babe but you were!). On the way to my parents it was so evident that she was having a rough go of it we pulled over and I spent about 5 minutes praying over the situation and getting her to relax. It worked...sort of. Truth be told that almost right away when we got out of the car Sharlay was amazing. No other way to describe it. She was so great with my parents (especially my mother (which is no small feat)) I was utterly amazed. At one point I looked over to her at dinner and thought "Wow she is totally bringing the house down!" And she really really was. After dinner we walked over to Rambling River Park and then back to my parents house.
Friday we woke up and had french toast for breakfast courtesy of my mom! Excellent breakfast! Sadly Sharlay left her dress back in New York so we had to spend the better part of Friday looking for dresses so off to the MoA we went! Sharlay loved MoA (as if this would surprise anyone who knows her!) and she especially loved how cheap things were compared to CT and NYC. After a few hours of shopping we finally found her an amazing purple dress.
This picture doesn't do it justice but she looked totally hot! Off to the wedding went where we had a really great time. Much to my embarrassment they played polka music at the wedding reception. I had failed to warn Sharlay about this cultural phenomenon. Ugh. Somehow she thought it was cool and was upset I didn't take her to dance the Polka (as if that would EVER happen!). What was really sad was they never played one slow song for the first hour and a half after dinner, thus we never had a chance to slow dance on the floor. Instead we headed back to the hotel (W - Minneapolis Foshay) and had a night cap at the Living Room.
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at Hell's Kitchen, where I had the best Carmel Roll ever made by the hands of man. SO GOOD! If you go to Minneapolis you have to get breakfast here it is sooooo delicious!
After Foshay it was off to my Aunt Joyce's for a Sloss family reunion. Due to the nature of the Sloss family there are no appropriate pictures that I can share here....lol. Okay just kidding. There were some pics taken but none with my phone so I don't have any to show. Once again Sharlay was a rock star and brought the house down with my family as well. Everyone (that wasn't my parents) had nothing but great things to say about her. Since it was the Sloss side of the family they made plenty of fun of me as well which I was fully expecting. It was also very cool to see my Uncle Dan and Aunt Judy who I hadn't seen in almost 3 years. They are by far the coolest people in the world and someone I look up to with a great deal of respect and admiration.
Next up on that Saturday night was the Demolition Derby!! The Dakota County Fair is held every August in my hometown and when I heard there was a Demo Derby happening how could I NOT take Sharlay to get a real taste of Farmington?
Afterwards she got her first taste of Cheese Curds and even managed to down a corn dog! That is my kind of woman! While at the Fair we even ran into my high school friend Angela Nevada Allard (had to give you a shout out!). After the fair it was back home to look at some pictures of a boy who looked like me but had a mullet on his head...
Sunday was also a very fun day...we went to church...met up with my friend Staci in Edina and then went to Chino Latino for dinner. Chino has always been one of my favorite spots to eat in Minneapolis if for no other reason than it is a lot of fun. Sharlay
After Chino we went to Sebastian Joe's in Linden Hills for late night ice cream. Also an amazing and fun place to go especially on a beautiful night. At some point during the night we drove around Lake Calhoun and tried to walk around a bit but the bugs of course were WAY too bad to do that. We drove back to Farmington and totally crashed after that.
Monday was our last day in Minnesota. We woke up and had breakfast with my mom which was nice. However, we couldn't stay long as we had a very specific mission to accomplish this day. After driving downtown to meet my friend Ken we headed to South Minneapolis for date with a Jucy Lucy!!
This was a total success cause not only did we not burn the roof of our mouths with the molten cheese but Sharlay was treated to the best damn Cheeseburger you can get for $5.50. Heck...we know that is the best burger you can get anywhere for any price! Don't listen to those chumps who claim the 5/8 Club is better. After our mecca to Matt's (yes I said mecca) we headed back to Farmington so she could meet my friend Greg and his wife Heidi. We sort of kind of met Jake his son but he was being such a bit shy lol. After that it was back to the parents for dinner and hanging out. My dad and I told lots of ridiculous stories after dinner and before you knew it, it was time to leave for the hotel. We said good bye to my parents and left for the Marriott hotel where we managed to get the entire pool and hot tub to ourselves for a few hours before crashing to sleep for the night.
It was an awesome trip!! Sharlay is already trying to get me to move back to MN since she loved it so much...we will see how much she loves it in December. More entries to come as I know I have to update you all on how we met and our first few dates...until then be safe out there!
Andrew
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