Big Red

Meet Big Red. He is replacing the 40+ year-old one that Gramma Porter gave us that is now making awful noises from a worn out bearing. Can't wait to make some pizza dough!

 

Fall Pots

JP installed the decorations we picked up from Sunnyside Gardens.

It wasn't too difficult, and they came in at less than half of what we had been paying in previous years.

She had enough leftover pieces to create a third pot on the back patio.

 

New Gas Lines

Our block received a new gas main and gas lines to each house. Everyone has a sidewalk panel that was torn out and filled in with asphalt now. In the spring we will get fresh concrete.

 

Northern Lights

We were treated to some very bright northern lights that overpowered the city glow. I stepped out into the backyard and my eyes didn't even have to adjust; the sky was glowing red.

This is looking north towards downtown, half a block from the lake.

 

Sunnyside Gardens

We hit Sunnyside Gardens in Linden Hills to see what they have for fall decor. JP was in heaven with all the X-Mas decorations.

 

Gourd Snackbar

One of our Halloween gourds was singled out by the squirrels as the place to go for a snack.

 

New Dog Beach Sidewalk

A couple summers ago, we had a heatwave that buckled the curb along the walk above the dog beach. It fell away and allowed for more stuff to also fall away. This fall it was repaired and a new concrete section of walking path was installed. 

 

Halloween Clearance

JP hit the post-Halloween sales and scored some cute Halloween pillows for next year. It used to not make sense, but with the way time is speeding up, a year away is not that distant anymore.

 

Naval Strategery

CP is all into board games. Not Parcheesi or Monopoly, but more strategic thinking-cap games with endless rules. He brought over a naval warfare game that GP & I refused to play. Mom did her mom thing and played it with him for three hours. They had protractors, rulers, and compasses out as part of it. 

CP hand-painted all the little ships. 

 

Long Fall

We have had a spectacular fall that has gone on and on. Weekend mornings are my favorite. The dog and I wander around the area and stop at a park bench for some cheese and coffee.

The leaves continue to fall and change color. The gold and orange maple leaves on the patio have been succeeded by the darker reds of the K's maple.

 

Sushi Dog

JP found a sushi costume for a cat and stretched it out to wrap around the dog. He likes sushi, but he does not like wearing a costume.

 

Radio Waves

While JP was watching some crazy sci-fi movie, I was sitting on the floor playing with a PC-based radio receiver and some antennas on my laptop. The incoming signals were making those weird whistling sounds like an old radio. JP thought it was very funny. It was not.

 

Fall Color

We are having a spectacular fall this year. The patio is covered with glowing yellow maple leaves. It takes about an hour for it to be covered again after cleaning it off.

 

Downtown Walking

I went to the Minnesota Design and Manufacturing show downtown for half a day. I took the bus and enjoyed the sights on the walk to and from the convention center.

 

State of Hockey

I picked up some hockey skates for $25 on Facebook Marketplace. Can't wait to try them out! Between skates, skis, and snowshoes, we're going to be busy this winter.

 

Let There Be Light!

After going two years without lights around the lake, we finally have lights again! Copper thieves stole the wires from miles of streets and parkways here and in St. Paul. The new wires are aluminum, and each lamppost has a sticker on it saying that there's no copper and the aluminum is not worth anything.

 

New Nightstands

We finally replaced our old nightstands with some new ones that better match the room.

City Sunrises

As nice as the sunrises at Gunflint were, the sunrises here at home are also nice!

 

Lutsen Mountain

On the way home, we stopped at Lutsen and took the gondola to the top of the ski mountain. We were a week late on catching the maples. The day before there was a windstorm that stripped the leaves from the tree and left them bare.

There's a nice cafe at the top that serves fries & beer.

 

Gunflint Formation

One of the coolest and most underappreciated things about the area around the lodge are the rocks of the Gunflint Formation. They are a breccia that was put in place 1.8 billion years ago when an asteroid hit the east end of Lake Superior. The impact and resulting tsunami broke apart the existing banded iron formation and mixed the chunks all up.

There's a good sized boulder of it on the beach, and all the rocks making up the fireplace in the main lodge are made of it. You can see the individual chunks of rock that were broken up.

 

Trails End Campground

The Gunflint Trail dead ends a few miles up the road from the lodge. There's a National Forest campground there that has campsites with incredible views overlooking the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 

 

Magnetic Rock

No trip to Gunflint is complete without doing the hike to Magnetic Rock. It's a 30 foot tall monolith of a banded iron formation that was lifted up and put in place by the glaciers.

I didn't have a compass with me, so I used the magnetometer on my phone to see how magnetic the rocks were.

 

Sunrise, Sunset

The sunsets and sunrises on the lake were spectacular. One of the things that makes it so nice is that there is no one on it. 

 

Boat Day

We rented a pontoon boat for half a day and cruised down the lake and back. CG wanted to fish, so we ran at a slow trolling speed the whole way and enjoyed the solitude of the lake.

There were three other boats on the lake that were doing the same thing.

 

Fall Hike

We had beautiful weather despite it being too warm for this time of year. Who would have thought we'd be hiking in shorts in October up on the Canadian border?

There are a bunch of trails behind the lodge that go up to the tops of the bluffs.