Our State Fair is a great State Fair!

After 2 weeks of rural Wisconsin, we were dire need of a city fix. We had a great campsite just outside St Paul (right by 3M headquarters). We made it to the campsite in time to clean up and head out to meet Jack and his wife, Walker. We had an absolutely hysterical time. Jack and Walker are the perfect complement to each other. They had us in stitches talking about being Southerners (Charleston) living in Minneapolis. The time flew by at lunch and we had to get Walker back for a nap (but not until she had two scoops of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream). Jack took us for a quick tour of Macalester College and we got to see his office- a bit of a tribute to Mongolia.

We took a tour of Minneapolis/St Paul. It was interesting to see the city from a tourist perspective- and re-visit both downtowns, Minnehaha Falls and the Chain of Lakes. After our intro tour, we did our own driving tours of both cities – enjoying the sites and the ethnic restaurants. We had Korean, Afghani, Ethiopian and Southern Indian. We ate and ate and ate. We also toured Stillwater, my old stomping grounds in WBL, the U of M and Dinkytown, Old St Anthony.

I think that the highlight had to be the Minnesota State Fair. After much protesting, John finally relented and we spent the day at the fair- eating and watching huge people eating – constantly. Every food you could imagine was offered- on a stick: walleye, pork chops, cheese, meatballs, catfish, pickles, and key lime pie. If something on a stick wasn’t enough, you could get a huge bucket filled with French fries or chocolate chip cookies. We grabbed a beer and watched the people- eating and the X-er’s taking rides like the “Free Fall”.