Vacation in Minneapolis - 2013

This year, Trent and I decided to spend our vacation in Minneapolis. This was because it would coincide with a conference that he was going to be attending for work. His conference was going to be from Sunday through Tuesday night, so we headed North a few days early and spent Thursday through the following Wednesday in The Cities.

THURSDAY

On the way up on Thursday, we stopped in Owatonna at Cabela's and then grabbed a bite to eat before going through all the shops at the Medford Outlet Mall. We found a few good things to buy and then continued on our way to our hotel in Minnetonka. After we got settled in, we went out to eat at The Golden Nugget. We had some good food and came out very full!

After supper, we decided to take a drive to check out a few things. We drove downtown and found the hotel we'd be staying at from Saturday through Tuesday nights and the Convention Center where Trent's conference would be. We then drove by the Metrodome and over to the Summit Hill neighborhood in St. Paul. It was absolutely beautiful. All the houses were big and had very well maintained yards. The streets were lined with mature and lush trees. It was just awesome. I wouldn't mind living in a neighborhood like that! And I could have driven around and looked at it all for hours!

FRIDAY

We slept in on Friday and then headed out to Minnehaha Falls Park. I thought this was one of the highlights of the trip. I love waterfalls, so getting to see one in real life was awesome.

 

Below is a video from when we were at the falls. From the top of the falls first and then when we went down to see it from the bottom. 

If you get this in an email and can't see the video, click here to see it on my blog or click here to see it on YouTube.

After checking out the actual falls, we did a little 'hiking' alongside the creek that runs from the falls to the Mississippi River. I'm really glad we found out that the falls were there and that we got to see it. It was really awesome.

After the falls, we did a little exploring and went to find one of the houses that Nicole Curtis redid on the DIY Network show Rehab Addict. The house we saw was the B.E.A.UTIFUL "Minnehaha House" from the show. This wasn't one of the houses that I saw them redo from start to finish on the show, but I've seen enough random episodes to know it's beautiful. It was pretty cool to see. I wish I would have gone to see a few more of the houses she redid on the show, but maybe next time! :)

The "Minnehaha House"

Next on the agenda was going to IKEA. Ever since I have started reading numerous blogs and seeing all the good stuff that these people get at IKEA, I had been wanting to see it for myself, so I was happy that we finally got to go there. The store is crazy! It's huge and has sooo much stuff. (Fun Fact: Ikea is the 3rd largest consumer of wood in the world behind Home Depot and Lowe's. Crazy, right?!?) They have arrows on the floor to guide you on a tour of the store so you get to see everything they have to offer and then you end up in a warehouse type area where all the boxes of the unassembled furniture are and you pick it all up yourself. I think I will definitely be making a trip back there when the time comes to do some big projects in our house. I may or may not have already planned our closet system out using the dimensions and accessories that Ikea has available :)

 

 

 

 

 

After Ikea, we were going to go to the Mall of America (they are right next to each other) but after walking around for so long inside Ikea and earlier in the day, we were done with shopping for the time being. Instead, we decided to go drive by the airport and attempt to get as close as we could to the planes taking off and landing without getting arrested. We found a little road off an exit that had a dog park right by the fence where the planes were landing, so we parked there for a while and watched the planes come in one after another. It was pretty crazy to look off in the sky in the direction the planes were coming from and see the lights from two or three different planes getting lined up and waiting their turn to land. It was a very cheap and interesting form of entertainment for us :)

See a plane landing a little under and to the left of the Stop sign.

After our plane watching, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with our friends Lee and Sara who had also come into town that afternoon. We all hopped in the car and went to a small town bar in Hopkins for the night. It was nice to just be able to sit and chat with them for a few hours.

 

SATURDAY

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and went out for some lunch. Lee found a small town diner called The Convention Grill in Edina for us to try. They had really good burgers and awesome malts. I think we all thought it was a great find!

 

Check out that authentic diner decor! :)

After lunch, we all went to the new Superman movie, Man of Steel. Lee and Sarah then had to take off to go to a birthday party and Trent and I headed downtown to check into our hotel for the last four nights of our trip. (We were staying at the same hotel were I had stayed with the dance team for a competition my junior year of college. Oh the memories!)

 

After checking in, we went and swam in the pool for a while (boo for there not being a hot tub) until Trent had to get cleaned up to go check in for his conference. When he got back from there, we went to find somewhere downtown to eat on the Nicollet Mall. We sat outside at Brit's Pub and had a good meal and did some people watching. It was quite pleasant!

