24 hours in Minneapolis

For those of you who follow along on Facebook or Instagram, you might have already guessed that my little family of three took an impromptu road trip to Minneapolis this weekend. This was our first time driving such a long distance with Levi, and it was terrible. Because of all the bathroom and snack breaks we needed to take, each 5.5 hour leg took nearly 7 hours, and Levi did not nap going either way. He’d start to doze but would wake himself up almost immediately and begin whining and crying.

Eventually, I moved to the back seat (on the hump–the worst seat in an SUV!) to try to soothe him. But since he was mostly uncomfortable in his car seat and just really overtired, there was little I could do except suffer along with him. (What was JB doing? Listening to his Game of Thrones audio book while driving. Lucky guy.)

Although we were desperate for a change of scenery after these last few stressful weeks, our primary reason for traveling to Minneapolis was to shop at IKEA. Specifically, we were looking for toy storage for our living room and basement, as well as inexpensive organizational and home decor items. To make our 24-hour visit feel more like a romantic getaway, we booked a (surprisingly) affordable suite at the super swanky The Hotel Minneapolis. (It used to be a bank!) We wanted to set up Levi’s pack-n-play in a separate room so that we wouldn’t be forced to go to bed when he did, but what really cinched the deal was the photo of an amazing soaking tub on the hotel’s website next to the description of the room.

Well, imagine my disappointment when we learned upon arrival that the photo was actually of the hotel’s Presidential Suite and that our room didn’t have a tub at all. No tub! Super bummed, we suggested to the front desk that they update their website, and they compensated us with a free breakfast. I would have rather eaten IKEA’s $1.99 breakfast and been moved to the Presidential Suite, but the hotel manager did not seem inclined to kick out the bride and groom already staying in it.

Despite been a pill in the car, Levi was mostly a good sport while we were out and about. (I felt like such a bad mother for completely ignoring his nap and bedtime schedule, though.) He discovered two new skills: making quasi-fish faces and drinking out of straw. At the suggestion of some of my Twitter friends, we ate our one meal out at Convention Grill in Edina, chowing down on chicken noodle soup, hamburgers, french fries and a hot fudge malt. I was so stuffed that I didn’t even want to order something sweet from room service back at the hotel, and I never turn down dessert!

Oh! And Levi learned one another new trick: How to tear out the flaps from his lift-the-flap books. JB says that it must be a “boy thing” because, he claims, boys are more destructive than girls. *SIGH*

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling like I need a vacation after my “vacation.” But there’s probably no such thing as having a relaxing vacation when traveling with kids, right?