Lingerie and Liquor!

By now I have been in the north of the US for several days. I flew in on friday from New Orleans. I arrived at Minneapolis in the afternoon, got picked up by Jess and Becky and had two beers for the price of one about half an hour later! (Becky knows every happy hour in and around Minneapolis!). Then we went to the Schiller's where I had stayed on my last visit for a few days to pick up Karen and I finally met Nicholas Georg Schiller - Karen and Jay's six month old! We hit it off right from the beginning :)
And then the party started: it was the night of Jess' bachelorette party. The motto was Lingerie and Liquor. Here bachelorettes receive lingerie as a a gift from their girlfriends - I would love to start that tradition back home!! :) We all met at Annie's house and it was great seeing all the girls again I already met at Karen's wedding three years ago. We had cake (with a very fitting picture on it...), sushi, chocolate fondue and Martinis. Jess had to answer funny questions, we played dice for some little gifts, she got all the lingerie and the we headed for a girls' night out in town. All of us had t-shirts (mine read Ms Hoffmann, Jess was The future Mrs. Rowen) and we had stickers to put on guys. I had migrene so I didn't drink that much, but I had tons of fun anyway! A live band played at the bar we went to and the singer got Jess up on stage (after some guy had given her a lap dance...). We all started dancing and Annie got up on stage singing Black Velvet (she got a great voice!!). After that it was only party, party, party... We had a great night!
The next day we started in a lazy fashion. Tim and Jess took me out for breakfest/brunch at Egg and I. Later Jess and I walked around uptown, had coffee in a nice little coffeeshop (with a sign on the door that they don't allow guns on their premises) and shopped in quaint little stores.
That night they had a bridal shower at Laura's place. We had lots of fun! I got a little tired, but I was still really enjoying it! Some of tim's friends got quite drunk which made them even more funny. We talked, I was carrying Nick around who fell asleep on my shoulder, lots of food, card games, lots of presents, Laura showing yoga to the guys, ...
Sunday Jess and I walked the St. Antony falls heritage trail, visited the Mill Museum (excellent) and had food outside. It has been beautiful fall weather here so far! I realized that this weather is more my kind than the heat and humidity in the south. Now I'm in Appleton, Wisconsin and I'm staying with Karen's parents, Helene and Jerry. It is wonderful being back!