Darin and I had a two week holiday in the United States. Flights were mainly uneventful, but we decided we prefer Air New Zealand to Qantas. We flew Qantas this time, and the service just wasn't as good, and the entertainment system was having problems. The trans-pacific film festival was cancelled, but I managed to see part of Grand Torino and most of Milk. Milk was really good. Oh yes and part of He's Just Not That In To You, which was... meh, who cares. We flew out of John Wayne airport in Orange County, and the security there SUCKED! I got pulled aside for extra searching because I had a nearly empty but full size tube of toothpaste in my bag, and I didn't take off my shoes before going through the metal detector. When I went to board the plane, they wouldn't let me on because the security hadn't stamped my boarding pass after their search. They had to have someone come and do it all over again, at the very last gate in the terminal. I was afraid the plane was going to leave without me and I'd be trapped in the freaky OC. Fortunately, the woman who did the second search was very nice, so she escaped my wrath.Our flight landed late in the evening in Minneapolis, so we stayed at a hotel near the airport and Mall of America.
We met our friend Rob and went for breakfast at a restaurant in the mall. It was pretty empty for a Saturday afternoon. After a bit of shopping, we moved into our hotel in the city. I like downtown Minneapolis. Too bad the streets were all torn up with construction.
Another old friend, John, was playing with the White Iron Band at an event called Beerfest. The band plays beer drinkin' party music. That's John on the fiddle.
Beerfest was uncomfortably crowded, and the servers would only fill your glass to a line on it, about 1/3 cup at most. I was happy to see Rogue Brewery there, from Oregon, serving Dead Guy Ale. So we headed back to the hotel for a change of clothes and a few swigs of Darin's homemade whiskey, before heading over to the original Buca di Beppo restaurant for some tasty Italian food.
The following day, we met John and his family for lunch, then a bit of shopping at Penzey's spices and Big Brain Comics. Big Brain is a totally awesome shop, and I could have spent all day in there. I bought a few books, including Studs Terkel Working, a Graphic Adaptation, which is really wonderful. I also got Acme Novelty Library Nineteen by Chris Ware- I adore his work! and also Palestine by Joe Sacco, which I've heard good things about.
That's John again. Too bad we don't live closer, I'd love to hang out. It was great to see other friends from Fargo. We lived there for 21 years, and made some great friends. Next post: Fargo. 
