Land O Lakes

The previous post was intended to bring my peeps up to date on how we ended up in NY however, I skipped some really fun details about our jaunt across the country.  Since I hadn't been home to Minneapolis in nearly three and a half years, and I really wanted Ian to see where I was from, we decided to begin our off-island journey in the land of ten thousand lakes.  Signing up for an Alaska Airlines credit card may have been one of the smartest things I did this year because it provided me with a) enough capital to start the business and b) a free buddy pass which we used to get my man to Minneapolis.  We also re-upped Puna's service animal status and she is now official on every major airline.  (aka - free.)  As expected, it was cold as s@*t when we landed.  April in Minnesota means that winter is still hanging on for dear life and there are dirty, crusted remnants of snowbanks on every corner that makes the city feel like you've just recovered from a battle.  And in fact, you have.  April in Minnesota is also the time that people start wearing shorts because it's forty, not forty below.  Forty for us however, was something we hadn't felt in years and the fact that neither of us had shoes was instantly, an issue.

We rented a car and headed to the Savik's house in St Louis Park.  They invited us to stay with them for a couple days and we graciously accepted their offer.  I had been stalking old Toyota Landcruisers on craigslist before we left the islands and already had my heart set on one that was located about an hour north of the cities.  I figured if we were going to be driving a crappy car around the posh Hamptons, it might as well be a crappy classic.  Not to mention, I've been obsessed with them for years.  Ian really wanted to go buy shoes first, but instead I made him drive up north to go check out the rig because 'I was scared someone else would buy it first.'  (Even though it had been in the lot for over a month.)   She was still there when we arrived and ole Billy the salesman dropped the price from 4K to 2500K because needless to say, she wasn't perfect.  More rust than we expected, no radio, cracked front headlight and plenty of miles but, there was no way we were leaving without her.  I pretty much, had to have it.  So away we drove in our new/old '89 FJ62.  Minnetonka is her name, which means water buffalo in Ojibwe.

The next couple of days were blurry as we hit every 'must go to' bar in Minneapolis and Nordeast including an incredible dinner at Manny's on our first night.  We stopped by the Independent to say hello to some old co-workers and of course, made it to the Pancake House.  We even made it to the Walker Sculpture Garden so Ian could experience "Cherry on Spoon."  Grams took us to a lovely Perkins dinner one night and also made me some breakfast one morning.  After our livers couldn't stand it anymore, we headed to Duluth to go stay with my parents.  It was a well needed week of rest even though Mom and Dad kept us really busy with things like alpine sledding, drives up the lakeshore, trips to the iron-ore loading docks and of course, watching the boats come in.  The lake re-froze while we were there.  It also snowed, and never made it out of the forties.  I did a bunch of work for the business that week too which gave us plenty of travel money.  The next post will discuss where all the travel money went.  (It may or may not have something to do with the Landcruiser I had to have.)

Here are some pics from our stay up north.  Check back in for stories from a rather hellacious road trip.