Day 40 - Hoffman Estates, Il to St. Cloud Minnesota

When we left New Jersey, both Julie and I agreed that we had had enough 'vacationing' and were ready to go home.   We purposely skipped Chicago and stayed in a distant suburb on the west side.  

We got a fairly early start in the morning and motored right past Minneapolis, only stopping to shop at an Outlet Mall in Albertville, west of the city.   Julie found more shoes and I bought a light jacket.  We really were a little shopped out by this time. 

We stopped for the night in St. Cloud MN at a Best Western.  This place had two good things going for it.  We were out of the heat wave and we found an interesting restaurant called Michaels right next door.

Michael's was run by an Austrian and we really should have ordered the Schnitzel as it looked fantastic as it was served to the adjoining table.  Instead Julie opted for her (almost) usual 'liver and bacon' and I ordered spaghetti and meatballs.   Both of our meals were exceptionally good - fresh salad, well cooked main and very plentiful and inexpensive.

As we were dining late, the owner/waiter, Michael, spent some time talking with us and describing his visits to Quebec over the years.   In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that his chef had recently married a woman from the Philipennes whom he had met on a sewing materials site on the internet. In no time at all, he called out his chef who was introduced to Julie and I.  We compared Filipino food and talked about his new wife's origins and how she was adapting to a climate with a long cold and snowy winter.  All in all, it was a delightful way to end an evening.