Fall is Coming!

The first golden leaves are starting to drop from our maple.

 

Little Greenhouse

JP makes one or two little micro items for her micro greenhouse each day. It's really turning into something!

 

Early Fishing

The secret to getting out on the lake at sunrise is to take a nap later in the day.

I had the entire lake to myself for two hours. It was the smoothest I've ever seen.

 

Skol!

We hit the Vikings pre-season game on a picture perfect day. The large doors to the stadium were even open!

Wasp vs. Spider

We were sitting on the patio and this "thing" came drifting down out of the tree. It took us a while to realize it was a spider that was being attacked and stung over and over by a very angry black wasp.

 

Trolling

The beauty of the pedal kayak is that wind poses no problem and trolling is a breeze. Every time I go out, I get to see loons, eagles, the singular osprey, and sometimes a fish or two on the end of my line.

 

Micro Plants

JP is building a micro-sized greenhouse full of tiny plants. She makes each out of bits of paper and wires. 

 

Weekend Summer Weather

The Gs came up for a weekend of perfect weather and some Twins baseball and a table-sized pretzel at Glueck's.

 

Finishing Touches

JP found another bookcase on Facebook Marketplace for CP's place. We went over for a day to help him hang some frames and coat hooks. While we were there the AC died and we spent a few hours troubleshooting it. Turns out the batteries in the smart thermostat were going bad. The thermostat functioned properly, but it would only kick the compressor on for half a second.

While we were at Bachman's getting fall flowers, I noticed that they had their gas grills on sale, so we picked one up for CP's birthday. Once he realizes that he can cook a whole steak just for himself, there will be no stopping him.

 

Sunrise Fishing

I have been wanting to get on the water by sunrise, and I finally did it! It takes a bit of effort to pack the boat and walk it down by 6:30.

I caught two little pikes or baby muskies. I can't tell the difference.

The water was the smoothest I've ever seen it.

 

Minneapolis Summer Weather

We finally got a break from the unusually high temps and enjoyed a weekend on the deck with normal summer temps.

We've given up the idea of getting a lake home - we have everything we need/want here, and we have flush toilets and nice beds to sleep in.

 

Construction Progress

 

The corner where our street hits the parkway is torn up.

We went for TWO YEARS without lights around the lake due to copper thieves that kept stealing the wires. The park district switched to aluminum last year. Looks like were going to be without lights again for a while.

The RCBs (reinforced concrete boxes) started showing up. They measure 6 x 6 feet on the inside dimension. The idea is to bury them down the middle of the street with a very shallow slope so that the storm water slows and drops all its sediment. 

Day 8: BUD to YYZ to MSP

I was pretty psyched about finally going thru Toronto a.k.a. YYZ. One of my favorite bands is from Canada, and they have a great song called YYZ. It starts with a rhythm that is the morse code for the YYZ airport call sign the drummer heard on his friend's VHF radio.

We had bulkhead seats right behind first class with tons of room, so it was a relaxing flight across the ocean.

YYZ was not what I had hoped it would be. Oh well, it's one stop closer to home.

 

Day 8: Budapest Morning

On our final day, we had a few minutes between 6 AM and our bus departure to the airport, so we took in as much as we could.

All over the city are these bronze statues. Some are big, some are small like this guy. Once you start looking for them, they are all over.

We only had time to go around the block adjacent to our hotel, but it was worth it.

 

Night 7: Budapest

Once we got back and cleaned up and cooled down, we relaxed and enjoyed our last night in Europe. 

I made it up to the rooftop bar to check out the view and enjoy one last European beer.

The Grand Opening photographer was still there when I came back.

 

Day 7: Hot Budapest

After lunch, we split up and did our own exploring in the heat. It was 100 in the shade. The Danube was so low, there was chatter about pulling the plug on the nuke plant due to lack of cooling water.

We walked across the Chain Bridge and down the river in the heat to check out the Parliament Building. It was HOT and we got overheated.

Fortunately, we were able to locate a public house attached to an old monastery on the river that had cold drinks and shade. The official drink of the trip became the Aperol Spritz. 

 

Day 7: Budapest Gourmet

We made it from the Budapest train station and to our hotel. Our last night on a boat had been in Vienna. Fortunately for us, our good travel karma was with us and we had a beautiful hotel and we were there for the grand opening of Gordon Ramsay's latest restaurant!

We had some true Hungarian Goulash and some pork schnitzel. RK got the fish & chips that looked amazing.

 

Day 7: Train to Budapest!

In Vienna, we took three Mercedes minivan cabs. Despite being the same make and model, they varied in their condition. By the time we took the one to the train station, it sounded like the rear axle was going to lock up.

I was excited that we got first class tickets! I have ridden first class on trains in China and Japan, and those were great experiences. Not the same on the Hungarian train to Budapest.

It took us three hours. The bus ride ended up being six hours. By the time they arrived at the hotel, we had already explored a bit and had a great lunch.