Vic's On the Minneapolis Riverfront

Last night, I had a company dinner at Vic's. Our whole office went out (12 people) as a little thank you for all our hard work. Boy have I got them fooled. lol.

I love this little area of Minneapolis, and I wish I were able to spend more time down there. It had been pretty rainy all day yesterday, so the patio was very wet! Sitting outside would've been fun, but I prefer to stay warm and dry. The patio is pretty large with great views of the river and the Minneapolis skyline.

If you're into wine, they have a pretty incredible happy hour. $2 bottles of various house wines at 2pm, $3 bottles at 3pm, and $4 bottles at 4pm. After 5pm, their bottles go back to regular prices, which are still very great prices.

I got a BLTA Salad with extra bacon. It was really tasty! And, I got. so. very. full. Oh, the A is for avocado. Yum! Most everyone else got steak or pork or chicken. Something a little meatier. haha! I kill myself. Many of the entrees that were ordered were huge and some still resembled the animal a bit. Ew. I much prefer my meat off the bone and no longer resembling the animal from whence it came. I love meat; I just don't like to work very hard to get my meat.

I didn't mean to get all political. This is supposed to be a restaurant review afterall, so this is just a warning to be careful what you order. :)

The service was pretty good - despite how busy it got and how large of a group we were. The bruschetta and pepperoni flatbeard were delicious appetizers and came out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, it did seem like our food took a. long. time to arrive.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this restaurant!

Rainy Day Wednesday

This morning it was POURING when it was time for me to head to work. Since I've gotten a few new followers, let me just say, My commute starts with a 5-7 min walk from my apartment to the free shuttle (thank you UST!) that takes me to downtown Minneapolis. From there I have about a 20-25 min walk to my office building. Minneapolis is awesome because I can walk the entire way inside! I ♥ the skyway system (well, I have to use some tunnels, too). It helps keep me all nice and dry!

Ok, so back to the downpour this morning. It was coming down hard. And heavy.

Oh, and have I ever mentioned my absolute distaste for umbrellas? I've never found one to be particularly effective, and I usually end up getting pretty drenched. It's totally possible that this is partly user error. Still, I will use an umbrella if it's just a light rain with barely any wind.

This was not the case this morning. I know it's only a 5 min walk, but a person could really get soaked in just that short amount of time. So, I decided to donn my rain jacket.

Oh, yeah. And my matching rain pants.

I checked it out in the mirror. Definitely dorky.

But I decided I'd rather be dorky than dripping plus I was running late and needed to get out the door pronto, so I slipped into my flip flops and headed out to catch the shuttle.

I snapped this picture in the restroom after getting downtown.
Do you know how hard it is to get a decent self-portrait in a bathroom stall? I took like 15 shots and this was the only one vaguely presentable.
You can even see the beads of water on my jacket!
I was super dry underneath, though! Yeah! They work. :)

I thought it was going to be nasty all day, but I don't think it's really rained much after I got into work.

This is great news for me because 1) I can ball up my rain gear and carry it in my purse (which is what I did during my skyway walk to work. Otherwise, I'd have been super drenched with sweat. Ew.) and 2) I can go for a run when I get home. Only 45 days until my 1/2 marathon!

5FF - Places

Lisa asked for a post on my favorite places in MN. I thought it would be a great idea for this week's Five Favorites for Friday, so here you go (in no particular order).

Alexandria

Source

I'm probably partial to this place because it's my hometown. :) I lived there from mid-3rd grade through graduation. It has a cute downtown, lots of area lakes, parks, beaches. Big Ole makes an appearance at one of Broadway, and the Kensington Runestone isn't very far away.

Inspiration Peak

from the Ottertail County Website

This is a little wayside park north of Alexandria in Ottertail County. It is so beautiful up there! Growing up in Alex, my family hiked to the top several times in my youth. I always loved it and have such great memories of going there. One day I'd really like to go back again.

Big Lake Wilderness Lodge

from their website

We first took a family vacation here the summer of 2008. We had so much fun that the next summer, we convinced even more of my family to come along. I've been a bad blogger and I can't seem to find any pictures online from 2009. Oops! We all made the trek up to Ely again last summer.

Big Lake is about 20 or so miles outside of Ely. I love it there because they have free access to kayaks, canoes, and paddleboats. They also have free day passes into the Boundary Waters for canoeing/kayaking or hiking. It is so gorgeous in northern MN!

