Sorry for the wait, folks, but things have been a little too hectic here to get a post (or several posts) online. This morning I pointed out to Elise that two weeks from today (Saturday, August 10), we will be in Duluth with our RV. Between now and then, she and I will fly back to Oregon, spend about a week packing and preparing, and then three days driving to Minnesota. That also means we're two weeks away from something resembling a first day of school. Holy cow, the preparation for that has really consumed us for the last few days. Probably procrastinated on that task a bit too much.
Anyway, the purpose of this post is to tell you the story of last weekend, which we spent in Minneapolis. To set the scene, we left our cabin in northern Wisconsin on the morning of Saturday, August 3rd; we dropped excess stuff back in Duluth and then drove about three hours down to "the cities." Unbeknownst to the kids, our former nanny was on a flight from Colorado for a surprise visit. We settled into our hotel (the spectacular Best Western Plus Normandy Inn) and enjoyed their free shuttle to nearby Target Field for a major league baseball game.
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| All six of us on the gold glove statue outside Target Field |
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| Once the game started it was fun! |
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| One more picture, after the game |
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| Beyond right field is a play area that helped us survive a two-hour rain delay and the bottom of the third inning. |
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| All smiles |
One of the worst sights a baseball fan can see at a stadium is the tarp covering the infield. After a two-hour delay, we were treated to a high-scoring game, which we enjoyed for three innings because it was already 9:00 by then!
The kids fell asleep watching the game on TV. They woke up to find their nanny in the adjacent hotel room! The highlight of her visit was a game between our Portland Timbers and the Minnesota Loons (mens major league soccer). The game was exciting and close but unfortunately a loss for the Timbers.
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| Dogpile ("Miss Cherie" is under Ali, sort of second from right) |
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| Ali at Como Park |
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| Cate and a Como Park gorilla |
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| Ali on the Como Park carousel |
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| Allianz Field, visitor section, 90+ degrees in the shade |
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| Ali got into it! |
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| Cherie (center) brought Timbers gear for us to wear |
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| Cherie, Ali and Ali's new best friend. |
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| Henry and Cherie |
After the game, we drove out to the 'burbs for a backyard party with some of Elise's high school friends and their kids. We returned to our hotel tired and sweaty (it was 90+).
On Monday morning, while the kids were enjoying the hotel pool again, I went to the University of Minnesota, where my great-grandfather was a professor and a developer of what is now the department of fine arts. In his honor, the performing arts building there is named after him and his papers are stored in their archives. I spent about an hour reading old letters and postcards and enjoying a few artifacts.
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| Ali and me in front of the house where my grandfather grew up. |
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| A 1904 postcard from my great-grandfather to his future wife with just a city and state. |
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| A postcard from my mom, age 11, to her grandmother. |
The heat was hard on us but we had a really good time in the cities. It's pretty amazing to see the signs of corporate investment (Target) in an old downtown. I'd love to spend more time in the Old Mill district, since we didn't get to visit the Stone Bridge or other parks down there. We had a tiny sample of Como Park and could clearly spend a lot more time there.
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