Venturing West, Part 3

Our last post left off in Minnesota on Saturday, and the next day was Mother's Day. We ate lunch with my parents at an Asian place and spent a few hours walking around Northeast Minneapolis poking in some stores and restaurants. Simon and I were impressed by an upscale grocery store (with carpet!) and tried a bunch of free cheese samples there. Mmm. The four of us also checked out some really cool downtown condos above the store for fun. The furnished models had a clean, bold modern look and huge glass windows displaying great views of the city. Really neat to see.

In the evening we attended a surprise dinner for Emily's boyfriend's graduation at the Three Fish restaurant in Minneapolis. Ben was certainly surprised to see all of us there, along with his parents and friends! Here's a picture of Emily and Ben, and one of me and Simon:

Following a great dinner we all enjoyed Emily's homemade desserts of cake and cookie cake.

The next day was Emily's 19th birthday! We had plans for dinner at night, but Simon and I started the day by meeting his future Stanford roommate, Jeff, for lunch. They met through Stanford's online roommate matching service and don't know yet if they've been put together as per their request, but he was a really nice guy. He's been working in Minneapolis for a few years since graduating from college, and now he's going back to school for his Master's. Simon's favorite part of lunch was probably when Jeff showed him his car -- a 1999 BMW 540i. I'm convinced the fact that Jeff has BMW is why Simon wanted to room with him! The car will be sold before the trip to California, though.

We had a fancy dinner at Kincaid's in St. Paul for Emily's birthday, after which she opened presents and we all ate cookie cake in her honor. Later that night Simon and I met up with another MMB friend, Kirstin, in the city for some drinks. She had just started her summer internship, so it was fun to hear about her work experience so far!

Our final day in Minnesota involved a trip to the Mall of America, the Midwest's largest tourist attraction, including four levels of shopping and an indoor amusement park. We spent most of the day there, and didn't buy a thing. I'm still not sure how that happened!

Many thanks to my parents for hosting us in Minnesota and treating us to several great meals. Coming up next is the final post in our travel series, which takes us on the road again to the Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota and onward through Wyoming to Fort Collins, Colorado.