Heading North to Get South

It was 1:00 pm by the time we finished up the last of the items on the "get ready to go list" and hit the road for Minneapolis. The weather was wonderful...temps in the low 70's but the air still had that feel of fall. A perfect day to open the sun roof and enjoy the white puffy clouds. Not much for fall foliage yet, except for the sumac which was a deep red color.

Getting to the Twin Cities by 4:00 helped us avoid the major rush hour traffic. Check-in at the hotel went smoothly…unlike our last trip where our reservation had mistakenly been made for the previous month. Our hotel was next to the Mall of America and also close to our destination for the evening...IKEA. I love wandering through IKEA, but become overwhelmed with the massive amount of merchandise with the funny-sounding Swedish names. Some of the items were so unique that we would have to stop and ponder just what they actually were. My big purchase of the evening was a nylon backpack that folds up into a small pouch. With my IKEA Friends card the price was a whopping $3.99.

Having dinner at the IKEA restaurant was a first for us, but most likely something we will do again. We both chose "veggie balls" which were served atop a cauliflower/sweet potato sauce with a side dish of...more vegetables. Altogether a meal we both enjoyed...and especially my vegetable loving husband. However some of the nutritional benefit may have been negated when we grabbed large, warm cinnamon rolls from the snack bar by the exit! 

After working all but 12 hours of the previous 4 days, Bob was really dragging. With a very short night ahead, lights out was at 8:00 pm.