Minnesota....

This past weekend Greg, my family and I attended my cousin Colleen's wedding in Minneapolis. Minnesota. I am going to break the weekend up so that all the pictures can be viewed better.

I left Hampton on Wednesday night so I could make it in Minnesota for all the festivities on Thursday. My plane left at 715pm and I arrived in Minneapolis at 1138 PM. When I got there I asked my mom how to get to the hotel and she told me to take the light rail since a cab was $40 from the airport. Now being my mother, she would never lead me astray. She told me to get off at 5th or 4th street. When I looked at the stops, there wasn't a 4th or 5th street stop and the rail runs along 5th street. I should have know I would be in trouble. I had to ask people where to get off at midnight. This could be a problem. I hopped on the rail and asked people on it. One guy told me there were a lot of hotels at the Nicolett Mall station and I should get off there - he had no idea nor did anyone else have a clue as to the location of my hotel. So that's what I did, I got off the rail in the middle of downtown Minneapolis at 115 AM based on what some random guy told me. Luckily I only walked in the wrong direction of the hotel for one block (draging 2 suitcases and a computer bag) and I found the hotel at about 130-145AM. Wow, what a long night. Good thing I made it safely - i did say a continuous prayer on the light rail at 1 AM.

On Thursday, it was time for family (Greg was coming in on Friday AM). We walked the skyway (a walkway on the second floor of most buildings above the street that is air conditioned and heated so that you don't have to go outside during the winter when it is 30 below) in the morning and then headed out to Lake Minnetonka for our boat party. This was for family that was in town and the bridal party. We got there early so we had lunch by the lake and then headed out for the boat. The water was freezing but by the end of the trip we all had made it into the water. The were 2 boats parked next to us that were on a sales call - must be the life huh? Another boat on the other side looked like a barge with a crain that was converted into a rope swing. We asked if the bride and groom could swing and they said no. The nerve of them. We had a blast, danced to music on the boat and headed back home for a night out with the bride and groom. On the way out some of the people on the boat mooned the barge for being rude. It was hilarious.

mom on the boat

(i dont know how to flip the pic but this is Colleen, Kim, Michelle and I)

That night we were supposed to go to a comedy show but we got back to the hotel too late and couldn't manage to get ready and in a cab in time. So instead we went bar hopping. We showed up at one bar ordered a drink and then was told by our "leaders" - the person making the decisions for the group - that we had to move to another bar. At the next bar, same thing. We finally made it to a pizza place where we got something to eat and discovered they had Karaoke!!! We informed the karaoke man that we had a couple getting married and the singing began. Colleen and Kevin sang first and then the rest of us had a turn. None of us sang alone. Each person had at least 3 backup singers complete with their own dancers. Yet when someone else from the bar sang, our group sat down. I would say we took up about 1/2 of the bar. Then about midnight someone decided it was time to leave. We walked a few blocks to another bar - which was on the Mississippi river and would have been beautiful had it been open, but it was closed. We then walked 45 min to an hour back to the hotel. Since noone knew the city except for the "leader" of the group, noone knew it was going to take this long to get back or else we would have called a cab. Instead we walked about 2-3 miles home(over the Mississippi River and through downtown). It was beautiful but a long walk.

Colleen and Kevin

Singing complete with backup...

Chad and I

The sisters :)