maple grove, minnesota

we had a blast in maple grove!
ventured out around 3 to check in at the
hilton garden inn.

small, quaint, brand new AND this was a
freebie as i won this at last year's
minnesota miracle new years eve event.
and as i mentioned, we were running out of
days to use it.

we thought we'd pop into bella sera first
for a snack and some chianti. we selected some
bruchetta and it was perfect!!
this is where we met luke, the bartender~great guy
(married recently and hated their photographer).
they have a ragdoll kitten! i told him to check
out my website to see our 2 ragdolls!
luke will graduate this coming spring from
st. cloud. nice to meet you luke!
if you go to "pets" under labels you'll see
some shots of our cats.

next we headed to another new spot, pittsburgh blue.



we happened to hit it during happy hour so we
proceeded to order their mini philly cheese steak.
it was delicious!



this is where we met greg, one of the bartenders.




he is a pilot and works for wcco, a local
channel here in minneapolis and flies for them
as well. so we are going to hook up so i can get
some aerial shots. nice!
pittsburgh blue pours "salmon creek" as their
house wines just like the airport hilton.

well, we decided that we should head back and
get a little closer to the hotel so on that note,
we headed back to the hotel, they have a small
bar there and a full kitchen.
i actually can't believe that we passed up some
awesome steaks and settled for pizza at the
hotel but you know what? it was mighty tasty!



when we got home this morning...the cats greeted
us at the top of the stairs..like always and
gary got right to the task of decorating for the
holidays. i love doing it, i just hate hauling it
all out from under the stairs. thanks gary for
getting it all out for me! :)