So, let's see. Biggest thing to happen was that Matt came and visited me for a week here! He took a week off work, and came up for the July 4th week.
On Saturday, we went to Caroline's grad party, and played 'little helpers'. We kept the food filled between games of cribbage. Afterwards, we went to Chino Latino's. It's the cutest restaurant ever! Its so popular that they don't even put the name outside on the street. It's in Uptown - the cool place to go in the twin cities. You choose a few large and a few small dishes to share at your table. They have both Asian enspired food and Mexican inspired food. We had ribs, Mongolian BBQ, make-your-own tacos, some yummy udon noodles, sticky rice, and other yummy food. Soo good! And it was so much fun with Matt, Caroline and Joe, and Caroline's twin Allison and her bf Ben.
On Sunday, we went to Lake Calhoun, a lake that's basically in the middle of the city. It's so busy there. They have two paths - one that's for slow trafic like walkers, and another for fast traffic like bikers and rollerbladers. I had my hoop lesson, which ended up being a private lesson, and Matt ran around the lake. Afterwards, we got a bit of dinner, and then went to rent kayaks. We discovered that Lake Calhoun is actually connected to many other small lakes that are connected, which is really nice for kayaking. We kayaked for like an hour, and then headed back to the apartment to change clothes. Then we went to Evan Almighty, which I thought was hilariously funny, though it could have used a better ending.
All week, I had to go to work, but I worked fewer hours so that we could go do something every night. On Monday, we drove around looking for a lake, but we couldn't find the right place, so we ended up walking around another lake instead, and then trying out DQ's new waffle bowls afterward. Yummy!
On Tuesday, we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota. We went to the special Pompeii exhibit, where they had a bunch of relics from the city because Mt. Vesuvias exploded, so it caught everything in action. They even had models of loaves of bread from it carbonizing. It was pretty awesome. Then we went to the omnitheater for Greece: Secrets of the Pass. The omnitheater was really cool, though, because it was like a large imax screen that folded in a bit around you, so you felt you were in the movie.
We were getting a bit hungry by then so we walked over to the Taste of Minnesota. I got some sweet potato fries (okay), and Matt got a bratwurst. For dessert, we got a fried Milky Way. I was kind of scared of it, but it was actually really good. It tasted like a warm breaded Milky Way with all the caramel melted.
Then we headed back to the museum to see the rest of the exhibits. They had so many hands-on exhibits that it was crazy. Engineers could get lost in this museum. They had quite a few physiologic things, and electric things, mechanical things, fluid things and weather things. I honestly think it would be a useful field trip for either Msys or Esys or Fluids. They had an air tunnel, some circuitry (Matt made a half wave rectifier), and pendulums. We played a while in a wave machine that made waves of different amplitudes and frequencies, and then you got to play with the ground curvature to see where the waves would break. It's interesting how all those things come into play.
Wednesday, I had off work, so we went to visit Caroline's lake for the 4th. We got to relax with Joe, Caroline, and Elaine out on the lake, and I got to go knee boarding again. Matt did really well a water skiing and got out of the water and everything. We had a nice dinner, and on the way back, Matt and I saw the biggest ball of twine! It's in one of the nearest small towns to where the lake is, so we decided to go see it. Then we headed back to the city, and we got back to my apartment in time to see a few fireworks shows. Matt took me up to the top of the parking garage, so we could see a few different shows all at once.
On Thursday, we went back to the lake that we were trying to find before. It had surreys, which are bikes attached so you can ride together. We ended up going on the deuce coop seen to the left. We went around Minnehaha falls, and went through the state park that's near there. It was a lot of fun, but Matt's legs were a little long for the steering bar.
Friday, I got off work, and we started the drive to Indiana. 9 1/2 hrs later, there were flashing lights behing Matt's car. He got a speeding ticket in Vermilliion county, a half an hour away from Terre Haute. $109 for going 19 over... We spent the night in TH, and in the morning, mom and dad picked us up in the Aztec and flew us to Tell City, the city for my cousin's wedding. We grabbed lunch there, and Sarah and I had a bit of time to hoop before it was time to get dressed. We went to the wedding. It was a catholic wedding and my whole family is protestant so it was funny when one side of the church kept doing things wrong. The Lord's prayer kept going on one side of the church for a bit...
After the wedding was the reception, and we had a cousin table, with all my cousins and their spouses except those in the wedding party. It was a fun table! We kept dinging our glasses so that Katie and Bernie had to kiss. It was a lot of fun. I have a feeling that any future wedding with the cousins present is going to involve lots of kissing on the bride and groom's part.
After the reception, Sarah and I hooped a bit, and then we went to bed. In the morning, we woke up early and flew to Terre Haute to drop off Matt. I only have 5 more weeks to make it through until I'll be back in Terre Haute, and not in a long distance relationship. This has been a year of long distance, and I can't wait until we're in the same place for 9 months!
Then my parents flew me up to Minneapolis so that I didn't have to take the shady bus. I got to talk to Shawna the whole way so that was good since she just moved to Alaska to live. Dad took us to Famous Dave's, which was super yummy. Then we went to the Mall of America, so they could see the rides and such and Legoland and Discovery store and such. Then we walked through Ikea so they could see that. Then they went back to the airport and I went back to my apartment.
See, like I said, BUSY. Sorry for writing so much. I like to blab. I miss everyone so muches!
