Minneaps - Day of Lucky #1...

Wow, this week has gone by pretty quickly! It’s already Friday*! I can’t believe it’s already been a week since we left for Minneaps!

Well as I mentioned in the previous post – I just came back from a great shopping and eating trip from Minneaps. We usually make this trek out there every year for (what else?!) SHOPPING! (Although I don’t think we made it out last year – then again, there were more than enough shopping trips to other destinations!)

Anyways as always, we leave early in the morning, drive through Grand Forks, top up the gas in Fargo and drive to Albertville for our first shopping stop before the big Mall.

Albertville has been hit or miss for me in the past but this time, it was pretty much all hits! It was a good pre-cursor for the shopping weekend. Our first stop was Under Armour, where normally I just let my husband shop, but this time, I actually picked up some workout gear as well. Pretty good deals too. I also went to the Coach outlet which is always bumpin! There I got 3 scarves which were 50% off + an extra 30% off! Dirt. I also got this really cute, “3 necklaces in 1”. It has the look of layered necklaces, but with only one clasp (duh. LOL). The reason I liked it though was because it had a bird as pendant on it. It felt kind of Marc Jacobs-y. Then I picked up some boyfriend jeans, work capris and a "Rolling Stones" t-shirt from Gap Outlet. I also got a really nice “I’m just chillin” kind of summer sweater from Banana Republic outlet which I imagine wearing on a cool summer night when there’s a nice breeze with some loose but tailored capri/harem-y pants, with gold bangles and gladiator sandals…Oh, and guess what? While in line waiting to pay for the aforementioned sweater, I found some nice gold bangles in the clearance bin…They were marked 11.99. Which I suppose wasn’t too bad for a bunch of gold bangles…Then I saw another set of matte gold bangles, they weren’t tagged with a bright orange clearance sticker, but I liked them better and since they were in the bin, I figured I’d ask if they were on sale too. And guess what? They were regular price…but regular price jewelry was on for 40% off…so they ended up being even CHEAPER than the clearance bangles!! Haha. Good deals. A good start to my “Day of Lucky”.

After that, we decided that we were gonna go and check out the Nordstrom Rack in Maple Grove…we weren’t exactly sure where this was, but my sister said it was before you get to Bloomington. We saw the Maple Grove pkwy sign and figured it must be close. We went to the Walmart to ask if anyone there knew where it was. First let me say this: US Walmarts are more like Costco. It was HUGE. With giant barrels of cheeseballs stacked to the ceiling, a full-on supermarket with deli, produce and meat departments, and cashiers as far as the eye could see...Anyways, we asked a couple of the workers there if they knew where Nord Rack was…and they did not. Finally, someone in Customer Service told us it was across from the AMC theatre. So I programmed AMC theatre into our GPS and it took us straight there. Maple Grove was quite a nice area with different restaurants. We found the Nord Rack (across from the theatre). Unfortunately the selection wasn’t that great – though we did come out with these awesome Lacoste hand towels. I know. Bougie right? Haha. Oh we fancy huh.

We decided to eat at Houlihan’s (we’d eaten there in Chicago and remembered they had some good apps). I was really wanting the Jumbo Stuffed Mushrooms as an app and my husband tried to discourage it because he was having the Burger 72 which sounded like it was gonna have a Jumbo Stuffed Mushroom on it, among other things. He figured it would have the same flavor profile. Anyways, obviously I got my way and we got those stuffed mushrooms, which were delish btw. My husband was all “We should trade burgers since you love those mushrooms so much. But I was confident with my order. I ordered their “Cheesy Royale Yum Yum Good Times Burger” Unfortunately, this apparently translates to “Big Mac”. Yup. Scammed!!! My husband’s burger on the other hand…AWESOME. I shoulda taken the trade. Now he was lording it over me enjoying every fricken bite. Jerk. Note to self: If there are 6 words needed to name your burger, don’t order it.

So after this, it was on to our hotel. We had booked on Hotwire.com, which in the past I was always weary to book on, but after checking and reading the reviews of the hotels that we were gonna book,  I figured, well if it says “4-star hotel” for 69.67 a night, it can’t be that bad? Even if you don’t know where you’re gonna end up staying until you book it, it’s 4-stars. Plus we were only gonna be away for 3 nights anyways. It turned out to be perfect. We ended up at the new Hilton in West Bloomington. Excellent location, great room, good parking, nice gym and check-in was effortless. I’m using Hotwire all the time from now on.

Once we were settled in we went to the mall...Ah. "I love the smell of commerce in the morning" (Actually it was evening, but whatevs). We figured we'd scope out the shopping sitch and come back the next morning with our plan of attack...but as I mentioned earlier, it was already my Day of Lucky, which meant "If it's there, buy it now". So I did. I got this wonderful, tulle skirt from H&M that is totally "Carrie" and I can't wait to wear it!! I also got a nice top from the regular Banana Republic store which happened to be having a 40% off the lowest price sale! Then I picked up some Marc by Marc Jacobs aviators from Solstice. Not bad for only scoping the first floor! :) My husband decided I had done enough damage for one day, so we left and went to find his fave fried chicken place in the world: Popeye's.

We found our way there and picked up the chicken and cajun rice and just brought it back to the hotel to eat. Deep fried, crunchified goodness. It was a great way to end the first day of our trip....

To be continued...

*I started writing this post on Friday but ran out of time...