Rock the Garden 2014

I went to Rock the Garden for the first time ever yesterday. I was definitely not disappointed— the day was filled with fun and misadventure. We only had the time and money to go on the first day, but it was perfectly alright because it was a great show nonetheless.

We left home at around 10 am, got to Maddy's grandma's house and dropped our stuff off there. Then we proceeded to the Mall of America, left our car there, and hopped on a bus. It was an unbelievable struggle finding the Sears parking lot to leave our car at because of all the construction, and it was our first time navigating the public transportation system of the Cities. The bus dropped us off at 77th St. and Lyndale Ave. and we soon realized that we missed our next bus. We got some Chipotle to ease the waiting anxiety. Unfortunately, we missed our bus again when we realized we were on the wrong side of the street. Maddy made eye contact with the driver and he apathetically waved as he drove off without us. 

After a half hour wait, we finally got on the right bus. We were a bit worn out and slightly bitter about our situation, but we progressively got more excited as more and more festival-goers hopped aboard. 

When we got off the bus, we followed the experienced and local festival-goers and got to the entrance. Maddy and I had the pleasure of standing in front of a group of two friendly bro-like guys giving out high fives. We ended up giving out high fives with them, but only for a brief period of time. The doors eventually opened and with surprising speed, entered the festival grounds. And on a side note, we registered to vote.

There was an awesome, energetic vibe as we scoped out the place. It was a great deal of fun and relaxation. The lineup was as follows: Lizzo, Jeremy Messersmith, Best Coast, Matt & Kim, and De La Soul. Lizzo had on a gorgeous outfit and had great stage presence. Jeremy Messersmith did a beautiful cover of Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. Best Coast was super cool and Californian-like as I expected. Matt & Kim surprised the bejeezus out of me with their awesome performance (Matt referred to "The great American poet Robert Kelly, otherwise known as R. Kelly" and Kim twerked on the hands of the crowd). De La Soul was hilarious and chill, and it felt great watching a legendary group. I thoroughly enjoyed every single performance and was sad when it was over. 

The beautiful Bethany Cosentino, front woman of Best Coast, rocking it out on the mega screen.

Getting home was weird. To sum it all up, Maddy and I were offered 7 bucks to "rock 'n' roll" with a creepy guy outside of a bar and we took a wrong turn on the highway and ended up behind a dark warehouse. Needless to say, we were greatly relieved when we got back to Maddy's grandma's house. 

Once we got back, we stuffed our faces with magical swiss cheese, crackers, and ice cream. We went through my music library and sang Adele until 3:30 in the morning. It was fun.

The next morning we woke up sort of late. We were hungry so we decided to navigate ourselves to a good looking restaurant in St. Paul. We ended up going to Shish Café, right on the Macalester campus. Maddy had Belgian waffles and I had crabcakes eggs Benedict. 4.5 stars for this great joint. It was really good and I was nearly in a food coma by the time I finished.

Maddy's Belgian Waffles

My order of delicious crabcakes eggs benedict

Overall, my Rock the Garden experience was bombtastic. I learned many things that night and had lots of fun, even though the struggle was so real.