The weekend of June 25-28 Chris and I took off for the North Shore of Lake Superior and had a super dooper fun time. We hit up a few different state parks to do some hiking but also did some relaxing too!

Thursday morning we headed out of Minneapolis around 10AM and had a nice trip up to Duluth where we stopped and had lunch near Canal Park. We ate at Little Angie’s Cantina and completely stuffed ourselves. Not recommended when you are headed off to go climbing around some waterfalls!! Anyway, we decided to walk down by the water before getting back into the car. We even got to see the bridge raised to let boats through:

After Duluth, we drove on to Gooseberry Falls State Park. We hiked around on the falls climbing up the rock formations to get different views. The weather was perfect so we hung out for a while.

There were quite a few trees with their roots exposed like this & I’m wondering how they survive!

Vacation rocks!

I am guessing I’ve been to Gooseberry Falls before, but I don’t remember. Either way, it was fun to explore the area with Chris on a nice Thursday afternoon!


Other posts about the weekend: (coming soon)
Tettegouche State Park
Split Rock Lighthouse State Park & Our Campsite

After cleaning up the jungle on Saturday morning and taking a nap Saturday afternoon, Chris & I met up with TJ & Erica to head across the river to the Radisson University Hotel where the Indulge Beer & Food Tasting event where we also met up with Todd and Patty! Here’s the group before the festivities:

The tickets were $55 each (compared to $25 for the St Louis Beer Fest) so we had pretty high expectations for the evening. We got dressed up in our nice clothes and found a table to camp out at for the evening.

There was a ballroom upstairs at the hotel that was dedicated to the event. The beer vendors were all set up along the outside walls of the ballroom and two tables of food along with some high top tables for mingling filled up the middle.

We had a good time tasting the different beers…but, honestly, I wasn’t at all impressed with the food and I can’t really see us going back.

I’d rather take a day off of work and drive down to St Louis for their festival again! Or, take my money to Buster’s or The Muddy Pig or The Happy Gnome where I know I can try some new beer AND eat some good food. Anyway, this is the group AFTER the event…still looking pretty darn good!

Those drinks in our hands…I poured them. After the event had ended (we tried to rush in for one last beer but were too late) I found a tap still connected and served up some last minute drinks! I figured they didn’t really want to move it out, and no one was stopping me…so why not!

The disappointing food didn’t stop us from having a good time though! We had good company and good beer, and eventually got some food at Stub & Herbs.



We finished the night up with some Guitar Hero at our house.

Last year, I wrote about the jungle that had taken over our yard. Well, it grew back in again but today I think we may have finally given it the final good-bye!

Last week we signed a contract to get a fence put in and so that meant we had to clear the path and level the ground where the fence goes…and this is how it went.

1. Observe the return of the jungle and mutter bad words under your breath:

2. Clear some of the mess away & remove the hostas from the fence path:

3. Take on another project - re-do the area under the tree:

4. And plant the hostas there:

5. Finish cleaning up the jungle and level out the dirt (I wish it was as easy as it sounds):

The fence will start at the house with a gate going across to the bushes. Then it will turn and run the length of the alley, stopping on one side of the huge tree and starting again on the other.

Then, at the end of the yard, the fence will turn again and follow the driveway until the edge of the garage where another gate will be attached to the side of the garage.

6. Figure out some way to get rid of this huge mound of dirt…still working on that one.

7. Take a shower and then a nap. No photos of those steps though!!

It was VERY hot out this morning. We got up and started working around 8am and it was already 70 by then. It was in the 80’s by the time we cleaned up for the day around noon. We’ll probably have to go work on the yard one more time before the fence is installed, just to make sure everything is set how we want it when the installation crew arrives.

Tuesday evening, Chris and I met my brother, mom and dad at the Metrodome for some Twins baseball (game recap here). They were taking on the Pirates and so we were hopeful for a victory, but (as you may know) nothing is guaranteed this year.

For some reason, I wasn’t in the mood for another Dome Dog so I switched up my dinner and headed to the Famous Dave’s counter for a BBQ Pork sandwich instead. It. was. delicious. Chris also switched it up and had a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. And…the Twins won! I’m think my dome dog days are over, but then again, I’m not sure I’m that superstitious. We’ll see. One of these days maybe I’ll learn and eat some food at home before going to the game. Probably not, but maybe!

So, our (free - thanks Josh!) seats were pretty good. Section 223 is behind home plate and even though we were in row 19, we could see everything very well. And, what we got to see was a lot of offense! It was a fun game to watch as runners were on base very often and every Twins player got a hit. Yay. We actually stayed until the end of the game too which is a change. I don’t know why, but this year I haven’t been as interested in staying, especially on week nights. I think it has something to do with fighting with the light rail crowds…that, and getting older. Anyway, the Twins won 8-2 and we went home happy!

