Minneapolis is cool. Part 1.

Well, I spent the majority of my summer in Minneapolis, doing an internship and living the life. It was awesome. I lived in an old house with 11 other girls and it was actually pretty amazing, other than the mold in the bathroom and the ancient plumbing and the dishwasher that didn't work for the first couple of weeks.

My internship was for Land O'Lakes and I worked in their Research and Development department. I learned a huge amount and actually had quite a bit of fun. I couldn't have been put into a better group (I worked with SuperSpreads)--my coworkers were all really patient people who were more than willing to teach me how to do things and they were funny to boot. There was a group of LOL interns who had all relocated and we all became really good friends.

Lots of cool/new things happened. Here's a list of some of them, in no particular order. Some of them have pictures, others not so much. There's gonna be a couple of posts on the Twin Cities--mostly because they're just so great and there's just so much to do there.

1) Ate at Travail--it's a molecular gastronomy place that served us a 10 course gourmet meal. Delish.

one of the courses at Travail.

2) Indie band concert/album debut. I bet you've never heard of them. Haha, just kidding. We saw The Daredevil Christopher Wright, We Are the Willows, and Kalispell. It was actually a pretty cool concert.

3) Dave and Busters. It's an arcade. This is only significant because it was at Dave and Busters where I finally scored enough tickets to buy a giant stuffed finger that says Minnesota Gophers on it. And that is significant because about 99% of the time, I'm the girl who walks out of the arcade with an airhead and two tootsie rolls. In fact, my stuffed finger currently resides on my bed--that's how proud I am of it.

4) Running!! Minneapolis has tons of really great running trails and my roommate (Brooklynne) and I really got into that. My longest run there was 15 miles. I wanted to die, but that's a record for me!

Lake Calhoun--one of the lakes we ran around.

5) Lots of exploring dive-y lugares and finding new adventures in unexpected places. .

Karaoke.

6) Tried a Juicy Lucy. Minneapolis is famous for them. Basically, it's a cheese-stuffed hamburger. Plus, we tried them at The Nook, which supposedly has the best Juicy Lucys around and has been featured on the Food Network.

Juicy Lucy in hand.
with Amanda and Brooklynne.

7) Explored the Guthrie Theater!

the view from the yellow room.
that's stone arch bridge right there.

8) Volunteered at Feed My Starving Children--super cool experience.

9) Went to the Basilica Block Party--saw Matt Kearney, The Head and the Heart, Train, and Cake. The Head and the Heart--ohhhh my goodness, so good. Cake was also really great.

Def got rained on at the BBP.
so glad i was wearing a white shirt.

10) Fourth of July fireworks on the Stone Arch Bridge.

with Brooklynne and Amanda on the bridge,
before it got too crowded.