Grand days in the homeland!

Just before I started school, I went on a trip that was in the making for a few years. My dear friend from Oregon, Karen, and I have been scheming to go to MN for a while. She has always been curious about where I came from and if it really is all I have made it out to be. After saving money and finding super cheap tickets, we decided on dates and began planning our trip to the great midwest.

Of course, we wanted to do it all, so we did.

We flew in LATE Friday night. By the time we got to bed it was after 1am. To do all that we wanted to do the next day, it meant getting up at 7 to leave by 8. I thought this would be too much of a stretch for my friend who likes sleep and needs ample time to ready herself. Much to my shock and surprise, I was awoken by my friend at 3 minutes after 7, who was all ready to go and conquer the day. I was not quite there yet. We did get going on time and headed east for the Twin Cities. We stopped in downtown Maple Grove, drove over the new I-35 bridge and into downtown Minneapolis where we took in the sights of the St. Anthony Falls

The view from the Guthrie Theater


And a local farmer's market with beautiful flowers and good eats




Then off to the Mall of America




Then to a scenic drive through south Minneapolis by Lake Harriet
Great picture, eh?

Lake Calhoun

Lake of the Isles all lined with beautiful BIG homes. We were curious as to how much they were and what they looked like inside. We saw a Open House sign, and didn't hesitate to act like we were rich and interested. We walked around a nearly 2 million dollar home. Beautiful. I am currently moving money around my off shore accounts to make an offer. ha ha.


After a few more stops we wound our way west to Crown College. Our wonderful tour guide even showed us his room and we enjoyed our time with him so much, we asked him to come home with us for the weekend.

Actually, Brad is one of our students from Roseburg who is at Crown working on his Youth Ministry degree.

We headed back home to my Aunt and Uncle's house for a bonfire and hayride, GOOD TIMES!



Sunday we did the usual, church, dinner out, football, and took Brad back to college.

Monday we stopped to see my friend Laurie and her girls on our way up to Duluth.



45 minutes is not enough time for dear friends :(

It was a dreary day in Duluth, but we had fun eating at Grandma's, seeing Lake Superior, Gooseberry Falls and squeezing in some souvenir shopping.


We stopped by Ann Marie's house on the way home and got home in just enough time to pack and hit the sack to leave the next day to start school in Portland. Whew!