We got a ride to the airport in Raleigh from Phil early saturday morning. We were flying NWA for the first time, so we didn't really know what to expect with them. When we checked our bags, they didn't print a boarding pass as most airlines usually do, they just told us to check in at the gate. So we walk the half mile or so down to the NWA gate and ask about our seats. The attendant was short with us, and told us to just sit down. That put us in a bad mood, but not for long. A few minutes later, the gate attendant printed the tickets and calls everyone up who doesn't have one yet. He finds and we go sit down again. 
When I look at the tickets, they say we're in first class. We didn't pay for first-class tickets, so we think maybe there's a mistake. After the families with little kids board the plane, he calls first class people up. I figure, why not try it, and sure enough, the attendant scans the ticket and waves us in. Still a little incredulous, we walk onto the plane, and I asked the flight attendane where my seat was. She checks the ticket and points me to the front row in first class. After we sit down, Erika and I keep thinking that somebody's going to come up and make us move back to the coach seats. But everybody else boards, we don't get bumped, and the plane takes off. Erika's mildly freaking out, thinking somehow she'd paid for a first-class ticket, so she checks her printed receipt about three times. But no, we just got upgraded from coach. Go figure. We both enjoyed a nice breakfast on the flight up and we had plenty of room to stretch out.
When we got to the airport in Minneapolis, the airport announcer's voice instantly let us know we were there. We shared a luggage carosel with a plane coming in from Alaska, and lots of people were bringing boxes and coolers full of fish back with them. That flight had been delayed, and the airport announcer was apologizing for it. At one point he said, "If you think this is bad folks, you should try working here."
We took a taxi into the city and arrived at our hotel, the Millennium. They checked us in, and when we got up to the room, it was the wrong kind, two tiny beds. So we called back down and they found another room, but we had to check our luggage and wait about 2 hours before we could check into the right room. Erika and I took the skyway to the convention center and she checked in with her conference. We had some lunch at a nice little place, Staccato, before checking into our correct room.
Erika desperately wanted to see the Fitzgerald Theatre (from Prarie Home Companion), so we worked out the Metro Transit bus system and found a route to take us to the right place in St Paul. The theatre was closed, but we still took some pictures.
Then we wandered around trying to find the diner in the movie, but couldn't. Apparently, we just walked the wrong way, since it's supposed to be about 2 blocks from the theatre. Instead, we found Rice Park where a wedding was being held, and a bunch of peanuts statues downtown.
We walked a little more and found the Minnesota Museum of Science. This was a big museum, and the offered student rates for admission, so we checked it out. They were hosting the travelling BodyWorlds exhibit. It's very interesting, but not for the squeamish. They also had some cool permanent exhibits that reminded me of the Oak Ridge Museum of Science and Industry, but a bit more fun.
After the museum, we walked along the riverfront until we found our bus stop. There were lots of homeless people on the streets in both cities, but nobody asked us for money, like people in every other city do. This really suprised me, in a good way. We took the bus back to Minneapolis and it was time for dinner, so we ate at The Local. It's a really big Irish pub, complete with a "Kissing Room" in the back. After dinner we were pretty tired, so we called it a day.
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