What a weekend!

First of all, I want to start out by thanking my amazing husband for such a fun and amazing weekend. And Carolyn and Lionel for sharing in the perfect weekend as well. I couldn't have asked for a better 29th Birthday.
We started out on Saturday morning around 9:30am for the cities to participate in the Great Urban Race. It was so much fun. The race started at 12:00pm at the Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis. We had 12 clues, of which we had to complete at least 11 of them by 5:00pm. All tasks had to be found by either using public transportation or by foot. We completed the race in 3 hours and 10 minutes. As of now, we are unsure what place we came in at, but it should be posted on their site in a couple of days. All I have to say, is it was a lot of fun and I definitely had a good workout. Baby Ava probably wondered what they heck her mommy was doing! Below are pictures from the clues we had to solve.

Clue 1 was a riddle....Mr. Jenkins is odd. He likes balloons, but doesn't like parties! HE likes books, but doesn't like reading! He likes weeds, but doesn't like flowers! He likes swimming, but doesn't like water! He likes letters, but doesn't like words! He likes Dr. Pepper, but doesn't like Coke! He likes noodles, but doesn't like pasta sauce! He likes berries and apples, but doesn't like plums! He likes coffee, but doesn't like tea! According to what you learned in the riddle, take a picture of both teammates in front of any street sign Mr. Jenkins likes. Carolyn solved the riddle that all of the things that Mr. Jenkins likes have double letters. This one we would have never been able to solve without her.

Clue 2.....we had to make our way to Elliot park sometime between 12:00 and 1:00pm for both of the teammates to walk from the start of the cones to the finish cones balancing and apple on our head.

Clue 3.....we had to solve cryptic riddle which stated that we had to take a picture with both teammates in front of the parking ramp in a scene in the movie Fargo.

Clue 4.....we had to unscramble the following words (ampllpbe imunth) and take a picture in front of the name and address of this tower.

Clue 5....Take a picture of four or more people total doing a cartwheel in front of the sign that says Candyland.

Clue 6....take a picture of both teammates in front of the statue of a person mentioned in the Weezer song that hit as high as #2 on the 1995 US Modern Rock tracks. (Mary Tyler Moore)

Clue 7......We had to return to the finish mat with 3 tickets from GameWorks and take a picture of both teammates in front of the game Monkey Ball.

Clue 8.....Find Golooney's Pizza. When you arrive take one slice per team and take a photo of one teammate feeding the slice to the other teammate. Ooops...I just noticed, Dave and I took 2 pieces of pizza.

Clue 9...take a picture of both teammates in front of the Smith Triangle sign holding up the proper amount of fingers that correlates to the number of benches within the Smith Triangle.

Clue 10....Take a photo of both teammates in front of the real sculpture that's pictured somewhere on the Great Urban Race website.

Clue 11...return to the finish line with a set of chopsticks. Or...a 1 dollar will with at least 5 6's anywhere on it. We brought back chopsticks.

Yippy.....We completed all our tasks and crossed the finish line!!!!

As you can tell from our clues....we had to rely on good old Google, in order to figure out where we were going. It was SO much fun....and will be a memory we will never forget.

After the race we ate a small meal before heading out to our final destination. At this point, the rest of our plans were still a surprise for me.

As we were driving through down town Minneapolis, Dave, Lionel, and Carolyn were all teasing me that we were staying at the $2.00 Motel...next thing I know we pull up to the Chambers Hotel. We check in and arrive in my room where I find rose peddles from the doorway to the bed. About 15 minutes after we arrive the deliver champagne and some OJ for me. It was all part of the Romance Package (a.k.a the Hanky Panky package). From there we relaxed and rested a little on the AMAZING bed. I fell completely in love with it. There was a feather bed and down comforter covered by at least 1000 count Egyptian Cotton duvet and sheets. I could have stayed there all night, but I was told we had dinner reservations at 7 so after a little R&R I showered, in the also amazing glass and tile shower with very sensual rain head. I was again in heaven!

Our dinner reservations were in at the Hotel restaurant called the Chambers Kitchen. When we sat down to order I opened my menu and to my surprise it was personalized to say "Happy Birthday Theresa"...it was such a special touch. Following our meal they provided me with a copy of the menu that was also signed by the Chef.

The next 2 1/2 hours we spent enjoying one of the best meals I have ever had. We started with appetizers and ended with desert. As the main entree I had the Lobster Mane and David had the Lamb shank. We both sampled each others dishes and loved every bite. For desert I was again treated to a special birthday desert....it was white chocolate and chocolate mousse cake with Happy Birthday written in chocolate on the plate. It was oh so heavenly!







After the meal we headed to the Red White and F-ing Blue lounge for some music and even a bit of dancing. I am sure many of the people in the lounge were thinking that the pregnant woman should really not be dancing....but I had fun anyway. : )


We headed to bed around mid-night and slept in as long as we could the next morning. Neither Dave or I ever wanted to leave that bed.

From there we headed to Panara for lunch before heading back to the Hotel to check out.

We were to meet Carolyn and Lionel at 1 and had some time to kill, so we decided to take a look around the hotel at the different art exhibits. As we were headed back to the elevator, we just so happen to run into Dustin Hoffman. He was standing by the front desk and then walked towards us. All I could think was...OMG it's the Rain Man! I was completely star struck and so was Dave. He stumbled on his words but then said, "Mr Hoffman, could I get a picture of you with my wife?" He was caught a little off guard, but of course said yes. After Dave took the picture we thanked him and told him we enjoyed his work and he went on his merry way.


Once in the elevator we freaked out and Dave said that it took all he had not to start quoting some of his lines. It was very cool to see him, and as we were leaving he was still in the lobby area getting ready to eat lunch with his wife and family. It was definitely an exciting end to our great weekend.