Hail! South Dakota, A great state of the land

The state song website has been my saviour these last two days as songs about the areas in which we are travelling get less frequent. Down south there are enough country singers for most places to have at least one song, not so much so up here. I guess I could have cheated and selected Watertown by Sinatra, but this Watertown is in South Dakota, that one is in New York! So we have the South Dakota state song: Hail South Dakota, the lyrics include the words:

Come where the sun shines, And where life's worth your while, You won't be here long, 'Till you'll wear a smile; No state's so healthy, And no folk quite so true, To South Dakota. We welcome you.

And the sun did shine so we've got nothing to complain about.

It being the 15th of August tomorrow, the Feast of the Assumption, a holiday of obligation - a day catholics are expected to attend Mass, I needed to check out the Mass times in Watertown. (I'm reminded of doing the same in Naples this day last year.) Luckily there was a 5.15 pm vigil mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception just five blocks away from the hotel. So I went to Mass, it was a large church and it was packed, perhaps 400 people. Great to see so many at a Holyday Mass. 

After Mass I went back to the hotel, which did not have a strong wi-fi signal, hence the delay in yesterday's blog. Drew had spotted a place to eat before we arrived. So at 7pm we headed to Minervas. A restaurant bar with an eclectic range of food.

For starters Drew opted for asian lettuce wraps with sautéed chicken, water chestnuts, mushrooms, carrots, green onions, crispy rice noodles, sweet soy chili sauce. A thai flavour that he enjoyed, the lettuce was really crispy. I had spicy chicken wings with blue cheese dip and celery. I've had better while here, but it was fine.

For mains Drew opted for firecracker shrimp which was breaded shrimp with thai aioli, basmati rice, green onions (aka Spring Onions) and more carrot ribbons. He really enjoyed this. I had seafood mac & cheese this had shrimp, sea scallops, atlantic salmon in a Tillamook white cheddar cheese sauce (remember Tillamook Janet and Martin?) this was served over cavatappi pasta. While the photo makes it look like a white mess, it was in fact delicious. 

Drew was persuaded by the server, Hampton, (I mention his name as I have never met a 'Hampton' before!) to have the Turtle Cheesecake which is a cheesecake with chocolate  caramel and candied nuts. It goes without saying he loved this, a great mix of flavours.

Our overall reflection on Minervas, nice setting, food was OK, but having been spoilt by the quality of Woody's last night it was not of that standard.

We went for a drive around town after dinner as the sun went down and spotted the town sign we had missed earlier. We were back at the hotel by 10.00 and off to bed.