Reunited and it feels so good

If you read the previous post then you will know that my bestie since kindergarten flew to Minneapolis to surprise me. I definitely was super surprised minus the slight foiling of the plan due to a snapchat she sent me of her ticket. For Friday Laima, had run a few ideas past us to see what we would like to do. She found a winery down the street from a waterfall, so we said sure why not. It was a tad chilly so we didn't hangout too long by the waterfall, we walked around and snapped a few pics. I was pretty content but the other two were cold so we headed to the Cannon River Winery. We each got a flight, tasting of three wines. Olivia enjoys the sweeter wines, Laima enjoys the dry ones and I enjoy inbetween sweet and dry but closer to the drier side. One of the three that I chose (shhh don't tell the doctors) was a red called Gunflint red. It was so smooth and oaky I described it to them as velvet before having them try it. They both agreed that it was very good and so Laima and I got a bottle to take home for a "rainy day". 

After the winery we headed to Surly Brew House for a late lunch/dinner. It was a large warehouse mess hall looking place inside, with long tables and benches. They also had an outdoor area but it was too chilly to hangout out there while we waited for a table. Laima was pumped that they had BBQ and brisket there. Once we sat and took a gander at the menu we all agreed that a cheese plate was necessary. Funny thing about ordering said cheese plate appetizer, is that it came out after we got our food and had already been eating it for a bit...(hmm I thought appetizer was before the meal...). 

Once we were all content in the food baby department (Gilby, Remmington and Ichabod) we headed on over to downtown Minneapolis to check out a speakeasy. Now I had never been to one and have always wanted to go. Laima has gone to several while living in Brooklyn and said it was a must since Olivia was in town and had never really heard of speakeasies.  This one was located down some stairs with a door that looked like it was a back door with a keypad thing.  Inside was a short hallway with a few doors and a guy sitting on stool looking at us waiting to see if we knew what he was there for. I knew right away he was there to check I.Ds. Down a couple stairs and through a purple door we went. It was a semi dimly lit room with arm chairs and love seats in the middle around coffee tables and to the right were cushion rounded booths. The floor was made of tiles with different prints and colors. The tables all had candles and to the left a nice looking wooden bar with a couple people sitting at it. We chose to sit in the middle on the two love seats. The drink menu was double sided which made decision making difficult since I'm quite indecisive. After a day full of activities and sitting in a dimly lit room on a couch I was definitely a tad sleepy, not like I didn't wake up sleepy anyways.

Saturday, Olivia and I took our sweet time before heading over to Minnehaha Falls. Laima got us some cheese and charcuterie to bring for a little picnic. I forgot how busy places can get on the weekends...the park was swamped with people everywhere (eye rolls). Oh well, at least we got a bench right next to the river for our little picnic snack! People watching began the minute we entered the park, or should I say dog watching... dogs everywhere! so many people had dogs! "Why didn't we have a dog" were my thoughts. I had to resist the urge to pet them all. There were a good amount of people there with photographers for family pictures and I'm guessing senior pictures. I mean I get why, there's fall colors, a river and then a waterfall to choose from. On the way to the waterfall there's about 140 stairs down, I was willing to make that trek again for Olivia. Even though there were a shit ton of people down there we managed to get some good pictures away from people and no people in them which I was surprised about!  

After the falls we headed over to the Stone Arch Bridge so Olivia could see some of the cool old mill area and other cool bridges by the river. She, like us enjoy taking pictures. The river was behaving and came out pretty sweet with the bridges. That night we headed back home and decided to finish painting our pumpkins that we started the other day. While painting we wanted to watch a movie. Now Laima is totally against watching scary movies, which put a downer on mine and Olivia's excitement to watch one. We have always loved watching scary movies together. There aren't too many people out there that want to watch them with me...pansies! In the spirit of halloween coming up and since we were painting pumpkins we settled on Practical Magic. By settled I mean Laima and Olivia both decided we were going to watch it (eye roll). They both love that movie and even if I didn't want to watch it I don't think I had a say... I also have never fully seen that movie anyways...they were both shocked and slightly offended. Once the movie was over and pumpkins were painted, Olivia and I crawled into bed for our usual snuggle and giggle fest. Things that fuel our smiggling (smiling and giggling); 1. Our natural weirdness. 2. Funny videos and memes of animals and people. 3. Snapchat filters. It's hard to go to sleep at a reasonable hour when in her company...like ever...

Sunday we both woke up sleepy because of course we didn't go to bed at a reasonable hour and we woke up sad. Her flight was leaving at 3:05pm and we were not thrilled. Before bringing her to the airport we went to get brunch at a sweet place in uptown called French Meadow Cafe and Bakery. It's a farm to table kind of place. Really high ceilings and tree branches on the walls for decor. Their menu had many choices but to my surprise I found something I wanted before Olivia did! Oh, and they sold Kombucha there which was a plus. The time was getting close to say our farewells. The MPS airport has confusing signs. They don't say arrivals and departures. They say baggage claim and then tickets...like what??? They also don't have a cell phone lot which I thought was weird. Dropping her off made me sad but I know she'll come visit to meet my new air bags once the perfect pair arrive! I didn't want to stop hugging her but there was one of those annoying people who help direct cars and also tells you to move if you're there too long, slowly walking towards us. 

One activity that Olivia really want to do while visiting was to get a tattoo. Not just any tattoo, but one that she needed me for. She's been wanting me for quite some time to write the word breathe or just breathe for her. She wanted one of these words written in my hand writing as a tattoo for a while now. Laima, had asked her Friend Kim that lives in Blaine also for a recommendation. Apparently there was a shop not too far from us with a guy that she's friends with, so that's where we were going to go. Good thing Olivia contacted him early Thursday because that was the only day he was available while she was here.!