Last Friday we packed up again, but this time headed north for Josh & Jolene’s wedding in Morgan/Morton Minnesota. About to Mason City, Nick cries out “I think I forgot all my shoes”. The minute he said it I had a clear picture in my mind of his shoes right by the front door. Yep, he forgot three pairs of shoes. To most men this would be no big deal, to Nick it was devastating. He was only wearing brown flip-flops, not good for a wedding or going out. I tried to calm him down and offered that Mason City has a Target and we are running on time let’s just check it out. So we detoured to Mason City where we found a Kohls and a pair of shoes he liked (which he also did not try on, this is important later on). I’m convinced that God made Nick forget his shoes because I found the perfect matching necklace to my dress and two pairs of cute shoes for $30!

Back on the road, drove through a lot of country towns and got to Morton (Jackpot Junction, reception site) at 1:40. We quickly unpacked/got ready and headed to Morgan for the 3pm wedding. The wedding was very nice, Derek, Jeff and Nathan were groomsmen. Afterwards we hit The Ditch (liquor store outside of Jackpot Juction) for some pre-reception drinks…not a good idea. Led to some very awful dancing from yours truly. Then we headed to the reception for the cocktail hour, free drinks until 6. Of course we took advantage of this. I was pretty much hammered by the time dinner is served and then came some cigar smoking and dancing. At some point I royally fucked up my knee, but it was worth it. And after two hours of wearing his new shoes, Nick developed awful blisters. Around midnight I passed out, Nick partied some more.

Next morning had a pretty good breakfast at the Casino’s restaurant, headed back on the road for 2 hours to Minneapolis. Last time I stayed in Minneapolis I was 12(?). I was looking forward to really experiencing it this time. Well, the plan was to go to the art festival, dinner and the bars but by the time we got to our awesome hotel (with awesome view) I crashed for three hours. We never made to the art festival instead we did pre-dinner drinking and walked to dinner (Nick had to trade shoes with everyone because of the blister issue) We ate dinner at yummy Japanese/Sushi joint called Nami (which oddly enough doesn’t allow guns?!). I ordered Chicken Teriyaki and Tempura. However, my “chicken” tempura actually was shrimp and I didn’t realize until I took my first bite (less than 1/4″ big) I remember trying to understand in my mind why my chicken had a tail…then sheer panic…I’m allergic to shellfish. I’ve never had a piece of shrimp before so I didn’t know what my reaction would be. With regular fish I just get very stomach sick and that is apparently what happens with shellfish also. So after dinner we headed to Drink, which is way cooler here than in Des Moines. I immediately vomited my dinner, had a shot and danced the whole night with a bum knee, sick stomach and dizzy head. It was awesome, I had a great time. So, again I passed out around midnight and around 2:30 I couldn’t find Nick. Eventually he got back to the hotel room and could not speak and got sick until 3:15.

Sunday, around 8:00 I headed down the street for some Starbucks before we headed back to Des Moines…however the Starbucks was closed! So, Minneapolis is a “small-big” city and I love it. The traffic was quiet on Sunday, just perfect size. Headed back to Des Moines and got into town around 2pm. What a great little weekend.

My Pictures
Derek’s Wedding Pictures
Derek’s Minneapolis Pictures