The Twin Cities

July 9th: Matt and I were at BWI Airport, and I was about to fly for the first time. I was a little nervous. Suddenly the plane started to move forward rapidly. I wasn't nervous anymore; I was ecstatic. I looked out over the city as we got higher and higher, and then we were above the clouds. Talk about surreal.

We arrived at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International. We met up with our friend, Jayce, and exchanged some jokes. We then took a bus to St. Paul, which is where Jayce and his wife Laura live. This was the first time I had laid my eyes on the Midwest, and I liked it. We went by street after street of small 2-3 story houses.



The entire city of St. Paul is like this, except when you get to downtown. When we got off the bus we were at the XCel Energy Center, home of NHL's Minnesota Wild and this year's Republican National Convention. We then walked up a hill toward where Jayce lives.



We saw a beautiful cathedral, and walked inside. Then we went to Jayce and Laura's and relaxed there for a while. Then we walked down the street and ate dinner. The Twin Cities are very walkable by the way, and the bus system is great. We took it easy for the rest of the night, then we went to bed.



The next morning we walked around downtown, then we got on a bus and went to the Mall of America. I was expecting it to be a little bit better, but what can I say. It's a mall. It may be a little overhyped. There are about 500 stores, on 4 floors. There is an Aquarium and an Amusement Park. But in the end it is just like any other mall, just bigger and more of the same. The highlight was when we went in and saw Zohan, which was hilarious.


We took a train into Minneapolis, the big city. We got off at the Metrodome. We walked around downtown and took in all of the sights. We walked around the Skyway System, a 7-mile stretch of interconnected, temperature-controlled walkways. It is almost like a big shopping mall for those who work in downtown, because many of the buildings have mall-like shops in them. Altogether, Minneapolis is a great city. It is clean, it feels safe, and it is laid-back. There is a lot to see and do.



The next day was a scorcher. I think it was about 93 degrees, and we were walking around all day! After sweating and staggering for a while, we took refuge in the Minnesota State Capitol building in St. Paul. After a while we went back to Minneapolis and kind of did the same thing we had done the day before. Then the next day we flew back home.

I had a great time with you guys (and Laura)!