The Great Minnesota Get-Together

For two weeks every year Minnesota comes together to enjoy the Minnesota State Fair which happens to 1.5 miles from our apartment.  Since Rachel and Nick were in town we planned to go to the fair while they were here.  Everyone that you talk to up here raves about the fair.  Don't worry Texans, it's ranked as the 2nd best state fair in the country, after of course, Texas.  We have been told about the ridiculous amounts of fried food on sticks, and the Canadian rednecks that show up, and the hundreds of thousands of people that will be there.  As we were walking...yes we walked from the apartment because the parking is out of control...we got closer to the fair and we were noticing how crowded it already was.

 I tried to take pictures to capture how many people were there, but I don't think these will do justice.  It was sooo crowded that you had to constantly watch where you were going or you would run someone over.

 We downloaded the App on my iPhone that had an interactive map that would tell you where you were on the 360 acre property.  There was also a list of all the "restaurants" and what food they had available. We also had a paper map to decide where we wanted to go.  The walkways are streets with street names that were very helpful in maneuvering where you wanted to get to.  We decided to head towards "The Miracle of Life" center.  This barn houses lots and lots of pregnant animals and you can watch the baby animals being born throughout the fair.  We saw some chicks hatching...

 some baby lambs...that were a day old

a baby calf that was born 2 hours before we got there.  They were showing the video of the birth above the pen and this is my favorite picture...it's David and Nick watching the cow give birth....

and here's the baby calf....

and here are Rachel's favorite...the baby piglets.  These were about a day old, there were a lot of baby piglets. 

After we saw the babies we went across the way to look at some bunny rabbits.  There were hundreds of them!!!!!  This type of bunny kept freaking me out because it looked like they had eyeliner on....weird

The fair also had a huge slide that you ride a piece of carpet down it.  It was hilarious. We didn't do it, because it cost extra, but looked like fun.

There are many highlights of state fairs, and one of them of course, is the food.  We had a great selection of fried food.  I had to go with my staple fried foods....corn dog and funnel cake.  Rachel got CORN ice cream with Honey Butter Bacon topping.....yes, and it was delicious!

The corn ice cream was an ode to the Iowa farmers.  They also had a booth where you buy a bucket of chocolate chip cookies for 16 dollars and then go to the Milk booth that you pay $1 and you get all you can drink milk or chocolate milk.  We didn't do that, but it sounded delicious.  Of course they had your friend candy bars (Reese's, Milky Way, 3 Musketeer, Snickers, Oreos), tiny donuts, candy apples, turkey legs, fried salmon on a stick, Hot Dish (that's Midwest for casserole) on a stick, deep fried cookies, pizza on a stick, belgian waffles, crepes, sno cones, french fries, chocolate covered jalapeno peppers, and so many more. In fact you should look at this link to look at all the different food vendors that are there.  There's about 300 vendors...at least. Also once you're on that page you can look to the right where it says "2011 All Food List" and "2011 New Food List" to see what's new at the fair this year.  Looking at this list will blow your mind.

We also rode a couple of the rides which if you know me that's a big deal.  We started out with the swings to see how I handled it.  Then we also did a roller coaster that had a cart for 4 people. 

I actually enjoyed these rides which I guess inspired me to ride the roller coasters at the Mall of America when we took Rachel and Nick there on Sunday.  They were fun, and I might actually ride another one...maybe...

Restaurants

For a few weeks now, I've been trying to decide where we would eat when Rachel and Nick came to visit.  There are so many options, but I'm quite pleased with the ones we ended up with.  Saturday morning we went down Lexington Ave to historic Grand Ave to get breakfast at The Uptowner.  This was an excellent decision.  Nick ordered the Tex Mex that was a tortilla filled with hashbrowns, onions, and sausage topped with homemade salsa. 

Rachel ordered a Denver omelet and a biscuit.  It also looked delicious. 

We knew we would be eating a lot Saturday, and everything we ate was absolutely wonderful. 














David ordered the mighty meat omelet...of course...and he loved it. 

