Day 8: Milwaukee to Minneapolis

Today, we had the relatively short (5 1/2 hour) drive from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. Not much to see along the way, though we had planned to stop at the House on the Rock. However, sadly I assumed this was immediately off of I-94, but it wasn't...and we discovered this too late to re-route. Actually, I knew nothing about the place, but thanks to a tip off from Dan Cwirka at the wedding, a small flame now burns deep within us.

After a quick drive-thru of Madison, we took a break at a rest stop with a nature walk. After a beautiful 10 minute stroll on a winding trail/boardwalk through dense woods, you come to this lookout, which disproves my assertions that Wisconsin is entirely flat and has fewer trees than Massachusetts:



Minnesota welcomes us, and I let slip a little about the Wisconsin / Minnesota rivalry, which in my mind, is mostly football based:




First installment of things we're excited about in Colorado:




We go to my brother Blake's apartment without any troubles, and, after a quick game of Ticket to Ride, toured his awesome, awesome neighborhood (Uptown...which is confusing because it's not on a hill, and it's south of downtown). We went to a Tibetan place right near his apartment called Namaste. It was interesting in that:

• the restaurant was basically still laid out like the house that contained it
• the waitress apparently bragged to a coworker that she could remember orders, then forgot our bread order, then dropped it while eventually bringing it later in the meal
• they give you a 1-5 hotness scale for your entrees, between us, we had a 2,3,4 and the scale was right on...and 4 was HOT let me tell you!
• the food was fantastic

Lo and behold, it was Improv Weekend (a world in which Blake is both a student and a participator), and so we saw two shows which were quite amazing. In each one, the two person group just asked for a suggestion from the audience and then went on for 30 minutes, acting out various sketches (that sometimes were sequels or prequels to each other) that wove in the central suggestion. They were superb.

Total Distance: 347 miles.