Filed under: Minneapolis
Saturday we spent the morning at the park behind Expo and then in the afternoon we went to see the new baby. They had just picked out a name, William Joseph, which was my grandpa’s name. They haven’t decided what to call him yet. I have a preference but I won’t say here.
He is beautiful. Anita looked great. He has dark hair, which was a surprise. Aine and Kate came with me – Aine loved the new baby even though she was only allowed to get so close to him.
Filed under: St Paul
Halloween was a big day of fun. Everyone got to wear costumes to school. It was an amazingly warm day, which never happens in Minnesota. I am sure that this is the first time it has been above freezing when the girls have been trick or treating here.
We went to a fun pizza party at a neighbor’s house and then everyone took off for the houses. Lily got 125 pieces of candy. I think she’s the only one who counted them all out.
So they were out for about an hour from 6:30 to 7:30. We had trick or treaters to the house pretty much over the same span of time. The last trick or treaters came at 8:30. At 9:00 we turned out the lights.
There were tons of parties going on – but I stayed home and worked. It wasn’t a lot of fun but it was nice to get caught up on a few things. Work has been amazingly busy!
Filed under: Minneapolis
On Thursday we went to a Halloween Party at Aunt Mary’s. It’s a tradition. It’s fun to get an extra wearing out of the costumes and to see my cousins and their kids. It’s funny to see how much the election is a part of conversation for everyone – even the kids. Pretty much everyone in the house will be voting the same way so there aren’t any arguments – but still lots of discussion. At least until the big news came…
Anita had gone to the hospital that afternoon. They were going to induce but it seemed as if it was going to be a slow urging. SO we were all pretty surprised to get the call that Baby Boy Birmingham had arrived.
We were all thrilled – for Baby Boy, Anita and Rick. The last few weeks have been pretty tough on all of them. Baby Boy clocked in at 5 lbs, 11 oz and was born at 5:58 on October 30.
Filed under: St Paul
Once again I’ve fallen down on blogging from home. Part of the reason is because it’s just not as exciting to talk about visiting every park in St Paul, which is a lot of what we’ve been doing lately – but I’ll try to come up with a few posts that are more specific.
On Saturday we ended up at the Halloween festivities on Grand Avenue. Those Grand Avenue events are always fun. The kids got their faces painted at Wet Paint, got flowers and candy from Johnsons Flowers and then we headed to Ramsey Junior High. We were just in time for the costume contest and Aine got to spend a lot of time in the bouncy castle. The weather was perfect!
Last Sunday we went to get our pumpkins with Grandpa. We went to Apple Jack’s in Delano. Unfortunately we went on the crappiest day of the year. It actually snowed – not snow that stays on the ground, but cold snow nonetheless.
So we were pretty quick about picking out our pumpkins. We also enjoyed some apple pull-aparts, which are really good. Then we went back to Grandma’s house for lunch.
Sunday night I went to book club. Luckily no one really read the book, so I didn’t have to feel bad. Kate, the host, made a super amazing meal, which ended with homemade bread pudding with caramel.
Filed under: Minnesota
I don’t usually blog about work here – but work was kind of interesting this week. On Monday night I headed to Brainerd to talk to the Minnesota Resort and Campground Association. My friend Jan and I talked about Web 2.0 stuff for tourism. On Tues I met up with my friend Bill to do some work with the Blandin Foundation in Grand Rapids.
But the fun (and noteworthy) part came Tuesday night. We heard that Hillary Clinton would be in Hibbing – so we headed up there. It’s not too far from Grand Rapids. I had never been to a rally like this before. It was held in the hockey arena and the place was jammed. We saw the line to get in and were worried we wouldn’t get in.
But we got it as did 5,000 or so other people. The place was filled but it wasn’t overly crowded. Everyone was friendly and I think every Democratic politician past or present within a 200 mile radius was up on stage. 
The strangest thing was a guy with a cowboy hat with McCain stickers in the middle of the room. He didn’t say anything and I think he eventually took of his hat – but it was strange to see him.
Also the security was pretty light. After the RNC demonstrations I pretty much expect a full militia at any public event. There were a few guards but that was it.
I taped most of Hillary’s speech.
See Amy Klobuchar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQZlIFafQOo
Jim Oberstar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3LTxokeqTM (I think)
Filed under: SE Minnesota
We’re on the way home now but here’s our vacation in a nutshell, minus the posts I’ve already done.
