I know, weird, right? It doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of “strange canned food stuffs”. Check some of the other items out.

No excuse for not posting these earlier. I’ve been eagerly waiting for Jayson and Kristin’s excellent photographers to post the photos on their blog, so I know what it’s like to wait. In the meantime, here are my photos of the event, which happened in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota just north of Minneapolis in late May. Both the ceremony and reception were at the Earle Brown Center. It was a great night; thanks for the invite guys, and thanks to Hoor and Zenobia for letting a single girl party with them.

Love this photo. I was invited to the rehearsal dinner at Oak City where the mugs of beer were huge and the food was great.

How cool was this? Jayson is a microbiologist and works for a large biotech company in the Twin Cities, so he snagged a Pyrex beaker for the unity sand ceremony.

Best men Dan and Hoor, Jayson’s mom Karen and Jay.

No doubt Kristin is talking about something serious in this photo as Jayson gets his groove (? is that what that is?) on.

Speaking of groove, loved Zenobia’s dress and dance moves.

Hoor’s air guitar was top notch.

Finally, remember this photo?

This is what the finished product looked like:

The song really showcases the fact that he still had such a beautiful voice, and still had the music in him, despite all the craziness in his life. It would have been amazing to see what the future would have held.

Hold My Hand by Michael Jackson feat. Akon

I have known Jayson for 12 years…we met in a Yahoo! Checkers room. He is from Wisconsin, but was at the University of Minnesota learning about science.

I later visited him several times, and he even came to Canada to visit me once.  (You can always get a blast from the past and read my  trip log from several years ago when I visited Minneapolis with my boyfriend at the time for a music festival.) We had always promised one another that we would attend each other’s weddings, and that day finally came this May.

I flew on a redeye at 1am out of Las Vegas and landed at 6am on Friday. I immediately bee-lined it to a place for breakfast. I chose it last minute by Googling “breakfast Edina minnesota” at the Las Vegas airport. (Free wi-fi there!) Edina Grill fulfilled a few of my most fussy demands: It opened early, was easy to find and they had pancakes. (I know, I’m so tiresome.)

Edina is this weird super rich, trendy suburb in southern Minneapolis. Lots of faux storefronts, manicured trees, and boutique like stores. It is close to the airport though, and I wanted to avoid rushhour at all costs. So I hid out for a while.

Essentials: buttermilk short stack and a city map. The menu was full of awesome things to try and I was dying to eat something more, but my grazing at Whole Foods the night previous in Vegas ruined me. So these house made ‘cakes had to do.

They were pretty plain, but very fluffy and devoid of that terrible Bisquick chalky flavouring most pancakes have so I overlooked the lack of fancy presentation. Short Stack: $5.45. They also had fresh orange juice going, but I stuck to water.

Oh man. I’m such a sucker for The Container Store! I HAD to pay a visit and napped in the parking lot until it opened at 9 a.m.. My suitcase was already bloated though, and I had no room to buy the amazing organizational items they sell.

I had big plans to drive around the Twin Cities, shopping and being a tourist on Saturday before the wedding. However, I was zapped after Las Vegas and slept in, leaving me little time to do anything outside the urban core. I walked around downtown trying to find a place for lunch on Saturday. All the places I was most interested in: Masa, 112 Eatery and Restaurant Alma, were not open for lunch on weekends. BURN! I ended up at an old favourite, Chipotle.

Because it a northern city, Minneapolis is a lot like Edmonton. There are skyways to keep people out of the cold, and the downtown clears out on weekends. That bottom pic is the famous First Avenue & 7th Street Entry, a music venue. It was featured in Prince’s Purple Rain.

Although Minneapolis airport is one of my favourites and offers some delicious airport food (which I have lamented a lack of before), I ended up getting a sandwich at Panera to bring with me before I left. The woman who made it for me gave me extra pickles and wrapped it very well when she heard I was bringing it travelling. So sweet!