The Wedding

On a slightly more positive note, I made my first 'personal' trip to the states. Personal in that I paid for it. The occasion was my sons wedding to a girl from Minneapolis. The met in Grenoble and decided to marry in the states. We were surprised at the number of UK residents that decided to make the trip. My overview? A resounding success. The organisation was done by a lady named Kris, who (my view) remained way too calm throughout the whole adventure. I'm guessing she had more than a little help, since the whole affair went off like clockwork. And that includes the weather! This time last year MSP was sunny and warm, so we were hopeful. I'm told however that the locals never plant out till late in May since they could have frost and snow up until then! We met most of my daughter in laws family durin our two weeks stay and had little hesitation in liking them at first meet. Lucky Ben is my summary. The wedding on the Saturday was in the church within St. Catherines (local Uni) in St. Pauls, just over the water. Grimsby and Cleethorpes on a bigger scale??? Perhaps not. They're known as the twin cities, so I guess it's too late for Grimsby. Back to Minneapolis for the reception, then a minor family reunion in the evening, since both my brother and sister were there, from Canada and Yorkshire respectively. The rest of the week was ours, and though we'd initially planned to drive out of town, we settled on staying in (good deal through hotwire at the Hyatt). We didn't regret it. Breakfasted each day at Hells Kitchen (website, which I can wholeheartedly recommend. Some really nice restaurants in town, though we didn't make it to the Rainbow, recommended by Peter from Sun. We hired a two door compact... and were upgraded to a seven seater Dodge something or other. We drove the whole two weeks and grew to like MSP. My wife navigating, I drove and we managed between us. One outing was to our hosts home town, Lester Prairie, which seemed to match up with our TV view of small town America. We lunched in the Drug store cafe used by our host n years ago, were met at a classic small American farm down a dirt road (my first, and a little scary when wet) and drove to a gathering that simply wouldn't happen in the UK. It was the opening of a new medical practice (on of the GP's was our hosts brother). It made the news, so perhaps it's all relative. I sort of took to it.

Our return flights were totally uneventful, on time.... but just long. Three days later and I'm still not settled back into this time zone.