Cozumel 2023

This might be my favorite photo.
These are just very common Bermuda Chub
but the photo composition of color and light
represents the feel of being there.

One of these days I'm going to start editing the photos and writing the blog during vacation so that it doesn't come out so much later than the actual event. One of the good things about being slow to putting this together is that I get to revisit the fun and beauty all over again while working on the story.

The video is long this year. Jenny and I are getting better at taking the underwater photos and this year there were so many things to photograph. But I get ahead of myself.

There were more guests this year for the week after Thanksgiving. Jenny B., JT, Ellen, and Dave M. joined me. Jenny stayed another few days of the second week before I finished out the second week by myself.

It was more humid this year than I remember this time of year. For those that don't know, I have a timeshare at Coral Princess on the island of Cozumel, Mexico. Coral Princess has been around for a long, long time. The accommodations are not top-of-the-line but I enjoy it. There is a kitchen, living room, massive bedroom and stunning balcony. Dave had his own room and JT and Ellen their own suite.

But the best part is the Coral Princess staff. The same staff have been here for years, and they always treat me and my guests with such care. There is so much laughter.

The snorkeling this year was amazing. Even though I've been going to Cozumel for years, I still see things that are new to me. This year we saw Southern Sting Ray, Scorpion Fish, Porcupine Puffer Fish, and Jenny saw an Octopus! The water was crazy clear though a few days there were tiny jellyfish that gave little stings.

On land we saw and interacted with Mapachi, a small raccoon.

We went to our usual restaurants - Pancho's Backyard, The Mission, Guido's, and, of course, Casa Dennis. We also did more "homecooking" which made it feel even more comfy cozy.

It kind of goes without saying, but I look forward to this trip every year. It is a good way to hang on to summer before diving into a Minnesota winter. It is also a great way to spend time with friends.

Click here to watch the video. It is 8 minutes long (there were LOTS of fish 😊) and best viewed in landscape.

Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound

Quick link to video montage.

Finally, the last edition of the Las Vegas Road Trip.

Left Vegas on Tuesday, September 26. My first stop was planned in advance. I wanted to the see the Great Salt Lake. I had heard that it was fuller now than it has been for years due to huge snows in the surrounding areas over the winter.

On the way to Antelope Island, I stopped in Cedar City, Utah, to check out the Utah Shakespeare Festival site. I worked there in the mid 1980's. Yikes! The little outdoor theater is still there but now there is an enormous complex of buildings and grounds that are just for the Shakespeare Festival. What a difference.

Antelope Island is a Utah State Park that is IN in the Great Salt Lake and there is camping! I had reserved a cabin for two nights so that I could explore the area.

It turned out I needed to get home a bit earlier than initially planned so I modified my reservation to stay just one night. I only got to explore Antelope Island and not any of the other Great Salt Lake area.

The Lake was not full, but it was definitely spectacular and being on an island meant I could see the Lake from nearly everywhere.

There are lots of bison on Antelope Island and some mule deer but no antelope. There are also some waterfowl especially near the causeway that you take to get onto the island. The other thing that makes so much sense but that I hadn't considered was there are billions of mosquitoes...nothing like briny water to attract the state bird of Minnesota!

The cabin was more like a tiny house. It had a bedroom and a bunk room along with a kitchen including a full-size refrigerator.

I took what was supposed to be a short hike along the lake but turned into a long hike up and over a small mountain. I ended up doing a bit of rock climbing which I'm pretty sure I was not supposed to do. The views of the Lake were fantastic, but I was nowhere near the water. Nearly hiked right into a bison lying near the path which scared the you-know-what out of me.

I headed east from the Great Salt Lake and unfortunately was not able to visit the Utah capitol as there just wasn't enough time.

I wanted to avoid the interstates even though I was trying to cut an entire day out of the return, so I made my way up to US-30 to drive through southern Wyoming. My tourist destination was Fossil Butte National Monument. Didn't know anything about it other than it sounded interesting and would take me through the mountains off the interstate.

