Ok...yes we have backdated this a few days as we are a little behind and need to catch up!! Also, we've only managed to upload a couple of photos at the minute so I'll just have to describe things and you can use your imaginations!

So after Thanksgiving we did indeed get nicely wrapped up against the chilly weather and headed to Lake Calhoun for a stroll...we got some good views of the Minneapolis skyline and also some gorgeous but hideously expensive houses set just back off the lake. American houses are huge! After walking a good few miles around the lake, and being informed that in a week or two it will be solid enough to walk and skate on (!), we undid all our effort with a greasy 'Jucy Lucy' burger, infamous in Minneapolis apparently! It was pretty fab, and so with full bellies once more we went for a look around the city sculpture garden and we saw the spoon and cherry thing on the photo. All nice and random but a bit fun!

We finished off the day with a spot of ice-skating, or rather, for me and Nick, ice-shuffling! Sarah and Craig whizzed off at the speed of light, going backwards, spinning around, throwing each other and leaping through the air....well maybe not quite all that but they were obviously a trillion times better on the ice than us having played ice-hockey for years!! We managed not to tumble which was quite impressive I thought, and we had fun daring ourselves to venture a little further out from the barrier!

That night we went to meet some of Sarah's softball team at a local bar which was (obviously) much fun! The next day consisted of getting ready for tailgating and the football, making sure we had enough Vikings emblazened clothing etc! In the evening we drove around looking at the impressive christmas lights on people's houses, waaaay more extravagant than at home and it made us all festive! Nick was also super impressed this night with the discovery that in the States you can get drive-thru ice cream, he was a happy boy indeed!

Our last day was game day! The Minnesota Vikings v Chicago Bears - go Vikings! (For the uneducated on American sports ie. most of you - this is football, but not our football, weird American football, like rugby gone wrong) The game wasn't til 3pm, so we had plenty of time for tailgating first! It was a first for all of us, but lots of fun! Basically lots of fans turn up early for the game and hang out in the car park drinking and bbq-ing and playing games etc, so random but ace! We thought we were quite well set up with a grill, lots of food and drink, chairs and blankets to keep warm...but we were absolutely put to shame by some of the efforts there! People had turned their RV's into Vikings-mobiles, completely set up just for tailgating! It was fun to look around and see how much some of these nutters clearly loved the Vikings, and there were even some Bears fans around too - booooo!! But it was all good natured, much friendlier than football rivalry at home!

After a good few hours in freezing temperatures drinking and eating burgers...it was time for the game! After watching some on tv I was just as bamboozled as ever as to what the hell they were all 'hutt'ing about on the field, but watching it live was a million times better and much easier to understand - basically, cheer when everyone else does! I just kept waving my 'big foam finger' around and that seemed to do the trick. Nick got fully into the spirit of things and even enjoyed teasing a rival fan sat behind him as the Vikings scored a few touchdowns and leapt into the lead. Because the game is very stop-start, there is loads of entertainment to fill in the gaps, like competitions, mascots running around with flags and singing the Vikings song, and Nick's favourite, the very energetic cheerleaders whooping and prancing about!

Happily, the Vikings trounced the Bears 36-10, so in the words of the Vikings song - 'Skol, Vikings let's go'!! We all piled out very happy (well, not the Bears fans...) and fought through the traffic to get home. The next morning we were up horribly early to get to the airport for our flight to New York! Exciting! Sadly, the airport experience was not much better than that in LA. It seems flying within the US is just not an enjoyable experience, or maybe it was just NorthWest Airlines?? To say the US is meant to pride itself on good customer service, they should really have a word with airline staff!

But anyway...we made it despite the niggles, and arrived safe and sound in our last destination of the whole trip, which feels very weird for us! 5 days in New York....where to start!?!?!

xxx