Fall Morning Lake

Weekend morning dog walks are special because not only is the coffee shop open, but it's light out. Weekday dog walks are in the dark with homebrew coffee.

Lake Harriet is shedding her warmth to the cool mornings. JP is reluctant, but I think she realizes that it's time to put her paddleboard away for the season.

 

Fall Colors

We were afraid that the dry summer would inhibit the fall colors. It was a slow start, but the maples did not disappoint us.

The neighborhood is aglow with red, orange, and yellow.

 

Wedding Friends

Funny - we have all been neighbors at some point.

Weddings are so fun!

 

KG --> KO

My flight from Louisville Thursday night was cancelled, so we drove to Indianapolis to catch the first flight out Friday AM. I booked my ticket from Indy to Minneapolis and then to Lincoln, in case there were any more delays Friday AM. The flight was on-time, and JP picked me up at the airport and we headed directly to Lincoln for KG's wedding. We picked up D & MN in Omaha along the way and we all stayed downtown Lincoln for the weekend. Fun times!!

The wedding went off without a hitch, and everyone had a great time.

The reception was in the Grand Manse - an old swanky venue downtown. This is the elevator. Everything is still the original decor.

 

Mowers Then & Now

After a year off due to the pandemic, the annual mower show (GIE) came back to Louisville. There were a lot of cool mowers to see. Here are the highlights of the show:

This is an old-school autonomous lawn mower. It makes tall grass short on its own. It also fertilizes the grass.

This is a future autonomous mower. It also makes long grass short on its own. It does not fertilize the grass.

 

Bear Head Lake SP

The warm food dinner recharge the night before worked like magic. The following day was perfect and we went for an eight mile hike to the far side of the lake. There was a primitive canoe-in campsite that would be fun if/when we return. 

There are some other smaller lakes in the park that are spectacular. 

Our campsite was across the road from this view. 

 

Bear Head Lake State Park

The weather has finally cooled off enough to go camping again. We headed way north, past Ely to Bear Head State Park for some quiet fall camping.

We got the tent setup and went for a stroll. It was 43° and raining. The forecast had no rain, but the reality was that we had rain. Rather than sit in the rain, we went into Ely for a warm dinner: hot soup, cheeseburger, & walleye.

 

XC Skis

Last year, with the pandemic, we completely missed out on buy skis & skates. This year, we paid attention and hit REI the day that they got their skis in. We were able to try on every boot and had a nice selection of skis. Sköl! Can't wait for the lake to freeze over now.

 

MOA Fall Shopping

We had a do-nothing day, so we hit the MOA and cleaned up on the fall sales and a tasty lunch at Twin City Grille.

 

Spiders in the Burners

It was chilly on the patio last night, so we pulled out the heaters. One fired up no problem, the other wouldn't budge. I took it apart and found what I had expected: there was a spider nest in the venturi tube. Once that was cleared out, the burner fired up no problem.

 

Book Club Chicken Sandwich

We went with M & KB to the Book Club for breakfast. MB could not pass up the fried chicken sandwich. He almost finished it.

 

Twin City Marathon

M & KB (neighbors that bought the G's house in Lincoln) came up for the Twin Cities Marathon. KB has been training for a year for this. 

KB crushed it with her run. We leap-frogged around town, trying to keep up with her. The course came down Lake Harriet Parkway, so we were able to catch her and get in a nice walk to the beach. The race finished up at the state capitol in St. Paul. It was a perfect day for her run.

The next day, we did the obligatory photo at the falls.