Another day, another dollar…

Today is the first day of DB’s conference, so I have to make my own plans to entertain myself. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m heading out to Depth of Field and the Mall, but I’ll also pop into Target and Borders in the city first. And I have to find some breakfast on my own too. The weather out the window is looking good anyway, so I should have a nice time 😀 And I’ve realised that I may have short changed myself bringing just two pairs of trousers for 8 nights, so I think I’ll try out the cheaper prices in Gap – when I peeped through the window on Saturday, it looks like the prices are the same in dollars as they are in pounds in the UK, which will make a BIG BIG saving… Yum.
Yesterday we headed back to Loring Park to feed the squirrels again, and it was lovely 🙂 Again 🙂 Lots of them were hanging around, and this time DB managed to get one eating out of his hand, although it was a bit eager, and thought his fingers were tasty things, so he got nipped a couple of times. No skin broken though 🙂 One was also interested in sniffing him while he took pics, so he got a fabby pic of one looking right into the camera 😀 I don’t think there will be any problem using up all the squirrel food 😀 We also went to the Sculpture Garden so DB could see some of the stuff, and as I hadn’t been round the whole gardens, it was rather nice. The weather had improved quite a bit by then – still chilly, but we had a beautiful winter sun. It was so good I actually needed to wear sunglasses… 😉 He’s taken a few pics, but I don’t think they are up yet on his site, so you’ll have to wait to look at them! Some very kind Minneapoleans (???!!) were hanging around and asked us to take a pic of them at the Spoonbridge, so we chatted a little. Before we came here, we’d heard that the residents of Minnesota, and particularaly Minneapolis are quite reserved as far as Americans go, but we’ve found them nothing but polite, friendly and very civilised. They’ve all been willing to chat, and have enquired about our accents (although one lady yesterday asked if we were Danish… Slightly ironic given DB’s brother living there!). The family we spoke to yesterday was asking about why we were here, and saying that they were visiting the Garden as a birthday expedition – the dad was the birthday boy, and he was clearly taking advantage of it by taking lots of pics and getting his young daughters (not quite teens by the look of it) to pose in comedy photographer style speak – ‘turn your shoulder a little… Beautiful, that’s it! Work it!’ and also embarrassing them a bit 🙂 But they were happy to indulge their dad on his birthday 🙂 He also very kindly offered to take a pic of us in front of the Spoonbridge, and cracked jokes about Minneapolis being home of the Cherry 🙂 He took a very good pic actually – an eager and accomplished amateur.
Then, last night, we met another very pleasant resident, who has moved here from Jamaica. He was on the bar in the hotel – we’d gone there deciding what to do for dinner, and trying to perk ourselves up a bit (apparently the jet lag is still loitering a bit as we were sleepy at 7pm, but still not too bad – we may be ok by the time we come home!). He asked us how we found the city and the US, and we told him how impressed we were by the residents, and he agreed. He said that Minnesota is a more more polite society, and even if we have got some of our opinions from Jerry Springer and bad US TV, a lot of people elsewhere can be aggressive and over the top, while Minnesota is somewhere much more comfortable and civilised 🙂 He also complained about Bush, told us he loved the BBC news, because he gets the real reasons behind events on there compared to US news channels, and also loves the plummy voices 😀 And he gave us a good tip for somewhere to eat. We were feeling a bit sleepy so didn’t fancy eating out, so he got us a pizza menu for the best pizza place in the city 🙂 Pizza Luca – they deliver directly to the hotel room, which was cool. Unfortunately they got the wrong room, but when we called again to find out what had happened, it was only a minute before they arrived at the door. And the food was good 🙂 Dave had his first taste of american pizza, and he liked it 🙂 I got a Mock Chicken Parmigiano Hoagie (apparently they don’t do things wheat free here 🙁 ), which was yummy yummy, and a lovely spinach, walnut and raisin salad, which was also yummy, but I was too full to eat much of it. I think we might order again from them if we are tired or need some lunch.
Anyway, I better get ready! I’m typing this up in bed and have still to get ready for breakfast and shopping, but I would also like to point out that it isn’t even 8am here yet, so I think I’m allowed to laze a little. And we have a free copy of the USA Today paper, which I may skim while I’m at breakfast. But one last thing. Yesterday I learnt that there are at least 3 different versions of low calorie Coke… I haven’t quite worked out the difference yet. We are definitely in the USA now 😉