Duran Duran and Chic

Our afternoon at the fair was capped off by a great concert at the fair's Grandstand. Chic opened up with a ton of songs from the 70s that everyone knew. Then Duran Duran played an amazing set. JP has been waiting 40 years to see them, and they did not disappoint.

Our seats were up in the nosebleed section, but the music sounded great. We went with the usual suspects from next door.

 

MN State Fair

I took off an afternoon and we hit the MN State Fair in St. Paul. We've been to other state fairs, and none can compete with this one. It's #2 in the country in terms of overall total attendance, but that's only because it runs two days less than #1 (Texas). In terms of people per day, it's #1. 

We were impressed with all the permanent structures. It doesn't feel like a temporary thing.

JP tried some MN wine for the first time, and she actually liked it. Along with Honeycrisp apples, the university has been breeding varieties of grapes that do well in our soils and short growing season.

 

Moonrise

We wandered over to the bandshell to catch some live music. The band was OK, but the main attraction was the Super Blue Moon rising above the water. There were more people on the lake side of the bandshell. 100 or so were doing moonrise yoga, another 200 were taking pictures of the moonrise.

We enjoyed the view all the way back home.

 

Walking Home from Work

We're back down to a single car, which means I get to walk home from the bus stop. If I get off at stop A, I can stop off at George and the Dragon for a cold pint. The route from Stop B passes by Tinto Kitchen, and walking from Stop C takes me along the lake. Poor me.

 

1917 Cottage House

This 1917 house has been sitting vacant for the last two years. It's on a quarter acre lot overloking Minnehaha Creek down by the tennis courts. The vacant lot next to it sold last month and it's looking like the house might get torn down so someone can replace it with a modern mansion.We can't believe that there are no historical preservation rules here. 

 

MNUFC: The Loons

Our neighbors gave us a pair of tickets for a Sunday afternoon Minnesota United Football Club (The Loons) game. It was our first experience of major league soccer, and it was a blast. We had really good seats until the sun dipped low enough at halftime. We spent the second half exporting the complex and came to the conclusion that there are no bad seats there.

 

Scythe

The day after we saw Alien, CP broke out his Scythe game and we played for a couple of hours. It's like monopoly, but with 200 more rules and pieces. He replaced the cardboard coins with some really cool metal ones. Over the past year we have caught on and learned how to play. There's a lot of setup to it, but it's a fun game to play.

 

1979 Alien on the Big Screen

Our local theatre shows all of our favorite movies! CP came over and we went with our neighbors and their daughter. Everyone had fun and ate too much popcorn. The corner (48th & Chicago) is vibrant and buzzing with activity. On one side of the theatre is an amazing clasic Wisconsin-style supper club. On the other side is a tiny bar that serves up fancy drinks and next to them is a neighborhood bar & grille. The theatre also hosts live music, comidians, and fun events, like the one below:

 

Hot Summer

We had an unbearable week of heat. The north shore did not. It's amazing that just two hours away the temps can be so much more reasonable.

We hit 100° with a dew point of 80°. It felt like Mississippi.

 

Go Big Red!

We did the drive down to Lincoln to drop GP off for his final year @ UNL. 

GO BIG RED!!!

 

Summer Music

One of the fun things about our part of town is that we can walk over to the bandshell for live music five nights a week. Despite being in the city, we have our share of pretty views and wildlife.

The next door neighbors did the same thing.

 

Mousehole for the Cat

We gave the kitty her own mouse hole in the basement stairs door. The cat can go thru, but the dog cannot.

New Government Housing

A block south of us, the city tore down an old house and put up a new six-unit apartment. It's made of nine pre-fab boxes that were stacked up in a day with the biggest crane I've ever seen (outside of the ConExpo show).

This is a part of the city's plan for putting affordable housing everywhere. 

 

Raging Rabbits

The entire neighborhood has been absolutely plagued with rabbits this year. Our front yard is normally full of big lush hostas and flowers. This year everything has been gnawed to the ground.

 

Family Reunion

CP Came over for the afternoon and we had a nice family reunion. 

 

CP & MB passed memes back & forth for an hour. Grampa wanted to know what all the laughing was about, so MB showed him. Not sure that it came across the same for him.

Minneapolis Sightseeing

No trip to the Cities would be complete without hitting the falls. It was a perfect day and we grabbed a tasty lunch at one of my favorite places: Sea Salt.

US Bank Stadium is a ghost town now that Taylor Swift is gone.

The falls downtown and Stone Arch Bridge are fun, too.

 

MOA

MB & MB & Grampa Stopped off for a laundry break on their way home from Oshkosh. 1st stop: The MOA!

There is is still some excitement lingering from the Taylor Swift show. 

We hung out with Grampa while the girls shopped and shopped.

 

A Dog's Life

S is really good at just laying around the house. It's one of his favorite things to do.

 

Cat Places

If she fits, she sits.

 

Downtown Walking Loop

One of our new favorite walks is a 2-mile loop downtown. It encircles the St. Anthony falls by going over the Stone Arch Bridge, down the bluffs in Father Hennepin Park, and back across the Hennepin Ave. bridge and Nicollet Island. It amazing how many tunnels exist on both sides of the river where water was used to spin turbines to grind flour.

 

Twins Country Music Night

The Gs came up for a quick weekend of fun. We kicked it off with a Twins night game. 

It was Country Music Theme Night, so the girls got some Twins cowboy hats.

Target field is a lot more crowded this year. Our normal section has been completely full and we have to sit in the next one down the 1st base line. We got spoiled last year.

 

No More Shots

For the last 17 years I've had to carry around an insulin shot. Every time I ate anything, there was an accompanying shot. All day, every day.

That has all changed with the Omnipod wearable insulin pump. It contains three days worth of insulin and there are no more shots! It listens to the continuous glucose monitor (that is also stuck to me) and determines the correct dosage. So far it has been amazing!

 

Shrubbery

Now that the blank canvass part of the backyard is complete, JP is having fun filling in the blank spaces. She put in three dwarf evergreens and some gravel. 

 

Marshall Crenshaw

One of JP's favorite bands from the 80s played at the Parkway, our neighborhood venue.

 

We were the youngest fans in the crowd. Marshall Crenshaw is 69 and looked and sounded great.