Monday, August 23, 2010

Midwest adventure - Day 8

The last day in Minnesota... Time sure goes fast. Today we are moving our base camp one final time from Brooklyn Park to Big Lake. So, the morning consisted of breakfast, packing, pictures and our goodbyes to the Rossings.

When we went to Kitchen Window yesterday we spotted another great place to check out; International Market Square. A design mall for home furnishings, kitchens and bathrooms. We couldn't pass up an opportunity like that since we don't have anything remotely similar back in Ohio.

We saw some very nice kitchens (among others, Poggenpuhl) all with high-end Miele, Wolf and Gaggenau appliances. Probably above our price-range, but the Sharp Microwave drawer (about $495) might make it on our list of appliances. Daniel was great in the stroller we had on loan from one of Jen's high school friends and he entertained himself testing the acoustics of the converted old factory/warehouse that hosts the market place.

Since we promised Jen's brother and sister in-law we would be at their place in Big Lake by 2pm we quickly jumped on I-35 to Route 10 straight to Big Lake using the same route Jen used to take when she was living there. Amazing how build-up the northern burbs are compared to 20 yrs ago.

In Big Lake we also got a final visit from Jen's dad (and brought 12 ears of corn for us to take home as well) while D was entertaining himself with the trains of his cousins. Around 3pm the boys wanted to go swimming, so D and his cousin got into their bathing suites and headed over to the neighbors pool. D was relaxing in his swim vest inside a nice floater and his cousin was showing off his diving skills.

Jen and I got ourselves all dressed-up and ready for Jen's 20yr high school reunion at McPete's on Route 10. We knew we would be a little over-dressed for a what turned out to be a bowling alley and a bar but we heard about the dress code about 1400 miles too late... ;-)

On our way we drove by two more places where Jen used to live and made to the reunion a little after 5pm. The reunion was a lot of fun. I finally put a number of names and faces together after hearing about them or reading about them on Facebook. They served a nice chicken dinner and a fabulous cake followed by plenty of socializing and plenty of friendliness inducing liquids...

Anyway, we finally left around 11.30pm when the party was still going but we still had a 20min drive home and a slightly longer drive tomorrow...

Zzzzz.....

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