Foodie Road Trip

Just got home from a little "foodie" road trip up to the cities with a few friends. Just my kind of road trip (they even let me sneak in a few minutes at Run N Fun in St. Paul). We left Rochester and picked up Paula at her home in Apple Valley and then made our way to Rudy's Redeye Grill in Rosemount, right on County 42.

A fun place. Interesting menu with lots of choices for lunch. I had a combo (it was a "Pick 3" kind of deal but I only felt like eating two--sliders (small sandwiches) salad, soup--seemed like too much food). So I got sliders--I chose walleye for one, and chicken for the other. (The other choices were burger, turkey, chicken salad, tuna salad, sirloin.) I also chose a house salad. It's hard to mess up a house salad (I probably should have picked a soup for something a little more interesting), but the sliders were very good.

Paula had the gumbo, which she'd had before and highly recommended.

Margo had the Chicken Florentine sandwich with onion rings. I had a piece of an onion ring and a taste of the sandwich. Both were excellent.

Paula and Barb both had Pick 3 combos. The waiter came around with the dessert tray. Oh, my. Paula said that the portions on the carrot cake were huge. She was right. Had to be 1000 calories in one slice.

Paula got a piece of carrot cake to go and we got a piece of pumpkin bread pudding to share. It too was very good.

Then it was off to Penzey's in St. Paul.

We all found something we needed. :-) I needed cinnamon, and dutch-processed cocoa for the killer Double Chocolate cookies that seem to be universally well-received. Then it was Run N Fun for Margo and I and Trader Joe's for the others. There's a deal at Run N Fun having to do with the Vikings. From their website: "Wear your favorite Vikings jersey into either RNF location on the Monday-Friday following a Vikings game, and receive a 1% discount for every point the Vikings score. For example, the Vikings scored 27 points in their win over Detroit, that means wear your favorite Purple into the store and receive 27% OFF the retail price of your purchase! Sorry to say, not valid with any other offers/discounts, and we had to put a limit of 35% on this season-long sale. Go VIKINGS!" So today, it was 35%. I just had a Favre T-shirt, but that was good enough. They didn't have what I was after, but I did pick up a new pink Nike hooded thermal top.

On the way home we stopped at Ferndale Market in Cannon Falls. A couple of the gals wanted turkeys. They carry locally produced goods.
 

I can't believe I went through the day without getting a group photo!! My bad.

Off-Season Striders: "The OSS gathering this Saturday will start from Panera south at 7:30 AM (you can do both this and the Bear Creek if you are so inclined). I will put together an "interesting" route for us, and have maps available. It will probably be in the 10 mile range with lots of options to shorten or lengthen it."(Don't forget about BC5 Predict your Time event at (note change in location) MAYO HIGH SCHOOL on Saturday at 9:00. More info at http://www.rochestertrackclub.com/) "For the November 14th OSS run, I am declaring it "look at what I ran this year" day. Thought it would be kind of neat if everyone wore a shirt from a race they did in 2009--it kind of gives us stoic midwesterners a chance to show off a little bit without seeming pretentious. Didn't get a race shirt, or simply didn't do a race this year?--you can still show up wearing anything you want to!" (Fun idea, John!)

From Tom O'Leary (Byron Team R.E.D.): "Nov. 14th--Casey Graham is creating a new event. Here are the details: Nov. 14th, 9am will be the 1st annual Grahaminator at Oxbow. It will be a 10 miler and there will be prizes for the 1st man and woman. Bring your own water and other aid. Casey will provide some bananas and oranges at the end. Spread the word! * Casey added a note specifically aimed at me, it's BYOB!!... so... I will add that idea for you too! BYOB for after the race! **(I'll verify, but as I understand, it's a no entry fee, no t-shirt type event)".

From Tom Woo: "I ran BassPro Marathon in Springfield MO Sunday. It was perfect weather except Springfield is not as flat as Fargo. Ran a large portion of the marathon on their trail systems with many quick turns. Their neighborhood is similar to our Elton Hills. I went out too fast in the first half (1:31) and ran out of steam in the second half but managed to finish with a 3:10:50." (Note: This is Tom's third marathon in 6 weeks!)

My calf is doing much better today. I'm not going to try running on it yet, though. No reason to push it. It felt good to swim today. At the Y, Mary Maus said, "Renee! You were just on TV!" It was during Good Morning America on KAAL. She didn't know what the story was about as close captioning was off. I can't find any video that's a likely candidate on http://www.kaaltv.com/ So it shall remain a mystery...

Tomorrow I get a massage then go get my hair cut. Whoo hoo!!

Friendship Quotes

Good night.