Oh, and I had my first malt cup of the season on Tuesday too. I have to say, Blue Bunny has nothing on Kemps. I was a bit disappointed. But, it was chocolate so of course I finished it! I cannot wait to see what the food options are at Target Field next year. I hope to be super impressed.

I started out week 6 with some new scenery. We went camping at Sakatah Lake State Park with my parents and some family friends this weekend and so I started week 6 on Sunday June 14 with a trail run. The trail was paved, so it wasn’t too different than running to Lake Nokomis, but it was nice to get out somewhere new. Plus, with all the crap I ate over the weekend, I needed to get some calories burned off! So, it was sunny & hot but my run went pretty well. After running 20 minutes straight for my last run, 5-8-5 with 3 minute walks seemed like a breeze! I added an extra 3 minute jog after the last walk and ended up going 40 minutes total. At the 30 minute mark I had gone 2.63 miles. My pace on these shorter runs is closer to 9:30/mi but on the longer one last week I slowed down to around 10. If I can keep that up I think I’ll be good to go.

Week 6 Workout 2 (June 16) was two 10 minute runs with a 3 minute walk in between them. I also tacked an additional 3 minute jog on after a 3 minute walk before starting my cool down, and let me tell you…that last 3 minute run was TOUGH! It turned out to be 80% uphill!! Doh. This run felt good and worked up a great sweat. I went 2.72mi in the first 30 minutes and got my average pace to 11:35 overall, averaging around 9:30 for the runs I believe. Now, we’ll see if I can average 10:00 for workout 3.

Week 6 Workout 3 (June 18) was the first of four 25 minute runs in a row! I guess my ‘training’ days are over. It was a steamy 68 degrees when I left the house (according to weather.com) but there was a breeze so I didn’t feel too warm, although I was a sweaty mess when I was done! After my 5 minute warmup walk I jogged 25 minutes at an average of 10:15/mi (that is what it was the few times I checked anyway) and finished the last minute or two in the 9:15/mi range. My distance after 30 minutes was 2.81 which is a big improvement over Thursday and completely unexpected. I figured slowing my pace down would lead to a decline or plateau at least! So…that wraps up week 6 and there are only 3 to go.

I’d also like to note that this is probably the first week that I’ve actually done the runs as scheduled…Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday! Yay!

As we were going about planning our casual reception, I thought it would be interesting to have cupcakes instead of cake. I mean, no plates or silverware, already portion controlled…perfect, right? Well, not to Chris. That boy wanted cake like I couldn’t believe, so cake it was! We actually only ended up going to one bakery before placing our order but lucked out because the final result was beautiful and delicious.
Cake Tasting
We did our cake tasting at Jack’s Bakery in Brooklyn Park on a Saturday afternoon. It happened to be a Saturday after a Friday night of drinking, so Chris didn’t enjoy it as much as he could have, but he survived. We got a mini cake (half white, half chocolate) and some different filling flavors to taste.

This is the sample photo we choose to go with, but with square layers rather than rounded.

And this is the final result (we went with Raspberry Mousse filling).

Each side had a word - Love, Honor, Cherish and Respect:


Cake Cutting
After we ate dinner we proceeded to cut the cake and take a taste of it. That’s all we ate too…never sat down to have a piece! I had told Chris that he better not wipe any cake on my face - and then I ended up putting some on his. Oh well, he was in a good mood that day & it was okay!


Dad’s suit was the worst victim of the cake
Unfortunately, my dad didn’t fare as well in the cake war. After we finished cutting the cake, he promptly took it away to the kitchen, but before he could make it…a part fell off, straight down the front of his suit! Doh. Luckily, Shelly had packed some shout wipes or a tide stain stick or something and he was able to get it pretty clean right away. A trip to the cleaners later and he says you can’t even tell.

And this is what happened to the top layer at the end of the night…on the ground outside my parents house! Oh well, we will re-create our wedding night dinner next March and get a new cake that will probably end up tasting way better anyway!!

As I was preparing to marry my favorite person in the whole wide world, our main theme was “we want everyone to have fun!” which actually turned out okay, but fairly non-traditional. However, mixed into those plans came some very traditional pieces to our wedding.

First, the very famous bridal saying…Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.
Something Old: My something old is a gift from my mother. She told me that Paka (what I called my maternal grandfather) gave this locket to his mother who then passed it along to her grand-daughter - my mom. This is extra special because Paka passed away when I was a junior in high school.

Something New: There are many things involved in the wedding that were new, but I selected my dress as my something new. I had a great evening dress shopping with my mom and my sister, and even though I wasn’t originally planning on wearing a bridal dress, I am very happy with my choice!

Something Borrowed: This was the last of the four items that I found. I don’t remember who came up with the idea, but I emailed many different ladies asking if anyone had a clutch I could borrow for my wedding day. My mom’s best friend, Jayne, was quick to respond and she had quite the collection for me to choose from. The one I used was beautiful, simple and perfect. It was fun to have something from Jayne to use during my special day because she and her family are special to our family…like another aunt, uncle and two cousins!