Minneapolis Chain of Lakes

Source

This series of lakes is so fun! You can circle them by walking, biking, blading. On Lake Calhoun, you can even rent kayaks, canoes, paddleboats and other fun non-motorized water toys. I think it's so beautiful! And I just enjoy being around so many people, outside, enjoying nature.

Downtown Minneapolis

Source

Even though I grew up in a small town, I grew into a city girl. I love the buildings and the parks and the people that come with living in a big city. I love the Minneapolis skyline. I love the skyway system. There is easy access to bike lanes, the light rail, and public transportation. There are museums and theaters and sports venues. The Mississippi river is at one end and Loring park at another.

In writing this post, I've realized that there is a lot to MN that I've never really explored. Hopefully, I'll have an opportunity to view and see more of this great state in the next year. :)

If you live in MN (or ever have), what are some areas/things I should put on my MN bucket list?

If you're not in MN, what are some of your favorite places where you live?

Welcome, BlogTrotters, to Minnesota

Land of 10,000 Lakes

The North Star State

The Gopher State

Land of Sky-Blue Waters

The Bread and Butter State

Whatever you call it, I call it HOME.

I was absolutely delighted to receive a comment on my blog last week from Carabee over at BlogTrotting inviting me to give a little tour of my neck of the woods. BlogTrotting is a fun blog where you can visit other exciting places around the world.

I am genuinely thrilled to share with you a few of my favorite things about Minnesota.

I'm a Minnesotan, born and raised.

I grew up in Alexandria, MN. Hop over here for a brief tour of the main street of Alexandria, as I remember it from my teenage years.

Alexandra is the heart of the Central Lakes area, where are plenty of lakes for swimming and fishing.

I've since moved from Alexandria (more than 15 years ago) and now reside in St Paul, our state capital.

But what I really love about living in St Paul is living across the street from the University of St Thomas. Both my husband and I are students at UST, and we love our beautiful campus. We love to walk the grounds and will generally take any visitors we have on a quick tour.

 

The St Thomas Arches are an important part of UST culture. Incoming freshmen walk through the arches to the applause of current students and faculty, welcoming them to their new home. Neither of us started as freshmen, so we didn't get to experience this, but we are looking forward to Commencement when graduating seniors walk back out through the arches and head out into the world. I'm not sure if this will be a part of my graduate commencement ceremony, but it will definitely be a part of Jeff's. We have two more years of school before we head back out into the real world.

I've actually only lived in St Paul for a year and a half. Before that, I always considered myself more of a Minneapolis girl. While St Paul is growing on me, I definitely prefer the downtown of Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis skyline is beautiful!

The skyway system is wonderful!

You can easily stay dry and warm in the rain or snow.

Another thing I love about living in the Twin Cities is all the fun running paths!

I love to run with my little girl, Sallie...

And take walks with my husband.

We've moved a lot around the twin cities.

We've lived in Minneapolis near the Minnehaha Falls

and in St Paul near Crosby Lake .

I can't forget to mention Como Park Zoo. This is a fun, free zoo. They do accept a suggested donation of $2 for adults and $1 for children. We've gone to this zoo a couple of times .

I could go on and on about this great state! There are so many things I didn't mention like:

and SO. MUCH. MORE!

IMINNESOTA!

No matter where I live, I will always consider MN my home.

Feel free to browse through my blog to discover other random things about me (and occassionally MN, too). If you've visited any of the links in this post, you might have noticed many were from my *other* blog, Dodson Journal. Go ahead and pop over there for even more exciting advertures! I love MN, but I also love to travel and see new things. Mostly these adventures are with my husband, so naturally, they get posted on our family blog.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Minnesota.

Baby, it's COLD outside!

When I was getting ready for work this morning, the radio kept saying it was 5-degrees outside. Brrrrrr...

So I got all bundled up--winter coat, hat, gloves, scarf, warm clothes underneath--for my 1 block walk to the train. 5-degrees is cold, any way you look at it. My cheeks tingled, and my eyes burned. I don't think it was that windy, just cold, bitter, bitter cold. It's gonna be a fun winter.

Of course, the best part is when I get downtown. I'm all bundled up, remember? Well, I have a 5+ block walk to work. Minneapolis has this incredible skyway system,

so I have the option of walking that 5+ blocks inside. Yeah!

Except....I'm all bundled up for the walk to the train. By the time I get to work, I've generally worked up a pretty good sweat. Today was no exception!

Here's to winter!