July 12, 2010

1st time in Minnesot-ah

My first true weekend on the road is behind me, and it was an unforgettable one. My partner, Seth, and I flew out to Minneapolis on Saturday morning for shadowing (learning the ins/outs of the NOW Van from a current team member). Seth and I met up with Jermaine and Chris in Minneapolis and we had a blast!

We stayed in the City Center Marriott in downtown Minneapolis. The hotel was amazing...I stayed on the 21st floor of the hotel. After settling in we hit the town. We ate at a local restaurant, Rock Bottom Brewery, and caught the 2nd half of the third place World Cup game. The food was delicious (Pulled Pork BBQ with homemade sauce) and the beer was even better. They only served their in-house brews.

After lunch we walked around the city and explored the Target Center Plaza...which includes the brand new Target Field (see pictures in next post). Unfortunately the Twins were away this past weekend the field looked gorgeous. On our way back to the hotel we popped into Kieran's Irish Pub, and wound up spending the next four hours on the patio drinking Irish beer. I sampled Boddingtons, Smithwicks, and a Cider-Smithwicks Blend.

Late night we hit the clubs and spent most of our time at 'Drink' which was a two-story bar that combined dancing, socializing, pool/foosball, etc. On the way home we had to run several blocks in the pouring rain.

I visited the Mall of America on Sunday (unfortunately the pictures of the amusement were lost on my camera). Yes there is an amusement park in the center of it. It has three/four roller-coasters and a log flume. The food court has everything from McDonalds to Hooters to Bubba Gump Shrimp to Chipotle to Johnny Rockets. It was amazing...they had a full-sized Best Buy, five hat stores and stores dedicated to Socks and Minnesota hockey and two kiosks selling equalizer shirts - shirt stickers that light up and flash with the changing beats of the music (I must admit I bought a heart and lightning bolt). I finished up my weekend by going to see Despicable Me, and it was quite funny and I recommend it to anyone.

It was a great weekend in Minneapolis...the weather was ideal - high of 80 degrees - much better than the heat wave sweeping the east coast and the sub-zero temperatures of Minneapolis most of the year (the city has a set of indoor sky-ways that are used for travelling around the city when its too cold to go outside). The city itself was busy, but not overcrowded like many east coast cities. It was nice to sit outside a bar downtown and just enjoy the day. The locals were all friendly and helpful in finding fun things to do. And one of the most surprising things about Minneapolis was the large quantities of beautiful women...they were everywhere: working at the hotels and bars, walking around the city, out at the clubs, and all over the Mall of America.

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