Something Blue: My something blue wasn’t what most people would expect. I went on a serious hunt for some blue shoes and I found some! They’re kitten heel (which is perfect because Chris isn’t much taller than me…and after I hurt my foot), shiny blue with a little blue fly pin on them. I’m hoping to wear them again someday, with jeans or another dress. We’ll see!


The Veil
The next more traditional thing I choose was to wear a veil. I choose the single layer Elbow length veil and wore it over my up-do hair. I have known a lot of people who have removed their veil following the ceremony, but I figured that it was the ONE day I’d ever wear it so I might as well rock it all night long!


Being Given Away
The final tradition I’m going to make note of is that I choose to walk ‘down the aisle’ to meet Chris with my Dad. I always knew I wanted him to walk with me as I prepared to get married and he did a great job. We didn’t have the officiant ask ‘who gives this girl away’ or anything, but he passed me off to Chris and also shared the Father/Daughter dance with me.

Saturday morning we slept in a bit (after our Friday night dance party) before heading out for the St Louis Brewers Festival. Shelly and Jeremy selected the noon-4pm time slot for us and we got there a little early because there was a little ticket mishap and we wanted to make sure we got in. Luckily, everything worked out okay and we were able to get into the festival and snag a prime table location to hang out with a bunch of people at throughout the event.

The festival was a collection of tents in the gigantic Forest Park in St Louis.
We traded our tickets for a wrist band and a cool sampling glass and the fun began! Since the our time slot started at noon, Chris & I decided to grab some food before we got too full on beer; our excellent choice…a pulled pork sandwich and garlic fries.

There were plenty of other food choices as well including some italian egg rolls that we tried and a pretzel that is larger than the average human head as demonstrated by Shelly’s mom!

There was a place to taste some of the main beer ingredients:

But mostly we hung out inside the 3 beer tents. The choices were sorted by type (rather than brewer) which made it easy to select ones we wanted to try. There were so many to choose from that we never had to wait for more than a few people to get to the front of the line. It was very well laid out and organized…and I think Chris would go back every year if he could!

A smaller tent was the home breweries and those were some of the best beers. In this photo, they’re running the keg beer through hops and straight into the glass.

And then…as the beer continued to flow…shenanigans began:

We were a couple hot messes by the end of the four hour shift!

And afterwards some of the people at beer fest met up at Shelly & Jeremy’s house to have a bbq and hang out. I, personally, ended up sleeping for an hour or so in between…but Chris powered through and kept drinking. I think we were asleep by 10:30pm which was good because the 9 hour drive home would have been miserable if we were hung over.

It really was a great weekend of fun times and relaxation!

This weekend was the first of 3 camping trips Chris & I have scheduled for this summer and it turned out great. There were sprinkles on our drive to Sakatah Lake State Park, but by the time we arrived (after sitting in traffic for over an hour outside of Faribault) the rain had stopped and the rest of the weekend was great. It was a bit chilly Friday night after the rain moved out, but Saturday and Sunday were beautiful.

I wasn’t a good photo taker this trip, but we did do some fun things. Chris & I went on a 10 mile bike ride with my dad (thanks to Dave & Kathy for sharing their bikes) on Saturday afternoon. They have paved trails that surprisingly weren’t super busy on that gorgeous weekend day. Chris and I also took a walk off the paved paths down by the lake that afternoon.

And of course we had a couple campfires! Friday night the fire was necessary for heat, Saturday it was just fun to sit around and talk.

And take photos of Chris.

I got in a C25K training session on Sunday morning before we packed up and headed home. Thankfully, the drive home was much easier and we were able to have a relaxing afternoon at home to energize ourselves for the week ahead.

Looks like I forgot to post photos from week 2 so here are the last two shares we’ve received.

Week 2 (May 28) was a lot of the same veggies but with the arrival of rhubarb and some garlic stuff that looks like green onions.

We also received a set of herbs to plant in our garden…which I posted about here.

And three different types of cheeses…we’ve tried two but haven’t found a great recipe to try the Munster with yet. Hopefully this week. That veggie cheese was very interesting and very delicious, especially on crackers!

Week 3 (June 11) had different greens, a new garlic plant, rhubarb & asparagus again and the arrival of kohlrabi. We’ll see what we can do with all of that stuff!

And the cheeses included two cheddar and a special one from a MN farm.

We tried the Spring Cheddar with Ritz crackers this weekend at camping and it was really good. Can’t wait to try the other two! We only have one more set of cheese coming before our cheese share ends. We have decided not to continue with the cheese share because we’re eating WAY too much, but next year we may consider selecting the once a month share. Otherwise, maybe we can just treat ourselves to some high quality cheese every once in a while.