August 28, 2012

.27hr staycation.

With Dave and I both working in customer service/retail/ low end of the totem pole jobs we rarely have any days off together. Dave is lucky to have set days off each week and I am always crossing my fingers that I get at least one of those days off as well. It seemed like the stars were align because last weekend we both had Friday night and Saturday off!! Since we didn't have much time and are lacking sums of money we planned a quick staycation, The Shoave Day-Stay-Cation.

On Friday night we scored cheap tickets to the Vikings vs. Buffalo Bills football game. We both were super pumped for the game! It was our first time seeing the Vikings play at home and the Bills are Dave's favorite team (he is a New Yorker). If you didn't know...I've become a pretty big football and Vikings fall within the last five years or so. I finally understand the game and it doesn't just look like lots of people falling down and flags being thrown around.

View of the field from our seats


Oh my! We had sooo much fun at the football game! For a pre-season game the stadium was full of excited Vikings fans. We cheered, shouted, sang and got prepared for the season. We finally learned the Viking cheer that is sang after each touchdown/field goal..and got it stuck in our heads. My future bff, Jared Allen (#69), is the defensive end and played for a while during the first half. Anytime I can see him play or even just see his face on the jumbo tron I am one happy lady! There were two favorite parts of the game: 1) During the whole 3rd quarter the fans did the wave around the stadium. Seriously...it lasted for like 18 min. AND if that wasn't enough people started to throw their playbooks and other paper in the air like confetti. It was messy but did look really cool to see when the wave was going on. 2) In the 4th quarter the Vikings (same player actually) got two interceptions returned for touchdowns!!! It was amazing! 

This is what it looked like during our section of the wave!

On Saturday morning we slept in and hung out with Maggie for a bit. Then we walked down to Lake Calhoun for some kayaking. I haven't really been kayaking before and was kind of nervous. It was stressful in the beginning because we were given no instructions, just handed the paddle, and told to have fun. During the time I am trying to figure out how to actually steer the kayak and move forward in a straight line, we are going through tunnels filled with people kayaking, canoeing, and on paddle boats. I was soooo stressed, I ran into one person, and almost took a paddle boat out! I kept yelling for Dave to help me...but really what could he do..he was in a different kayak behind me. After we got out of the tunnels and into the lake, everything was fine.  I was able to figure it out and go super duper fast ! Who knows, if I practice enough I may be able to complete in the Olympics!



We had fun goofing off in the water, splashing, racing, and working out our arms. And since I became such an expert on kayaking I had no issues with the tunnels when we returned the boats! After kayaking we walked to get some home made ice cream and then onto home.  We got close to home, when I discovered I did not have our keys, my phone, or my camera. Since we just got done walking 4.5 miles and kayaking for an hour  we DID not want to walk back to get our keys for another 4.5 mile roundtrip. So what did we do?  We broke into our apartment! Good thing we had the window open, that way all we had to do was break our screen a little, move it, and Dave hopped in.  Now we have a broken window screen frame...but we didn't have to walk! We grabbed Dave's car keys and headed to kayak place where they had everything of mine!!!


When we returned with EVERYTHING in hand, it was time for dinner. Dave woke up early in the morning and prepared a pot roast for the slow cooker.  He wanted to make a nice meal for us during our staycation and it was delicious. The meal was soooo good and filling that we ended up taking a quick snooze on the coach with Maggie. We couldn't snooze to long because we had to get ready to head to the Mall of America where we were going to a comedy club.  The comedy show was hilarious and something we haven't done before. I laughed soo hard, especially when the audience started singing the National American University song! (p.s. the university is IN the Mall of America!) I'm glad that I grabbed the groupon when it was on sale because it was a great time (and we saved big bucks). After the show we got milkshakes and fries from McDonald's to cap off our Shoave Day-cation!

So in 27 hours we:
* Went to a football game
* Walked 4.5 miles
*Kayaked for an hour
* Ate a great dinner
* Saw a Comedy Show
* Did some shopping

It was nice to just hang out with Dave and do new, fun things! During this time we stayed off the internet, limited our texting with friends, and didn't do one thing that needed to get done at home! It was a break for the world that we needed and can't wait to plan more exciting day-cations in our future!!