Southwest MN State, MN Rennaissance Fest, and Mall of America!

With two days off and time to kill, Jonathan and I hit up the Minnesota Renaissance Festival to do some mustache interviews. Jonathan's going to post his blog thoughts about the mustache experience later on, so I won't get into that, but we did see some other cool stuff there as well. One of my favorite sights was a dog-sized live tortoise harnessed with a tip jar that wandered through the faire grounds attended by two human minders. He liked having his neck rubbed. There was a giant rocking horse, jousting, and plenty of shows to see. The show that most impressed us was the Danger Committee! These guys do a knife throwing act where one of them actually catches the knife out of the air!!! Holy cow! I also enjoyed checking out some of the artists booths at the faire, especially Josh Boock, who makes cookie jars and mugs with grotesque faces. Right before we left, I took the Jacob's rope ladder challenge because I have beaten them before, but not on this day.

This photo gallery has some of the mustaches from our interviews, which you'll probably see  again later.

On Monday we visited the Mall Of America for some retail shopping, and sight seeing. Other than the fact that this mall houses a small theme park, it's pretty much just a big mall. Jonathan bought a pretty slick jacket and some gifts for his wife, while I picked up a couple of pairs of new sneakers. I went to see the Bodies exhibit which was showing for a limited time in one of the exhibition halls on the top floor. I'm glad I went, but I'm not sure I liked it. When we were at the Renaissance Festival, we were given passes for a free roller coaster ride in the Mall of America theme park. It was a good coaster, and free!

The show at Southwest Minnesota State University on 9/22 was a blast, and dinner afterwards with the activities crew was equally fun. One really cool highlight of this school was our interview on the school radio station, which was the first time that had ever happened to us. 

Several girls at the college claimed to have camping gear and fishing tackle ready to go in their trucks, and the bait leeches are in their refrigerators. Minnesota girls, huh? Our new friend Candice filmed the show with her fancy video camera and promised to edit together some clips for us, so we're all looking forward to that.

Oh- I almost forgot to mention that at this show our front row was made up of bean bag chairs! It just seemed like a great idea that more college venues should use.