I couldn't make my mind up, so I got eggs, hashbrowns bacon, and toast! The sourdough toast was absolutely delicious and the hashbrowns were the best hashbrowns I've ever had.  I was tempted to add a side of French Toast...yes their sides were french toast and pancakes.  These portions were huge, but pretty reasonable prices. 

The afternoon is a whole other post entirely, so I am moving on to dinner.  I was very excited because I have been waiting to have a Juicy Lucy, and tonight was the night.  We went to a restaurant called The Blue Door (also in St. Paul) and all ordered Juicy Lucy's.  David had the Blucy--bleu cheese and garlic in the middle of the patty.  Rachel had the Bacon--bacon and cheese inside the patty.  Nick had the Mushroom Swiss---obvious.  I had the Luau Lucy--mozzarella and canadian bacon inside the patty with rings of pineapple cook in jerk sauce on top of the patty.  Here's a pic:

mmmm...look at the ooey gooey mozzarella! It was amazing!  So as if we hadn't eaten enough, we had to go to Grand Ole Creamery on Grand Ave to try the homemade ice cream.  I had a delicious scoop of Mac Daddy--pralines and cream ice cream with oreos chunks in it.  Holy Moly it was awesome!  I can't wait to go back and try more flavors!!

Sunday morning we decided to skip breakfast and eat lunch at a place called Cafe Latte--also on Grand Ave. You need to look at their website to see pictures of their delicious food because mine won't do justice.  I think it's my favorite "realistic" place that I will go to pretty often.  If you ever heard me talk about Oxford, then you heard me talk about Newk's.  I think I've found my Newk's replacement.  It won't completely take Newk's place, but I'm very glad I've got this place.  I had a salad sampler. 

David got soup so we shared both.  Nick got a salad and a dip platter that you could pick 3 out of 5 or 6 dips such as hummus, black bean, and smoked salmon dip served with a baguette, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions.  It was awesome!!  Rachel had soup and a sandwich.  I didn't try any desserts, but I can not wait til my birthday because I found my cake! Drool.

Across the street from Cafe Latte there's a placed called Bread and Chocolate which is owned by Cafe Latte.  It's got cookies, brownies, pastries, and a coffee bar.  They were voted best Brownie in the twin cities.  My goal is to get there early enough on Saturday morning to get a cinnamon roll. 

 So there's a quick run through of some of the wonderful restaurants that St. Paul has to offer. 

Cantus Potluck

David and I had a very busy weekend.  First of all, Rachel and Nick flew up to visit on Friday afternoon.  I went to pick them up at the airport, and then we went downtown to Westminster Church where David was practicing.  We parked the car at the church and walked up and down Nicollet Ave to get a quick tour of downtown Minneapolis for Rachel and Nick.  The streets were very busy because of all the activities going on here this weekend...Twins tripleheader, Vikings/Cowboys game, the State Fair, and a parade on Sunday afternoon.  We saw the Mary Tyler Moore Statue and then walked back to Westminster.

We walked into the church and Debbie, the secretary, let us walk into the chapel.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The lights weren't on in the chapel, but the sun was shining in through the stained glass. 

The pews and balcony were also beautiful, but it was too dark for me to get good pictures.  After Cantus practice was over, we went to one of the board member's (of Cantus) houses for a potluck welcome dinner.  This was for the board members to meet David and for the new board members to meet everyone else.  It was a lot of fun.  Thanks to Charlene Prock's wedding gift, I took a delicious salad that was all gone!!  Everyone was very nice and easy to talk to.  Rachel and Nick had a good time too. 

After the potluck, we went to a place called Psycho Suzie's to have some delicious cheese curds.  It was a really cool place to hang out.  They have a huge patio that's on the east shore of the Mississippi River.  More later!

Como Zoo

Sunday afternoon David and I went to the zoo up the block from our apartment.  We hopped on our bikes and rode up to Como Park, Conservatory, and Zoo.  The conservatory is absolutely beautiful.  One of our friends, Trish, told us that it's a great place to go in the winter when you're sick of the cold because it's a tropical haven. Here's the beautiful building from the outside.  We didn't go in the conservatory this time, just went to the zoo. 

  The zoo was a lot of fun too.  It's the free zoo in the twin cities, so it's a little bit smaller than the Minnesota Zoo, but still has some great animals.  Here's a few that we saw.

