Awesome Weekend in the Twin Cities

As I mentioned in my Friday post (before I promptly disappeared for the whole weekend), I was headed to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN) for a weekend of Bachelorette activities for my best friend Anja. As I was so disorganized last week with the homecoming of our newest member, I realized about an hour into the drive that I forgot my little point n’ shoot camera, and resorted to snapping a few shots along the way with my iphone. It’s not a bad little camera for a phone, but they are definitely not print worthy.

The girls and I had a great time, despite the persistent rain and chilly weather. After a relaxing Friday night spent at Anja’s sister Krista’s house with drinks and Spanish Tapas, we spent most of Saturday in downtown Minneapolis shopping. I was dead-set on hitting up Target to check out all the Liberty of London items our local store didn’t carry (more on my purchases forthcoming). Since we’re on a bit of a tight leash this month with our finances (car accident + Clive adoption) I didn’t spend a whole lot of money but was able to get a few things I’d been wanting.  We hit up the local shops including one of the baby stores for Krista and Lisa. The prices were insane, for instance this little onesie I thought Neil would appreciate:

Cute huh? For $25 it can be yours! Am I crazy for thinking this is insanity? I mean it’s adorable and a unique find for sure, but I couldn’t imagine having the dough for  $25 onesie. I’m definitely seeing more and more benefits to knowing how to sew and the amount of things you could make yourself. Babies are for sure expensive, so you can bet I won’t be having one anytime soon.

After a short break from shopping, we cleaned up and headed to Vincent’s for dinner. Rumored to be Anthony Bourdain’s favorite stop in the Cities, the food was indeed incredible. I had a petite crostini comprised of fork-mashed avocado, red onion and white anchovies. It was wee bitty and delish. Why small? Because I was saving room for dessert. “Vincent’s Favorite Childhood Dessert” is homemade petite Madeleine cookies and vanilla ice cream drizzled with warm chocolate sauce. It was delish!

Anja and Krista shared the Three Cremes, comprised of Crème Caramel, Crème Brûlée and Pot de Crème. It was beyond rich and as Anja put it “three little pieces of heaven.” After an amazing dinner, we went to the Foshay at the W. Definitely not in our league as far as partying goes, it was definitely the spot to people watch.

We sat on a cushioned bench filled with pillows surrounding this amazing light fixture that radiated different colors. After sitting for several minutes I noticed these next to me on the other half of the lounge:

Security guards with Secret Service-like earpieces kept checking us out and manning the area. Curious, we decided that we wouldn’t move until someone told us. Suddenly a waitress ran in and grabbed all the reserved signs and moved them to the lounge area next to us on the other side.

The mystery VIP’s finally arrived and we learned they were the entourage of some famous musician or actor. We probably looked like total goobs, but we were all on our phone cams.

The night ended with a chilly, misty walk home from the W. It was beautiful. It’s nights like these in places like this that I realize how much I miss having access to all that a big city offers. I wouldn’t want to live in it, but there was so much to do, limitless options, and many of the cultural things I miss. The opera, the orchestra, museum openings and restaurants. We have those things here in Columbia, and I’m not without appreciation and admiration for what we do have, I just sometimes miss the grand scale of everything.

The view from the hotel room

All in all, a great weekend, filled with lots of stories and thankfully devoid of any ridiculous clothes or blow-up penises. I can’t believe one of my best friends is getting married. Don’t get me wrong, I have many married friends, and Anja isn’t the first or the last, I’ve just known her longer than anyone and it feels like a major page turn in our story. I’ve been writing the speech for her wedding for six months, and I look forward to sharing it with everyone as the big day gets closer. I can’t believe my bachelorette was almost a year ago!