Okay, here’s our not-so-quick rundown….
Friday:
I leave work at noon to give me a couple hours to finish vacumming and clenaing things up a bit. I have yet to learn the biggest vacuuming lesson of all. if you are going to vacuum you MUST bring Ghengis outside and walk him around until every single turd in his entire body is out. Period. the second he sees the vacuum he will run around with poops falling out of his butt. He’s not squatting and pooping, no, he’s running around in crazy blind fear with poop falling out all over the place. And you can’t freak out because if you do he will panic and run under the bed and it’s much harder to get turds out from under a king sized bed in a little bedroom.
Anyway, lesson relearned only to be forgotten next time.
I got bored and headed to the airport early and waited for Lily. I am not so smart. If i am bored at home where I have my computer and 2 wildly entertaining dogs and a dvd player, why would I be more entertained at the airport? I did learn that the roses from Chile arrived at the airport at 10:42 that morning and were SUPER FRESH and worth the price.
So, Lily finally lands and finally ends up at baggage claim and she FINALLY finds her bags and we hit the road. We head to lunch at a wonderful little coffee shop deli thingy recommended by Jessi. The food was great and the weather was perfect enought o sit outside, but half way through the meal i realized just where I was and I felt like I was invading on someone’s turf. I ate my food, encouraged Lily to eat hers (she starts talking and forgets to eat) and we went on our way.
It was a great weekend to be in minneapolis. The weather was beyond perfect, the leaves were changing, it was downright bucolic.
We headed over to Whole Foods where I filled a cart with everything I needed to feed lamb to five people.
I’ll post pictures later, but with the help of Lily i made my semi-famous rack of lamb dinner complete with fabulous appetizers and dessert (it’s very hard to whip up a zabaglione after so much wine).
David was a total peach (this is his theme for the entire weekend, he’s pretty amazing), he helped clean up and then made Lily’s bed.
Exhausted and giddy on wine we all headed to our beds.
Saturday:
Up! 3 people negotiate the bathroom and then we’re off! We head to Victors for plantain omelettes and mango waffles and black beans and rice and cortaditos and everything else wonderful and cuban. The whole time, David practices his spanish with Lily. We eat and eat and eat and laugh and share stories and generally have a good time.
Now we’re off to the Mall of America! We don’t look at much, we see a few things, wander a bit, I get coffee because 1 cubano and 1 cortadita was just not enough. We excitedly hit H&M and immediately freak at the crowds. I buy a metric buttload of hair accessories and Lily tasks David to get a purse off a mannequin!
Camp Snoopy is the ultimate goal of the day and we go get our points and wander in. This is where things got hard for me. I was tired. TIRED. and I don’t do well in crowds. I was completely overwhelmed by the place. First things first we go to the ‘Mystery Mine Ride’ which is no longer the Mystery Mine Ride, but the decor is the same. The MMR is one of those where you sit in a room with a crazy film playing and the chairs tilt all crazily giving you the illusion of flying about in the movie. They had “SpongeBob Squarepants: The Ride!” so you know I was all over that. Sadly, it was set up for little kids so it was not so exciting.
Lily and David like rollercoasters. I do not. I rode on the regular coaster as that is not much of a coaster, and David took her on the twisty freaky scary coaster and the axe thing that swings you around and flips you upside down.
Home to regroup for a few minutes then Honk Honk Noodle with Jessi and Ahmed! As per usual we ate til it hurt! We even ate these tiny octopusses that were super cute (but chewy).
Home again to relax for a little while! David practiced some songs then we went to Balls Cabaret and we got to see David sing. I’d never seen him perform there so it was a treat for me as well. In honor of Lily’s visit he sang the “I Don’t Like” song in Spanish, “No Me Gusta”. So cute.
We didn’t get to bed til almost 3am.
Sunday:
We wake up again (what’s with all the waking up?) and negotiate the bathroom and find ourselves at Cupcake, the happiest place on earth.
Remember when i hit the wall the day before? i never really recovered from that. Apologies to david and lily, i was too too tired and too too cranky. It’s hard to pack all of minnesota into a visit, and it was so important that we do this so lily could see everything!
I ate a cupcake, an apple and brie sandwhich and pumpkin creme brulee.
I completely gorged on desserts all day.
We showed Lily the capital building and found the portrait of Jesse Venture and all the others. Then driving up Summit ave, and the river and to the falls and I had an ice cream which should have cheered me up but my feet hurt and sometimes I am a 5 year old.
Then back home for a final bit of chilling before we sent Lily on her way home.
It was a beautifully fun weekend and Lily is such a sweet and charming girl. Also, she likes my dogs, she gets points there!