#minivacation

Dave has vacation to burn before the end of October so we planned a #minivacation.  He took off Thursday and Friday, I took off Thursday (Friday is my day off.), and we made a plan to go camping.  We were going spend a couple nights in Decorah, sleeping in a tent, riding bikes, exploring.  But then I looked at the rainy weather forecast.  Camping was not going to happen.  (Lindsay gets crabby when soggy.)  And so this was Wednesday night:

L: Where do you want to go instead?
D: I don’t know.  What do you want to do?
(several phone calls and hours later)
L: What about Mankato?  It’s far enough to not be here but close enough that we won’t spend the whole time in the car.
D: Deal.

Off to Mankato we went with no plan but a place to sleep.  We’d both passed through the town but never spent much time in it.  And so, an hour and a half later, we arrived just after lunch.

D: So.  We’re here.  Now what?
L: (sees a Goodwill right off the highway) Need any clothes?
D: Actually, yes.

Our minivacation started with a stop at Goodwill.  Dave buys a lot of his clothes there – that’s probably part of how he has money to have 23 pinball games in his basement.  He found some clothes; I found some board games.  (Ever heard of Qubic?  It’s basically tic-tac-toe of the 1970s played on four stacked boards.) After Goodwill – are you ready? – we spent an hour in HyVee.  (I’m so serious.)  First, we ate salads at their awesome salad bar.  Then we explored – this HyVee had so much more stuff than our HyVee!  So that was fun.

I’ll stop with the play-by-play, even though we obviously are some of the most exciting and adventurous people ever.  (That, my dear, is sarcasm.  Our travel style seems to be pretty darn low key.)  The rest of our #minivacation included laser tag/bowling/arcade playing (our skeeball tickets got us the sweet bracelets below)/mini golf; eating supper at a local establishment and sticking around until 10pm playing trivia; bike riding the Red Jacket Trail; drinking beverages at Mankato Brewery; playing Qubic in the hotel room while watching one of the newer Star Trek movies on cable and eating take out pizza.

We arrived home again Saturday afternoon.  It was a quick, relaxing getaway, perfectly timed in the midst of a busy time.