Skip to main content

38th Birthday Bike Ride and More

I woke up to a nice birthday note from Meadow. 

I had some PTO to use, it was Scott's birthday, the weather was supposed to be unusually warm and Blake and Daniel were in town.

Since our ice rink was melting we thought we'd go for a bike ride. 



We were almost to their hotel when Blake said they were at Hard Times.

I had to take a picture of my bike rack for Meadow.

Blake and Daniel, what're you doing here? Well, Daniel had a projection project at the Cedar as a part of the Great Northern Festival.

Daniel had to head to his gig. We thought about getting a beer at Palmer's but they weren't open yet. 

I have been wanting to hike Winchell Trail so that's where we went. This is the oldest hiking trail in Minneapolis dating back to the 1880's. Yet it's older than that as it was a path the Natives used to get from Cold Water Spring to St Anthony Falls.

I didn't know there were mini waterfalls over here.

There are a few along the Mississippi River gorge, though most have disappeared.

This one is fed by an entombed creek.


You see that manhole. That was once flush with the ground. It seems the engineers underestimated the erosion from heavy rain.


We biked back to our house to pick up the kids after Blake dropped us off back by the Cedar.

I decided on Marhaba Grill for dinner before Daniel's show. It looks way better in person and not an iPhone SE2.

Theo approved.

After dinner we played at home until it was time to see Daniel's show at the Cedar. Funny enough their creations would be similar to one of the performers.

That weekend Brooke helped paint the trim since most of Theo's room was done. She's better at these kind of details.

Meadow got a Jiji cat knock off lego set from St Nick. It is so hard that I had to take it over. Some steps take me over an hour to do.

Then we went to the Riverview Theater to see the latest and possibly last Ghibli film The Boy and the Heron.

I thought I had been here before but I was totally wrong. Not sure why we hadn't been before.

Well, I went to movie with our buddy Tyler years ago.  

When we got back the kiddos went for a skate. Blake had walked on the rink earlier in the week and we realized, wait, it is skateable despite the warm temps. Sweet.

To get the kids to leave the house again I promised them tamales at La Loma.

Tonight there was an illuminated walk at Afton State Park. I had always wanted to go to one of these. It was a bit crowded due to the warm weather.

It was a bit strange without snow, but better than staying home on a Saturday night.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

The Sunday Circular

 We stayed out late the night before for our friend Jose's birthday party. This time Scott had more to drink than me. So we slept in. Apparently Peanut also had to much too drink. I woke up to this mess. Of course he's licking the plastic bag in this picture. He loves licking bags -- reminds him of his alley cat days.    Scott's hangover comfort food is pancakes and syrup, that would be last thing for me. I tried to cheer him up with emoticon mini pancakes.    My stomach was just not having it. This might be the first time I've left pancakes on my plate. Ever.  Off to work I went, hungover. Damn you Best Buy! While he went to his job, I worked on getting the chile-braised pork shoulder ( from the latest Bon Appetit ) ready for our epic meal .  I got a strawberry plant from the back of someone's pickup truck while Scott was in California. Thanks to Emma for finding it on freecycle . He planted it for me earlier this

The Biggest Maple Tree in Minnesota

On the night before St Patricks Day, Meadow made a leprechaun trap.  Maybe next year Meadow.   Meadow was having a rough morning and needed a hug.  She wanted to play Zelda all day long. The rest of us wanted to go on a hike. We spend so much time getting these kids to get outside and once they are outside they don't want to come back in. Scott chose this weeks hike based off his current love of old growth forests. Wolsfeld Woods SNA just west of the cities in Medina. It's home to the tallest sugar maple in the state.