The snow leopards and polar bears have outdoor living spaces, and they told us that in the winter they are running around and playing in the snow.  Can't wait to see that.  The grizzly bears just got to Como 2 months ago.  Then David and I saw this tiger playing in his area.  I'm going to try to upload a video.  We'll see if it works.

Then we went to the Primate house and saw some really awesome monkeys.  They had gorillas, orangatangs, spider monkeys, and some other tiny ones.  I took a video of the baby and momma orangatang playing with each other.

While we were looking at the monkeys, on a Sunday afternoon, I received a phone call from the lady I interviewed with last Thursday.  She told me that I would know something by Monday, so I was surprised to hear from her on Sunday.  She told me she had emailed me an offer letter and that the job was mine if I wanted it.  The job is with Family Speech and Therapy Services, and I will be fulfilling a contract with a school district.  I will be doing home visits for the birth-three population in that school district.  I'm really excited about it.  I start September 6th.  I know I have a lot to learn and Melissa, my boss, comforted me by telling me there are 12 other SLPs in the school district that I'll be in doing home visits as well.  The cool thing about this private practice is that my contract with the school district is on a 9-month schedule spread over 12-months.  So I will be doing home visits for 5 weeks then at the clinic one week, then home visits 4 weeks and clinic one week and so on.  Then when I'm in the clinic on those weeks we have Fridays off!!! Yay!  That's all I know about the job right now. We are very thankful!












 

Zoku

This post has nothing to do with the twin cities, but I think it's worth posting.  After church this morning David and I came back to the apartment for lunch.  Then for dessert we had homemade popsicles!! We used this nifty little gadget called Zoku. Mom got us these for Christmas one year and I have been wanting to use it.  It's so much fun!  You just pop the whole thing in the freezer for at least 24 hours, then take it out and pour whatever juice you want into it.  Then in 7-9 minutes!!! you have popsicles!!!!
 

 They were so delicious, so I made a sweet tea popsicle after I finished the Apple Juice ones.    Since this has nothing to do with the twin cities, here's a picture of downtown St. Paul on our way back from church.

St. Paul Saints

Today was a beautiful day in the twin cities.  It was a high of 76 and a low of 59.  This afternoon David and I went bike shopping at a bike store called Erik's.  It was an impressive store and we had fun finding a bike for Dave.  This was my dad's graduation present to David.  David was so excited because he can load his bike to the front of the city bus and then he'll have it with him when he's downtown. 

 So because of the beautiful weather and David's new bike we decided to take advantage of that and ride our bikes down to the minor league baseball field for a game tonight.  The field is about a mile away from our apartment, on the same side of the street.  So we didn't have to pay for parking and got to park right at the stadium.    

  
We were standing in line for tickets and a guy came up and asked if we needed some tickets.  We looked at them and realized they were better than the ones we were going to buy and he was asking half of what we were going to pay.  So we bought those tickets from him and were very pleased with where they were.  


As we were walking into the stadium we noticed some skis and snowboards....apparently tonight's theme was "Winter in the Summer".  I thought this was interesting because you'd think they get enough of the snow  in the wintertime.  I guess not.  Right in the middle of the entrance of the stadium this is what we saw.......

Yes...That is a pile of snow and these kids are standing on top of it.  Hilarious.  Then at one point during the game, between the innings, they had a snowball fight with the audience.  HILARIOUS!  People were dressed in scarves, toboggans, jackets, and gloves because of the winter theme.  We obviously missed the memo. 

Then David and I got some food.  We had hot dogs, and fried cheese curds (This picture is for Robert).

So delicious and so bad for us.  Oh well.   The game was fun, but we left at the end of the 6th inning.  It was tied 9-9.  So check that off the list. 

Check out Cantus

David's bio is up on the cantus website.  Click this link to find it. David's picture is at the bottom of that page.  It looks great!! I can't wait to hear the group in September.  I went to rehearsal the other day because there was an open rehearsal. I took a couple of pictures....

