Back to the cottage again. This time we enjoyed our tamales at a trailhead for ATV and snowmobile trails in Cameron.
La Loma is still the best tamale shop in all of the Twin Cities. Perfect to bring along on a drive to the cottage.
We decided to come up for Nolan and Harvey's birthday. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving and probably won't see them again until next summer. 
It seemed like the best time to spend some time with the Gostishas and Farbers. With school back in person in Wisconsin, we'll have to reevaluate when we can see Brooke's sisters. Covid sucks.
Since we hadn't seen Chelsea in a long time we had more birthday presents to exchange. Theo got a new water bottle. Back in February, when it was his birthday, Chelsea asked me what Theo wanted/needed for his birthday. We had recently lost his water bottle in Mexico so I suggested he needed a new one. I obviously forgot all about this conversation. Earlier today while grocery shopping Scott picked up a …

Day 1 
Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation.
What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19  precautions and avoided people.
We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month. 
I was still pretty tired from a long drive home.
Don't @ me for doing this, as the kids say. Our kitty has been having is…

My mom recently had a quadruple bypass surgery. I was planning on heading to Michigan to help her out at the tail end of August. Things quickly changed and I was heading to Grand Rapids on a few days notice.
Meanwhile, I stayed behind. I'm back to working a few days in the office and after spending the last few months together we needed a little break.
We stopped in Chicago at my brother and sister-in-law's place to split up the nine hour drive.
I am jealous, Chicago in the summer is the best. 
They treated us to a grill out and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Meadow requested Black Sheep Pizza for dinner. Her favorite. We ordered for pickup and headed over there on our bikes.
The location closest to us had been closed ever since coronavirus.
We ate over nearby MCAD.
We were stoked to be eating our favorite pizza again.
We like to eat out but honestly I don't really miss going to a restaurant. I don't feel like I need to have someone serve me. We've been enjoying getting the food for takeout and having picnics instead.
It's not bad at all. I do still miss bars and breweries.
The kids chased butterflies.
We decided to get a treat at the Michoacana store in uptown.
The kids both choose bubblegum. We got fruity Mexican popsicles. Glad these are catching on in the states. We were obsessed with them in Mexico.
Then we biked back around Bde Maka Ska and Lake Harriet.
We hadn't had donuts from Bogarts in a long time, so, Saturday morning we took a walk over.
They have a really great system. You choose your donut from the window and even p…

Another trip back to the cottage. This time we picked up tamales as we were leaving Minneapolis. We stopped in Turtle Lake to eat said tamales. 

The park had a tiny playground that consisted of a slide and merry ground.
There's a bigger and newer one nearby, but this would do.
You have to say hello to the lake when you arrive.
Hello, Lake.

Scott has been wanting to go canoe camping on the St. Croix for a few weeks. 
More like a few years. Brooke decided on the windier Namekagon River branch of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.
We thought about going last weekend, but I was thinking it might be busy because of the 4th. 
We convinced Blake and Daniel to join us so we would have one car for drop off and one car for pickup. We met Blake at at the Riverside Landing, picked him up and met Daniel at our starting point at the County Road K Landing in Trego. 
Since we started in the evening we only went 5 miles before picking our campsite for the night. We chose campsite 29.7. Campsites are free and first come first served. 
It was a nicely wooded site but had lots of poison ivy.
We would find out that would always be the case. Basically don't venture into the woods.