Off to The Cities

Monday, November 4, 2019

Unlike the last few trips, it appeared that this one was going to begin without any winter weather advisories or tropical storm warnings. I was beginning to think our travel plans were somehow tied into global weather systems because regardless of which month we planned our trip, it would coincide with some extreme weather forecast. My youngest son even texted me once when blizzard warnings were posted for our area and said "shouldn't you be leaving on a trip today?"

But...instead we woke to a crisp fall day! Bob began the day as usual by playing pickleball at the community center. I used the morning to finish up some last minute packing and tie up other loose ends at home. By 12:30 we had gotten the mail, finished lunch and were on the road to Minneapolis-St. Paul (better known as "The Cities" to us out state Minnesotans.)

Although it was blue skies above our heads, you can see a storm off in the distance
over the flat farm lands as we were driving to Minneapolis. 

Our destination was the Doubletree Hotel in Bloomington. Booking a night there with the park & stay option was cheaper than paying for airport parking alone for the two weeks we would be gone. Often we spend the night at one of our son's homes and they give us a ride to the airport, but with a very early morning flight, I felt guilty even asking.  

Check-in went smoothly. Bob was given instructions on where to park the car while we were gone and they handed us some warm chocolate chip cookies! Our room was on 17th floor overlooking Bloomington. 

View of Bloomington from our hotel window.

I thought a visit to the nearby Mall of America or IKEA would have been a fun way to spend our evening, but Plan B turned out to be even better. Our son drove into the city and brought two of our grandkids to have a "pool party" with grandma and grandpa at the hotel! As they got off the elevator on the 17th floor, the 5 year old walked off with his daddy (our son) but the 2-year old must have been daydreaming. Before our son realized what was happening, the doors on the elevator closed with her still inside! He instantly pushed the button on the wall and fortunately the doors opened back up. She was freaking out, but a much bigger crisis was averted. I shudder to think how traumatized she would have been if the elevator would have gone back down to the lobby with her alone! 

The hotel pool was large and comfortably warm, making for a fun time. The hot tub was one of the biggest I had ever seen and just the perfect depth for the little kids. Normally I wouldn't want kids in the hot tub, but no one else was around and the temperature was not overly hot. Grandpa Bobby went next door to Subway and brought back sandwiches to turn our pool party into an indoor picnic!

Our little fish showing off what he learned at swimming lessons. 

You could swim laps in the hot tub!

Since it was a school night for our kindergartner, their stay couldn't be late. Back up in the room, our son got them changed into their jammies so they could go straight to bed when they got home and we said our goodbyes.

It was an early-to-bed night for us as well. The airport shuttle was scheduled to leave the hotel each half-hour beginning at 3:30 am. With a 7:30 am flight, I was worried that taking the 5:30 am shuttle was cutting it too close so convinced Bob that we needed to be in the lobby for the 4:30 am trip. The drive to the airport would take 20 minutes or more and construction happening at the terminal may cause even further delays. I didn’t want to deal with the stress of being late. Bob wasn't convinced we needed to go so early, but he let me have my way.

So...by 9 pm we were tucked in and ready for bed with an alarm set way earlier than any human ought to be awake.