Wednesday, May 25 Drive to Minnesota

It was pouring rain this morning.  After Leanne left for work, we thought through the issue of getting Layla to the school bus without getting soaked.  They live one house away and across the street from the corner where she gets picked up, so we waited on the porch until we saw the bus and ran like crazy once it stopped.  Jim managed a picture.

Once back inside, we finished up Monday’s blog entry.  Jim helped Ricky move the mattress we slept on to an upper floor from the finished basement where we slept. Ardith and Jim headed to Pat’s Place, a small diner-like eatery in downtown Skokie.  We had omelets and home fries and had enough good food to last us until dinner.  The waitresses were quite delightful and enjoyed talking about our trip. 

The heavy rains continued for much of today’s trip, necessitating full speed windshield wipers for over 2 hours.  They abated some once we passed Madison, WI then stopped about an hour from Minnesota.  Months before our trip, Jim ordered a bunch of maps and tour guides for our trip.  Since they limited the number you could get in any one order, Jim decided to use maps from his horde between home and Minnesota, but forgot to bring them with us.  We stopped at all the state welcome centers along the way to get official maps.  When we stopped in Minnesota’s, Jim also picked up a few local guides.  We will be staying at the Microtel near the Mall of America. Getting there was a challenge, even with a relatively good map of Bloomington, MN.  Roads didn’t exit from or cross freeways the way it appeared and we traveled about an extra 2 miles.  Not awful, but not wonderful.  

We were really happy to meet our son, Peter.  We spent about an hour in our room catching up, then went off to a relatively new restaurant that is nearby, the Purple Sandpiper.  Most of their food comes from local sources.  They stated us off with some delicious breads, followed by our entrees.  Ardith had the Honey Rosemary Glazed Chicken.  She said it was the best chicken she ever had.  Jim had Star Prairie Trout, with a nicely light thyme butter sauce.  It was cooked just right and was moist.  The accompanying green beans with bacon and almonds were also top notch.  Peter, a vegetarian, really enjoyed his cauliflower macaroni and cheese.  We liked the rest of our meal so much that we all had desserts.  Peter had their own cardamom-pistachio ice cream with an almond cookie.  Jim had a cinnamon apple bread pudding, accompanied by a scoop of the same ice cream.  Ardith had classic tiramisu.  All were scrumptious. Our delightful server, Jason, presented us with a surprisingly low bill.

1316 total miles this trip thus far.