The Week That Changed Minneapolis

We were supposed to be at the cottage for Memorial Day weekend, but long story short, that did not happen.

Instead we were invited for an outdoor cookout. On our way to Nate's house we had to stop and get gas. I had to document this moment because the last time we got gas was on March 8th coming home from my birthday weekend in Duluth.

Thanks, Covid.

Nate and jess invited us over for a vegan grill out. We jumped at the offer.

We brought the beers and a few snacks. They had much of everything else.

It felt a little strange to be at someone else's house. I also commented that this was the farthest north I had been in months.

Nate also grilled us some sci-fi vegan burgers and also had eggplant on the grill.

Theo stole my camera again.

Nah, this was on my phone.

He must've gotten yours next.

Theo basically just ate fruit.

This kid could live off fruit alone.

We drank a bunch of beers.

More fruit Theo? Yes, yes he will.

The next day we were going to try and attempt to fish at Lake Harriet. We still hadn't heard the news of the death of George Floyd. Protests wouldn't start until later this evening.

It was a bit windy, but we visited all of our favorite hideouts.

The beach was emptier than normal. It was quite chilly.

It's still tiny with the high water levels.

Then we explored the Roberts Bird Sanctuary.

I love having a little place to hike close to home.

We were out of kitty food and took a walk down to our local pet store. The kids had to stop for wishing flowers.

Meadow made a lot of wishes.

This all seemed very strange. A few miles away huge protests and then riots were roiling Lake Street.

With the city now having escalating turmoil every night, we stayed close to home.

Our garage is looking much better with the trim painted.

The destruction was still miles away. Rumblings of white supremacists coming to Minneapolis and sewing chaos started spreading across social media and amongst neighbors.

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The 8th Installment of a Thing We Call Northwoods New Year's Eve

Thursday I took a half day at work so we could make it up north before it got super late. When we arrived we brought in our stuff, turned on the heat and headed back into town to get groceries. We had hoped to get another rotisserie chicken, but they were out. I chose a pastie for my meal. Meadow and I went for the classic, off-brand, box mac and cheese. We made too much and shared it with Brooke. I went right to work making my ice molds. She's always making luminaries if it's freezing outside and we're at the cottage.

A Smoky Weekend at the Cottage and a Stop at Ladysmith's Northland Mardi Gras

This summer we decided to go to the cottage any weekend we had nothing else going on. This week, due to fires in the Boundary Waters and Canada, the air quality was pretty terrible. We debated if we should still go, but it looked like it would clear up by Saturday. So we took the chance. And by terrible, we mean the worst air quality we'd ever seen. Along the way we decided to stop at John and Heidi's Happy Daze . We've passed this place probably 100 times. It was about time to stop by. I ordered the prime rib sandwich special. Yummy. The sandwich that is. Everybody's food was really good, but Brooke's was the star of the show. I want to get back here asap. Now if only this pesky smoke would go away.

To Chippewa Falls for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair

I saw that the Northern Wisconsin State Fair was happening and we didn't have anything else planned. We booked a campsite at Lake Wissota State Park and we were on our way. We hadn't been to a county fair yet and this seemed like it might be even better. We set up camp first in case we would be back late. This was a good excuse for a quick camping trip. Plus we'd never been to Lake Wissota State Park before or Chippewa Falls, really. Since 1897 Chippewa Falls has been hosting the Northern Wisconsin State Fair. More of a super-regional county fair, Wisconsin’s other state fair started as a way for folks up north to avoid the grueling, long haul down to Milwaukee County. Our first stop was to fill up our big jug of lemonade. I think this is the 4th year of this big jug. Brooke brings a couple of our old lemonade jugs with just in case. Then you get the refill price.

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