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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Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

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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