#AshLaurenUSA: Minneapolis

We only had two nights in Minneapolis, which doesn't help when visiting a new city for the first time. I found this city to be layers, the first time you see it doesn't look like much, but once you get to the layers underneath the surface you start seeing another city. Due to the snow and how cold it gets during winter, the city has this skyway network that connects each building and creates a comfortable area for you to walk around the city while being inside.

My first day here, I didn't realise this and while I was walking around the city, on the normal streets, it seemd like I was walking around a ghost town and was wondering where all the shops and people were. Of course most of the shops are in the skyway system, which I learnt later.

Also, some of the outer city areas/suburbs, like where the Bryant Lake Bowl resturant is located, seem like some nice areas to visit.




Food:
With limited time picking where we wanted to eat, this was going to be tough and in the end we ate at some nice places.

- Bryant Lake Bowl:

This was a great place to eat and also had that American style ten pin bowling at the back. Like the one you would see on the 'Ed' TV show where you had to write your scores on paper, no computer screen - which added a little extra fun to playing.

We had a great Pad Thai along with a Green Curry.

- Crave:
While walking around 'The Mall of America', we ended up having happy hour here at Crave. Where we had some sushi and a mini pizza, along with Edamane glazed in a nice soy sauce.

- Food Trucks:
While on my walking adventures I stumbled across ten food trucks in a row - it blow my mind. Later learning they hibernate during the Winter and have just starting coming out now that it is Spring. I went the vegaterian option, the food truck was called The Moralomnivore, where I had some fantastic wild rice sliders, with sides of mushroom fries. I can still taste those fries, yummy!

Of course you can check out all the food places we visited on our hashtag #AshBurgerz on instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

- Coffee:
Downtown Minneoplis lacked coffee options most being chain stores, it wasn't till the second day I discovered Angel Food, that was just around the corner where I was staying. They also had some yummy donuts.

I also discovered the nice walk/bike trails along the Mississipi River in Minneoplisi.

From the first day I really thought that Minneapolis was going to be me in the hotel room during the couple of days stay but once I discovered the skyway system I enjoyed my time.

Dont forget you can follow our hashtags #AshLaurenUSA and #AshBurgerz and you can read Lauren's blog, here.

#AshLaurenUSA: First leg Denver

I would never have imagined that I would have had the chance to travel to Denver, Colorado. For an Australian looking at travelling to America (it's a long way to travel, with LA being a 14 hour flight and not into skiing like myslef) you tend to look at Hawaii, New York, California before you would think Colorado. But Denver, you certainly did surprise me with your food, scenery, coffee, sports and people.

Food:

Well, you can see most of my food experiences, via the hashtag #AshBurgerz on Facebook, twitter and Instagram, so I will not bore you too much here and just cover the highlights.

Using my expert knowledge of American eateries (that is watching Man VS Food) I found, well Lauren actually found this great web site which had all the TV shows on the one site, www.tvfoodmaps.com. This was a great way for me to create a list of where to start for my #Ashburgerz adventure, but it wasn't till i started adventuring the city and chatting to the locals that i started finding the hidden gems:

- Tamayo: This is not your traditional Mexican, it is modern Mexican at its finest. I am not going to lie, I had the most amazing Mexican I have ever eaten here. It took me back to my childhood days of eating when the stomach says "full" but the brain says "keep eating, don't stop". This meant grabbing Lauren's half eaten meal, and finishing that off too! Amazing!!!

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Voodoo Doughnuts: Now I think I first saw this place on a Man VS Food episode, but at the time of the show, they were only in Portland. I always wanted to go to this place and when I googled the words "doughnuts" along with "Denver", guess what appeared on my screen? Well yes Voodoo, now located across a few places in USA. As soon as I discovered this I was pretty much straight out the hotel door and following the sweet sweet smell of delicious donuts.


The day before Lauren told me directly "No donuts for me!", knowing I had the green light from Lauren, Voodoo here we come.

The journey to Voodoo was an experiences in itself, walking most of the way, I later discovered I ventured outside the safe zone and into areas where tourists were best not to go. I enjoyed my walk, it was very interesting.

I had two donuts for the day, later when catching up with Lauren, I soon discovered that Voodoo Doughnuts was an exception to the "No donut policy" and so we had more donuts that night.

- Cherry Cricket: Another highlight, so far, for my culinary taste bud tour was this place. Seeing it on Man VS Food and hearing the locals talking on how its traditional American burgers, meant I had to go.

Just have to say, along with the bison burgers at Ted's Montana Grill, had to be one of the best burgers I have had, which went down well with a beer. You could literally make up whatever burger you wanted, which is danger for a person, like myself, who is indecisive. I narrowed it down, then asked the waiter what was the most popular burger ordered, to my surprise it was what I narrowed it down too! So I had a burger with cream cheese and jalapenos, I then added onion rings and some sauce to it.

Like I said, I could go on and on with all the food I have already eaten in the 6 days of being here but to keep this blog at a reasonable size, just go and check out my hashtag which I update (to the annoyance of Lauren) as soon https://www.tedsmontanagrill.com my food is out, #AshBurgerz. Lauren has also been posting too, here.

Scenery:

You cannot beat having the Rockies in your backyard. We took a day trip to the mountains and to see where the famous Buffalo Bill was buried. I will not go on for too long here, let's just say I loved the scenery from the mountains ranges and we had fun at the Buffalo Bill museum where we took some serious pictures (see below).

Coffee:

To my surprise, Denver has some good coffee places.
The best coffee places I went to being Little Owl, Pablo's and Marley Coffee.

While in Denver, we were able to experience and fall in love with ice hockey (well me anyway) and eat a hotdog at the baseball.

My best experience was meeting the locals and chatting to them, like Reaebedbenyah or "Ray" for short. I hope they didn't mind an annoying tourist from down under asking questions like "What's your story?", "Where to get the best coffee?", "What's a good place to visit?" I thank you Denver and the people of Denver for making my experience here one I'll remember for a long time to come.

Well, that's our Denver part. Thank you Denver.

- Also, don't forget to follow our hashtags for the trip #AshLaurenUSA and #AshBurgerz -

Tomorrow we will be on our way to the USofA

Tomorrow morning Lauren and myself will be on a plane heading to LA, where we will have to wait for about five hours before heading to Denver, our first stop.

Thanks to Liam, I have my food hashtag ready and waiting to go #AshBurgerz. This hashtag on instagram already has a picture on it and sorry to dissapoint it is not me or Lauren on a park bench drunk.

We are still trying to work on our trip's hashtag, so if anyone has any great ideas please let us know.

Not sure if I will be doing blogs (maybe some Melbourne Heart one's) while I am travelling but will for sure be instragaming my food and the places I will be seeing. I am excited about the trip, looking forward to the sites and of course the food. The only negative about the trip is that I will be missing the last two matches of Melbourne Heart and Harry Kewell's last game ever!

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