Gee Whippers! I was in Minnesota!

Hi again! I got back from Minnesota and it's 10,000 lakes a little after 4:00 yesterday afternoon. I was there for 4 days visiting my best friend from college, Jamie Lee Woods, and celebrating her 25th birthday. 
I figured after my blogging hiatus the past few days, a huge Minnesota trip recap would be the best way to re-enter my struggle at consistent blogging, but before I even started writing this post, I knew that it would be pretty much impossible to put into words just how much fun I had with my best friend. Keeping this in mind, I'm going to power off the ramble feature in my brain and give you a start to finish recap of my trip....! 
Here we go...
The last time I was on an airplane was in 8th grade... so I was a tad amazed at the view from my window:

 This next picture is an aerial view of the "Twin Cities." Allow me to inform you that there is only 1 skyline; please don't be like me and look for Minneapolis and then proceed to try to find St. Paul...because you won't find it.... and if you ask where it is, the locals will just laugh at you, trust me, I've been there.

So for future reference... Minneapolis and St. Paul are basically 1 city. Apparently they used to be 2 separate cities, but grew overtime and sort of merged.

My early morning plane rides were followed by lots of shopping at the Mall of America. We were going to ride roller coasters.... (since we hate them and wanted to do something that we normally wouldn't do)... but our lower backs hurt... and my ankle was swollen... perfect excuses to NOT ride this indoor roller coaster. Fact of the day: the Mall of America is too big.

My friend lives kind of close to nothing.... so we spent lots of time in the car....

.... while taking pictures of all things Minnesota.... 

 ...and crashing into parked cars outside of Cub Foods....oops?

But moving on to better things... like food!

 We drank wine...

...we ate cheese...

 ...and said cheers to best friends!

 Lots of fun and lots of laughing took place... that is, until we walked outside later that evening and saw this:

And now I'm 100% positive that it snows everyday in Minnesota.

We were kind of disappointed at the turn in weather, but once we got back to the Woods' house (which happens to be in the woods) the moose made us smile and forget about the April snow and hurricane force winds. 

It was good we ran into them in the family room because they not only made us smile, but they also told us where to find their Easter friends!

 These guys also told us to forget about the weather and reminded us that we had a fun filled Saturday ahead of us - chock full of Birthday celebrations to get ready for!

During our trip into the city cities for the Birthday Girl...I manned the backseat and protected our hotel party-bag - full of some popchips, cinnamon bunnies, beer and melon vodka....

 while Minn (my best friend's real name) manned the GPS:

the GPS took us to get Birthday cupcakes...

 ...took us passed a cathedral (?) which was taken from my backseat... and yes, the car was moving...I'm on the verge of a photography career... obviously.

 Once into the CITIES... (remember from earlier, that it looks like 1 city, but yet still referred to as 2 cities....yeah, it's tricky up there, don't ya know) we got ready at the Ramada Raddison in downtown Minneapolis, then hopped on down a few blocks to our dinner destination, Solera. The restaurant's menu is Spanish influenced, with tapa style servings. We jumped on board and decided to go all out and get sangrias:

 We then blindly ordered several different tapas that we shared throughout the evening. I didn't get any pictures of the actual entrees, but did manage to score a cool picture of our free bread and a glowing candle.

My large head, Jamie, Lizzie at dinner

Our evening continued back at the hotel, where we got ready, enjoyed a few drinks (the mature phrase for 'pregaming') and met up with 2 of Minn's work buddies. 

We eventually took our party out to the bars, where we continued to indulge enjoy alcoholic beverages and take close up, off-centered pictures of ourselves.

I do have to say, I am very proud (and surprised) that none of our pictures had the ever-so-famous "kissy face" that seemed to pop up in at least 3/4 of all pictures taken back in our glory days of college. 

We ended the evening back in the hotel room, eating oreos and potato chips. I'm sad to say this is where the picture documentation of my trip ends. Turns out that being hungover is a very large obstacle when it comes to finding motivation to take pictures for a blog. I apologize.
As hangovers were nursed, our Sunday consisted of a lazy afternoon of watching Vampire Diaries (new obsession thanks to Jamie), and eating cute little birthday bunnies made out of cake. After both agreeing that drinking more than 2 drinks is just not doable anymore, we slowly got ready and headed to the casino on the Indian Reservation with her parents for some BINGO!


If you know anything about me and Minn and our genuine bad luck... you probably were right in guessing that we didn't win. BUT, after a small dinner, we wandered the casino, playing a few slot machines - which turned out to be a good idea because Minn won $80! I think she wanted to continue to play, but her mom and I basically forced her into stopping... reminding her of her impending car repair payment. 


The night ended back at the Woods' where we had birthday cake, get regular tea (ha!) and watched vampire diaries. There was one pictures taken of us 2 and the birthday cake, however it is not on my camera, and I'm pretty sure we both agree that it should never be seen... so just imagine 2 hungover, tired girls and a really pretty spring birthday cake!


Now that I've just reread the last few paragraphs and realized that my ramble switch is back on, I think it's an appropriate time to wrap this post up. 


Before this trip, the last time I saw Jamie was a year ago for her 24th birthday. You can really tell who your best friend is when you can pick up like normal, despite not seeing them for a long time. It hasn't even been 24 hours and I already miss her like crazy. I miss not having someone who has the some crazy brain as me.... so please move back to Ohio Jamie.