Twin Cities Trip

Last Friday, Rob, Rex and I headed up to the Twin Cities. Rob left work a few hours early so we got there right around dinner time. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn this time rather than the Radisson where we usually stay. All the room prices for the Radisson were really high- I guess they had something big going on that they could get away with gouging people. Anyhow, the Hilton was in a good location, the breakfast was really good but the room was smaller than the Radisson's rooms. Not too big of a deal except Rex had a lot of wiggles to get out after the long car ride and we all would have appreciated some more square footage. We ate at an Olive Garden restaurant that was close to the hotel. We don't have one close to us so it had been a long time since I ate at an Olive Garden and those breadsticks are still as good as I remember! We went to the Golf Galaxy store after that- oh yay!- and then headed back to our hotel. I didn't take too many pictures on the trip but here is Rex sleeping in another Eastern European orphanage-style crib at the hotel.



I decided to go with the hotel crib rather than bring our pack and play since he doesn't fit in the pack and play anymore. As it turned out, he barely fit in that crib! Yikes. We will have to remember not to stay in any hotels until he can sleep in a bed. Saturday morning, we had a great breakfast at the hotel. It had an extensive buffet with hot food made-to-order so it was way better than most places with their offerings of yogurt, a muffin and maybe a packet of instant oatmeal you can mix with hot water. Stuffed with our yummy breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and we headed to....



IKEA! I was checking on their store hours Friday morning before we left and I discovered that they were having a grand reopening celebration that weekend as they had just completed 6 months of remodeling their showroom. Rob's response? "Oh good. At least it won't be busy this weekend!" Uh, oops. So, yes, it was quite busy there so we just went around and grabbed our stuff quickly (that means it took 2 hours instead of the usual 4!). We got some things for when we redo Rex's room this summer and I picked out some shelves (we got the black-brown color) for the living room and a new planter for the front porch. The most exciting purchase was this chair cover that we got for $5!! Our chair desperately needed a cover but I could never bring myself to pay $50 for one. Yay for sales and 90% off! We were on the road out of town around 12:30 pm. There is an outlet mall right around the Iowa-Minnesota border that I always want to stop at but it seems we never have the time. Since we were quicker than usual at IKEA, we finally had a chance to stop. We looked for golf shoes for Rob at the Nike outlet (no luck) and got some shoes for Rex at Old Navy. We left there and drove a short while before stopping for a late lunch. It was a nice, but quick, trip before the baby gets here and we are stuck at home for a while. And it was nice to be home Saturday evening and still have Sunday to relax and do some work around the house before Rob had to go back to work today.