Our Time in Rochester, Minnesota

We only had two nights to spend in Rochester before leaving for a wedding in the Quad Cities. And, they were weeknights rather than the weekend, but we still felt it was worth it to visit my sister Carolyn in her new abode. 

We arrived before Carolyn got out of work so we killed time by driving through Rochester to see what it had to offer. This included checking out the Hy-Vee grocery store just a couple blocks from her apartment. We were easily impressed by the Hy-Vee and deemed it to be fancy, probably for two reasons. One, the freezer section contained Whitey's ice cream, a definite perk in our eyes. Two, there were at least five different samples for Brandon to consume. One of the samples highlighted a new selection of breads available from the Hy-Vee bakery that could be custom sliced in the thickness of your preference. The cheery, elderly Minnesotan woman handing out the samples was truly exuberant about this new offering. You could even say that Hy-Vee offering custom sliced bakery bread was "the best thing since sliced bread"! It was amusing and tasty. 

After Carolyn returned from work, we checked out a local taco place across the street from Carolyn's apartment called La Poblana #2. Yes, #2, meaning that it's probably the 2nd location of the restaurant....probably. Either way, the title #2 gives it an appropriate air of sketchiness. It's good to know Rochester has authentic Mexican. We approved. 

Pork and carnitas tacos from La Poblana #2

After getting our fill of tacos we hung out at Carolyn's apartment. We ended up watching a movie called Starship Troopers on Netflix, which was thoroughly ridiculous and a great candidate for Firewalker Film Festival. For those who don't know, Firewalker is an event that our friends hold every November to watch three really terrible movies and vote which one is the worst of the worst. I don't think it's really a compliment to the movie, but it is surprisingly entertaining and amusing.   

Brandon and I relaxed and did some food prep on Friday while Carolyn was at work. I hadn't made a cheesecake in far too long and was itching to bake one. While I put together a chocolate cheesecake, Brandon assembled a jicama slaw for tacos. When Carolyn arrived home we greeted her with delicious black bean sweet potato tacos. Mmmm. 

We all devoured a good portion of chocolate cheesecake

On Friday night we all checked out a local climbing gym. Rochester has two climbing gyms. Carolyn had already been to Roca Climbing Gym, so we tried out Prairie Walls Climbing Gym so she could compare the two. The ratings of the top rope climbs felt tougher than listed, making up for the short height of the walls. There was a nice large bouldering area as well. What we enjoyed most of all was the climbing games the gym had. There was a functional climbing treadmill which we all tried out and fell as it rotated faster and faster. Additionally there was a speed top rope route with a timer at the top to record your highest speed up the wall. But, the most interesting game was a programmable climbing wall with lights. You had to touch each rock that was lit up with green lights and avoid those lit with red lights. We all had a lot of fun experimenting with it. 

Carolyn working a boulder problem

Trying out the climbing game

The harder the game got the more it felt like a climbing version of Twister

Brandon going for a green lit rock while being surrounding by red lights

Trying out the climbing treadmill

Dramatically falling off the climbing treadmill

Carolyn on the climbing treadmill

On the timed speed wall

Reaching the top of the speed wall

Time flew by far too quickly. We had to leave by 8am on Saturday morning to make it to the wedding on time, especially with the snow rain mix that had come overnight. I can't complain too much about her Minnesota move, since I don't know where we'll end up living after this sabbatical, but I will miss living near to my sister. We're glad that we'll get to see Carolyn again soon as she'll be back in Grand Rapids for Easter weekend.