Everything is BIGGER in Minnesota

It began on Thursday at 4 in the morning, without any sleep from the night before…..probably because of being to excited to sleep. I meet my friend Rachel at here house, and left from there with our friend Summer to the Richmond Airport. I got a taste of the overwhelming security that the airports have now, but went through without a hitch. The plane was late taking off because they had to let the pilots rest…..which was fine with me…..I didn’t want to die a horrible fiery death because some pilot was sleepy. However, we did find out that when the plane landed in Minneapolis, the flight attendant announced that this was the pilot’s first flight in charge! Other than that, the flight wasn’t too bad….got pretzels instead of peanuts, which we learned someone was allergic to them. Also, the lady beside me was pretty nice too, though I was reluctant to talk to her because she was reading a feminist magazine that she got from UVA.
After landing in Minneapolis, we were meet by Rachel’s sister, Becky. She took us from the Airport to the Mall of America, since this was probably our only chance to see it on the trip. I was amazed by the size of it, even though I have heard it was huge. They have a small amusement park inside, which I didn’t ride anything. We only went to a few shops, but I did go see the Lego shop! I saw a Lego’s Star Destroyer, which I really wanted but it costs 300 dollars. After leaving the Mall of America, we went to Becky’s place, where we just crashed since we all were so tired. That evening was pretty uneventful except for the time that I played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit with Becky and her husband Tim. Tim is also a pretty nice guy too when I meet him. They both are into Science Fiction and Fantasy, which I found out when I saw their collection of books and movies.

Friday morning, while Summer slept, Rachel and I took a walk around the neighborhood. I could not believe how flat the area was. As many know from the license plates, Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. Rachel took me to one of those and I could not believe how big it was, even though she said it was not as big as most. She often jokes with me that the lakes, which I call them, in Virginia are just puddles to her. I could see why. Along the way, I saw a fire hydrant with a long thin red and white pole stick up from it. I had to ask why and Rachel told me that it’s to find it during the winter. She told me that the snow never melts during the winter, which makes me glad I live in Virginia!

Later that afternoon, Rachel’s younger brother (in total about 6 siblings) Pat came over with his beautiful 7 month old daughter, Emma. After having lunch from MacDonalds, we all went out for a drive around the area. We stopped at a park in the town of "Little Canada". I had to chuckle at that for some odd reason. After a couple of hours walking the park, we came back and crashed. When Becky and Tim came back from work, we all went out to a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, Rachel, Summer and I got dressed to go out clubbing in Minneapolis, called Ground Zero. Apparently it was a slow night but we still had fun. The drive back though was a bit awkward. We had to take Pat’s car with us, and it was a stick. However, neither Rachel or I know how to drive stick. We let Summer drive to the club, but were worried that she had too much to drink. Rachel decided to drive anyway, even though she got a lessen earlier that day from Pat on driving stick. It didn’t help though, and she stalled a couple times on the street. However, Summer was sober enough to drive back. Along the way, we stopped at a restaurant called Perkins for some early morning food, about 3 in morning!

On Saturday afternoon, we all went out into the country to go to Rob’s house, Rachel’s oldest brother. He lived next to one of the lakes. There I got to meet all of Rachel’s remaining brothers and sisters, and their families. Once we got there it set up to where Rachel, Summer, and I went canoeing in the lake. After a little trip around the lake, we came back the house. Later, we had a couple of games of Horseshoes played and then a good ole cookout. After dinner, everybody went outside to sit around the campfire that Rob made and enjoy smores. I heard some coyotes and geese across the lake when night fell. And then, we headed off back to Becky’s house around 10.

We got up on Sunday morning at 8:30 to go to the Minnesota Renaissance Fair, that Rachel was dying to go to. She wanted all of us to dress but I didn’t want to. Only Summer seemed to have dressed up for the occasion…..well sort of. We got there around 9:30 and I tell you, it was some sight to see. I’ve never been to a Renaissance Fair before so this was interesting to me. I saw a lot of people dressed up in period costumes, and some just dressed for any occasion. I can say that I really enjoyed watching the belly dancers when I first came in. There were a lot of shops and attractions at this fair that related to the Renaissance, like clothing and weapons. After a while, Rachel finally found an outfit that she liked and wore it. We eventually meet up with Becky and Tim when they came to the fair later that day. We walked around the place for many times. I saw a lot of costumes that just blew me away…..but I mostly enjoyed the half naked women!

Later that afternoon, we came across a show where they put people in stocks (you know those wood posts that you put people’s heads and hands in and let them hang), and those in charge would give the people a crime and humiliate them. Well, both Rachel and Summer decided that it would be a good idea if I was humiliate me! I was put into the stocks and was told that my crime was being a leture (excuse the spelling)…..or in Renaissance terms….a pervert. They humiliated me (in a good way), I had to tell why I was a leture, had a mask put on me, and I had to be punished by singing "My little Tea Pot" out loud! Actually it was kind of fun!
Well, later that afternoon, Rachel and I had to go to the joust. I was getting good until it started raining…which being in shorts that it was kind of cold! However, we continued to walk around the fair. Before ending, everybody who participated in the fair and some who just came were joined in a small ceremony of dancing and drums. I couldn’t really explain it but it was to allow everybody to let off steam by this dance! Pretty cool I have to admit.

Well, late Monday morning, we made our way back to the airport to head home. Nothing really exciting on the trip to the airport or the start of the trip. However, when we landed in Richmond at 5 o’clock, things got pretty dicey. We landed fine, even though it was raining heavily. We got our luggage and made our way out to the parking lot and left the airport at 5:30. Then, right before we hit Richmond, Tropical Storm or Hurricane Gaston hit Richmond. We were stuck on 95/64 for 6 hours and didn’t realize what happened until we turned on the radio. At one point, while on a bridge, we looked over the side and saw below that some buildings were flooded! We even saw a guy get on his big Rig in the flood! We moved only 8 miles in 6 hours! It wouldn’t have been so bad if wasn’t for Summer being hyper and having ADD! She kept jumping up and down, exclaiming that it was the end of the world and that we were going to die by different scenarios, like the bridge collapsing under us or a large light pole falling on us. We eventually got on a side street around 10:30 and stopped at a Kroger’s for some food. By 11:30, we got back on to the interstate and found that they were clear of cars, even though there were a lot of them in the road since they ran out of gas or the battery died! I didn’t get home myself until 1:30 that morning.

Anyway, I had a fun trip to Minnesota. I have to say that almost everything is bigger out there. I would love to go back. I have some pictures that I will post later when I get them developed. I will leave for Massachusetts on Saturday to see family so I will post about that.