Hampton Inn Minneapolis-Maple Grove

So here I am, sitting at Spire Federal Credit Union waiting for my last day of work to be over so I can take on my hour and a half commute home through 5-7 inches of fresh snow. Thats what I call a Minnesota send off! I have created this travel blog primarily for the second part of my trip (late June thru August) when I will be traveling "around...

David picked me up from work and off we go! Met the Cote's for dinner at the Iron Horse, Carol, Lawrence and Aron. Happy early birthday Aron!
The car is stored at the hotel and I have time to do a final "think" on how things are packed. Sleep in tomorrow and off by noon. Next stop LAX!

Minneapolis to Los AngelesThursday, Jan 14, 2010 at 7:00 PMChange in FlightNorthwest AirlinesFlight Number: NW2165 From: (MSP) Minneapolis St Pl MN, USADepart: 7:00 PM To: (LAX) Los Angeles CA, USAArrive: 9:12 PM

"Let it begin" (a quote from Riley's favorite movie, Bolt)

So it begins, in Anchorage. We took the 9 am flight out of Anchorage International. That meant that Ryan and I were up after about 4 hours of sleep. We gathered kids and headed to the Somers' house to load up the Expedition. Well 3 adults, 2 kids, 8 suitcases, 4 carryons and a d...

I left Minnesota on Monday January 4 at 2:00pm and began my traveling. I went from Minneapolis to Dallas to Los Angeles. In LA I met up with 146 other Americans who were studying at Bond University and went through The Australearn Program. Right away I met four people from Minnesota and a girl named Jenna from Michigan. Jenna and I began talking...

Minnesota gets a bad rap for its weather. Sure, sometimes the ice makes it impossible to leave your house. Alright, so the hair on the inside of your nose freezes seconds after you step outside. If you dig deeper than the buried driveways, though, Christmastime in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is oh, ya know, awesome.

1) Snow that just wont ...

DEADWOOD, SD
Our next stop is probably gonna make my dad jealous. After driving through a long and somewhat boring part of Montana we reached Deadwood South Dakota. Natasha was SO stoked to see South Dakota so we pulled over on the side of the road when we reached the South Dakota state signs to take a picture of her hugging it. Haha! We ...

We drove up to the Mall of America. Chris was thrilled- they had Sponge Bob as their major theme character. There were full sized roller coasters inside and tons of novelty shops- including an American Girl Store and Lego Land. Watched an amazing thunderstorm before going to Wisconsin.

We left Sauk Centre Sunday afternoon, with plans to meet up again in Alburqueque in April, when IMRA has their conference there. Moved a couple miles down the road to the KOA in the Maple Grove/Rogers, Minnesota area, which served as our base for running around and visiting lots of Rose's old friends (and her cousins Ed and Doina) there. It was ...

Well, i've been in Minneapolis for about 3 days now, sorry i haven't updated yet. So several interesting things have happened so far. The first night i was here i went to a place called Dakota Jazz Club, that was a good show, but nothing really happened, although the walk home was littered with loonies. I guess things start to get interesting on...