UW-Minnesota

I get so used to the University of Wisconsin schools that I often catch myself saying UW-Minnesota when referring to the Gopher's homeland. Good thing I did not screw up today. Maybe because it was all so "Minnesota nice."

If you can believe it, for the first time in 2015, Carter actually got up and showered before I even got out of bed. And this was at 6:20 a.m.! Either he got to sleep early last night or he was a little excited for our day on campus.

David and Sara were such wonderful LOCAL hosts. They took us to Al's Breakfast Diner so we could start off the day in Dinkytown like the cool kids.

This 65-year-old diner is literally as wide as this picture. There is no extra awning to the right. May 10 feet wide tops.

See what I mean? 14 stools and they fill up fast. We got there at 7 a.m. and by the time we left, there was a line of folks standing behind our stools on the end to the door. The rules are: No saving seats. You eat. No loitering. You go. Sure the food was fine, but the experience was cool. Carter said he has got to take some friends there.

David had to work today but Sara took us on a bit of a campus tour before we had our official meetings and tours, starting at 10:45 a.m. This cool light-up spiral thing is in one of the new buildings on campus that focuses on "green energy," state-of-the-art classrooms and, of course, funky stuff.

After our group introductory meeting, we had an official tour with a guy named Joe, who transplanted from Eau Claire and, similar to me and other Northwest Wisconsin folks, is a Twins, Vikings and Wild fan. He pointed out a view of the new Vikings stadium in progress along the skyline. Sweet! He emphasized that everyone is "Minnesota nice" and is very helpful – even to non-Viking fans. Ha.

We had a break for lunch so Carter and I headed back over to Dinkytown, since we know our way around so well now. Went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Highly recommend it. (I think there's one over by Appleton or Green Bay.) Very good burger and Amazing with a capital A french fries.

After lunch we had a session targeted to prospective engineering students. Good stuff. They have a great program and so does UW-Platteville. The U could probably fit 6 Platteville campuses in it. Huge. Not sure I'm a fan of that, but I think the 17-year-old was in awe.

Naturally, everything is going to sound great and frankly, it looked great, too. But a Big Ten school should be. I imagine when we visit the Madison campus after Carter returns from Germany, we will experience the same "ooohs" and "ahhhs."

But Carter looks so natural hanging around with Goldy, doesn't he?

Time will tell if this is one of our UW choices!