A Weekend at Home

It's been a week now since I've returned from being in Minnesota! It was a really good, fun, and short trip home. I'll give a quick recap of the trip home, especially considering Erin came with.
Friday:
We got up at the butt-crack of dawn to get to the airport for our 7:30am flight out of Orlando to Minneapolis (Mpls.). Fortunately we stayed with one of my friends who is doing his vicarage near Orlando, so that helped out tremendously! So getting to the plane was not a problem or any of that other airport stuff. The flight was pretty good too, Erin did very well for her first flight, especially considering that she's not a huge fan of heights, but she really enjoyed the window seat! Once we got closer to Mpls., the captain came on and told us the weather conditions for Mpls., he said, "The conditions in Minneapolis/St Paul are fairly good. We have an overcast sky and 43°. When Erin heard the temp, being a Floridian girl, she looked over at me and said, "Where have you brought me?! I'm gonna freeze!! YOU owe me big time of this!" I couldn't help but to laugh. And as soon as we stepped off of the plane, she was struck by the cold, and we were inside the airport!
After being picked up and getting to a friend of my parent's house, I then took Erin on a tour of where I grew up. I showed her the house I grew up in, where I went to school, the two different places where I'd worked, and "The Hill." (Obviously I must explain, "The Hill." It is a hill that is near where I grew up and it is a street of Chanhassen. In high school my friend Bryan and I would hop into a car and we would fly down this hill...a few times we got air- it had a little leveling off point 2/3 of the way down before getting to the bottom.) After doing all of that, we headed off to my parent's newer house in Cologne. The main reason for Erin and I going to Minnesota was that my sister graduated from college that Friday...we missed the ceremony by 30 minutes, but she was fine with that. After we got cleaned up and what not, we went out with my parents and sister to celebrate her graduation. It was a good time.
Saturday:
Saturday we spent most of the day in Mpls. with some of my college friends. We had a great time. We went around downtown- Walker Art Center (see the picture above), Jamba Juice, a Twins game, and Old Chicago. It was great seeing all of my friends, I hadn't seen some of them in about a year. We had a great time and they enjoyed meeting Erin. Even though it was a long day, it was a great day!
Sunday:
I hadn't been at my home church in quite a while and some things had noticably changed. I'd never experienced a worship service where everything that you did for worship- songs, liturgy, and Scripture readings- all came from the two screens via powerpoint. It was interesting. Even all of the sermon points and quotes were up on the screen for us. It was very different, but I can also see the benefit of that as well- we are in an age where people spend more and more time in front of computer/tv screens and for them to have information given to them through that format has it's benefits...but it's still a little weird to me. I must be old...fashioned.
We had a good Sunday. Erin got to meet a lot of the family that day...dang near everyone! We had a BBQ at my parent's house to celebrate my sister's graduation, she had a ton of friends over too. It was a good time. After everyone had left, and the food had long since settled, we (my parents, Erin, and myself) then went to Dairy Queen for dessert...Erin and I had gotten 2-for-1s for blizzards.
Monday:
Our last day in Minnesota was action packed! My parents, Erin, and I went to the Mall of America for a few hours before our plane departed. Erin got to see most of the Mall, but has insisted that when we go up there in August, she'll be riding back with me to Minnesota, that we must go to the Mall again. After walking around a few times, we went to the Rainforrest Cafe for a late lunch/early dinner. That's an exciting restaurant...Erin really liked it.
After leaving the Mall, we then went over to the Minnehaha Falls...yes, Minnehaha is a real word! It means "laughing waters." The falls were really nice and we took some really nice pictures near them...I might just post them on here once I get developed.
When we arrived in Orlando, we found out that the wildfires had gotten pretty bad, so we had to take an alternative way back up to Palm Coast, luckily, the drive time was about the same.
But yeah, like I've said, we had a really good time in Minnesota. Everyone enjoyed meeting Erin!