It was a beautiful drive as Fall was in full color in the higher elevations. I ran into (literally) some cowboys moving cattle from the higher elevations to lower. The geology of Fossil Butte is very interesting. You can read about it here. The visitors' center at Fossil Butte is really well done and informative. The trails near the visitors' center don't get near the actual fossils and there are still archeological sites within the park and regular visitors aren't allowed near them anyway.

I did take a really pretty hike that has good views and descriptions along the way.

I was hoping to make it to Cheyenne for the overnight, but I did have to end up on I-80 which was down to one lane of traffic, and I was running out of steam. I spent the night in Rawlins, Wyoming and was hoping to see some of the cowboys I had encountered on US-30...alas...no cowboys for me.

The goal of day #3 was to get to Grand Island, Nebraska. The only planned stop was Cheyenne to see the Wyoming capitol. Sorry Nebraskans but there just isn't much to see and I really wanted to get home.

The capitol is quite handsome. It was a beautiful day and I ate lunch in Cheyenne at a local café.

Back on the Interstate I realized I wasn't going to make it Grand Island. It was just that much too far for my tired eyes. I had gained two companions from Wyoming - a pair of flies - that kept me company but even they were getting bored.

I made it to Kearney. If you recall, this was the first stop on the west bound journey.

Stayed in a different hotel this time. I love those Belgian waffle makers that a lot of hotels have. Well, this one didn't have that but that had an automatic pancake maker! You know I had to try it. The pancakes were okay...the process was hilarious.

My last day was going to be a long one and I really didn't want to go back the same ole' Interstate way so I zigzag-ed my way across Nebraska to South Dakota.

I heard the falls at Sioux Falls, South Dakota were worth seeing so that's where I was headed.

There was one hiccup along the way. After driving over some railroad tracks, my tire pressure alarm went off. I was kind of in the middle of nowhere except the railroad tracks were in a small town. I turned right and wouldn't you know it, there was a tire repair garage right there in this small town! I pulled in, explained my situation, they had me pull around to the garage doors, two young people fixed my tire in 15-20 minutes, charged me $20, and I was on my way! To say I was lucky is an understatement!

I did make it to Sioux Falls and "the falls." I ate lunch next to the falls with food I had left over from all my road-food stops. I was tired but bound and determined to make it home...and I did.

Again, here is a link to the video montage for more of the photos of Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound.

The other two blog posts are here...

West Bound

Las Vegas

Las Vegas Road Trip - Las Vegas

 Quick link to video montage.

I am falling further and further behind. This is the Vegas portion of the Las Vegas Road Trip.

So, this was the reason for the road trip, an off-the-strip tour of Las Vegas call "Beyond the Neon." The tour was curated and hosted by Scott Mayer and John Zeches. You can get more information on the tour here. There is another version of the tour scheduled for next year. I recommend looking into it especially if you've been to Vegas.

The video pretty much covers the itinerary. Turns out I didn't take that many photos so the video is short.

It was nice to see parts of Las Vegas not on the Strip that showed the variety of the city. While many of the sites were casino-related, many were not and the casino-related were interesting from a historical perspective.

I'll leave it there and let the video give the review...click here.

Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound Leg

Las Vegas Road Trip West Bound

Arkansas River

Still catching up on my travels! In September right after the Forestville State Park camping adventure, I started a road trip to Las Vegas for an event hosted by Scott Mayer called "Beyond the Neon." A decision was made to make it a road trip. If you want to jump to the video, click here.

Left Minneapolis on Monday, September 18 with only 2 stops planned - Mesa Verde and Zion National Parks. Plan was to get to Colorado as quickly as possible so without much stopping made it to Salida, CO by the second day (spent a night in Kierney, NE). Salida sits along the Arkansas River and has many interesting shops and restaurants.

Day three's final destination was Mesa Verde National Park. Took US-50 through the mountains of Colorado. Took a gamble on US-50 as there is a major construction project with lots of warnings of delays and closings. It turned out to be a good gamble. The views were spectacular, and the delays were not bad. The delays allowed for more calm viewing time.

