They Call Me Cosmo

This is a question I decided to tackle recently.

First, let's define home. Home, in this case, is my former home state of Minnesota. The Minneapolis area to be more specific. I lived in Minnesota - with Cosmo - for 20 years (inclusive of my 4-years of College).

I moved to Chicago from the Minneapolis-area 12 years ago. And before I go further, I should provide grounding for the story to come. 13 years ago I moved out of the home I built because I was going through a divorce. A year later (12), I moved to Chicago. And 10 years ago, I went back to visit friends.

Now, on with the story. I was asked once - when I moved to Chicago - if I was running from something or running to something. At the time, I was definitely running to something. I came to Chicago to tackle the next big step in my career (at the time). I would be lying though if I said I also wasn't running from something. I was hurt, brokenhearted, and everywhere I turned was a reminder of my failed marriage. It was an easy decision to move to Chicago to say the least.

But why did it take me so long to go back to Minnesota. First, achieving my career goals was my top priority and anything that got in the way of that I couldn't do. And that meant, taking more than a day to travel to see friends. I know now I needed to take breaks more often. But in my defense, I was on a mission.

Anyway, I had committed to an event in Minneapolis the same week. However, that event got postponed. My OG Framily asked if I would still come, reminding me that it was the opening of the Minnesota State Fair. This time, I said yes.

So, I took a road trip to Minneapolis.

This trip was like taking a trip down memory lane.

First, I had to drive through Wisconsin. Parts of the drive I had done for years and knew like the back of my hand. I crossed the river I spent the summer between my senior year of high school and my Freshman year of college with Jason (I wrote about him in a previous post - ALS). And at that exact same time, the live version of Hotel California by the Eagles from their album Hell Freezes over came on. Of course it did. Jason had gifted me that album. So, it seemed only right that it would keep me company during that part of the drive.

Next, I had to visit Pinky the Elephant.

Pinky is at a gas station that is located at the exit I would take to get to my parent's home in Madison, Wisconsin. The time, I stopped and read the history of Pinky. Pinky - and many others like him - were commissioned for Arco Gas. Pinky is the only one of his kind left in the region. He has been at this location since the mid-1960's.

I then drove over the bridge for my McDonald's breakfast. When I travel, it must be 3 hash browns from McDonald's.

I continued on without much delay. I only ran into one small stretch of construction. There are. no pictures from this part of the drive because honestly, it is a rather boring drive.

I arrived at my hotel. Now, the Framily asked me to stay with them, but I politely declined. I'm old now and I like my own space. Plus, I didn't want to disrupt their routine.

Now, here's one of the "I guess I need to confront the past" moments of this trip. The hotel I stayed out is the same one I spent my wedding night in 23 years ago. yes, you heard that right. I had my wedding reception in the hotel and that is also why I stayed there. In my defense, the hotel name had changed, so it wasn't until after I booked and then looked at the pictures that I realized it was the same place.

The good news is the hotel was just down the road from the Framily, making it an easy commute.

I spent the first afternoon with the Framily getting caught up. Now, I hadn't seen them in 9 years. I know the math seems off, but they came to see me in Chicago 9 years ago. Karla and Tim haven't changed a bit, but Jack. Well Jack is now as tall as his Dad, in high school, and driving on his own. Say what?

Anyways, the boys went boating wth Jack's friends and Karla and I headed out to happy hour on the patio (the only way to eat in Minnesota in the summer).

My first full day in Minnesota was spent at The Great Minnesota Get Together. The State Fair. It was the first day of the fair. I hadn't been to the fair in more than a decade. In fact, after consulting this very blog, I had not been the Fair for 17 years! That's wild.

Historically, the first day of the Fair is the least attended day of the event. Not this year! We learned that it was a record setting first day of the Fair attendance. At one point, I did say to Karla it feels like there are more people here than expected.

Anyway, we were on a mission for food. First stop, Pinky's Amish Donuts.

Now, apparently this is one of the hardest items to get at the fair. The line is massive and a multiple-hour wait. However, they added more windows and fryer's this year, so we only had to wait 16 minutes from where we entered the line to when we ordered. That was a win. We give this 2 thumbs up.

Next we had the Butterscotch Barnraiser. We felt this kept with the breakfast theme because it had bananas in it. It was OK. But we felt is needed more of the crunch elements and caramel.

Then, we took a break and headed into the creative arts building where we saw the things people made (and were competing for a blue ribbon). Quilts, clothes, food, pickles, and more! A quilt that caught our eye was the Curling quilt. We told Kristen this should be her next quilt project.

I also headed into the Minnesota Colleges and Universities booth and picked up a free Winona State Alumni pin. I had brought along my WSU water bottle so the pin just completed my outfit. Plus, someone actually said the following with me at the table "at least we don't hire from Winona State University," to which I said "it is shocking to find talent at such a third-tier school (not)." I was insulted and they knew it. They couldn't apologize to me enough.

Anyway, we moved onto the Cotton Candy portion of the fair. I got a fruit drink (no alcohol) with lime cotton candy on top. It was messy, but the fruit juice was excellent. Now Karla, didn't get one. However, they gave her a FREE watermelon juice and it was delicious. It was real watermelon, no sugar added. Freshly squeezed.

Moving onto the Elote Tots. I thought they were great, but we agreed they had too much Tajin on them.

