Ft. Wayne - South Elgin, IL - Minneapolis

They are both officially taller than Grandma!

We left my mom's house in Ft. Wayne on Tuesday morning, headed towards the Chicago area.  We had a short, but good visit while there, but it was time to leave to continue on our journey.  We had decided that it would be fun to visit the University of Notre Dame, as Bish went there for an engineering camp when she was in high school, and I had last been there for a Purdue vs. ND football game my freshman year at Purdue.

Touchdown!

I think ND is probably one of the prettier college campuses I have ever visited!  I've maybe been to 100 colleges in my life, and this one was gorgeous!  The building were mostly very pretty, and blended together well with similar architectural characteristics and color of brick, but it was the turf/landscaping that really stood out to me as being pretty!  Being a plant geek, I notice the beauty of the landscape more so than the buildings.  It seemed as if most of the campus was irrigated, not necessarily well, but at least irrigated.  And it was cool to see that they had actually marked the sidewalks where the irrigation piping crossed under the sidewalks! (Irrigation geek thing)

It's amazing the crap you can find to take pictures with in a campus bookstore.

We kicked around campus for an hour or so and saw touchdown Jesus, as well as the golden dome.  It was interesting as they were building 3 new buildings adjacent to the football stadium as they "wanted to incorporate campus life more with the football/sports teams."  In some respects that is kind of a cool thing, but in other aspects I'm not sure I get it.  It was explained to us that the new buildings would provide facilities that students could use/hang out at/take advantage of that would allow campus life to center around the football stadium.

Golden Domers.

I have decided that the state of Indiana has the worst roads we have driven on thus far on the trip!  I'm not sure what Pence did while in office as the governor, but it seems as if he couldn't find enough money in the state budget to improve the roads.  There seemed to be more pot holes, bumps, rough roads, etc. throughout our time driving in the state.  At least more so than any other state we've driven in so far.

We all decided Danica won the prize for best drink order at 3 Floyds - Sprechers Cream Soda!

After ND, we headed over to Munster, IN and went to 3 Floyds Brewery.  Their beers were vary good, as well as their small plate foods!  It was a great recommendation by Taylor and Troy!  After stocking up on some good beer for the remainder of the trip, we headed out to my friend Troy from home's house to have dinner and spend the evening with their family and a few other friends from MHS that live in the area, Tracey and Cara.  Cara works at a (great I hear) coffee shop/restaurant/bakery called Blackberry Market  in Glen Ellyn, IL as the head baker.  She  brought along some baked goods to share with us after dinner, and all of them were AWESOME!!!  We sat around and had some good laughs sharing stories from our high school days.  It was great to see everyone that night.

Roadside America stop with Humpty Dumpty near Troy's house.

On Wednesday morning, we got up and headed towards Minneapolis.  It rained most of the way it seemed, but the rain was less intense that other rain storms we had driven through.  We pulled off the interstate just south of Madison, WI to buy some Spotted Cow from New Glaris Brewery, and also found a bag of cheese curds that were an excellent snack!

The MHS gang in the Chicago area.

We got into Minneapolis around 3 pm, and headed to the Flour Mill Museum in downtown.  It was interesting to learn about how big Minneapolis was at one point in the (baking/cooking) flour world.  We learned about the different types of wheat used to make different types of flour, as well as how the wheat was ground, and how parts of the wheat kernel were separated and made into flour.  And that whole wheat flour actually contains all of the wheat kernel including the bran part, not just the the endosperm.

Pic with Goldy Gopher!

After the mill museum, we headed over to the U of Minnesota campus to go to an art gallery and explore the campus.  We found the union and bookstore, and saw a bunch of future freshmen going through campus orientation while there.  The buildings/campus were pretty cool and modern looking.
After our tourist stuff, we met a few friends in the area at Maynard's on Lake Minnetonka for drinks/dinner.  It was a cool spot with a huge patio/deck out back, and tons of people were enjoying the warm summer evening outside!

Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis

On Thursday morning, we went to see the Mall of America, and then Minnehaha Fall.  The girls really enjoyed the roller coasters and rides at the MoA!  And Minnehaha Falls was pretty cool too!  The falls were located in a park south of Minneapolis.  The park was very nice, but I wasn't impressed with the maintenance and upkeep of the area around the falls if it is such a tourist/locals attraction.  The plants needed trimmed, the steps needed cleaned, it was just a very poorly kept area for it being a destination in the area.

Isles Bun & Coffee cinnamon roll and pecan roll!!!  Add all the extra icing you want!

While the Slackettes were busy riding roller coasters at MoA, I ran to a local recommendation by my friend Tim in the area for cinnamon rolls!  If you are ever in the Minneapolis area, I highly recommend going to Isles Bun & Coffee in Uptown.  The pecan roll was good, but not as good as the cinnamon roll!