WR: Fam Visit + Restaurant Week

Sorry this is so late. I thought it published days ago, but my iPad appears to have eaten the post.

On Friday, my parents came up to visit for the weekend. They picked Christine up at school, and then came over. Chester was so excited to see them and went crazy! He was less excited when Grandma presented him with a present, a spider hat!

At 7:30, we went to dinner at Boca Chica. The meal took forever to come, but it was good company so it wasn't a big deal. The food was excellent as usual!

Saturday morning, we slept in a bit and relaxed. Chester and Grandpa were buddies. Dad's allergic, so he didn't want to get too close, but Chester snuggled right in. It was cute!

Around 10, we headed over to the Science Museum of Minnesota for the Maya exhibit. Adam and I had two complimentary tickets from a friend that works at the Science Museum, which was really nice. 

 We had some time before the Omnitheater movie started at 11, so we checked out the dinosaurs and fossils in the permanent exhibit. They have a lot of cool things!

The Maya movie was good, but really old. The computer shown in the film was HUGE!

At 11:45, we entered the Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed exhibit. It was fascinating and really well done. I love archaeology and history, so thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit.

What was really cool about the exhibit is that it was created by the Science Museum of Minnesota with 3 other museum partners. It opened here and is showing until January. Then it will travel to the other museum partners.

We finished up around 1, and drove over to Cossetta's for lunch. Unfortunately for us, the women's conference at the Xcel had just gotten out, so the place was packed. We waited in line for half an hour, but it was worth it. I had the October special which was cheese manicotti, and everyone else had the lasagna. Yum.

After lunch we checked out the new patisserie area. It's gorgeous! So many beautiful desserts on display! I ended up getting gelato and a macaron.

Back at home, we relaxed and hung out with Chester while it rained/sleeted/snowed.

It started clearing up around 4, so we headed over to the U to take our family Christmas photo. Parking was an issue, so my fam dropped Adam, Chester and I off and parked in the ramp. Chester was very overstimulated and stressed.

I set up the tripod, and with the help of the wireless remote, we took nearly 50 photos. I don't want to ruin the surprise by sharing any of the photos, so here's a few hilarious outtakes.

When we were done, Adam and I took Chester home while my parents and sister stayed to meet up with the K's (Carey, Bill, Caroline, Ashley, Mary and Kelly) who were also in town to visit Kelly at school.

After unwinding a bit at home, Adam and I picked my fam up at the dorm and went to the K's hotel where we hung out, watched baseball, and went in the hot tub.

On Sunday my family headed out, taking the boat with them. Our driveway feels much bigger without it, but it officially means winter is coming. Sad.

In the afternoon, I went to JoAnn Fabric's to get supplies for our Halloween costumes. All will be revealed in the next Weekend Recap post. Everyone else must have had the same idea as JoAnn's was packed. The line for the cutting counter was crazy.

That evening, Adam and I had date night. It was Restaurant Week (3 course menus for $30 pp), so we tried out a new (for us) restaurant, Forepaugh's. Forepaugh's is interesting in that it is located in an old house. There are three floors for dining, and each floor has multiple rooms. It was certainly unique!

To start, Adam and I both selected the Malaysian Chicken Samosas. They were spicy deep fried deliciousness with mango dipping sauce.

For our entrees, Adam had the Angus Beef Petite Tender with Sauce Gribeche, capers, olives, potatoes and herbs. He enjoyed it.

I had the Pan-seared Walleye with coconut curry, potatoes, zucchini, hearts of palm, Chinese long-beans, shiitake mushrooms, and Thai herbs. I was not impressed that the walleye had the skin on the bottom as it made it rather fishy. I also expected the curry (and the dish in general) to be more flavorful. I thought it was just okay. I certainly wasn't raving about it.

For dessert, we both had the Peanut Butter Crunch with pretzel meringue, salted caramel, and ginger Chantilly cream. It was delicious!

We finished with a complimentary truffle that melted in your mouth. It was amazing.

Our final verdict on Forepaugh's was that it was good, but didn't wow us. We may or may not return. Restaurant Week there was a good deal though as the entrees alone are normally $30.

We got home with plenty of time to spare before The Walking Dead.