Monday in Minnesota

Here's an outline of my first full day in Minnesota:
1. Wake up and go get the rental car. It's a red chevy Cobalt and turns on a dime!
2. Shopping at a scrapbook store and the mall. I missed Diesel so much I almost bought a cockapoo puppy at the pet store! I'm glad I came to my senses and kept $600 off the credit card!
3. Checked out the five hotel pools, vast amount of arcade games, two volleyball courts and basketball court. There is a lot to do here!
4. Brandon came back from training.
5. We checked out the two sporting good stores in the city...took lots of pictures!
6. Ate a fabulous dinner at Timber Lodge, yummy steak and potatoes!
7. Brandon tried to show me where he has been getting training at...about an hour later we finally found it--and a whole lot of the surrounding area!
8. Meanwhile we were listening to the tornado and severe storm warnings on the radio.

By the time we found ParkIndustries there was so much lightening all around the sky never went dark--it was constantly lit by lightening. There was also turrential rainfall. When we decided we probably shouldn't be the only car driving around...we were a little lost. The pouring down rain didn't help us find our way very well. However, eventually we found our way back to the hotel--safe and sound and totally drenched running from the car to the hotel!

Brandon wanted to check out all the hotel amenties I had found earlier in the day. We played one arcade game before we noticed that throughout the area the hotel roof was leaking...not a little drip, drip, drip...more like pouring rain coming from the roof! It was then that that the hotel staff started running around unplugging games and setting up buckets! We headed to the vending machines, satisfied our (my) chocolate craving and went to bed to watch a crazy TV show documenting the weddings of people who spent $60,000+ on their weddings!

It was a great day! We were a little bummed that we didn't actually get to see a tornado. We were prepared to heed the radio warnings and jump into the nearest ditch when it approached. However, since we never saw a ditch it was probably best we didn't encounter a tornado!

Today has been wonderful so far too. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, I'm off to Barnes and Noble before Brandon gets back!