South Cove's Visit to the Northland

For an Illinoisan, there's nothing more fun than coming up to Minnesota in June to enjoy the beautiful summer weather that we have here.  Unfortunately for SouthCove, she came on a cold, rainy weekend where it didn't get above 55 degrees and I had to turn the heat on in the house.  Despite the crappy weather, we had a great time!!  Here's the run-down of the weekend:

Friday:  SouthCove arrives and we chat and eat grapes.  Into St. Paul for Cosetta's pizza, then to the Liffey for a drink.  (I substituted beer for chocolate cake.  Not a bad trade-off.)

Saturday:  After a sleepy morning, we went to the Mall of America, which was ridiculously crowded.  I haven't seen it that busy ever, not even during the holidays.  We walked all three levels, with SouthCove purchasing some spiffy new sunglasses and I purchasing a super-cute onesie on sale at Carters.  We also took a stroll through Nickelodeon Universe, where SouthCove really came alive - 

-she could not have been more excited to see the WonderPets - although she didn't want to wait in line -

-and I forced her to put on this silly Spongebob hat.  She looks good in it, doesn't she?

We had grand plans for going into Minneapolis that evening for dinner and general walking around, but by the time we made it through the mall my cankles weren't going to handle more walking, so we came home and had a lazy night, complete with Buffalo Wild Wings and the "Twilight" movie.  SouthCove had resisted the Twilight craze to this point, but after viewing Robert Pattinson's dreamy eyes, she has a new respect for tween books and movies.  I give the movie two enthusiastic thumbs up, if you can get through the first ten minutes of super-cheesiness.

Sunday:  After a breakfast of waffles and sausage and another lazy morning, we met up with Al and took a trip to the Cannon River Winery.  I had been there before, and the girls really enjoyed sampling the 10+ wines the winery has to offer. (Side note - it was not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be to not sip wine with them.  Way to go me!)  After the purchase of some bottles, we headed home and went to Jake's for dinner.  Yummy!  Al went home, and we watched the Tony awards in our pjs and ate pistachio ice cream.  

While I was sad when SouthCove pulled out of the driveway, my heart warmed because she was going to have the most fun of all on the way home - stopping by the Leinenkugel's brewery to take the tour, sample the libations and buy her very own HoneyBear pitcher!  

Thanks for making the drive, SouthCove!  It was great to see you, and I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks!