About a month ago I went on a work trip to the Midwest. I had been wanting to go out there for a while and see our data centers so I volunteered for a trip and they finally sent me. The week went too fast and I didn't get to see much but it gave me a little taste of the Midwest.
On Sunday evening I left for Des Moines Iowa. I had some American Airlines Admiral Club passes so I decided to see what that is all about. I've had quite a few of those with United and I never used them because we had the kids and didn't have enough time in between flights. Well this time I was at the airport checked in 2 hours early with nothing to do. So I hooked my coworker up with a pass and we got free food and drinks for the next hour. I don't think the passes were worth the 50 bucks they go for if you don't have a credit card with American because the drinks were mediocre but can't pass up free cocktails.
We got to Des Moines after midnight and to our hotel around 1. We decided to go out looking for food thinking not much was open. Turns out they actually have quite a night life downtown. We made our way over to Fong's and grabbed some pizza. Fong's is a very interesting restaurant. Chinese but with pizza. I got a normal pizza but apparently they do all kinds of stuff like chow mein pizza and every Chinese dish you can imagine on a pizza. Apparently the people that own Fong's own half the restaurants in the town included one of the pubs called the Baitshop that had over 100 different taps. On the way back from Fong's we saw some really drunk girls trying to do a hand stand for a picture in front of a wall of lights. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that these girls were in no shape to do handstands so we stood around for a minute and watched until one fell on her head. After getting a good laugh we were done for the night and headed back to the hotel.
For the next couple days we took trips to our different offices and our data center. Our boss was down from Minneapolis so he'd get everyone together and buy our lunch, dinner, and drinks. He took us to a couple breweries and pubs and we got to try some pretty good beer flights. The last night there we ate at a place called Zombie Burger where I got a spiked milkshake. Afterwards my coworker and I took off to see downtown. Zachy Zach did not approve of my trip. When I called the kids Zach wouldn't talk to me. Instead he crossed his arms and buried his face in his arms and ignored me.
Iowa was pretty cool. A lot different than I imaged. I thought it would just be flat with corn fields. There are a lot of corn fields but Des Moines was hilly and there are huge oaks everywhere. From teh freeway I could see the first couple houses in a neighborhood and then the rest were all blocked out by trees. It's really green and the weather in summer is really nice. I approve of Iowa except for the fact that I am a midget in that state. Iowa is full of giants.
Wednesday morning we took off to Minneapolis and Eden Prairie Minnesota. We stopped at a taco shop for lunch in the coolest neighborhood. It was a bunch of pricey old homes in a very wooded area. The homes were build up against the hills but the forest was so thick we couldn't really see the hill, just a wall of green. There were deer running up the streets at noon. My first impression of Minnesota was that it's really nice and if it wasn't for the family I'd actually think of transferring out there. That was just my first impression though. After going out to the mall and seeing how many Muslims live out there I have to say there is no way in hell I would live there.
Eden Prairie had our more impressive data center. I only posted a picture of the cooling towers because we aren't supposed to be sharing pictures from the inside, even though they can be found in articles online. Here is one of those articles I read about our data center. They had some pretty cool technology there like the cooling towers and fly wheel UPS. I thoroughly enjoyed checking out the data center and seeing the guts of all the stuff I get to work with every day.
In Minneapolis our brewery hopping continued. Our boss is quite the beer drinker so we would go to a brewery or pub, have a flight, and then head out to dinner where he'd have some more. I didn't even try to keep up. Just from all the eating I did that week I gained enough weight to put me on a two month diet. The coolest brewery we went to was a 27 million dollar brewery with some of the best beer I've had.
By Friday my trip was over. I went to the Mall of America for a couple hours before heading home. I really don't know what the big deal of that mall is. Wasn't impressed at all. Yeah they have a small amusement park inside. Whoppidy doo.
It seems like a lot changed with Zachy Zach when I was gone. In five days he started talking in small sentences. When I got back he was saying thank you for everything.
In Iowa we took a walk to this lake during break. There were bullfrogs the size of softballs jumping all over the place. They didn't let us get very close though so I didn't get any good pictures of them. The tadpoles were bigger than goldfish.
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