Ella and Francisco

Ella and I traveled to Minnesota to visit friends in the Twin Cities and my folks in Rochester. I dragged Ella to all my old haunts in St. Paul including the Tavern (for the walleye basket), Bruegger’s (for the bagels), O’Garas (for the beer), and Summit Avenue (for the beautiful houses). I introduced Ella to Summit Pale Ale, a wonderful Minnesota brew. We also visited my old apartments on Grand Avenue including the one Juan and I and his two cats used to share, back in the day.

The day was capped by visiting all my high school friend’s at the Kelly and Ger’s home in Blaine. I was overwhelmed to see that Carmen, Jeannine and Nathan’s daughter, was not only a bit older but within reaching distance of a steering wheel. She is only 3 to 4 years away from her driving license. I also got to see Anastasia, Nick, Ben, Charlie, and my godkids Carolina and Zak. We had a great time and it was just like high school except everybody got pregnant and had kids during study break.

I have great memories of my late twenties in the Twin Cities and everytime I come back I am always reminded of that time in my life when I was starting my career and sharing life with Juan and Cat, Gerald, Chris, Leah, Doug and Sara, Dave, Julie and Stephen, and many others.

My Dad and Luz-Maria met us for a day in the Twin Cities and then we all drove down to Rochester to stay in their appartment building. They’re building a house not far from their old house due to be completed in October. We had a wonderful time sharing meals, shopping, watching “Memoirs of a Geisha” and just conversing. Rochester has certainly grown as evidenced by the view from their 24th floor vantage point.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at 10:10 am and is filed under Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.