Wedding adventure

Like mentioned earlier Matt and I had a wedding reception in Wisconsin Sunday morning. Mom and dad were gracious enough to watch the boys over night because we last minute decided to head over Friday night and make an adventure of it. We figured it would be a piece of cake to find a hotel room somewhere in the area, though we didn't really have any idea of where we were going. Thank goodness for the GPS (Matt will probably love that I said that because normally I give him a hard time about the GPS - he uses it even when we know where we are going - he's addicted to it, and it annoys me! ;) . Like I said, we planned on an adventure and it ended up turning into one.

We went to eat dinner at a place recommended by a coworker of Matt's called La Grolla, an Italian restaurant in the Chapel Hill area of St. Paul. It was WONDERFUL. Our appetizer recommended by our waitress was to die for. Capesante -Mexican Diver Sea Scallops wrapped in Angel Hair, lightly deep fried, served with Lobster sauce and Basil oil. Yummy. I think I have mentioned before that Matt and I like to try new foods, it's so much fun. He had crab stuffed ravioli in a lobster sauce with shrimp on top and I had a seafood risotto with scallops, shrimp, crab, beets (yes beets) in a creamy sauce. We enjoyed some beer and wine to top it off. It seriously was yummy.

After dinner we headed in the direction of where the wedding was. Matt had texted the groom with a question earlier in the day and he invited us to a BBQ/Get-together that they were having for guests already in town that night. So we decided to head over there to say hi. However, we first wanted to find a hotel. This is where the adventure part starts....we called probably 15 hotels in the area and they were all full. Wouldn't you know it, that this weekend was the weekend that 4 different couples wanted to get married in the middle of nowhere. Ha. It started out funny...and then got frustrating. To add to it, we also could not find the cabin where the BBQ was at. We drove by it a few times. We finally found it with the help of the groom. We still didn't have a room, and decided to bank on driving to the Turtle Lake casino after hanging out and getting a cancellation at midnight. It was our last and only option. Matt wasn't too sad about that because it meant we would hang out at the casino for a little while. Long story short (though it already is long) we ended up getting a room, and Matt won some money at the casino that paid for the whole weekend, dinner, gas, and hotel. Win-win!

The bride and groom got married in Columbia earlier in July and on Sunday a reception at this place for those of us that couldn't make it down there. It was beautiful and had some neat touches. The beverages provided were white sangria, bloody mary, beer, and mimosa. They had a stocked coffee bar and lemonade and ice tea area. Our table was out in a tent and the brunch was a delicious family style brunch with french toast, cinnamon rolls, creamy hash browns, bacon, sausage, eggs, and fresh fruit.

It was a beautiful day.

The beautiful couple.

This was my favorite. How cute is this little wine cellar with the cupcake and candy tables?

Everyone in this picture except for the bride and two of the girls went to college together. It was so great catching up with and visiting with these folks who we haven't seen in awhile.

It was a fun day and the whole 24 hours was definitely an adventure.