We drove down 52 on Thursday and stopped for lunch in Chatfield and headed to Preston. We stayed at a hotel in Preston because it was the only place I could find with a swimming pool. And now after driving around there for 3 days, I’m still sure that it was the only place with a swimming pool. We went swimming every day we were there. I have to say a swimming pool was something we really missed traveling in Ireland. A pool can take the edge off a rainy day and helps to make up for the dramatic increase in calories due to vacation mode.
We had dinner Thursday at a supper club in Preston. It was pretty good although I have to say it’s the first time I’ve ever had deep fried scallops. Luckily they were pretty good if you just peeled off the deep fry batter.
Friday night we went bowling. Lily rocked! She scored 130 on the first game. Patrick won the second game but the night really goes to Lily.
Filed under: SE Minnesota
On Saturday we stopped in Lanesboro for a quick tour and lunch. Lanesboro must be the official or unofficial cycling capital of Minnesota. It is the center of tons of bike paths. We saw people off all ages on or near their bikes.
We took a trolley tour of the area. Lanesboro was settled around 1865 by some folks from NY. The goal apparently was to create a vacation spot for New Yorkers; but it’s a long way from NY to MN so it didn’t work out well – until about 100 years later when they started building the bike trails.
We stopped at the Lanesboro fish hatchery; it’s one of eight in the state. We had never been to a hatchery. It’s kind of cool – especially since we recently saw a movie about the Great lakes and sturgeon. This hatchery bred rainbow trout and brown trout. They can keep the rainbow trout outside but not the brown trout as they get sunburned. We fed the tiny fish in the ponds. I took a video, I hope it works out; I have never seen so many fish in one place.
It was amazing to see how big they rainbow trout get in three years; that’s when they release the fish to northern lakes.
In the trolley we got to tour the area and to see a survey of the local B&Bs. There are tons of them. We also saw a waterfall. Energy is created from the waterfall. There is also an ethanol plant in Preston and wind turbines nearby – so the tour guide pointed out that they were in good shape. There is clearly a focus in the area environmentally friendly behavior and alterantive energy. It was good to see.
We had lunch at the start of the bike trails and headed back home.
Filed under: SE Minnesota
It’s MEA and we’ve decided to go to Southeastern Minnesota. Our neighbors came here a few weeks ago and loved it. We had planned to go somewhere so here we are.
The main reason we came was to see the Niagara Cave. It is one of the top 10 caves in the US. It’s cool. It’s just outside Harmony Minnesota, which has an Amish community. (You can tour the Amish community but that felt a little voyeuristic, so we just took pictures from afar like regular stalkers.)
Anyway back to the cave. It was discovered in 1924. A farmer lost a few pigs. They were eventually found in one of the first chambers of the cave. A couple of years later spelunkers came to take a closer look and eventually open the cave to the public. At its deepest point, it’s 150 feet below the ground.
We took a guided tour of the cave; I think that’s the only way you can visit it. It’s pretty well lit, for a cave. The tour guide offered to turn off the lights but the other (smarter, kinder) mom on the tour thought that would be too scary. I was disappointed.
The tour is about an hour. You climb a lot of stairs and walk through some pretty tights walkways. We saw the wedding chapel, where they have had 400 weddings. Apparently there are still a half a dozen or so a year. There’s an underground waterfall. There are a bunch of fossils, which are very cool. We saw the stalactites and stalagmites.
We saw huge stalactites; the tour guide guessed that they were a million years old. He was funny and clearly had grown up around the cave. He told us that while no one had ever been lost in the cave his brother had been stuck – twice.
Last June there was flooding in the area and apparently much of the cave was filled with water. They pumped much of it out. The guide said there were climbing around and that it was pretty cool when they suddenly noticed that the lights were on , which meant obviously that the electricity was one – so they hightailed it out of there.
Filed under: St Paul
On Sunday we had a shower for Anita – who is expecting a baby on November 18. It was fun to see my some of cousins for the first time since we’ve been home and it was fun to see Anita’s family. Here are some pictures:
Filed under: St Paul
On Saturday night we went to see Tyrone and Ralph at the History Theater with our neighbors Mary Sue and Jim Brooks. It was opening night – so that was fun. It’s the show about the building of the Guthrie Theater; Ralph Rapson was the architect.
So the play was right up Patrick’s alley. Joe Dowling was there and Patrick was able to talk ot him. The show was fun. It might seem as if the topic is pretty specific, but that’s the History Theater. Last year we saw the play on Baron Von Raschke at the History Theater with my family.
I won’t say which show I liked better – they were both fun.
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