Rochester, Minnesota

Welcome to Rochester, Minnesota! We went here for a short visit, not to actually visit this city, but to take our niece to an internship at a local prosthesis lab near the Mayo Clinic.

Fancy pants smart girl, she is!

We were here for a couple of days, and we did our best to enjoy some food, drink, and relaxation while we were in the area. And, even though we didn’t visit the city as proper tourists, we still had a great time and can see why more and more people are coming here.

While she couldn’t help us drive, Grace held it down with her charming personality and looked after Louis on our drive up to Rochester. Meet Grace.

After a long drive from the Chicago area, we settled into our hotel and got cracking with some Frisbee practice in the huge grass area outside.

Louis wasn’t into it, and couldn’t really figure out why we kept throwing something back and forth, over his head.

Dude is such a not-dog.

As we all love some standard American Chinese food – and we can’t get anywhere near it in Spain – we hit up a local takeaway place for some nice and goopy, sweet and salty, yummy and delicious fare.

Our first full day there, we started by dropping off G at her internship. The pride of an aunt and uncle is probably, rather embarrassing for her. Whatever!

We then saw a sign on the street for pannenkoeken, only to find out that the sign pointed to nowhere with delicious Dutch pancakes. We cried a bit, honestly, and then raged a little bit more that they were nowhere to be found.

We want pannenkoeken!

Fortunately, there was some art around the corner to make us smile in all of our salt-laden tears.

We then went back to work for most of the day, before spying on G for a hot minute.

I cannot comprehend that level of intelligence.

Dinner time yet again, we headed to a place called Whistle Binkies On The Lake. Say that three times fast. It’s a huge pub and eatery on a little lake, with outdoor volleyball and solid pub fare.

There was a salad with that as well, but we couldn’t resist also ordering fried cheese curds. You only live once!

We also had to scoop up some ice cream (tee-hee), with another oddly-named spot called Flapdoodles. We all ate a bit too much of these delicious frozen treats, but Grace probably reveled in the fact that she can. Because she’s active and young, and we’re not really either of those two things. Ha.

Ang and I also took the time to visit Forager Brewing Co. while in town. This place sources all of their food locally, and makes some amazing dishes to go alongside their properly-brewed craft beers. There are some great craft breweries in the area, and this is an essential stop if you like the good stuff.

And that’s it! We didn’t do many touristy things – our number one priority here was to spend time with our niece while she wasn’t at work. Mission accomplished! We love hanging out with her and we really enjoyed our trip to Rochester. We all recommend you head up there some time to spend a few days relaxing and seeing what it’s all about.

A very special and very big thanks to everyone in Rochester, especially all the fine folks we met at all the places we visited. Thanks to all of you for being so wonderful. And thanks to our niece for being the realest.

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Have you ever been to Rochester, MN? If so, what’d you think? If not, what say ye? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!