Fully Alive…Ready to Smile

posted by erin on Jun 21

5:30 a.m.: Roll very, very sleepily out of bed.  Didn’t actually do much sleeping as I was mostly dreaming in and out of consciousness about driving.  Hmph.

5:35 a.m.: Stand sleepily looking in mirror and decided to do something about my bed head hair.

6:00 a.m.: Try to eat some breakfast…body is not used to partaking of food quite this early in the morning.  Let’s see…yup, usually another 3 to 4 hours before fast is broken.

6:25 a.m.: Carry last of bags to car grumbling as Jer is sitting in front of the t.v. trying to find the soccer game on the guide so he can record it while we are gone.

6:33 a.m.: Pull out of driveway.  Thus starts the beginning of the longest roadtrip I have ever been on.  3200 miles to be exact.  I still can’t believe we are going to drive all that way.  I DO have a passport, so if it all gets to be too much, I could always fly home : )  Kidding.

7:33 a.m.: Arrive at Canada/U.S. border.  Just made it there before the rush and it only took 20 minutes which is amazing.

7:53 a.m.: Make first American pee stop in the rest area at the Canada/U.S. border.  This is exciting stuff, people, exciting stuff!  Just you wait.  Only 4 more pee breaks to go : )

9:02 a.m.: Stop in Grand Forks, ND for second pee break and breakfast sandwich from Subway.  I’m like a Hobbit, you know, first breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, etc.

11:58 a.m.: Rest stop. middle of nowhere.  Third pee break and what I guess would count as elvensies considering I had a granola bar and some rice chips.  Enjoyed the sunshine for a few moments and we were back on the road.

I will interrupt this amazingly exciting accounting of our time to say that we have a new friend.  She’s British.  Her name is Penny.  At least that’s what we call her.  And does she ever know her directions!!!  She is bang on.  Yup, that’s right, we named our GPS.  I’m not sure how we survived without her.  I didn’t look at a map once.  Not once, in all eight hours of driving.  We made it to find gas in a town we didn’t know.  I just pressed nearest gas station and she pointed us in the right direction.  Now at this point Jer decided HE knew better than Penny.  It’s really unfortunate that these GPS units are so polite because at this point she could have yelled something along the lines of, “I know where I’m going and you don’t, stupidhead!  Next time I tell you to turn left, turn left and save yourself the hassle of having to make a u-turn and backtracking 2 blocks.  Hmph!”  We made it to Minneapolis, got to our hotel and to the Mall of America and to an awesome Mexican restaurant all without a single glance at a map.  If I could marry my GPS I probably would.  Or maybe Jer should marry her since she is so nice and doesn’t yell at him when he makes wrong turns.

2:00 p.m.: Stop in Albertville, MN home of the Premium Outlet Mall.  Sixty-five stores all at premium discount prices.  None of which I went into.  But I saw them.  They are there.  We sat in the parking lot for about 20 minutes while Jer stretched his legs and ate trail mix.  Apparently it was the best he’d ever had.

3:01 p.m.: Arrived at our hotel.  I must say it is a really cool hotel.  The lobby and even our room has a very modern feel to it and is unlike any hotel I’ve stayed in.  Very “boutique” feeling.

Here are some pictures of our very awesome room.

Entrance of our room with a lovely couch and pretty throw cushions.  All in the details.  My camera makes the colors look a little 70′s ish, but it’s really pretty.

Across from the living space is the desk (where I’m sitting RIGHT NOW!) and the bar and fridge.

Looky at that MASSIVE t.v.!!  Guess where Jer is right now?  One guess.  You got it!  It’s cool because it’s on this nifty little cabinet and it swivels so you can see it in the living room or from…

our big king size bed!

The vanity space is nice with a granite counter and a place to do makeup.  Mirrors on three sides so I can see myself in 3d cause straight on isn’t discouraging enough.  Luxury!

And the pretty blue bathroom.

4:00 p.m.: Left for Mall of America which is 2 blocks from our hotel.  Penny led us straight into the parkade.  What a doll.  So reliable.

Here’s Jer standing in front of a really large Lego thingy.  It’s ALL made of Lego.  I took the picture for my girls because they LOVE Lego right now.  And yes, Jer did shave his head.  I’m not sure why.

8:12 p.m.: we left the MOA and let Penny guide us to Don Pablo’s Mexican Kitchen.  GREAT food!  I had the Conquistador Combo plate.  It was the mother of all combo platters.  I finished maybe half of it.  We also got a basket of yummy homemade tortilla chips (still warm) and salsa and a bowl of tortilla soup.

9:15 p.m.: Arrived back at hotel and sat down to blog.

10:27 p.m.: My eyes are slamming shut as I’ve been awake for 17 hours now.

I get to see Val tomorrow!!!!  First we have to drive 9 hours, but it’s like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow : )  I guess I’ll have to pitch in with some driving since Jer drove the whole time today.  I enjoyed my book and my music and even a little nappy.  Very relaxing.  And it went by incredibly fast.  Hopefully it all continues to go as smoothly and relaxing as today did.  Nighty night.  More awesomeness to follow assuredly!