Chris with a 'K': snow, and lots of it

It is with great pride that I announce that Drew and I were in Rochester, MN, my hometown, when it broke its previous record for the most snow in December. Congratulations, Rochester, I knew you had it in you. And to think, you still have a couple more days to completely obliterate the 2000 record of 35.3 inches. In case being in Rochester during the snowiest December on record doesn't impress you, let me tell you that of the five snowiest Decembers, I have now been in Rochester for 3 of them: 2010 (37.8 inches and counting), 2000 (35.3), and 1996 (30.2). Surely this is an event worthy of commemoration, like on a t-shirt or a certificate that I hang on my refrigerator. It could say "I survived 3 of the 5 snowiest Decembers in Rochester, MN." Wait, that didn't come out right (sounds like I died the other 2 times). What I mean is "I was in Rochester, MN for 3 of the 5 snowiest Decembers, and I survived." There, that sounds better.

Drew has survived his first trip to Minnesota in the winter, surely a feat worth commemorating. The daytime temperature was in the teens when we arrived, but then it warmed up to the twenties. We saw lots and lots of snow, which is to be expected when you're hometown is busy breaking records.

We spent the first few days of our trip in Rochester, where I showed Drew around. The city is expanding, but it has still retained its familiarity. There are many new restaurants sprouting up, but many of my favorites remain. We went to Mr. Pizza, a locally owned restaurant that my friends and I frequented many times for lunch while in high school. And we went to John Hardy's Bar-B-Q, another favorite. If it sounds strange that I was excited for us to eat at John Hardy's even though we're both vegetarians, well then, you haven't had the Jo-Jo potatoes, have you? Try them, and you'll see why the place is on my must-eat list every time I go home.

We also got pie at Baker's Square, a place that became a post-football/basketball/hockey game staple while I was in high school. I was in the marching band (colorguard) during football season and the pep band during basketball & hockey season, and after practically every game, my goody-two-shoe friends and I would gorge on the pie and mozzarella sticks at Baker's Square. In case you're wondering, I have had nearly every single variety of pie on the menu (I don't like meringue, so I skipped the lemon meringue), and I recommend them all.

A trip to Rochester wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Mayo Clinic. Without the clinic, I'm not sure there would be a downtown Rochester (or a Rochester, for that matter). The clinic is comprised of many, many buildings, and it includes Methodist Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital. Not surprisingly, everyone knows someone who works at the clinic. The buildings themselves aren't too interesting, but the Plummer Building (below) might be the most interesting and the most recognized.

There is also the Gonda Building, which was built about 5 years ago.

I worked a few summers at the Mayo Clinic while I was going to college in Rochester. I worked in the medical records department the first 2 summers, and I worked in the cardiology department during the third. (funny story: for the first summer, I was offered a job as a surgeon's assistant, if I remember correctly. Well, it was something in surgery. I put down that I was planning to be pre-med, and my application was misread. They thought I was a college graduate, not a high school graduate.) So, in the cardiology department, I was basically a go-fer. I picked stuff up and dropped stuff off for cardiology. There wasn't a whole lot of supervision, and nobody appeared to care about what I was doing as long as I picked stuff up and dropped stuff off. There was another go-fer, and we became good friends. When we weren't being paged, we wandered around the clinic, visiting all of our friends who worked for the summer in other departments. And we hung out a lot at the Barnes & Noble downtown (formerly the Chateau Theatre, and beautiful inside- not sure why I didn't snap indoor pics. oh well).

The first part of the trip in Rochester was loads of fun. We had fun eating, introducing my parents to vegetarian cooking, bowling, and chilling out at home. And I got to introduce Drew to my Mom & Dad's dogs. Here is Rosie: