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A Dog, Pride and Lake Maria

 We are dog sitting Honey for a few days. Emma offered to pay us in her awesome chocolate chip cookies and New Glarus beer, so how could we refuse? Let's just say Peanut was not too thrilled with a dog in the house.

I really enjoy a big pancake (also known as a dutch baby). If Brooke puts on a cute dress and bakes a pair up for us in the morning, I like it twice as much.

We had macerated raspberries in the freezer. As you may have guessed, we've been emptying it out as much as possible. It was the perfect replacement for the typical lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Yup still growing.

The pumpkins are loving life the most.

 After breakfast we headed downtown for the gay pride parade. As we were about to take off Scott noticed his tire was flat, thanks to his fall the other day. 

I picked my bike up from One on One Bike Studio on Friday and headed straight for work. When I biked home, I took a turn too fast and smashed the left side of my face into the pavement. I bent a brake (which was easy enough to fix) and popped the tire. 

It wasn't a pretty, but I survived.

After switching back to my other wheel (that is the wrong size, but fits just fine) we finally biked to the parade. 

 Of course Brooke had the little red one along for the day.

It's interesting to see the wide array of people at the Twin Cities Pride parade. Parents, children, young couples, black, white, asian, latino...they were all there. 

 Our congressman, Keith Ellison, put it best when he tweeted that it's not just a parade, it's a civil rights march.

 Scott always finds someone to talk to. 

Actually, he started talking to me.

 At the end of the parade many people in the crowd joined in a march to Loring Park.

We walked around the park and decided we were ready for lunch. All the food vendors there required tickets that you had purchase separately. We decided to find somewhere to eat in the neighborhood instead. 

We ended up at Market BBQ. I had a pulled pork sandwich. 

We had lived blocks from Market for two years and within biking distance for years. I have to say I wish I had went there earlier. The beef brisket sandwich I got was delicious. The barbecue sauce itself was too ketchupy for my taste, but it worked well in concert with the dry rub. 

When we got home we decided to go camping with Honey. She seemed to like it last year when we went camping with some friends and family.

We packed minimally, so we thought the hike to the campsite wouldn't be to bad.

 Since Brooke was being dragged by the dog, I lugged the wood to the campsite.

The walk was much easier with Honey pulling all my weight.  

 Not to long after we got a ways down the trail mosquitos attacked. In all the years I've lived in Wisco and MN, I've never been bitten alive like this. It was a constant battle.

Once we got to the site we put on a lot of bug spray, we tried to stop to put it on on the way, but stopping for a second made the bugs attack us more.

Once at our scenic site we went for a hike to an isolated island...

Played a few rounds of kings corner...

And started a fire.

For dinner we had hotdogs. Yay (NOT).

She claims she didn't like the dogs, but a photo can't lie. 

That was my first bite. I got about halfway through and couldn't handle it anymore.  

We brought a whole 8-pack of organic hot dogs. That was my dumb idea. Honey and I ended up eating 3 or so, each. 

 Earlier in the week we had our friend Alex over. 

 The reason I mention it is that we made shrimp and grits. Typically our recipe asks for smoked sausage. We used the Nueske's smoked wieners I bought on our last Wisconsin expedition. Those were hot dogs, the crap we ate while camping were dog food at best.

Before sunset we headed to the dock so Honey could get a drink. 


Brooke always complains about the lack of fire photos. This one's for you babe.

Honey slept in the tent with us, but the next morning we let her play on the campsite. Then she decided to be a creep.
One last longing gaze at the lake that's not Lake Maria.
We took MN 55 home. It was a more scenic (and less confusing) route than 94 to Lake Maria. We stopped at little roadside diner, Dobo's Cafe and Bakeshop.

Their donuts looked good so we started with one for each of us.

 Everything was picture perfect and tasted just as good. The breakfast sausage was exceptionally memorable, fried until it had a perfect charred casing. If you're ever in Loretto, Minn., stop by.

For the first time in the 5.5 years we've been dating Scott and I ordered the same thing. He always orders something else if I pick the same thing as him. 
xoxo

Comments

Amanda said…
I wish you two lived closer because you look like very, very good dog sitters. Mya would have some great adventures with you! That was so nice of you to go for walks and exploring with the dog. Scott, I’m glad you made it through the fall…looked pretty brutal.

I love the foods you make…they are all so different from anything I have ever had. I really need to visit and try some of these creations.
Amanda we would totally watch Mya for you. We went on walks more and the neighbor kids came over a lot to play with her.

Although it was fun I am still a cat person (dogs are too much work).
emma. said…
It's nice to see all of the photos of Honey. :) I especially enjoy the photo of her being creepy. That's so Honey. We got offered a cat today (Tyler's parents have millions) but Tyler declined. Again. I keep telling them to sneak a cat in our car when we visit them but I have yet to find a cat when we get home. I want a cat or a puppy for Honey - she gets bored a lot.

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