Q's Adventures: Minnesota

This past weekend was mine and Dustin's annual trip to see a Sharks road game. Well, Dustin does a bunch more than I do...but this is the one game a year we go to together (and the one game I go to on the road all year). This year, we ended up heading out to the Twin Cities, to watch the Sharks take on the Minnesota Wild.

Flew in Friday evening, and it was cold, to say the least. About 22 degrees when I landed. Being as it was 70 when I left SFO...yeah, quite a change! Luckily, I had anticipated this, and had a wonderfully warm peacoat ready to go...and a knit cap...and some gloves. Caught a cab, went to the hotel, and Dustin got in from Chicago about 45 minutes later. Not too bad! Dustin brought me some deep dish Giordano's Pizza from Chicago! Super legit (and just as delicious as I had remembered). So we grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed. Long day.

Saturday we woke up early in the morning. The goal was to see some of the highlights of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area! First stop, Al's Breakfast. Al's is a little, tiny hole in the wall in the Dinkytown neighborhood, near the University of Minnesota. It comes highly regarded, having been on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives...and also receiving a James Beard Foundation award in the "America's Classics Restaurants" category! It's a small, small place...10 feet wide, only 14 bar stools. Everyone waits behind the patrons (and then out the door, into the snow and the cold...waits can be over an hour). Luckily, we only had to wait about 20 minutes or so. Then we got our seats!

The food, simply, was amazing. I mean, I had scrambled eggs with smoky cheddar and ham...and it was the best eggs I'd ever had. Not sure what the did to them to make them so delicious (although the smoky flavor of the cheese really came through), but it was super worth while. And cheap! Well played.

After that, we had a mile and a half walk to the Metrodome (home of the Minnesota Vikings) where we would see downtown and then catch the light rail to the Mall of America.

That walk was, without a doubt, the coldest I had ever been in my entire life. The temperature at the time was listed as 12 degrees, with a wind chill of 3. Yes...it felt like 3 degrees. THREE. And I believe it. My face actually started freezing. No, it was...I couldn't form the words I wanted to say because my face couldn't move. And my fingers were so cold they hurt terribly. Not an all together pleasant experience. But, we still stopped to take some Minneapolis pictures!

Yeah, I was super cold there...despite the smile.

We eventually survived and made it to the train stop. Mercifully, the train was well heated, so we thawed out a bit on the 30 minute ride to the biggest Mall in the country. In a word, the Mall of America is absurd. It was, by far, the most bizarre place I'd ever been. I mean, this is a four story mall in a circle...each loop being over a mile long...and in the giant center area, there's a themepark with something like 24 rides and attractions! I mean, its possibly the one biggest, most shining examples of American consumerism around! This is a mall that's turned itself into a destination (there are hotels all around it...people visit here JUST FOR THE MALL). So, of course, it had to be experienced.

Yeah...its big. So Dustin and I started on the ground floor, and did some shopping. Then, after completing the first loop, we went and got a locker for our stuff, and our coats, and decided to attack the rides! The rides, it turned out, were expensive. For the roller coasters, it was like 6 bucks a piece. And they only sold wristbands for no less than 20 points (a point is a dollar or so). So, both Dustin and I took on the most intense coaster there...

Yes, that's a straight vertical start, over the top into a straight vertical drop...into a loop, and then some corkscrews and whatnot. It was actually rather intense! Not bad for a shopping mall! Then, we had enough points left for one of us to go on a coaster...so Dustin tried out one that spun a whole lot (not my thing, no thanks). And that seemed like a good place to stop with the rides. I definitely felt like I got the best coaster in, so that was enough for me!

After that we did the third level of the mall, and then the second level of the mall, goofed around a bit, and stopped for a sushi lunch.

After lunch we bought some last things, grabbed our stuff, and took off. Caught a bus back to St. Paul, and went to the Minnestoa Wild shop. I needed to get some Heatley shirts. It was a good store.

After that we dropped some stuff off at the hotel room, grabbed some dinner, then went across the street to Xcel to watch the Minnesota State High School Girls Ice Hockey Championships! Yup, we watched girls high school ice hockey...a very Minnesota thing to do! Hockey is huge up there...and their high school leagues are very competitive.

The championship pitted Roseville...

against defending champions Minnetonka!

It was a very entertaining game...with good action, and an amazing Minnetonka goaltender who seemed to be far more talented than Sharks netminder Antti Niemi (not that that's hard, but this is a high schooler we're talking about). Minnetonka ended up winning their 2nd straight high school championship with a 3-0 win! Jubilation ensued!

So, yeah, that was a pretty cool thing to end up doing. Afterwards we grabbed some of the best cheesy garlic bread I've ever had over at Zamboni's, and then went back to the hotel for some sleep!

The next morning we were lazy...Dustin slept in, and eventually we got packed up and checked out. Left our bags at the hotel, and went out to see St. Paul. We grabbed some breakfast down the street at Mickey's, and then walked across the Mississippi River to the Wabasha Street Caves!

The caves were used back in the Prohibition era by gangsters running alcohol. It was kind of neat. The tour we ended up getting on was a ghost stories tour...which was pretty hokey. Like, really hokey. Their claims of seeing ghosts was that many times lighted orbs will show up in pictures. You know, otherwise known as dust (do you see them in the picture above?). Yeah, pretty bad, but whatever. It was still cool to see the caves.

Then we walked up to the Cathedral of St. Paul. Here's two pictures of it from the outside. One from Saturday morning (I love that this picture caught that it was snowing), and then one from Sunday morning.

Couldn't get pictures inside, as the archbishop was holding mass (and there were like 1000 people there...intense). But it was stunning! Just an amazing building. Also, the hill this was on provided excellent views of the city...

And the Capitol building, where Jesse "The Body" Ventura once reigned as governor!

Up here was also the beginning of the Summit-Selby Neighborhood!

F. Scott Fitzgerald lived here! Pretty cool. And there were some epic houses out here. This neighborhood was totally an old money neighborhood. Pretty cool to walk around.

Of course Nina Street would be in the most prestigious neighborhood in St. Paul. :-P

After that, we headed back, grabbed some dinner, and headed over to Xcel for the Sharks v. Wild game!

Our seats were, in a word, epic! 2nd row right off the glass! And they were free, thanks to a legit hook up from some parents of a kid Dustin teaches. The Wild have good fans! They all seemed to be very nice...and were very passionate about their team! They were super loud on the goals...and it was a rather large arena. It wasn't sold out, but they still had as many people there as a Sharks sell out would. Not too shabby! Oh, and Dustin and I ran into Joe Pavelski's mom before the game...who gave Dustin a high 5 for wearing #8's jersey in Minnesota! He got a picture with her (which you'll have to check Dustin's blog for, when he gets his pictures up. A link to his blog is on the right hand side). Here's some pictures from the game!

Me at the glass...

A packed house...almost!

A scrum behind the net...

GREISS!!!!

Former Shark Devin Setoguchi celebrating a Wild goal with his linemates...

I spy you, Dany Heatley!

Oh, and apparently Dustin and I were on TV...which pretty much makes us famous.

Sharks lost, giving up two goals within under 2 minutes of one another late in the 3rd to come from ahead to lose. After the game, we ran back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and went to the airport for our flights home. My flight left the gate on time...but got in 45 minutes late. This was due to a combination of the de-icing process, and then a stiff headwind heading West. It happens.

Another awesome trip! Other than the Sharks loss, and the brutally cold walk to the Metrodome, it was pretty excellent! I feel like Dustin and I saw quite a bit of the Twin Cities area, and really got a decent chance to experience the area! Always a good thing!