Day 6 South Dakota

If I were to replan this trip, I would have spent another day in South Dakota.  Don't get me wrong, we had a great time and saw a lot, but we did a lot of driving and didn't have a ton of time to stop anywhere in an attempt to fit it all in.  We left Angel's house just before 9am and drive to Sioux Falls, SD. We stopped at Falls Park Visitor Information Center and Observation Towe rmainly because I had read about it and wanted to see it.  It was also good to stretch and go the bathroom.  I visited the gift shop and climbed the tower.  We took a few pictures in the park, then it was back in the car.  We drove to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.  We spent between 30-60 minutes exploring the place.  We also stopped at the ice-cream shop across the street so Mike could get a shake.  It was a 4 1/2 hour drive from Angel's house to Corn Palace and now we had over three hours from Corn Palace to Wall Drug, our next stop.  On the way we saw:  fields, tons of billboards, and many bales of hay.  Suddenly at one point we saw a lake. It was so weird to see nothing and then bam there's a random lake.
   Wall Drug was all right.  We wandered around the shops, had lunch (linner?  A late lunch/early dinner)--Mike tried buffalo, then headed down the road to the Badlands.  We both really liked the Badlands, but we didn't spend a ton of time there.  If we did this trip over again, we would have stayed there longer.  Shortly after leaving the Badlands, we saw some buffalo, which excited Mike--I had no idea he liked buffalo so much.  One of the roads we took was SO BUMPY.  It was in the middle of nowhere--no cell service and I kept praying we didn't break down or get a flat.  I was having flashbacks to a similar road in Iceland years ago.  It was only an 8 mile road, but my gosh if felt long!  I was so excited to get back to a "main road" to head to Rapid City.
  We checked into our hotel, got settled, then got gas, and went downtown to explore a little, and get some dinner.  We had dinner at the Firehouse Brewery.  Then we went next door to the Firehouse Winery to sample some wine. Took a couple of pictures downtown, then it was back to the hotel to go to bed.

Day 5 Minneapolis Highlights

We got up, got ready, Angel dropped her kids off at camp and then she took Mike and I out to see Minneapolis.  We went to Sculpture Park, where the famous Cherry in the Spoon is located. Then we went to see the Mary Tyler Moore statue.  After that it was off to Lyndale Park Gardens and Lake Marriet for a quick stroll.  Then it was time to pick Angel's kids up and head to lunch.  We went to Matt's Bar so Mike could have a famous "Juicy Lucy." In case you are not familiar with the Juicy Lucy, it's a hamburger with cheese in the middle. (I had a grilled cheese, which I enjoyed.)  Angel had to work that afternoon so Mike and I ventured off to The Mall of America.  It's big.  I don't really know how else to describe it.  It was cool to see the amusement park and all, but many of the stores are stores we have back home. We bought cookies and souvneirs and walked around for a while exploring the mall.  A couple of hours later we drove to Target Field to try to get tickets for the Twins game that night--success.  The Twins were playing the Yankees.  We enjoyed the stadium and the game.  (We also ate more cheese curds lol.)  Sadly, the Twins lost 3-6 and then we drove back to Angel's and went to bed. 

 The famous Juicy Lucy

Day 4; Good-bye Milwaukee, Hello Minnesota

Day four, I got up, worked out, then got ready to head out.  We checked out of our hotel then drove to Miller Park for our baseball stadium tour.  We very much enjoyed our tour--our guide was great and they really showed us a lot.  I've done quite a few baseball stadium tours and this one was one of the best.  I'd be willing to go to a game there sometime.  After the tour, I talked Mike into going to The Basiclica of Saint Josephat.  It was only six miles from the stadium and I had read it was worth seeing.  We spent about a half hour there.  It was really pretty inside.  Then it was off to Minnesota--we were going to be staying with a friend of mine for the next two nights.  We made one gas/bathroom stop and arrived at my friend's house around 6:00.  She lives right outside of Minneapolis, but traffic in Minneapolis was insane.  We arrived, went in for a few minutes then went out to dinner at Betty Danger's Country Club, which I believe is a locally famous restaurant.  They had interesting decor, a ferris wheel, and mini golf.  Gve it a google, but my description will not do it justice--old-fashioned wallpaper, a rocking hourse, chandeliers, etc.  After dinner, it was back to the house, hung out for a bit then went to bed.

Road Trip Day 3: Milwauke (A Lot of Food and Drinks)

Our hotel was not that close to the attractions of Milwaukee.  The lady at the hotel recommended we take an Uber since she said parking would be expensive--turned out we could have parked for $5.00 and an Uber one way was twice that, but such is life.  Aside from a moment of panic when I realized I didn't have my phone (oh, how we rely on technology too much), we had a good day. We got dropped off at the starting point for the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the city and rode one loop around.  Then we got off at the Milwaukee Public Market where we tried the famous cheese curds and had some brunch there. (I had French Toast.)  I enjoyed the cheese curds--Mike did too. They came with Ranch dressing, which I found an enjoyable dipping sauce.  My brunch (French Toast with a side of bacon--which I shared with Mike) was good too.  We then walked to the Purple Door, where we had some ice-cream, not that we needed more food, but it was famous and I wanted to try it.  I ordered some mint chocolate chip ice-cream and since it was National Ice-Cream Day, they also offered me a free scoop of something else--I chose dark chocolate.  Mike had strawberry and for his freebie, he chose whiskey ice-cream.  From there we walked up to the Lost Valley Cider Co.  I tried a flight--my favorite was the pineapple.  When we were done there, we walked up the road a bit to the Iron Horse Hotel and peeked inside while we waited for the Hop On Hop Off bus.  If we had more time, I probably would have visited the art museum, but we had tickets for a tour of of Lakefront Brewery.  I don't like beer, but I really enjoyed the tour.  I've done a few brewery tours and I think this was one of the best ones we've ever done.  Our guide Jake was a riot.  He kept us informed and entertained.  After the tour, we ordered some food while we finished one of our free beers--well, attempted to finish it in my case since I didn't like it.  When we were done, we took an Uber back to our hotel and hung out for a while.  Mike recently became a fan of Game of Thrones and our hotel had HBO (we didn't at home) so he wanted to be in the room to watch it.  So we ordered some take out food, picked it up, then he watched his show, while I journaled and read.

 Famous cheese curds

The husband enjoying "Game of Thrones"