Posted by Chris on Nov 11, 2008 in
Americas,
USA The unseasonably good weather I have been enjoying is long gone. When leaving the hotel yesterday, it was minus 7. Toasty. So finally the ski jacket that came with me is being put too good use. The car was frozen too, and Hertz didn’t see fit to give me a scraper.
At the weekend we took a trip to Minneapolis. We got a very favourable rate on a hotel that was about a 5 minute walk to the main street (1st), so we decided to make a weekend of it.
First port of call was the Mall of America, which is huge. So huge that it can accommodate a theme park with 3 roller coasters right in the middle of it, along with a bunch of other rides. We spent a few hours wandering round the shops, but malls are malls at the end of the day! We were going to go to Hooters for lunch, but the queue was too big, so we went to the food court and joined an even bigger queue. But hey, it was a good burger! We took a few rides and then set off to our hotel.
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Tags: USA
Posted by Chris on Nov 2, 2008 in
Americas,
USA Halloween is a big deal in the USA, as we discovered on Friday when we turned up to a bar, dressed normally, only to discover that everybody was in fancy dress! Not to worry, we still had a good night and did a tour of Rochester’s finest night spots – Gilligans, Kathys and a brief stint in CJ’s; until we realized that we were the youngest there by at least 20 years.
Ironically, low calorie light beer is very popular here. In England we refer to this as “water” but fortunately I have been introduced to a great white beer called “Blue Moon.” You need to be careful mind…the large glasses are definitely more than a pint! We were briefly talking to a “security” guy in Gilligans, who was only identifiable as a security person by his t-shirt. We mentioned how we had came dressed as “European Guys” to which he replied “Wow, you have really convincing accents” and then went on to say how everyone from Europe sat down with a straight back, with their hands on their knees, drank tea and spoke like Hugh Grant. We all had quite a chuckle at that. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that there’s more to Europe than England. We had a great night (a good band were playing in Kathys), but everything shut at 2, and with the nearest place open after 2 over an hours’ drive away, we decided to call it a night.
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Tags: USA
