Last fall, I felt like I didn’t get to enjoy the season. Wedding planning took all my time, and our weekends were busy with other weddings and obligations. I’m so looking forward to enjoying fall and what the season has to offer. I wanted to share my bucket list of events, activities, or things to look forward to this season.

Fall-Themed Candle Melts

For my birthday, one of my best friends gifted me an “Open Road Candles Sample Set” with fall-themed scents. OpenRoadCandles sells candle melts to use in a Candle Warmer. There are ten different scents, including Apple Butter, Pumpkin Pecan Waffles, and Autumn Leaves, to name a few. I’m thrilled to use them and have our entire apartment smelling like an apple orchard. My husband will either be happy or annoyed; we shall see.

Trip to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival

I love the Renaissance Festival! I usually go at least once every year except last year. This year, I have set aside two September weekends to devote to a Renaissance Festival trip. Each weekend has a different theme, so I wanted to have two weekends free to pick which weekend I wanted to go to. There are a few food options I always look forward to, such as the soup in a bread bowl or the apple cider float with cinnamon ice cream.

Wearing my Spooky Clothes

Last year, I bought a Nightmare Before Christmas jersey sweater at Disneyland along with a witchy graphic t-shirt that I didn’t get to wear. I have a black Bats cardigan that’s one of my favorite cardigans to wear. I look forward to pulling out my Halloween-themed clothes to wear throughout the season.

Visit an Apple Orchard

Another fall activity that I didn’t get to do last year. Apple Orchards are often crowded, but well worth the visit. I usually like to try some apple-themed treat, or if the orchard serves hard apple cider, that’s another fall-themed drink I enjoy. I like being outside in the cooler weather and seeing families bringing their kids to the orchard.

It will be so nice to truly enjoy fall this year. Let me know what your plans are for the season in the comments down below.

It’s been several weeks since my Texas road trip, and I have been thinking fondly back to portions of the trip. For my second post, I wanted to focus on Austin, as that’s where my husband and I spent a good amount of time. Austin is probably one of my favorite cities I have ever visited in the US.

One of the first things I noticed and loved was live music. Austin was coined as the “Live Music Capital of the World”. There is live music everywhere! We were walking on Congress Street, one of the main streets downtown. We heard jazz, metal, rock, country, and bluegrass, to name a few. One night, we listened to EDM music at an outdoor bar. It reminded me of a music festival I attended years ago. There was truly something for everyone.

Besides live music, art was another primary focus in Austin. I had an art mural list saved on my phone, and it became a scavenger hunt of finding all the local art murals in various parts of the city. Coinciding with the art murals, several stores sold local art. We couldn’t resist buying an art print featuring one of Austin’s more well-known art murals.

In between live music and shopping for art, there were other areas we explored. We drove to Mount Bonnell, which provided a beautiful view of the Austin skyline. We toured the Lyndon B Johnson Library & Museum. I didn’t know anything about Presidential Libraries, but I was glad that we took the time to visit. I convinced my husband that we should stop at Austin Books & Comics, which was one of the best comic book stores I have ever been to. I’m planning on writing more about this in a separate post.

Austin was an awesome city to visit. Austin is one of the cities in the US that’s growing so quickly, and I can see why. I have Austin as a city on my list to revisit because there’s so much to discover. Compared to my road trip in March, I felt that this trip was slower-paced because we didn’t make as many stops. My last post will be up sometime next week, where I will write about Dallas since we did a day trip there as well.

I’m back from vacation! My husband and I drove to Austin, Texas. Initially, I was going to schedule posts to release while I was out, but I ended up scrapping that idea and taking a week off instead. Similar to other vacation posts, I’m going to write three posts that summarize my trip. The first post is dedicated to a city we stopped in, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Leaving from Minneapolis, the fastest driving route to Austin is to cut through Oklahoma. You may be thinking, “Why would you want to visit Oklahoma?” Oklahoma, like many states in the US, has the stereotype of being a “fly-over state”. As someone who eventually wants to visit all the US states, I was excited to cross off Oklahoma from my list. Whatever expectations I had about Oklahoma, I was pleasantly surprised. Oklahoma City (abbreviated OKC) was a city where I had a great time exploring.

