Jolly Good Fun

I have officially seen the top two Minnesota roadside attractions on my Must See list.  But this post isn't about The World's Largest Ball of Twine in Darwin, Minnesota.

Or the fact that it is, in my opinion, the Mecca of roadside attractions.  Or the fact that a ball of twine can fill an average girl on a quest for roadside statues with awe.

This post is about two friends...

...on a quest to see The Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, Minnesota.

My Ryan is one of the few people who not only understands, but completely embraces my love of and appreciation for random crap on the side of the road.  Roadtripping together started for us in February of 2006, when Ry selflessly agreed to not only help me pack all my worldly belongings up in New York, but to then drive straight through to Chicago in one day (on my way to start the next chapter of my life in St. Louis, Missouri) and fly back to NYC the next.

We were up late packing that night because I was out celebrating my last night in New York with my brother (who was in town picking up an engagement ring!) and eating the best steak of my life at The Knickerbocker.

We decided that we absolutely could not start our 16-hour trip with less than three hours of sleep, so we crashed on the pair of couches in my living room, slept three hours, then got up, loaded the car, and headed west.

We weren't even through New Jersey before I had identified our first non-negotiable stop of the trip: The Land of Make Believe.  I swear to you, this is a real place.  See?

Unfortunately it was not open.  We weren't entirely sure if it was closed for the season (It was February, after all.) or if it was closed for good, but either way we were more than a little disappointed.

We drove on, stopping several times to on-load and off-load coffee.  Our favorite place was Snappy's KenTacoHut, where we purchased the largest coffees they sold and a scratch-off lottery ticket called E-I-E-I-Dough.

There was also the mandatory roadtrip stop at Burger King, where we picked up a crown and discovered that it actually comes with rules.*

Ryan somehow managed to convince me to stop at a boring historic site (as he has done several times since then), so I learned a little something about President William McKinley.

The fact that I'll do the boring historical stuff and even agree to learn a bit here and there is a real testament to my love for My Ryan.

BUT.  Despite all the roadtrip history we already have together, Ryan and I have spent nearly a year planning our day trip to Blue Earth, Minnesota to see the Jolly Green Giant.  I told him about it last year when we went to see The World's Largest Ball of Twine and we've been trying to figure out a way to organize the trip ever since.  (A bit of a challenge since he lives in Kansas and I live in Minnesota.)  Last week we finally made it happen.

I did my homework and discovered that someone had put up a Sprout as a tribute to the JGG, and as we pulled into town Ryan experienced a classic Trish roadtrip moment when I suddenly started shrieking about Sprout, jumping up and down, digging for my camera, and demanding that he turn rightthissecond!  The reward was great:

But the Jolly Green Giant put Sprout to shame.  He was everything we'd hoped he would be and more.  He was HUGE!

I also discovered (while doing my homework) that there was a Giant Museum, so of course we checked it out.  Nothing could have prepared us for the sheer volume of Jolly Green Giant paraphernalia that this museum held.  It had everything from statues to old cans to Halloween costumes to a Sprout jump rope that, upon seeing, I realized I had owned when I was about 8.

Our little day trip couldn't have been better.  We've checked the Jolly Green Giant off our Must See list, so I guess it's time for us to start planning our next roadside adventure!

*Below are the honest-to-goodness Burger King Crown Rules as printed on the inside of the crown:

Game Play:


A) Adjust size and be the first to place on head.
B) Whoever places the Crown on his or her head first, then in a loud voice proclaims, "I am the King" is from that moment forward, in charge.  Rule ends if Crown is removed (see Coup d'etat).  Crownings can happen anywhere, at any time.


Advanced Play:  (Are you ready for this?  This is where the game gets serious.)


1) There can only be one King.
2) The King always gets his/her way.
3) The King must speak with some kind of cool accent.
4) The King makes all the important decisions governing selection of TV channels, movies, radio stations, as well as popular activities like snowboarding, pool hopping, and cow tipping.  The King also determines who gets the remote, who rides "shotgun" and, of course, who pays.
5) Rule ends when Crown is removed for more than three seconds (see Three Second Law).
6) Disagreement with the King results in a "penalty."  This is decided by the King.  Common penalties include: forfeiture of fries, surrender of video game controller and banishment from office cubicle.


Three Second Law:


The King's rule ends when the Crown is removed from their head for any reason, accidental or otherwise.  The first person to exclaim, "One...two...three...King" may claim the crown.


In the Event of a Tie:


If two people Crown themselves King simultaneously, the person whose birthdate is closest to Dec. 4, 1954 (date the first Burger King restaurant opened) is King.


Coup D'etat:


If everyone agrees you completely stink as King, your rule may be renounced.  This constitutes a Coup d'etat. A new King may be Crowned if the group can reach a unanimous decision.  If not, the Three Second Law applies.


Kingdom:


If you are eating in a Burger King restaurant, your rule extends all the way to the edge of the parking lot.  Off restaurant grounds, your rule extends to a radius of 10 feet around you in any direction.

3D Glasses must be flattering.

I'm convinced that if you want to take a great photo all you have to do is grab some friends, put on some 3D glasses, and smile!  If you want proof, just check out the photo of Missy and me on our way into the IMAX theater to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D at the end of yesterday's post.  Then check out this fabulous photo with Colleen and Nancy (And apparently a camel.  I wonder what he has to do with chocolate?), taken last summer in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Are you convinced yet?

You can read all about our day at Hershey's Chocolate World here.

True friendship means shots from a leprechaun's shoe.

Last weekend one of the best friends a girl could ever hope for came to Minnesota.  Yep, she came to Minnesota in March.  Winner winner, chicken dinner!  (Sorry Tyler and Debbie!)  The ridiculousness that ensued was...well...typical.


