Loving the Land of Lakes and Lakes and Mistakes and Mistakes

Mistake #1: Minnewhiny

Looking back, I realize that traveling with four kids (Jackie was at Secret Agent camp which rocked! I'll tell you about it later.) on a red-eye flight might not have been the wisest choice. Arriving at 5am with two cranky toddlers, two crankier teenagers, and one crankiest husband may not have been using the best forethought. But what's done is done.

Mistake #2: Minneseekashorterline

Secondly, I shoulda been using the old noggin and remembered to renew Marg and Ricker's passports before it got to be too late to do so in LA because as soon as we arrived in MN we took our first field trip to the lovely passport office in downtown Minneapolis. By the way, they are brand spanking new, very efficient, and I recommend that you go to Ms. Delia Bottomsworthy's window... She's a peach.

Anyway, with that finally out of the way and our Minnesota trip officially begun, of course, we went straight to the Mall of America! I personally could have done all my field tripping there for the rest of the week.



We really enjoyed the fascinating Historic Fort Snelling, especially after learning that that is where Dred Scott (of the famous Supreme Court Case) lived.

Ray Ray in the flower fields at Fort Snelling

We toured the Minnehaha Park flower gardens and historic buildings as well as

Minnehaha Train Depot. Isn't it darling?

While visiting the State Capitol, Michael loved finding out that there's a county McLeod in MN!

Just so you don't have to walk back to the car and lock your Glock in the trunk, you should know that no guns are allowed in the Supreme Court although they are everywhere else. Talk about uptight!

Oh, and one more thing, I hereby humbly apologize to all Minnesotans...



for Evangeline pooping on the front lawn of the Capitol Building. Sorry!

Papa & Ray Ray in downtown St. Paul

On Father's Day we took Michael to the MN Twins baseball game in the Metrodome.

Father's Day kisses for Papa!

Walking around downtown

Sculpture Garden

Landmark Center

Minnesota is really cool. Stunning homes, great restaurants, beautiful parks, rivers, and lakes, and cool museums! SO much to see and do. We didn't have nearly enough time to do all the things we had planned. We're really looking forward to coming back again next year!

Besides the Ethiopian Mehaber and several really great field trips, we also visited some of Michael's relatives (his brother and sister-in-law, and their two sons), but darnitall, this is the best photo I got of Jon & Liz...



Mwwahahahaha!

Ummmm, wait a minute... It's probably not smart to post this since they have an unfortunate photo of me on their boat hiding behind a beach towel going Number One into a plastic cup.

Mistake #3: Minneweewee!