Purple Heaven

1985.

That is the last time Hubby and I went on a vacation that was just the two of us or didn't involve staying with relatives.

No disrespect to either the kids or the relatives but I figured it was about time. I had to wait to see how the surgery recovery went but after it was determined it was going well, I arranged for PTO (paid time off) from work.

At first I didn't have a destination in mind. I knew we would have to drive and we would have to break up the trip so that the new knees could get out and stretch.

We ended up heading north. In fact, the destination decided upon was Viking country. We went to visit the Minnesota Viking training camp at Minnesota State University in Mankato for an afternoon and then on to Minneapolis.

Hubby was in Purple Heaven. As we drove nearer to the college, there were a sea of Viking signs and people, in all ages, shapes and sizes, dressed in purple. We stopped for lunch and even the staff at the fast food place was dressed in Viking purple. There were people speaking about the practices in the conversations we walked past. There were tailgaters in the parking lot extolling the Vikings pre-season virtues.

For the lifelong Viking fan in the house, it was about as good a day as it could get. I would have liked to have had a dollar for every purple jersey I saw in the short amount of time we were there. We did purchase a training camp t-shirt for the fan. We looked for a little memento for the grandbaby but alas, they didn't have anything in grandma's price range except a small football.

Another destination was seeing the Metrodome in Minneapolis. He also got to see the former location of Metropolitan field. For those of you who have been to the Mall of American (MOA) in Bloomington and have walked through the amusement park rides, you may know this. However for those who don't know, there is a marker indicating where the Metropolitan stadium was. For a true fan, it was important to add that destination. (And truth be told, we stumbled on that one because we were just walking around the MOA.)

And of course, when at the MOA, we had to visit the 'official' Viking store and of course, we had to add the local economy by purchasing something for the fan. He was also handed a pocket card schedule. The staff and customers were still speaking reverently about their beloved Vikings. The season hasn't begun yet and there was the pre-season excitement which was very apparent. This was also evident from other conversations in other stores. The Minnesotans love their Vikings.

Honestly, the trip was just fine. The weather was about 20 degrees cooler with less humidity than we had had and the people were friendly and polite. We also did non-Viking related things like visiting the capitol in St. Paul and the James J. Hill Mansion.

I would say, if we have a choice for future destinations, we will go back -- in the summer time.