A Day in the Life - Thanksgiving Day

As you remember from the end of my last post, my sweetie and I had just collapsed into a heavenly bed at the Westin in Minneapolis.  Here's a peek at our room.

Our Heavenly Bed:

We woke early on Thanksgiving morning - about 6:00 AM - and went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.  I sipped coffee and ate a light breakfast of yogurt, fruit and honey (I'm not much of a breakfast eater and I really don't like to run on a full stomach) while Chris ordered and ate to his heart's content.  After breakfast we went back to the room to get ready for the Turkey Day 5K - I would be running while Chris cheered on the crowds stood waiting for me at our designated meeting spot. 

The race venue was only a few blocks from our hotel.  It was a beautiful day - sun shining, no wind, and "mild" temperatures - but we are in Minnesota so it was still quite cold especially for the spectators.  Thankfully, the hot chocolate was flowing freely when we arrived.  The Turkey Day 5K is is a very popular race - I would estimate about 20,000 were in attendance and many people brought their dogs which was nice as by this time Chris and I were missing our little black angel quite a bit.  Here's a pre-race photo.

The race itself went well.  It really is a fun run in all senses of the term.  The course winds through downtown Minneapolis passing many of the sites that make Minneapolis such a fun place to be.  I actually managed to maintain a pretty good pace despite the crowds.  In true Thanksgiving style I ran a 5K "with gravy" (3.25 miles) as a result of weaving back and forth in an attempt to keep running in a crowd of 20,000.  I found Chris quickly after I finished the race and we headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner.

Chris and I haven't had television service for a couple of years so having access to live TV is a huge perk.  When we got back to the hotel we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  This was seriously one of the highlights of my day.

Yep - that's the big guy (Santa)!  And yes, I am so cool I actually take pictures of events on TV.  Lest you think my husband shared my level of excitement I believe his exact words as I took this picture were "I never thought I would be sitting in a hotel room with you taking pictures of the TV."

Next it was time for Thanksgiving dinner.  We enjoyed a bountiful buffet at Windows on Minnesota on the 50th floor of the IDS Center conveniently located just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  The IDS Center was beautifully decorated for the holidays.  Here's the tree that greeted us as we entered the building.

We were seated at a table by the window and had a great view of the city.  We had fun trying to identify different landmarks throughout the metro area.  My sense of direction is crazy-bad so I just nodded my head and trusted Chris as he pointed out the various landmarks and points of interest.

After a leisurely meal we went back to the hotel.  Chris had watched the movie Bridesmaids with his mom the week before and insisted that we watch it after dinner.  He was so certain I would love it I couldn't say no and I have to say, he was right - it is a FUNNY movie.  After the movie we went down to the bar in the hotel and had a couple of drinks (they have the BEST mojitos!) before ultimately returning to our room and ordering room service.  We had toyed with the idea of going to Macy's (just a couple of blocks from our hotel) at midnight but not being die-hard Black Friday shoppers we ended up calling it a night and sleeping through the 12:00 AM opening.

Chris and I had a beautiful Thanksgiving but our trip wasn't over yet.  Stay tuned for the details on the rest of our trip from Black Friday - Cyber Monday.