disneydream06

Or a few days. lol......
What have I been up to?
I have been on vacation since Thursday. I have 11 days off, and dang 4 of them are done already. :o
Friday afternoon I went up to the Minnesota State Fair to meet up with

mrdreamjeans and

seekerval. I got up to St. Paul and then the games began of trying to find a place to park. WHAT A JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I finally gave up and drove over to the University of Minnesota campus and found one of the few open spaces available. There are several Park and Ride lots, but not knowing my way around St. Paul that well, I didn't know how to find many of them. The first one I went to apparently is no longer allowing fair parking in their lot, and it's a big one. UGH... The second one I went to is a new lot of a new stadium being built for the Minnesota soccer/football team. It was a really small lot and full, of course. So then I gave up and drove clear over to the campus.
I finally got to the fair grounds and met up with Neil/

mrdreamjeans and then a couple of minutes later I met up with Val/

seekerval and her hubby. It was my first time meeting Val in person. So nice to finally do that.
We strolled around the fair a bit. I got my compulsory mini donuts. Sad to say, the quality was lacking. :(
We looked around some more and then we split up and went our separate ways. Niel and I one way and Val and her husband another. They had some friends from out of town to meet up with.
Eventually Niel and I made our way to one of the free entertainment stages because Belinda Carlisle, the lead singer of The Go Gos was going to be performing. :) Belinda was great minus a couple of out of key issues.
Then after the concert we headed for the buses to go find our cars. Come to find out we were actually parked in the same lot not too far from each other. lol........
We are planning to meet up again at the Fair Thursday morning. I am going to go up bloody early and hopefully park on the fair grounds. :o Hopefully I won't get sleepy too early. Not use to the day time. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday night was a trip over to Welch, Minnesota and Treasure Island Resort and Casino to see Rod Stewart in concert. It was an outdoor concert and thankfully the weather cooperated. :) I had an aisle seat in row G of the front center section of seating. GREAT seat. :)
The opening act was The Little River Band. I don't know a lot of their songs, but they were really good. A five man group that I am will to bet only one or two of them were original. lol...... The two guitar players and the drummer looked way too young.
This was the third time I have seen Rod Stewart in the last three years and he was still really great. He is really quite funny. Joking a lot between songs. He said this was their first concert in a month and he was a little winded. The show was basically the same show I saw the other two times I saw him, but it's a good show. He "complained" a few times about there not being any electricity back stage, and I have to wonder if he finally got sick of that problem. At the end of the show, which felt more like the break before an encore, turned out to be the end of the show. A couple of people came out on stage including the girl that played the harp. She adjusted a couple of things on the harp and then made a sudden exit off stage. Next thing we knew the crew came out and started taking things apart. :o
Then the fun and games began. I knew it was going to be a big pain getting out of the parking lot and so I just stood around my seat for awhile and then SLOWLY walked back to my car. As I walked to my car traffic was literally bumper to bumper trying to leave. I got to my car and put my camera and souvenirs inside, and then I just stood there and waited. I HATE sitting in traffic and why waste gas sitting in a line that's not moving. Besides, I wouldn't have been able to back out of my space because cars were lined up behind me. I think I stood there for a good half hour before I saw a car move, and then it was maybe one car's length.
From the time the concert ended and 'til I got in and started my vehicle, it was over an hour. It still took awhile to get off the property, but at least it wasn't like sitting in a parking lot.
I will hopefully have some pictures to follow soon. I may hold the fair pictures until after I am done visiting.