I picked Missy up at the airport and as soon as we finished jumping up and down squealing and hugging and had successfully navigated her luggage into my trunk behind the vacuum cleaner (don't ask) she said, "I don't have my debit card."  We headed to Majors to split a couple of flatbreads while she called her hubby, the bank, and the last place she remembered using the card.  By the time we'd finished lunch she'd cancelled her card, identified me as her sugar momma for the weekend, and we'd talked boys.  You know, business first.


Later that afternoon we checked out the new consignment shop across the street, which confirmed my fears of having a consignment shop across the street.  We discussed the fact that the owner should seriously consider paying me cash to refinish some of her pieces to make them salable.  We also discovered that one of my neighbors has a real Christmas tree dried up and dead lying on his balcony.  I'm not even going to comment.


That night we made the pilgrimage to The 5-8 Club, where we (obviously) ate GCB's (That's Garlic CheeseBurgers, for those of you who didn't go to DePauw or visit me there.) with Julia and Jon, and Missy made a deal with God that involved french fries.  At some point it was determined that, "I don't know about YOUR God, but MY God definitely eats GCB's."  It was also determined that I need to find a chick in an Easter basket pinata before Easter brunch.  (For the record, after this year I will be celebrating Easter with the McGraw family, which includes the traditional Easter tequila and apparently pinatas.)


After dinner with Julia and Jon, Missy and I headed to The Tavern on Grand in St. Paul to see her cousin's band (The Belfast Cowboys/St. Dominic's Trio) play.  The only problem was that they weren't playing at The Tavern on Grand.  The good news is that we have now been to Minnesota's state restaurant.  Apparently.


We made our way to The Tavern on the Avenue, which in fact IS where they were playing, and apparently it's also where the people of St. Paul were celebrating St. Patrick's Day, which we were not prepared for!


We made our way upstairs to a less crowded space where we could actually sit and look down on the band and the dance floor.  Apparently this fabulous little area was reserved for family/friends of the band and we thought we were pretty cool to be able to say, "Yeah, we're with the band."

The band was fantastic, and the people-watching was pretty great too.  At some point in the evening I pointed out to Missy that there was a man dressed like a leprechaun walking around offering people shots of Jameson out of his (green and white) shoe.  We couldn't get over how everyone just agreed.  It didn't take any convincing at all.  "Want a shot of whiskey out of this here shoe?"  "Sure!"  We didn't get it at all and we had a good laugh about it...until the leprechaun (who turned out to be the owner of the bar) showed up in the friends/family balcony with his bottle of whiskey and his shoe.  This is the part of the story where I'll just say hi to my mom and post this very innocent photo of Missy.

The rest of the weekend involved facials, shopping, Sebastian Joe's ice cream, a minor scandal, a lot of coffee, a fabulous dinner at Julia and Jon's, heart-to-hearts, bad TV, and a trip to the IMAX to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.  It was a fabulous weekend, and just what I needed.  Thanks for spending the first half of your Spring Break in Minnesota, Missers!

Back to Reality

Somehow nearly a month has gone by since I last blogged, and I'm not exactly sure how that happened.  It's been a busy month and I kept thinking, I have to remember to blog about this!  Now we'll see how many of those things I remembered...


So I told you about the day to day stuff in Florida, but there were a few highlights that I should probably mention!


The first weekend I was in Sarasota, Ron went golfing with some friends so Jan and the golfers' wives were kind enough to let me tag along for a day of shopping in Punta Gorda.  Fishermen's Village is this adorable little string of shops and restaurants that sits on the waterfront.  All of the shops were unique--a glass shop, a shoe store, a game store...no chain stores anywhere to be found!  We did find a place for photo, though...

Me: Pirate or mermaid?

Jan: What?

Me: Pirate or mermaid?

Jan: Oh.  Um.  Neither?

Me: Wrong.  Pirate or mermaid?

Jan: *sigh* Mermaid?

After the men had golfed and the women had shopped we all met up for dinner, where Ron and Jan enjoyed some fresh crab legs:

During the week it was pretty much business as usual.  Jan was working, Ron was golfing, and I was bird-watching job-hunting.


One night we tried to go to Yoder's, which is a favorite of Ron's for their chicken and which I had seen featured on the Travel Channel's Man vs. Food,

but the line was down the block already at 4:30, so we ended up going to Sugar and Spice--another Mennonite restaurant--instead.  (Yoder's was also number 68 on The Travel Channel's 101 Best Places to Chow Down!)  The chicken at Sugar and Spice was delicious, and I was excited to see that they had Shoofly Pie on the menu.  I promptly asked what Shoofly Pie was.

Apparently it's a molasses pie.  As if that clarifies anything.


I did see the beach once while I was there.

If you can't tell, it was really cold, but the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.

On my last day in Sarasota, two exciting things happened.  First, Ron took his friends Glenn and Jan (pictured above) and me to Historic Spanish Point, in Osprey, FL.  Spanish Point is a chunk of land that was purchased by Bertha Palmer (wife of Potter Palmer, who bought The Palmer House in Chicago as a wedding gift for Bertha) and which also happens to be home to a huge archaic midden.  The grounds were beautiful, and the "Window to the Past" allowed a fascinating up-close look at the 15-foot-high prehistoric midden.

Second, my gator friend came down to our end of the pond to say goodbye!  We went out to breakfast that morning and when we came home he was floating around right in front of the house!

It was hard to leave Jan and Ron (and thanks to a snowstorm in Atlanta I got a few extra hours with them), but it was great to spend some quality time with them.  And, of course, it's always good to be Home!