South Baseball Tour Twenty11 (Day One)

Yup, we took a vacation. I took two actually. The family vacation of course and then one from blogging too. And let me tell you, not only was it great to be home (don't get me wrong the vacation was great too but there is just something about pulling into the driveway at home) but it is great to pull the photos into albums and start typing away and documenting another memory. So here goes...

Before Kaden was born Justin had decided that each year we would take him to a new ballpark. Last year we visited the Garretts in Milwaukee and saw the Brewers play and this year we decided to take a little road trip up I35 to Minneapolis and take in a Twins game at Target Field. This year we not only got to see the Royals play at Target Field, we also had a few more join our tour, 16 in all. Justin and I invited both of our parents, my nephews got to come with my mom and dad, we of course had Logan, Jenn and Jake were meeting family in Minnesota so they came and joined us for a few of the days and then the Garretts made the road trip from Milwaukee with Tugce's parents. The caravan was in town and ready for fun-Go Big Blue!

Day one would set the mood for the rest of the trip and everyone in the South/Hartley caravan was thinking the exact same thing. How would a 22 month old and a 10 week old do in the car for an 8 hour road trip? Answer. Awesome! But you better believe we came prepared. We had snacks, movies, toys, music, walkie talkies (and yes, people still use these) and we had Brett and Blake! Logan did what he does best and slept, only waking to eat. Kaden rode with my parents and he too was a champ. (TMI Heads up, consider yourself warned) He even waited until we stopped for lunch before he was grunting away and pooping in his diaper. We got a few looks in the Wendy's restaurant that we stopped at but hey, a boy has to take care of business. After a quick lunch we were back on the road and pulled into our hotel just after 2 in the afternoon. We had decided that since we spent the majority of the day driving we wouldn't try and pack too much into the afternoon so we decided to head out to an early dinner at The Nook. The Nook was featured on Diner, Drive-in, and Dives and this was the only thing my father wanted to do while in Minneapolis, let's get it out of the way. We decided that since we were passing by Fort Snelling on the way, why not stop. I will tell you why not…CLOSED! All government ran parks CLOSED. Guess Minnesota was having a hard time coming to an agreement on their budget so their visitors paid the price. We decided to walk around anyways but didn't make it far…

We loaded back up, plug our destination into the navigation and the next thing you know, we are going through a parking lot and the airport baggage claim lane and yes, navigation told us to make these turns. After we all thought she lost her mind she finally told us our destination was up on our right and there it sat. We got to eat some of the best cheese curds and burgers we have had and then we were in for a real treat. Downstairs housed an old bowling alley and bar, the little boys bowled while the big boys drank. A great little ending to our first day on the road.