 

Trent at Brit's

SUNDAY

On Sunday, Trent had to be up bright and early to go to his conference. I, on the other hand, was barely coherent when he left and may have still been sleeping when he came back to the room a little after 10 when he had a break... :)

 

After I got up and got ready, I went out to do a little shopping. I went to the Mall of America and had some lunch in the food court, overlooking the Nickelodeon amusement park area of the mall. It was, again, a nice place to do some people watching!

 

 

After I got done eating, I wondered out in the mall to do some shopping. I tried on A LOT of clothes between all the stores I went to. I didn't buy a whole bunch, but it was still fun to just take my time and try on whatever I wanted. After about the fourth store, I was very glad that I was there alone so I didn't have to worry about making anyone wait for me while I try tried things on (and took pictures of myself). I did buy a few things, though, but they were only at stores where I had gift cards, so that definitely cut down on the money I spent. I'd say it was a shopping win!

I cut my head off on all these pictures because I didn't smile in the mirror at myself so I look like I hate the world and possibly could hurt someone... No one wants to see that!

The things I bought were the shoes that I have on in all the pictures from Famous Footwear (and I also bought them in black. I only paid about $30 total for both pairs after coupons and rewards! Winning!), the shirt I have on in the first picture, and the shirt and skirt I have on in the second picture. (all from Express) Yay for work clothes!

 

After I finished up at the mall, I went back to Ikea to check everything out again. It was amazing that even though I was just there two days prior, it all looked so different and I was seeing things that I didn't remember seeing the time before. I bought my mom some new sheets and duvet cover to go on her new bed and bought myself a nice fake plant! And I spent a few hours imagining things I would like for our house and day dreaming about what our closet will hopefully look like someday. Then it was time for me to leave... but I'll be back, Ikea!!

 

I took a lot of pictures of the different closets they had set up.
You know, for me to reference later! :)

Notice the disclaimer at the bottom of this very large poster hanging above the
checkouts at Ikea. So just in case you're wondering, the hot dogs that they sell in
the Marketplace at Ikea are NOT the same size as shown! HAHA!

 Sunday night was just a low key night. Trent had stuff for his conference late into the evening, so I hung out in the room and watched TV until he returned and then we hit the sack soon after. It was a nice, relaxing end to a busy day for both of us.

 

MONDAY

Monday was another day where Trent had to wake up to go to his conference and I slept in. (Can you tell why I liked this vacation?!?) I spent the whole day at the hotel, so it was a very nice day. In the afternoon, I sat outside for a few hours and read some books. I am reading One Thousand Gifts and The Power of a Praying Wife currently. I got quite a bit of sun while sitting outside and ended up getting burnt on my chest and shoulders - I am just now going through the peeling phase of my burn... dead.skin.everywhere! Yuck. The burn was worth it though, because it was a beautiful day!

My view from where I was sitting outside the hotel.
The bells of that church were ringing when I took this picture.
It was wonderful.

The poor bird that was behind the couch I was sitting on...
I'm guessing he tried to fly through the window. Poor guy!

 On Monday night, Trent and I met our friends Luke and Cathy for supper. They weren't able to meet us when we got together with Lee and Sara on Friday, so I'm glad we had another opportunity to see them. Cathy works downtown, so she met us right around 5:00 at The Local on the Nicollet Mall and then Luke joined us when he got there after driving from work. We had another good meal and enjoyed catching up them. Both Luke and Cathy and Lee and Sara are engaged to be married in the next year (and Trent is going to be in both of their weddings), so we had a lot of wedding things to talk about!

 

We had the pleasure of being able to give Luke a gift from all his groomsmen since we were the ones seeing him in person. All the guys got him the experience of driving a Lamborghini around a race track (or something like that). Luke thought it was pretty cool and was excited about it. I'm glad that we (or Trent, I guess) got to be the one to give it to him and see him be surprised.

 

TUESDAY

Tuesday was another low key day for me, and another day of conference fun for Trent. Trent got to sleep in a little with me this day because his stuff didn't start until later, but then he had to head out for a few hours and I hung out at the hotel again. I watched some TV and worked out and then came back to get ready to go to the conference closing banquet with Trent.

 

The meal was nice and we listened to the president speak to the organization before closing the conference and telling everyone they'd see them next year at the conference which is in Washington D.C.

 

The rest of the night was spent getting packed up to head back home bright and early on Wednesday morning. 

I really loved our little vacation we had this year. It was nice to just get away and spend some time alone with Trent and getting to do some pretty fun things along the way. I loved that we did a lot of different things but really only had a minimal plan for our time there. That made it so that we were never stressed about making it somewhere on time and never in a hurry. We were able to feel rested and still get to experience a lot of different things together. I'm looking forward to our next little get-away!