I am seriously flattered at the number of complaints about my tardy blogging. Way more satisfying that likes on a Facebook post 🤓😜. To make up for it, I am going to do two blog posts today, to sum up the past four days spent in Minnesota. Will also allow for many more pics to be posted.

I arrived in Minneapolis an hour and a half late on Friday night, 2 minutes before boarding, we were advised that there was no First Officer for our our flight? Say what? Surely that is the first order of business to take care of. For a mere $40 I managed to upgrade my flight to business class- so I had a good flight at least. As I walked to the luggage carousel, I heard a voice say – can you believe that she walked right past us! Great surprise – there was Rene and Luba, my welcome party, waiting patiently for me! Much excitement as the Jungle bunnies reunited. We hopped into Rene’s new SUV and headed to the Mall of America to meet up with Cathy for dinner. This mall is the largest in the Northern hemisphere and even has a full amusement park with 2 roller coasters, and giant swing rides inside. After a great pasta with meatballs, we headed out for a drive through downtown Minneapolis at night. I was treated to a ride with Cath in her open top roadster. The weather was brilliant. What a way to see the city at night.

We then headed out to Cath’s home on Crystal Bay, in Orono Minneapolis. What a spectacular setting, on the water. Needless to say we had serious chinwag as we set about catching up on life since our Amazon jungle adventures. Again, I am amazed how we just picked up where we left off and this time we had no common enemy! Loads of laughs and remember whens. On Saturday morning I was presented with my Minnesota Twins baseball shirt and given pitching lessons in the kitchen! We headed out to the pancake shack for breakfast, my order was pumpkin pancakes with bacon- yummy yummy yummy. From there we went on a drive through the lake areas of Minneapolis, along the banks of the Mississippi river, back through the downtown areas and we finally ended up at a great little restaurant in Saint Paul – the other city in Minneapolis. Minneapolis/St Paul is what the twin cities are known us. Lunch outside in the sunshine in a quaint little village. I had a pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich with the largest diet coke ai have ever seen! This was then refilled halfway through! For the first time in my life I could not finish my drink!!!

Finally, I was on my way to a ball game….in the same city as the team were actually playing! The Minnesota twins were playing the Toronto Blue Jays at Target Park. Rene is a baseball fanatic, so not only did we have seats on first base, I was educated by a pro! Of course we had a hot dog with all the trimmings and a king size soda. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, the home team played as well as the Springboks did and we lost! What an experience. Briany I heard all the fans asking Hose if he could see!  Then home to bed- we were exhausted having been out and about for 14 hours!

On Sunday morning Cathy cooked a massive bacon and eggs and scones breakfast! We were joined by her niece Missy. I had taken an early morning walk on the waters edge and down to the jetty to. So pretty to see the mist on the eater and the sun peeping through. Then Cath decided we should see the Arboratem – landscaped gardens and forests….I guess our equivalent to botanical gardens. This was brilliant- Mom you would have plutzed….and we would never have gotten you out of there! Even I was awed at the colours and designs. We tasted our way through the herb gardens, but not the poison gardens. Although Dawn I confess I always think of that serial killer book I read about killing people with poisoned plants- remember the plans I had!! !!

We then had a great pub lunch at The Narrows, I had the most delicious beet, blue cheese and walnut salad. I am fried food outed already! Missing veggies badly. We then went home and packed up ready for the trip north to Duluth. Please remind me to tell you Luba’s barnacle story when I see you, best told in person. A sad farewell to Cath who couldn’t join us for the trip north. But there are plans for a 2019 trip to South Africa!

The mismatched twins

Cathy Rene and Luba at the pancake shake

My pumpkin pancakes for breakfast

At the Sculpture park

Iconic Minneapolis

Self and sculpture

The stone bridge over the Mississippi

Our selfies suck

And it was refilled

Lunch in St Paul

Pulled pork lunch

The game

Good times at the ball game

Target afield Scoreboard

Hotdog heaven

Not pretty but delicious

Cathy’s home on the lake

Sunrise

The Trumpster

This is called the eyeball plant

Barnacle

Cant explain

Sculpture park