Skip to main content

Meadow Wants Montessori, Mama Wants to Canoe Minneapolis

We have started looking for preschools for Meadow. Scott contacted a nearby Montessori School and they told him they were having an open house. First thing in the morning we biked over there.

We biked through bucolic Clevleand and Victory neigborhoods.

And we kept on heading north to where the city ends. Well, technically this is still the northside.

This place was a lot farther north than I expected.

I also pictured the school to be in a new building, not an old Catholic school.

Meadow was ready to check out Bright Water.

I had no idea what a Montessori School was heading in. After our tour I was persuaded that this was perfect for Meadow.

Apparently Scott was clueless that I was already implementing things at home. After our tour guide explained what it was, he was like oh Meadow does some of that already.

Before we could leave, Meadow played with a little girl that already attended.

Then back home we biked. I really wish the school was much closer. It's definitely bikeable, but not so much in the winter months.

We could buy one of the new homes being built up here...never.

At least it's a beautiful ride with paths that are cleared year round.

Yay for lunches outside again.

Our bill of sale for our canoe arrived in the mail. Scott can explain more on that.

Apparently you need a bill of sale and the registration card if you buy someone elses canoe. Of course we bought our canoe an hour to the west. The former owner was nice enough to send us a hand-written bill of sale in the mail.

The nearest place to register that was still open was in a Sears over in St. Paul and they closed at 4:30. It was 3:00 so we left right away to get there. We made it all the way there and realized we both didn't bring our wallets. Back home we went.

You can't register a canoe without your freaking id.

Meanwhile Meadow napped during the whole thing.

With our canoe, paddles and registration we are ready to test out our canoe.

Our friends Anna and Aaron invited us over to their house for a grill out. I made a peanut, kale and black rice bowl to bring over. We later found out they only invited us because they had a grill they wanted to test out before having a real grill out next weekend.

We were totally ok with being guinea pigs. Meadow and Roman were even happier.

More beer please. Did we mention it was almost 80 degrees today.

We also brought over our leftover lentil sloppy joes. It seemed to work better eating the lentils with the hotdogs.

After a few more rounds of beer we biked home in the dark.

With summer-like temperatures this weekend, we had talked about going camping. I felt better testing out the canoe first before heading to a rapid river.

The St. Croix would have to wait, but the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes are right here.

Getting the canoe was such a great idea. I can't wait to take it camping.

Meadow and Brooke snacked the entire ride. I was too far away from them. Occasionally Meadow would give me a cracker.

This city can be beautiful. We paddled from the western most Cedar Lake beach through the channel, onto Lake of the Isles before getting to Lake Calhoun.

We let Meadow do some fishing on Lake Calhoun.

It was relatively calm on the other lakes, but the waves were rough over on Bde Maka Ska.

Meadow has a lot more room in the canoe than she ever had in the kayaks.

I also have tons of leg room without Meadow on my lap.

Plus we'll never get separated.

Meadow wanted to fish again when we got back to Cedar Lake.

We took a short break at the beach. 

My woman and her canoe.

Meadow even dipped her feet in the frigid water. I think she may warm up to swimming this year.

Scott needed to get a bike ride in today so after we took a short break at home we biked down to Anna and Aaron's again. They just got this rad new bike. I prefer the back cargo bikes, but I'm still jealous.

We ended our night over at Wirth Beach. What else would you do on an 80 degree April Sunday?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Camping The Driftless

Last month we went to a birthday party at Choo Choo Bob's Train Store . Since then Meadow (or should I say Scott and I) have been hooked on getting Meadow more trains and tracks. I found this awesome deal on Craigslist for a giant bag of trains for only $20. The best part of being a parent is getting to live out your childhood dreams. Craigslist makes that a lot easier.

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

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. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho

Aurora Peeping at the Cottage on Mother's Day Weekend

I had PTO to use up so we made a trip to the cottage for Mother's day weekend. It isn't too often we drive up on a Friday so fish fry was a must.  I would've stayed home and painted, but you guessed it, it was still raining. On the way we took a slight detour up to Lehman's Supper Club up in Rice Lake.  We've never ventured up here from our typical route, but it's kind of the start of Up North, which means lots of restaurants for the tourists. The kiddos got spaghetti. Of course we got the fish fry. I'd rank Lehman's as a mid to low tier supper club. Ambiance is meh. Fish was forgettable. Good salad. After reading reviews later I guess the main attraction is the entree's that include a relish tray and popovers.  But they do have a great bar. My dad has been busy working on Chelsea's bedroom upstairs. She upgraded to a queen bed and we needed to get the box spring up stairs.  It would not fit. Close, but we were really searching for a solutio