The Night Before

Jeremy is driving us from Omaha to Sioux Falls, and I am sitting in the passenger seat on my laptop working from the car. I try to save PTO when I can, and since today is a travel day, I opted to work instead of spending the PTO when all I am doing is sitting in the vehicle.

He wants coffee, and I need a place to sit and work while we wait to check in to the hotel, so he drives us to a coffee shop called Coffea. We each get a drink and sit down at this little table in the middle of the café. It's a bit loud, but I get some more work done before taking my hour long lunch break.

We head over to La Luna for lunch where we each get pizza and more coffee.

It's finally time to check into the hotel, La Quinta, so we head over there. We go up to our room, and I sit at the desk to finish my work day. Jeremy goes out shopping while I finish work. He journeys out to Starbucks to find an ornament for my collection, Target, and Empire Mall.

We are in Sioux Falls to visit our friend, Justin. Another reason I didn't use PTO today is because Justin was also working and couldn't hang out until after. Justin comes over to the hotel to pick us up for dinner after he is done with work.

Justin takes us to a place called Monk's Ale House for dinner and drinks. We talk for several hours, and it is lovely to catch up. Justin then drops us off back at our hotel around midnight, and Jeremy and I go straight to bed. We are very tired.

Going to Justin's

Jeremy and I wake up and have breakfast in our hotel. We enjoy this continental breakfast - the meat is good, the eggs are not watery, and they have some of our favorites: biscuits and gravy, and pancakes!

We leave the hotel to go hang out at Justin's place. Justin has taken today off, and we plan to play board games at his place. Justin gives us a house tour, and we get to meet his cats.

Jeremy brings out a board game from his backpack called Cascadia, and we play it. Justin seems to really enjoy the game.

The time comes for lunch, and we all go to a place called Fry'n Pan. We order a variety appetizer that comes with onion rings, mozzarella sticks, chicken strips, and cheese balls. Cheese balls are really just cheese curds. Justin and Jeremy both order the patty melt, and I get a meat lover's skillet.

The Pinball Room

After lunch, we all go to one of Justin's favorite spots: The Pinball Room. We play on several machines, and we even get to meet one of his friends, Matt.

I find that I am not as terrible at pinball as I thought I would be. We all have fun playing some versus rounds, and we play some individual games too. I notice that Justin does this little kick sometimes when he plays and I ask if it helps. He laughs and says that it does.

Downtown Sioux Falls

Justin wants to show off downtown Sioux Falls to Jeremy and I, so we head down there when we finish playing pinball.

We stop at a few stores downtown. One that stands out to me is this children's toy shop, and then there's a gifty shop that we like as well. There is also an Irish gift store, and I have a hard time deciding if I want to buy anything. We leave all the stores empty handed.

Justin leads us further downtown to show us something called the "Arch of Dreams". We walk down the riverside, and after a curve, we see it. It is lit up in purple and green, and almost kind of looks like a bridge, but with no walkway. It's a giant sculpture that goes across the river.

We walk back to the downtown area and go have dinner at Blarney's Stone. I order chicken marsala with a zombie drink. Jeremy gets a Belfast barnyard with an Irish beer called Magner's Irish Cider. Justin has Kickin' Chicken with an ectoplasm drink. We also all ordered a breakfast shot which is whiskey with orange juice and a little piece of sausage.

End of the Night

We return to Justin's place where we play a game of Triple Yahtzee. We finish the game and decide we are all exhausted. Jeremy and I return to our hotel room for the night.