Once the “turn off and stow all of your electronic devices” ding went off in the cabin- which meant the rest of my behind the scenes Star Wars footage had to be saved for the trip home- I opened up the plastic window “curtain” to reveal water…and LOTS of it! Nothing but patches of blue dotted landscape for as far as you could see in every direction.

They are not kidding when they say that Minnesota is the state of 10,000 lakes! As we were nearing our final destination of Minneapolis, I was suddenly glad that I paid attention to the floatation device schpeal  prior to take off; if we were going down, we were for sure getting wet! My ensuing thoughts turned to the number of mosquitoes this place must have (later finding out they are the unofficial MN State Bird) and how beautifully green everything was. Not to get all macabre, but my final observation from the air was that in California we definitely miss out on the incredibly picturesque graveyards with the large granite headstones…..even from thousands of feet up they were a site to behold!

After even just a few short minutes in this great state (aside from the asinine layout that is the Minneapolis airport- you should not have to go up and down more than 4 sets of escalators just to get to ground transport) I was smitten! For almost a year now Lucas, my boy from Ohio, has been telling me how different the people from the Midwest are as compared to so cal born and bred, and this trip definitely proved how right he is. Just about everywhere I went someone was asking me how I was, where I was from, what I was doing in Minnesota, how long I was going to be here and on and on…..the most incredible part of the story is that they actually CARED about the answers! No one was “too busy” with whatever consumed their own current thoughts to spend time investing in a conversation with others. What a refreshing change of pace!

Unfortunately the Twins were in Anaheim (boo! if only it had been the opposite schedule I could have seen Pujols stink it up live in MN) so I decided to head to the other Minneapolis claim to fame after my conference concluded- The Mall of America. I spent about 3 hours there and am pretty sure I only got through about a third of it. I behaved and only left with a small trinket for the boy back home, a full belly and a new friend that I met at dinner, who, coincidentally played baseball against my college alma mater the same time I was there- small world! Given the chance to go back, I would first and foremost concentrate my efforts on conquering Moose Mountain, the Mini Golf Course….I mean c’mon, Moose and Mini Golf…how is that not a winning combination?!?!

When it was time to depart, Minnesota had a great gift for me- GREEN SKIES- not just kind of green, I mean a deep, dark, pond scum, murky green. This was of course paired a TORRENTIAL downpour and tornado warnings. Sweet. To say that flying that morning had me freaking to the extreme might be one of my more subdued understatements ever…. the driver for the car that brought me to the airport told me not to worry, that it would pass within 15 minutes- yah. freaking. right….. Well, yes, he was freaking right. Sure enough by the time I was comfortably seated in my window seat, outdoors had nothing to reveal but bright sun shinny day. WHEW!

This morning experience reminded me why we pay so much to live in Southern California- maybe the people aren’t always the most sincere and we have pretty mundane cemeteries, but at least our weather isn’t bipolar.