Filed under: St Paul
Yes, we really did have to come home from Ireland for the Irish Fair. No, that wasn’t my call.
As a special treat, we brought the Irish weather home with us. It rained the first three days we were home – and during most of the Irish Fair. In fact the fair had to close early on Saturday night because of tornado warnings! (Since then the girls have asked every night if it seems humid – which is code for – do you think there will be a tornado?)
On Friday night Patrick and I saw the Dropkick Murphy’s. That was fun. Lots of stage diving. Not by me, but others. Here’s a video from that show.
We also entertained one of the speakers from the Fair – Ruan O’Donnell (no relation). He’s a scholar who speaks about Northern Ireland – both as a history lesson and current affair. He was really interesting. He clearly has talked to a ton of very involved people and had some great stories. Also I think he made the presentation interesting for the audience since he talked a lot about the impact of Irish Americans on the situation.
Also the girls and I spent a lot of time cruising the Fair. We saw a fun kids play done by our friend Sarah. The girls saw some friends who do Irish Dancing. Here are the pics.
Filed under: St Paul
Tomorrow we’re hitting the State Fair with the Lynches. We’re doing our second annual scavenger hunt. Some folks had asked me to share the hunt in advance.
Finally here are the pictures. We had a great time. We had tons of swimming. We didn’t have dessert at lunch so we felt like we were really on a health kick.
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
Could I be any slower getting the rest of the vacation stuff on the blog? I doubt it but maybe I can catch up quickly today.
One of the fun things they do at Fair Hills is the staff put on a show. I’ve included a sample of the acts below and links to more videos from the show. The girls *love* the show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdJ7fZOwM6M – Lily, Aine & Kate with others on stage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fo1i7ZZaWM – Larry & his sister with Wide Mouth Frog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GSxm0rWUkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyR7paeURY
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
A golf course, a sheet of plastic, a ton of water. That’s all I’m going to say…
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
So apparently Detroit Lakes is on butterfly migration path to Mexico! And they all stop at Fair Hills. The place isn’t exactly inundated but it’s fun to see the monarchs and as you can see we saw at least one good branch-load of butterflies is a fir tree, which kind of surprised me. I thought they’d like a softer looking tree.
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
We’re in Fair Hills Resort this week. It’s up in Detroit Lakes. It’s like a Minnesota-flavored Dirty Dancing resort. There are loads of kids’ activities – and some adult stuff too. There’s a talent show and a show (Hootenanny) that features staff talent. There are 3 meals a day. The chef can make pancakes in any shape!
These were our activities from the first full day:
- 7 am – I walk with Barb, who leads about 20 people on a 1 hour walk around Big Pelican Lake. A boat picks us up in time for breakfast. Lily joined me. We saw an eagle
- 8:00 – breakfast
- Morning: It rained so the best activity was swimming. All of us swam for about 90 minutes in the pool and hot tub. It rained steadily the whole time – but it really was perfect for swimming!
- 11:00: Zumba – a new aerobics-dance exercise class, which the big girls and I loved!
- Noon – lunch
- 1:00: golf lesson for me, Kate & Lily
- 2:30: Aine got to ride a horse and play on the playground with other 4-8 year olds. Lily and Kate went for the water games – and they both jumped off the high dock-thing. Kate did not love it. I watched her on the high dock thinking about jumping – other kids trying to convince her, her thinking, getting close to the edge and backing off, but eventually she jumped
- 6:00: dinner
- 7:30: Ice cream social and volleyball game
- 10:00 everyone is asleep!
So that’s kind of a typical day. Rather than catalog every day like that I thought I’d just post highlight posts for the rest of the week – short but sweet. Maybe with some videos.
Filed under: St Paul
We’ve been easing back into life in St Paul. The girls have been seeing friends. I’ve been meeting with clients. Patrick is still writing.
We’ve been trying to keep an eye on what’s happening in our own home ground. Tuesday night we took a drive down to Stillwater – about 45 minutes away from St Paul on the St Croix River right across from Wisconsin.
Stillwater is a great town at nearly anytime – but Tuesday was special since they had a band playing, movie in the park planned and a farmers’ market happening. We didn’t stay long enough for the movie – but we enjoyed the music, food and walk along the river.
On Wednesday they had music and movie in the park at Groveland – our local park. So we could walk down. Enjoy hotdogs for dinner. The girls gulped down tons of free root beer. There were different carnival games and Kate took advantage of the free massages – several times.
Kate and Lily each had a friend over. We all stayed to see Madagascar in the park. It was a fun night!
Filed under: St Paul
So we came home just in time for the Irish Fair – on purpose. Patrick’s on the board of the Irish Fair and didn’t want to miss it.
Friday night we went to see the Dropkick Murphy’s. They were fun. They played more traditional songs than I had hoped – but that made sense given the crowd. I made it up to the front/side of the stage for a few songs.
I was very impressed with the security and the crowd surfers. The surfers were all eventually dumped on the “other side” of the security fence – but really not very close to the stage. The security folks just herded them away from the stage and back out to the crowd. It was a good way to handle it. The dancers didn’t mind, it wasn’t much hassle for security and kept everyone having a good time.
During the Fair we had the great fortune of entertaining Ruan O’Donnell (no relation) from University of Limmerick. Ruan gave two talks: one of Robert Emmet, Irish Patriot and one on the IRA from 1948-1968. Ruan was very interesting. He had talked to a whole host of people for his research and it was fun to hear the stories. With any luck we’ll see Ruan again in Ireland – or maybe he’ll come to visit us again in Minnesota.
The weather at the Fair was touch and go. The ground was like a bog – and regular readers will know that we know what a bog is like! Saturday night they had to close early for a tornado warning. Sunday the weather was beautiful.
We saw a cute play for kids, we played games, we watched bands and singers, we walked along the Mississippi, we saw lots of Irish dancers, we had a great time.
A weekend full of festival was a great way to break back into Minnesota.
Filed under: St Paul
Kinder Camp is the pre-kindergarten event at Nativity. It happens for 4 days. The pre-kinders get to go to school and check things out.
Aine went (in her hat of course). On her second day she “made up a friend”. I asked about any new friends on her third day but she patiently explained that she had her old friend (from day 2).
Aine is very ready for kindergarten.
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