Mystery Drinks

I was very thankful that Josh planned most of our trip- I wouldn't have known where to start. As usual, he found us an awesome hotel. We were hoping to find a bed & breakfast, but they were all further away from the Prairie Home Companion show and we'd be arriving too late and they were more expensive than even the nice hotels in the city. We decided to go with a nice hotel, the Minneapolis Hyatt. It seemed to be in the middle of things, and had the best deal- free parking and a gourmet breakfast in their cafe for less than any of the bed & breakfasts or comparable hotels we found.

The hotel was almost a convention center- it had lots of meeting rooms and space for trade show displays. While we were there, it appeared there was a DECA convention going on. The breakfast was very fancy- there was a nice buffet complete with "omelette bar" as well as a limited menu of dishes to choose from. The first morning, we went up to the buffet & came back to find that, along with out drinks, a tall, thin glass of a red liquid was at each of our place settings. Was it V8? Tomato juice? We couldn't tell. I drank mine- it was thick and somewhat raspberry- or cranberry-tasting. I had never had V8, so wasn't sure if that's what I just drank or not. I'm willing to try any food once, though!

The next morning, we ordered from the menu instead of getting the buffet, so we were at our table when our drinks came, and again, we got a tall, thin glass, this time with an off-white liquid. The server said they were "complimentary banana smoothies". I suppose the day before, I had a complimentary berry smoothie. Now that I knew what the concoction was, I drank both mine and Josh's (He's allergic to bananas. After the server left, he said "I think I'd die if I drank that." He wouldn't, but he'd not feel very well afterwards, for sure)

I'd never heard of complimentary smoothies. But, then, I don't frequent fancy hotel cafes, either.