Our Little Drops of Sunshine: May 2011

This post might sound like we've been travelling a lot... But let me just say, as much as we like to travel and go places, we do not have bottomless pockets. This trip, almost didn't happen, for many different reasons, but we decided this one was worth taking - because there are just some things we shouldn't miss!

So we used up some of our miles to buy this trip, and we boarded a Delta flight bound to Minot, North Dakota. Where in the world is Minot? We flew out from Salt Lake City and then caught a connecting flight in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Minot is a small city, and Minot State University was a quaint little campus, pretty similar to BYU-H sans the tropics (and the sun!). We were so close to the northern border of the US, Canada was about an hour and a half drive north. In fact, we were told that North Dakota's economy gets its boost from Canadians who cross the border everyday just to shop - in fact i wouldn't doubt that at all. When we went to a nearby mall, most of the cars in the parking lot had Saskatchewan and Manitoba plates.

after the Hooding Ceremonies at
Minot State University's
Old Main Bldg
(formerly Teacher's College)

First of all, Carl earned his Masters degree in Information Systems (online program) from Minot State University, thus the trip to a city located in north central North Dakota. The reason of this trip to Minot, was in fact, Carl and my love for him. He deserved this trip - he well deserved to be there at his graduation. He worked really hard, completed his assignments, and finished his thesis - despite of occasional burn-outs from work stress and some taunting that sounded like "Cougars vs. Beavers?". I am so proud of Carl, and again, I can not emphasize enough his hard work and dedication. Go Beavers! Minot.... (drum roll)... to TOP!!!

Our Minot experience was very heart-warming. When we got there, we had a car rental reservation with Enterprise. But after some asking around locals at the airport, we decided to cancel our reservation with Enterprise. Even then, the Enterprise rep who was already at the airport to take us to the car garage to get our supposedly rental car still dropped us off at the car garage where a cab was instead waiting to take us to our motel (free of charge!). We stayed at Comfort Inn, which was very close to the mall and to some restaurants (and McDonalds of course - it actually reminded us of the McDonalds in Laie). We decided to get Chinese for dinner, but Carl ended up absolutely hating it - and thankfully McDonalds was just around the corner. We were tired from our flight - and so we hit the bed early... and soon we were out!

Carl and his graduate chair, Dr. Lory Willoughby

The following day was Carl's graduation day. We had to be there early for the hooding ceremonies. For the first time, Carl met his cohort, their professors, his graduate committee, and his mentor. We were so excited, and it was such a unique experience to watch them talk to each other in person for the first time. After the ceremonies, their Department Chair Dr. Willoughby treated the whole cohort for lunch at Badlands Grill. We were so full!!! After that, the group split because some had to drive to Bismarck to catch their flights out of North Dakota. Carl and two others who we carpooled with decided they wanted to look around campus, in fact they decided they wanted to get their school IDs! Another guy joined us later on, and they talked and talked. This third guy was a local and he talked stories about Minot and stuff.

So they started talking stories at around 2pm... an hour later, they decided to get coffee at Starbucks (of course we had hot chocolate), and another 2 hours of talking ensued. At one point I couldn't blend anymore 'coz the started talking tech stuff, so I went and read at Barnes and Nobles. But then they decided they wanted to have dinner together. We were gonna bail since our motel was already around the corner, but they insisted. So we went to this only Thai restaurant in town called Baan Rao. Carl order a very spicy dish, which he did enjoy, but regretted ordering it to a very spicy specification! It was a very heart-warming experience, and we were blessed with very hospitable and generous new friends. See, we went on this trip with a very strict budget. At the end of the trip, we only paid for our plane tickets, 3 cab rides, (discounted) motel rate, one yucky Chinese dinner, and 3 dollar burgers. And to top that, we had a very kind-hearted friend waiting to pick us up at the SLC Airport when we landed the day after.

My graduate :)

Some of Carl's MSIS cohort with Dept. Chair Dr. Willoughby
(we carpooled with the guys on the far right and 3rd from right,
and they paid for dinner too)