Apparently every year from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Minneapolis puts on the Holidazzle Parade (Wed-Sun). Tonight was the first of these. The parade takes place at 6:30 when it’s nicely dark (and nicely cold) and the floats and people are all covered in lights.

Our intent tonight was not to see the parade, but to dine at The Local on Nicollette Ave. The Local is an Irish Pub that Amy and Rachel like. So we got to the pub and they had a seat for us in nonsmoking right off the bat. And when we got to it, it turns out that Amy and I could see Nicollette Ave and the eventual parade. So when 6:30 rolled around, the lighted floats started coming down the street.

Since this is something that happens from now until Christmas, they don’t actually stop cross traffic. So the parade only goes down Nicollette when the lights were green. I figure by the end of the season, they’ve probably worked out the pattern with the lights, but tonight they still had some dead spaces when the lights were green.

Rachel would come around behind me whenever the lights were green and mom was able to see what was going on from her seat if she craned her neck. Dad finally got to see the bit where the Giant Turnips waddled down the street. These were turnip shaped costumes that were lit up – and eventually we discovered they weren’t colorful turnips but Christmas Lights. (Mom wondered if one went out would the rest go out?) These Giant Turnips frightened dad and he refused to watch any more of the parade.

The meal was nice – I had fish & chips and tasted Rachel’s lamb curry pie – both were very good. For afters, I had hot chocolate. Rachel ordered a “Hot Kiss Goodnight” which is a liquory coffee with peppermint, and mom & Amy split a “Nutty chocolate whirl” which was a liquory coffee with peanut butter & chocolate flavoring.

Rachel’s said that if I show up at Starbucks tomorrow, I should order their peppermint hot chocolate (since they didn’t have any non-alcoholic peppermint hot chocolates at the Local). Today when Amy and I picked her up, I ordered an Egg Nog Steamer. Yum!

Alas, only one more full day with Amy (and again Rachel works). But we’ll enjoy the time with her – the trip so far has been a real blast!

Current Mood: full

In order for Amy to get some work done for school, the folks and I went shopping in downtown Minneapolis. We walked down Nicollette Ave and shopped at the big Target (where I bought Koozebane Kermit) and then onto Marshall Fields where we stood in a long line to see the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 3D moving display. It was really neat to see. And afterwards I bought myself a Willy Wonka figurine. I know that Quentin Blake was not the original illustrator for the book (I tend to be faithful to the original illustrators) but I still had to have a figurine based upon his drawing. Long before Doctor Who or my other obsessions, I was (and still am) a Roald Dahl fan. So this was the ideal display for me.

One of the things I discovered as a result of this trip was the website www.roalddahl.com. When I get back to broadband land, I’ll investigate the site further.

We then left Marshall Fields (no Frango mints for us – I never saw the appeal, myself, despite being a mint fan) and moved onto the mall across the way. We had lunch in a food court (gyros for me, sammiches for the folks) and moved onto other shops using the Skyway. Mom bought some jewelry made by local artists, dad bought some magazines from Barnes Ignoble.

We then walked back home to Amy Lou and now it’s time for Amy and I to pick up Rachel.

Current Mood: jubilant