Minneapolis Trip!

Journal shadowspark's Journal: Minneapolis Trip! 5

Journal by shadowspark on Tuesday September 07, 2004 @09:33PM

So the gf and I spent the long weekend in Minneapolis. I had originally wanted to spend it in Chicago, but realized that 14-15 hours of driving would get tiresome. Additionally that would only allow 1-2 days of actual sight-seeing.

An hour or so into the trip we hit the infamous U.S. border. To save a few dollars we had a paying passenger (my cousin's cousin named R) that we were to drop off in St. Cloud, but true to Filipino tradition... he brought a 'balikbayan box'.

Balikbayan box - translations: BALIK means to come back. BAYAN means hometown or homeland. So if you put the words together, BALIKBAYAN means someone who is coming back home. The box is filled with various gifts and goodies that range from cds, shoes, lotions, canned goods etc to be given to relatives and friends back in one's homeland. Basically it's like a care package for you college kids from your mom. "Balikbayan box... chocolates... dilata (canned goods)" repeated over and over. As a tid bit those two items are like a madatory staple in a balikbayan box.

But instead of goodies and stuff, he packed his clothes in there. Well, normally this would be fine if he had taken an airplane and the xray scanners scanned the box, but the Department of Homeland Security clerklady did her job and asked us to go to hangar door 2 to get checked.

The gf had to go to the washroom and pee, so she left. R and I decided we should help these guys out so we proceeded to get out of our car and open the rope and tape sealed box. All of the sudden we hear yelling and banging and (apparently according to reports from the people before us, [who we ended up knowing being related to people we knew]) guns were taken out on us. Although we weren't previously told, we were supposed to stay inside the vehicle until told to. R had his hands up in fear of getting beaten by the pro-wrestler scanner guy named O'Toole (he was a Tool alright). We then proceeded to drive inside the hangar bay. At this point I'm wondering wtf happened to nankerz (gf) as she would have been back now. So anyway, already at shock at being yelled at we are then asked to show our IDs and bring any valuables/wallets to the stainless steel scanning desk. Mr. Tool asks me the same question 3 times (how long have you and your gf been going out [i say 5 years]), so I assume he was seeing if he could catch me in a lie. Regardless, these guys had guns and large knives and big Maglite flashlites so no joking here. R kept putting his hands in his pockets and the nazilady kept telling him to take his hands out of his pockets. Eventually R put his hands on his head, I laughed and then mr. tool decides to tell me to turn around and unflay all pockets. I proceed on asking them where my gf is and they go, we didn't see her, and I'm like geezus christ this is becoming like Xfiles conspiracy creepy. Eventually we're put in this sealed room where the windows are one way when I hear my laughing gf going where did the guys go, and i'm like oh no she's going to get yelled at too, but nothing. Mr. tool and nazi lady did the bad guy good guy thing and we got the bad guy treatment. They eventually search our entire vehicle to find nothing and force us into organizing everything so we could fit stuff again. Great job, defending america from terrorists f***ers.

So on we went to terrorize america with my enraged cousin ready to spread the word and deposit his seed... er.. .At this point it started to rain heavily, but thanks to Rain-X, it was easy driving... till everyone in the car started sleeping and I almost started to pass out. Thankfully we hit a Krispy Kreme in Fargo and got myself a free fresh from the conveyor belt of dreams original glazed donut. MMM... bought a cruller and on we went to St. Cloud.

I've never seen such a largely catholic city in my life till we hit St. Cloud/St.Joseph. Wow there was catholic everything, and all the american patriotism... never seen so many flags concentrated in one place. Almost freaked me out.

So before hitting Minneapolis we decided to stop at Albertville Outlet mall. Wow what a selection of brand name deals. Of course nankerz was in heaven, but I was tired from 8 hours of driving. Bought a few things and then headed to Minneapolis. Checked into a TravelLodge that we initially was a dive and lied about having a hot tub (found the hot tub later but figured it was not hot enough). Then went to sleep, wake up later to go out to eat. Decided to go to a place called Sawatdee which was a Thai restaurant. Now normally I don't eat Thai food cuz a lot of their sauces are of the peanut variety and I'm allergic. But nankerz ordered some chicken satay (which I didn't really eat), and we rounded it up with some beef in oyster sauce and some fried rice. Pretty good fare for the price ($20!). We then proceed to get lost trying to find a Walmart, and when we do find it, realize it's just next door to our hotel.

The next day my goal was to check out the Underground aquarium at the MoA (Mall of America) and taste the ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We decided to eat lunch first and nankerz picked the Panda's chinese food place and we had some Orange Chicken, Mandarin chicken, Chow mein and Rice. Nankerz also had a chicken egg roll which I felt was kinda gross, but oh well. We then hunt for the Cold Stone Creamery and oh my god. I've never had such a great ice cream before. Granted, they are uber expensive but it's nice how they mix up all their ice cream on that stone and place it on the waffle cone. I was kinda disappointed with the waffle cone, I thought they'd make it fresh and thick, but it was just like any other waffle cone.

Checked out a few stores like the Oakley store, and nankerz checked out p.B. Loco. Pretty cool concept... peanut butter stuff... but I was grossed out at the pictures of people with peanut butter all over their faces.

We then line up to go to the aquarium, and wow was it busy. Grabbed a coupon from the walking sharky on the first floor and proceeded to walk through the aquarium. At first I thought it was kinda junky looking until we finally hit the tunnel with the moving conveyor belt. We have something similar at our Regent Casino here in Winnipeg, but not as massive as what's there in the aquarium. Basically it was a tunnel through the aquarium where you are engulfed in the presence of all the aquatic fishes and turtles. Pretty cool fishes but I felt the aquarium in Stanley Park and Seattle were far better (they had more animals and shows). Mind you, this was the first time I was able to see an Octopus actually move around and about playing with stuff. Holy crap that thing was big... would make lots of tako sushi :). Anyways, went to go tickle a shark and manta ray and on we went to the endless shop after shop. I managed to pick myself up a magic trick kit set that allows me to levitate cards and stuff so I'm quite excited to use that to show off. lol . That night we found the hot tub and found out the people we sat beside were from Winnipeg too. Sadly their place of work went bankrupt (Classy clothiers) and unfortunately due to the rain they couldn't even go to Valley Fair (been there done that, gf got sick :/ ).

The next morning we visit the IHOP (we don't have one in our city) and I ordered myself a steak omelette... wow great omelette, too bad it's not canadian beef.

At this point nankerz is freaking out cuz she lost her ID. Told her it'd probably be okay but we waste time going back to MoA and Albertville outlet to see if her ID was left anywherez. eventually when we hit the border, my assumptions were right and the people at the border *WERE* on strike :). So although we were at our $ limit of duty free items *AND* nankerz not having an ID, we were just told to go home.

Anyways that was our trip, and if you read this far, holycrap... I didn't really think anyone would be that interested to read this far. But Thanks :)

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