One of the first things we did was visit the Wheeler Ferris Wheel. The Wheeler Ferris Wheel was the original Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel. It was purchased and now resides in a park outside of downtown OKC. The Wheeler district was neat. There was a full park with numerous trails on the border of the Oklahoma River. The area was in a warehouse district with a full view of the OKC skyline. The Wheeler district reminded me of northeast Minneapolis, which is our artsy area of the city.

Besides taking pictures at the Wheeler Ferris Wheel, we walked around the Oklahoma City National Memorial. For those who are unfamiliar, on April 19th, 1995, a bomb went off at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in OKC. I wasn’t even a year old when this happened. I’m learning as an adult what happened that day and how horrific this event was. The memorial was beautifully crafted, but haunting. Several chair sculptures represented everyone who died that day. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go through the museum, but if I’m ever back in OKC, I will make this a priority.

That’s OKC! I was not expecting to love OKC as much as I did. There’s a lot of history here, and local businesses to support. Sometime next week, I will post my Austin, Texas travel recap.

I love how I posted about my travel plans, and then they changed. My original plan was to fly to Seattle in August for Emerald City Comic Con. However, when I went to book my flight, I couldn’t find a round-trip flight cheaper than $900. With flights being canceled left and right, I felt it was too big a risk to make such a big purchase. I contemplated driving to Seattle, but it was twenty-four hours one way, which would mean four days of driving there and back. It would leave barely enough time to explore Seattle, plus attend Emerald City. In the end, I decided to go somewhere else. After much deliberation, I decided to plan a road trip to Austin, Texas, as it was a city I had on my list to visit.

I’m thrilled to leave for vacation! My last trip was in March, so about three to four months ago. I was craving another trip. I find I get the travel bug every few months, and it’s satisfying to plan a vacation and have something to look forward to.

If you’re planning a vacation, let me know where you’re going in the comments section down below.

2012 was a pivotal year in my life. The Avengers was released, which inspired me to start reading comics; the world was supposed to end thanks to the end of a Maya calendar, and I graduated from high school. High school is a period of time I would never want to relive. It doesn’t mean that it was terrible per se, but it’s a time that I’m glad is over and done with. I wanted to take some time to reflect on how far I have come and where I’m at now.

In high school, I was a nobody. To be fair, my high school was huge! I think my graduating class was at least 900? There were so many people whom I had never met until I heard their names read at graduation. I didn’t stand out much in high school. I was in band through my senior year, and it was one of my fondest memories. I tried marching band, but it wasn’t for me. I still have my alto sax at my mom’s house, and I’m not ready to part with it yet. I went to prom with my friends, and we took so many pictures. There were fun moments in high school that aren’t at the top of my mind.

When I think back to high school, I think about how shy I was. I hung out with my friends, but I absolutely hated being forced to talk to someone I didn’t know. High school was a period of time when I was insecure about who I was as a person. I think that’s completely normal for this time in anyone’s life. When I graduated, I couldn’t have been more thrilled about moving forward with my life.

As far as who I am now, I’m someone who is way more outgoing than I ever thought I would be. I would consider myself bubbly and social at work. I like talking to new people I have never met. I still need my alone time, as I find that I need to recharge in between social situations. Writing Bizarre Brunette has allowed me a creative outlet to discuss my geeky interests. I write because I genuinely enjoy it and I want to share my interests with others. I have come a long way from where I used to be.

Thankfully, I haven’t heard that my high school is doing a ten-year reunion. If you couldn’t tell, I have no interest in going to a reunion. I have all the close friends I would need, and I don’t need to revisit a time of my life that has passed.

For Memorial Weekend, I knew I wanted to go somewhere. Originally, I wanted to fly to Arizona, as there was a convention happening the same weekend. While that sounded fun, I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough time to see everything I wanted to in the few days I was there. Instead, I suggested to my husband to explore Fargo. Fargo is in North Dakota, right along the border of Minnesota. It’s only a 3 1/2 hour drive, so it’s easily doable in a day. While Fargo isn’t on the same level as Arizona, I still had a blast.

I’m not sure what I expected from Fargo. It’s easy to say that North Dakota is known as a boring state to live in or to drive through. Fargo was a nice city! The downtown area has several cute shops, restaurants, bars, and art murals. I wasn’t expecting Fargo to be as artsy a city, but there were murals everywhere. My favorite mural was a Mario wall that was on a side alley downtown.

