A visitor from the West

Roche and I have been friends for over 40 years.  She has only visited my home in RL for lunch once when she drove up with her Mom for a short visit.  We have a mutual friend who is assistant coaching the Loyola (Chicago) Women's Basketball Team and I had noticed that Loyola would be playing the Minnesota Gopher girls in MPLS in November, so we hatched a plan.  Roche flew in on Friday, 11/22 and I picked her up at the airport in MN.  A long drive home, but time to visit and catch up.  That evening we met my Rice Lake friends, Carol & Pete, at The Elks for fish fry.  It was fun to have new friends and old friend all together.

The weather was cold but the roads were good, so on Saturday, we took a drive up to the Sandcastle.  It was opening weekend of the 9 day rifle deer hunting season, so there were hunters at the cabin.

Dana, Andy, Rochelle, Glenn & Wanda
Thanks to Alyxis for taking our picture for us!

I had made a couple of orange scarves for us to wear so we would be safe from the hunters!

We stayed long enough to chat a bit and use the outhouse and then headed back to Rice Lake.

Back in Rice Lake we stopped in at a shoe close out sale and each picked up 3 new pairs of shoes for a bargain!  Then we had some dinner and headed home.

By this time, I had started to have a full blown chest cold and was feeling a little puny.

Sunday, we hung out at my house, watched football, ate snacks and visited, although when I woke up that morning, I had almost no voice, so I whispered most everything I wanted to say.

Monday we took a drive over to Glenn's lake cabin and picked up our Sandcastle generator and instant water heater.  Roche got the tour of the cabins!

While we watched Monday Night Football, I put up my Christmas Village and tree.

Little brewery village up and running.

Tuesday, we headed to MPLS, stopping for lunch in Baldwin and then checking into a hotel close to the Mall of America.  That night we went to see the women play basketball at William's Arena.

The usher was more than happy to snap our photo.
We were all decked out in Loyola colors (which also happen to be Gopher colors).

Team intros...head coach Sheryl Swoopes and assistant coach Jeanine Wasielewski

Assistant coach Was with head coach Swoopes

It was very fun to see Jeanine and to see her doing something she is so passionate about, even though was a tough loss for the Loyola girls and one of their starters got injured.

Tuesday night in the hotel I was a mess, coughing all night, but the next day we headed over to the Mall of America to look around.  Just before we went, through the magic of Facebook, we hatched a plan to meet one of Roche's college roommates for lunch.

So, we hung out at the mall for a bit.

 These LEGO displays are amazing.

My great nephew Jackson loves LEGOS and I hear he has been to this store more than once.

The PEEPS store was amazing.

Pretty crazy how many flavors and colors were available.

We ate lunch at Bubba Gump's with Lynn.  Roche & Lynn had been college roommates at Eau Claire.

I had met Lynn once briefly, it was a nice lunch and since my voice was gone, I mostly just listened.

 I ordered a cocktail for medicinal purposes, and got to keep the glass.

Our plan had been to stay overnight again Wednesday night, Roche's brother Paul would join us, and then the 3 of us planned to go to the Nuggets vs. Timberwolves game on Wednesday night.

I couldn't make it.  I felt awful and decided to head home while it was still light.

Roche and Paul went to the basketbasll game and then flew to Denver the next morning to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado.

I was home in my jammies and cold medicine and hot tea, with no voice, for Thanksgiving.

It was great to have Roche here, it's a shame I felt so crappy but she put up with me 

and we made the best of it.