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.

 

Primus - A Tribute to Kings

GP is a bass player. He's also a fan of the bass vituoso Les Claypool, who leads the band Primus. I am a fan of Rush. When I saw that Primus' tour this year is a tribute to Rush and they were playing in Chicago for GP's b-day, it was a done deal.

Primus is not for everyone, but they put on an absolutely amazing show. CP & GP had seats down on the floor in front of the stage. DN & I sat up in a balcony box. Because the music was so bass-centric, no one needed earplugs. It was an amazing show!

The next day, we got GP on his way back to Lincoln via plane, train, and automobile.

 

GP is 21

We met GP in Chicago for his 21st birthday. D & CN joined in.

He flew in and took the Blue Line to meet us downtown.

We had a fancy outdoor dinner at Beatnik on the River overlooking the Chicago River.

 

More White Paint

JP can't stop herself painting things white. This time, it's the built-in dresser in our room. It's going from cedar to a nice clean white.

 

Radiator Painting

Ask JP what her favorite thing in the world to do is, and she'll tell you, enthusiastically, Painting!!

She finally took on the dining room radiator. It took more time prepping it to get the big flakes of 100 years of paint off.

 

Lutsen Last Night

For more photos of Lusten, check them out here.

 

Cascade River State Park

We stumbled across Cascade River State Park and went for a hike. 

At the top was Lookout Mountain with a beautiful view. We missed leaf season by a few weeks. Maybe next year.

 

Lutsen Resort

Having the restaurant on-site made for a fun setting. There was no hassle of driving somewhere or deciding where to go. It was all pre-determined.

The resort property is divided by a small river. There's a covered bridge that spans it. We rented a 3br / 3bd condo on the other side of the river. What is not shown is there are 117 steps up to the condo. By the end of our stay, we were in better shape.

 

Lutsen Beach

No trip to Lake Superior is complete without a dip in the lake. Refreshing!

At night, a guy came out with a guitar and played music for a few hours.