Besides art murals, there were so many ice cream shops. I’m not usually an ice cream fan, although the ice cream shop we stopped in was cute. The Silver Lining Creamery was right in the heart of downtown. I was impressed with the number of ice cream options there were. I tried a vegan Oreo ice cream made from coconut milk. To be clear, I’m not vegan; I simply like trying plant-based foods. It was delicious! The one thing I would say is that the coconut flavor was prevalent, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t like coconut.

We ended our trip by stopping at a few breweries. The first brewery was DCR Brewing, located downtown, and then driving to the second brewery, Drekker Brewing Company. Drekker was packed! It was a gorgeous brewery with multiple levels and outdoor seating. It was a beautiful day throughout Fargo, so I could see why the brewery was so busy. My husband has seen Drekker at various beer festivals he has gone to, but hasn’t been able to sip their beer. It was a cool place! I would have loved to spend more time there, but we had a 3 1/2 hour drive home, and I didn’t want to get home too late.

Driving to Fargo was a fun day trip. I would say a day trip was the perfect amount of time. It got to a point where we were running out of things to do. As far as my next trip, I still have my eyes set on Seattle in August for Emerald City Comic-Con.

Minnesota is the US state known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Minnesota has such beautiful areas of the state, and one of those places is the North Shore. The North Shore is about 2 1/2 – 3 hours away from the Twin Cities, and it’s along Lake Superior, one of the Great Lakes. For reference, the North Shore is the northeast tip of the state. Our friends like to visit the North Shore once a year, and this time I decided to come along.

You might be wondering why I’m putting quotations around “camping”. The reason is that a friend ended up getting a hotel room because we aren’t big campers. I have been camping a few times before, but it’s simply not for me. I like hiking, canoeing, and kayaking, but I prefer indoor plumbing. It worked out perfectly! My husband camped outside, which he loves; it’s simply not my preferred way to enjoy the outdoors.

Throughout the weekend, we drove through various small towns along Lake Superior. One town is called Grand Marais, and it’s about 30-40 miles from the Canadian border. My husband is a big fan of a brewery up there called Voyageur. Voyageur had an upstairs patio, and it was heavenly to sit, have a pint, and goof off with friends in the sun. The day before, we also stopped at another brewery on my list called Castle Danger. I have always drank Castle Danger beer, but I have never been to the brewery.

It was such a fun weekend! It goes to show that you can do so much exploring in the state or area you’re from. Our friends were talking about making this an annual trip, and I’m all for it. The North Shore is calling me to come back.

May 4th is always a fun day. I love scrolling through social media and seeing everyone express their love for Star Wars. I knew I wanted to spend the day celebrating Star Wars, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do. I discovered that Dangerous Man Brewing Company brews a special Star Wars beer called “Blue Milk (Blue Razz Milkshake Ale)” along with playing the Star Wars films throughout the night. I convinced my husband to come with me, so I didn’t have to go by myself.

Dangerous Man Brewing Company is a brewery in Northeast Minneapolis. I have been to Dangerous Man once before, but it had been a while. As we arrived, I noticed there were several Star Wars banners hanging on the ceiling. I wasn’t surprised to see that the taproom was packed. The line, fortunately, was pretty short when we got there. I knew right away that I had to try the Blue Milk beer while my husband opted for a lager.

I’m open when it comes to beer. I don’t mind trying pilsners, lagers, fruity beers, and sour beers. I will admit that I was apprehensive as to whether I would like Blue Milk. I’m not a big fan of Blue Raspberry-flavored things; however, this had a mild flavor. It was smooth, fruity, and light. I let my husband try a sip, and even he thought it was pretty good. My husband hates fruity beer, so for him to say it’s not that bad is a big compliment.

Besides Blue Milk, Dangerous Man had special Star Wars-themed stickers to pass out. I took one as a souvenir. It lists Blue Milk with a few Stormtrooper helmets on some of the letters. Unfortunately, with the taproom being packed, we only stayed for one beer before leaving to go to another favorite brewery of ours nearby.

This was a relaxed way to celebrate May 4th. It sounds like Dangerous Man does this every year, and I would be open to making this a ritual. Let me know in the comments how you celebrated May the 4th!