The guys are from left to right starting at the top picture: Adam (baritone), Matt (baritone), Chris (bass), Tim (bass), Aaron (tenor), Paul (tenor), Shahzore (tenor), David (tenor), and Gary (tenor).  They sounded amazing.  They are doing some great pieces this year.  There were 6 people at open rehearsal when I went.  The executive director, Mary, brought 5 of the people that have never been to a Cantus concert, but they have enjoyed listening to them on MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) because Cantus has been Artist in Residence for MPR this past year.  I think they will be at a concert.  They were really impressed.  After they finished rehearsal, the guys opened it up for questions.  All of the guests asked a question (except me).  It was fun, I hope I can go back again when they are working on some more pieces. 

Last night David and I had dinner with Paul and his girlfriend Sam at our apartment.  David and I made the burgers and sides and they brought dessert and a game.  We played a game called "Pandemic".  It was a lot of fun.  I have never played anything like it.  I may have to see if I can find it for family get togethers. 

That's all for now, Dave and I are on our way to go shopping.  It's 76 degrees today...in case you were wondering.  :)

Wedding post

So today is our one-month anniversary! Quite an accomplishment!  Today just happened to be the day that Patrick Cone, our videographer, and Kimberly Brackins, our photographer, both uploaded video and photos to share. 

I'm going to attach a link to the video that Patrick put together.  He did an absolutely amazing job on this video, and David and I felt like he really captured us and that day.  I've been excited to see how he put the video together, and he is so talented.  I can't wait to see what all Patrick will do with his talents!

 You can see the wonderful pictures that Kimberly took by clicking on this link and typing in the password "Walton".  Kimberly also did a great job of taking beautiful pictures and getting all the details that were so important to us.  She was so wonderful to work with. Thank you Kimberly!

On a side note, I'm using my crockpot for the first time today, and I'm really excited about it!

Working for the Weekend

During the week David and I have pretty much stayed at home at night except for the occasional walk around Como Lake after supper. Here's a picture of the lake at sunset. 

It's so beautiful and the path is full of cyclists, dogs, and families.  It's about a mile around the lake. 

One of David's Cantus friends, Shahzore asked if we would join him Friday night for some Indian food.  He told us to meet him at a restaurant called Gandhi Mahal for dinner because a couple of his friends were playing live Indian music at the restaurant.  The food was absolutely amazing.  Shahzore knew everyone that was working at the restaurant because he has done some publicity work for the restaurant via NPR.  After his friends finished playing music they came and sat with us and ate with us.  We had a lot of fun having conversation with them.  They were very interested in the South, and we were listening to their advice about the winter! 

Saturday morning David and I got up and went to the St. Paul Farmer's Market. It was very impressive.  This market had every type of potato, pepper, and tomato you could think of as well as eggplants, carrots, corn, honey, jams, cheese, meats, pasta, flowers, and some fruits.

The flowers they had at this market were absolutely gorgeous.  What we found so interesting was that this farmer's market goes year round.  Once it gets cold, they cross the street and the vendors set up indoors, but while the weather is wonderful they are embracing it and set up outside. 

Saturday afternoon David and I went to see The Help (that could be a whole post entirely, but just read the book). We went to Woodbury because we found a theater that was 4$!!! Take that Slick! 

That night David and I went to Grand Avenue to try out one of the restaurants.  We picked Punch Neopolitan Pizza as our first try on the Ave and it was delicious!  Here's a picture of our delicious Palermo pizza that had spiced salami, sun dried tomatoes, olives, and oregano.  David said it was as good as Gallo's. (David was a good husband and ate the piece with the big black bubble).

We finished eating outside and walked up and down Grand Avenue scouting out our next restaurant choice for next weekend. 
 
 We went to church again Sunday morning and got to meet a lot of new people and some more connections.  I was talking to a lady named Vicky Hawley and she told me she had been to Africa this Spring.  She asked where I went to church in Searcy, and when I told her Downtown, she told me she and her husband had been part of the team building people for the Makonde team and that they had stayed with Sarah and Andrew for 4 days! When I told her that I knew all those people on the team she just grabbed me and hugged me.  It made us so happy that we loved the same people.  She also told me that she knew Mona Lee because she was there in the Spring too. 

 We're having fun so far.  that's all for now.