Minnesota and Arizona 2023:
Day 3 - St. Paul

	Friday, June 9, 2023: We slept in and then left campus around 9:30 AM, ...
	... driving past the Grandview Theater ...
	... to the Longfellow Grill on the Minneapolis side of the Mississippi River. John had invited a bunch of people to meet for breakfast and about thirty alumni had shown up. John, Debbie, and Kate posed for a quick photo as they shared their RV stories. All three had briefly been class B RV owners two years earlier.
	Kate had brought a present for Debbie: a couple of LEGO-style bagpiper minifigs.
	Not wasting any time, Debbie quickly assembled one so that it could join us for breakfast.
	Somehow, despite having only one server for all of us, our food arrived very quickly. Debbie ordered a spinach frittata with hash browns and English muffin, and Tom ordered a tuna poke bowl. Both were delicious.
	John hadn't expected such a large crowd and originally wanted to sit outside, but once he realized how many people there were going to be, he convinced the restaurant staff to just give us the entire inside seating area. It turned out to be a great idea. By 10:30, alumni filled all of the available tables.
	Aw, man, Pat was wearing the same Springfest shirt that Debbie brought!
	We had a great time talking to Paula about her memories of playing soccer while at Macalester.
	By 11:30 AM, we were headed back to St. Paul, where we got the second-to-last parking spot left on Summit Avenue. We vowed not to leave campus again until the reunion was over.
	Debbie always gets a photo of the stairwell behind Doty with its ever-changing graffiti.
	We dumped some stuff in our room, and then we walked to the bookstore. These allium had been spray painted after they were done blooming and their seed pods had dried up. It was a cool effect.
	Behold our loot from this year's visit to the bookstore: a super-soft sweatshirt for Debbie, nylon shorts for Tom, and lounge pants for Debbie.
	We headed back to our dorm room with our purchases and decided to hang out for a while. The college had very thoughtfully included a box fan in each dorm room since the dorms don't have air conditioning.
	There was a single sink and medicine cabinet in the room. Yikes! Can you imagine sharing a single sink in your room for an entire year with your roommate? We both decided that neither one of us could go back to college at this point in our lives.
	Just after 4 PM, Dianne and Tom arrived. They dropped their stuff in their room and immediately came over to visit. This was Dianne's Tom's (aka Other Tom) first time attending a reunion.
	A few minutes later, Nancy arrived. Yay! The gang's here!
	After catching up, we headed over to Shaw Field where there were going to be food trucks. We had to check out The Rock on the way there to see how the students had painted it this year. It was a bold choice to use orange hand prints. The culprits should be easy to find.
	We passed by Old Main, ...
	... and arrived at the food trucks. There were four this year, which was awesome, but there were no mini-doughnuts, which was sad.
	We used our drink tickets to get a round of beers for the five of us. Cheers!
	After we had finished our food, we were joined by Alison, Phil, and Libby.
	We had confidently chosen a table in front of the stage because the band wasn't scheduled to perform until much later, but we hadn't counted on them needing to do a very loud sound check.
	We decided to take our party out of the tent to a shaded table near Marvin Plaza. Tim stopped by with his son to say hello before heading off to the food trucks.
	After a few hours, we decided that it was time to head out. The gathering was hopping, ...
	... with people playing corn hole, kids trying to hula hoop, and frisbees being thrown all over the lawn. A fun time was being had by one and all.
	We weren't sure what this is - perhaps a sculpture under construction? I guess we'll see next year if it has changed at all.
	As we left campus, we passed the bell outside the old library building. We'd be back.
	We headed over to the Festival Grounds where the party was already in full swing.
	There were quite a few more people than the previous night, which was to be expected.
	In the backyard of the house next door, which is also owned by Kevin, Dave was grilling prime rib for sandwiches. They look yummy, don't they?
	Somehow it got out that we had brought some Spotted Cow from New Glarus. Phil, who is from Madison, Wisconsin, came by shortly thereafter, and after a questioning look and a knowing nod, we offered him one.
	There was lots of mingling, ...
	... and lots of catching up.
	Paul had told us the previous night that he made a terrific lychee cocktail, and he brought the fixings to make them tonight. Cheers!
	Mmmmm. The prime rib sandwiches were a huge hit. So much so that they ran out and had to put more meat on the grill.
	Bruce and Dom joined our table.
	When more meat was finally ready, Dave came over specifically to notify Dianne who quickly went over to make herself a sandwich. Debbie got one too.
	Here's Paula modeling her 2023 Cluster Fuss t-shirt. The night before, we had taken one of the two available in her size and saved it for her, so it was a relief to safely deliver the goods to her.
	At 10 PM, people were still arriving and there was no sign of the party slowing down.
	Later, as we were getting up to leave, Sam stopped by to chat with our group.
	We bid farewell to the Festival Grounds for one more year and made our way back to the dorms.
	There were two rabbits hopping across the lawn in front of Dupre Hall as we approached. As we got closer, they stopped moving, certain that we could no longer see them. Goodnight, bunnies. Day 4 >