We wanted to try at the Apple Fries - a new food to the Fair this year - but everyone who was walking away from that booth did not appear to be eating them. We kicked ourselves, because the line was non-existent and when we went by later it was hours long. We later learned every food influencer, media reviewer, and fairgoer LOVED them.

Next, we went down the big yellow slide. I thought I filmed us going down the slide. But I did not. I just got out feet at the beginning.

I at some point got me still at the top and Karla half-way down (see the bright pink shirt).

It was fun and even with my late start I still beat Karla to the bottom. Let me just say I did get some air!

We walked to the other end of the Fairgrounds from where we came in and tried a few more things. But not before we did a little shopping.

I bought my Mom Havanese socks at the Fair years ago (now we know at least 17 years ago). She wanted more pairs. She calls them. her Cosmo socks. Even though I have had custom Cosmo socks made for her, she insisted on new pairs of the Fair socks. I had to tell her I may not be able to find them. And sadly, I was not able to find them.

So we continued onto our next food item: deep friend ranch dressing. Karla tried this a few years ago. She knows I love ranch so thought I needed to try it.

I think the look on my face says it all.

It was absolutely disgusting. Imagine liquid hot ranch in a thick wonton wrapper. Again, this was a no for me and the worst thing I had all day.

We moved onto Soft Serve Beer. Yes you heard me right. Soft Serve Beer. Raspberry flavor.

This was very refreshing and surprisingly good.

Before we left his area, we found a "tent" with all the foods from this vendor. They had brought out samples for "influencers" to "influence" about. Karla just walked up and got the item we thought about getting earlier.

The Kong Bread. We did not like this at all. Very dry! Flavorless. Now we understood why they needed to bring out samples for influencers.

We then made our way back to the barns. Because we can't forget the Fair is really an agricultural event, not a food event (obviously the people in MN have it backwards). Sheep, bunnies, chickens, roosters, ducks, and more!

But not before we stopped by the Star Tribune booth to get our free Chapstick. This year's flavor: Lady Slipper. The Minnesota State Flower.

We also made our way into the Dairy barn. I wanted to see Princess Kay of the Milky Way get carved in butter. They were on a break when we got there.

We didn't stand in line for the Malts (which was a long, winding line and it was HOT in that building).

Next up, crop art. Yes, that's right. Crop art. Made from seeds. Well the line for this and to see the huge pumpkins was multiple hours long. So, I could only get a glimpse standing outside of the room. Now, I didn't know this existed at the Fair. But it is a popular attraction every year. It was then I realized that all my other experiences at the Fair were lacking.

So I admired all the corn varietals and seed bags instead.

The next food we tried was the Chorizo Manchego Croquettes. Karla and I live for a good ball.

This was not a ball. In fact, this was a very mushy log. We missed the part of the description where they said this was a potato croquette. This was hard to pick up because it was so soft (they did not offer utensils). It was mushy in the mouth as well. Flavor was good. We did give it props for the dish it came in. In fact, All fair food should be served in this dish.

Moving onto more food. Next, the only food on a stick we had at the fair. The enormous egg role. This is not new, but it is rated in the top 10 foods of the Fair each year.

This required me to unlock my jaw just to get the first bite. For me, this was the best thing we had all day. It is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone.

We headed into the Food Pavilion next. We had the intention of getting cheese curds along with Pie. But, we opted just for the pie and a cold Diet Coke.

The Strawberry Ube Sundae Tart. This was refreshing and also very good.

And that was the last thing we had. We needed to save room for dinner. Jack wanted to bring me to the place he works as a hostess for dinner.

Now dinner was just like old times. Jack and I loaded ourselves into the back seat of the car.

We had some drinks and some more food.

Karla's cheese pull was obviously more impressive than mine.

We retuned home for framily game night. It boggled Jack's mind that I had never played Boggle in my entire life (see what I did there). I lost, but it was my first time!

We also had the chance to see the start of the eclipse before we all crashed out. We had quite the busy day.

The next morning I drove up to see my old house. What I thought I'd see and what I saw was so different that it made me say I'm glad I did it, but I don't need to go back. The old neighborhood doesn't look the same. People haven't kept up the homes or yards. Everything looked overgrown. However, my old house looked the same down the green shutters I demanded when we built the house.

I also went into my favorite grocery store - Byerly's - to get the chocolate chip banana muffins and the lemon bars. Now it is called Lunds-Byerly's, but it will always be Byerly's to me.

I then met up with Karla and Jack for brunch. We went to a place called Diane's Place, a Hmong-American restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis. It was excellent. I can safely say this is the best food I've. had in quite some time.

We then went and played mini golf. Jack wanted to play at the course he last remembered we played at. Based on the book of faces memories, it had been 13 years since we played the course. This is what we looked like then.

Look at how small Jack is! He was 3!!!

And today!

I won! I beat Jack by 9 and Karla by 10.

We stopped for some ice cream, just as we had 13 years ago.

Then, we picked up Tim and headed to the boat for an evening outing on the Lake (Lake Minnetonka).

We had dinner - of course. The pea risotto and corn brûlée were excellent.

We called it an early night. I had a long travel day the next day.

But first. we stopped off on the way home to see Jack at his cross country meet. It was in Eau Claire, WI, right on the way home.

It was the first meet of the season. The conditions were not ideal. We drove in torrential rain only to be greeted by a very muddy course.

I didn't know the first thing about cross country. But I did know how to dress for the elements and ultimately survived my first experience. The only thing I had to do was change my shoes once I got back to the car.