I can't believe it's taken me over a month to get our MN trip photos posted. And Charlie has been back at school since the beginning of the new year, and yet I haven't been able to get back to painting and fixing up the back patio either! What on earth is going on??!
Well, I figured I better get our MN blog in before February rolls around. Plus, I'm going to be busy making pineapple tarts tomorrow as Chinese New Year on Feb 1. How quickly time flies!
Day 1 in MN and we are in a hotel in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. Daddy's interview is just down the corner from here. We had both boys bring their laptops too as Charlie is still doing Distance Learning and Graham has homework to finish up:
It's too late to grab breakfast so thankfully the little shop by the front desk is open. Looks like it's instant oatmeal for breakfast and dry cereal for the boys. And yeah, no spoon so I'm stuck with a fork to eat my oatmeal this morning:
Here's a quick view from our window this morning. No fresh snow this morning!
I'm sure it's pretty cold outside so we are doubling up on everything. I'm glad I was able to find these fleece pants for the boys:
After a brief interruption of a bloody nose from Charlie, we are finally ready to head out!!
We are barely out of our hotel and there's Daddy's potential new office!!
And barely a few feet later and Graham and Charlie are busy making snow balls!!
All new clothing for these boys, other than a couple of their old beanies. Hopefully these will last them at least a couple of years instead of just 1 trip:
Fancy stadium!
Charlie's cheeks are so rosy from the cold:
We took a walk to the Mill City Museum. Somehow 1.2 miles took a lot longer than the suggested 6 minutes. Perhaps under normal circumstance when there's no snow and trying to tell the boys to avoid the icy walkways. We finally made it by 3:30pm and we only have 30 minutes before the museum closes. Make that less than 20 minutes because it took us forever to take all our heavy coats off and hang them! I obviously need to teach the boys on how to hang their coats:
This is quite the place!
This is basically where General Mills began. On the outside, only partial of the building is still standing as there was a huge explosion in May 1878 (four years after the original Washburn A. Mill opened). The explosion was caused by a spark that was ignited by the airborne flour dust. Who knew flour dust was that dangerous!
Here's a view from the flour mill. That's the Mississippi river. I never realized that the river came all the way up north here:
A view of some of the equipment inside the building:
You'd never know it but these are actually vacuums to suck up all that dangerous flour dust. Looks like the company have learned their lesson!
Quick we-fie :-)
Can't believe this company has been in business for so long. It's definitely a familiar brand:
Quick photo outside of the Old Arch Bridge. It's getting cold!
You can see the destruction on the outside of the building. There was actually another fire in 1928:
We are walking back towards the hotel. We'll be meeting Daddy for dinner near there. Looks like someone is sneaking around my back - throwing snowballs at me. Sneaky Charlie!
This entire row is full of history - flour mill, wool mill, and looks like this Ceresota flour is still in production too since the last 1800s. Wow!!
We walk by the Courthouse and look how cute these little guys are. They are called Rock Men, by an artist named Tom Otterness:
This looks like it would be a fun climbing structure :-P
Across the street, there's this massive building - the MN City Hall:
See what I mean by massive??! Graham mentioned it looks like something from the Harry Potter movie:
Graham and Charlie are so tired from walking in their heavy boots that they are taking a break every few minutes:
One more break for a photo :-D
Another break into the Minneapolis Tribune. This globe is on a scale of 1:7,000,000!!
Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned about these heaters by the bus stops. Ha ha!
I'm thinking Graham's Spiderman beanie is a bit small for his head. Or perhaps Graham just has too much hair going on right now:
One more stop at another bus stop for some heat. LOL!!!
Okay, we finally meet Daddy at the restaurant. What a fancy place! And look at those steaks..!!!
Check out these massive slices of bacon. WOAH!!!
We also ordered lobster crabcakes which Charlie and I totally enjoyed:
Looks like there will be lots of leftovers from tonight's meal:
These homemade chips were super yummy too:
Family we-fie:
Charlie is so proud of finally learning how to use a real steak knife with his fork:
As per usual, Graham gets sleepy after meal time at a restaurant:
Not until this massive dessert showed up at the table!!!
These two boys are too hilarious:
I don't remember the name of this bull now, but supposedly it has significance to this restaurant:
On the way home, there's a HUGE mural of a piano piece:
I'm just reading up on this feature wall now and looks like it's a 5-storey mural and supposedly one of the most difficult piece to play for a solo pianist. It's from the third movement called "Scarbo" from a piano piece written by a French composer Maurice Ravel called "Gaspard de la Nuit". I just listened to part of it and yikes, no kidding! I can't even keep up on just reading those notes while listening to the piece of music.
After a big meal, it's time to finally walk back to the hotel. And Graham and Charlie couldn't wait to tell Daddy about the heated bus stops. LOL!!!
A great first day so far! :-)
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