From US-50 you take a left in Montrose on US-550 and head higher and higher up the mountains. Fall colors brightened the slightly overcast skies. A short stop in Durango and a right turn onto US-160 then Mesa Verde National Park.

Pitched a tent in the campsite at Mesa Verde. It was a beautiful evening with a half-moon and lots of stars. It did rain a little over night, but I was dry and comfortable in the tent. Got up early and fixed a healthy breakfast before heading up the mesa to the cultural historic cliff dwellings.

Mesa Verde - Cliff Palace

Advance reservations are needed for touring the dwelling sites. There is also a self-directed drive around the top to view several sites.

The Cliff Palace is the largest of the dwellings. The photos do not give a true sense of the immense size. The history of these dwellings is astounding. Click the link above for more information on the history. The Park rangers do a really good job of telling the story of the Ancestral Pueblo people that lived on the mesa and the cliffs for centuries but only in the cliffs for a very short time. 

Took the self-directed road tour to see many dwellings and the progression of where and how the Ancestral Pueblo people lived here. Then toured Balcony House which is kinda beyond explanation (for real - it isn't known what this structure was truly used for). 

One thing to keep in mind at Mesa Verde is that it is a cultural history site and not a geological site like the Grand Canyon and Zion. You are not permitted to wander paths and explore too much on your own. Thousands of people lived here for centuries so there could be artifacts nearly anywhere and everywhere.

From Mesa Verde, headed toward Zion to close the distance and realizing that it was going to be a day's drive and wanted to spend time in Zion. Spent the night in Bluff, Utah which is surrounded by dark red buttes.

From Bluff passed through Monument Valley which straddles the Utah-Arizona border. Took part of the drive tour on the Navajo Nation's park. Glad I had an all-wheel drive vehicle.

Glen Canyon Dam

From Monument Valley to Glen Canyon Dam. This was an unexpected site along the way as my geography skills are quite challenged. There is a spectacular (I seem to use that word a lot) viewing site of the spillway side of the dam.

From Glen Canyon Dam to Zion National Park and through and into the Park via eastern entrance which takes you through incredible views and tunnels.

Zion National Park is crazy popular even in September - why aren't all these people at work or school?! I had been to Zion in the 1980's and enjoyed it very much. I figure it hasn't changed much since (it has been in here for centuries, right?) and didn't want to be part of the throngs of people. After a good night's sleep, I decided to take a back country hike along the Coalpits Wash trail, part of the Southwest Desert Wilderness Hiking Trails. I was the only one on the trail!! While not having the crazy views of mountains and buttes, this trail offered plant and flowers of so many types...the kind of hiking I love.

From Zion it is a short 3 hours to Las Vegas. Stay tuned for the Vegas leg. Click here for the video of this leg (westward bound) of the road trip.

East Bound Leg

Biking-Camping Forestville State Park

Second biking-camping trip for this year. This time there were 4 biker-campers. Bud and I were joined by Pam and Susan. (video link - best viewed landscape)

We headed out on Monday to southern Minnesota using two cars because Pam and Susan have pretty heavy electric bikes and theirs' take a different bike rack than Bud and my bikes.

Destination, Forestville State Park - less than 3 hours from the Twin Cities. We were the only people tent camping in a part of the park that allowed RVs. The tent only part of the park only had one set of campers! The tent-only sites were very woody so being in the RV area was better in my opinion.

We got our camp site setup pretty quickly (including the picnic tablecloth and a very special center piece made by Pam) so decided to take a walk/hike along the South Root River to find the historic town Forestville. The South Root River is full of trout...so full you can see them hanging out in the deeper pools. But "deeper pools" isn't really valid this year as the drought made the entire river fairly shallow. We made it to Forestville which during normal summer hours has costumed docents. There was no one around when we visited. It felt very ghost-towny.

We had beautiful weather and got to enjoy Susan's very tasty Chile, some s'mores, and a magnificent starry night. I don't remember if it was the first night or the second, but we had a visitor during the night that for some reason I was the dumb one that got out of the tent to investigate. Turned out a racoon was having its way with our belongings. I did my best to "scare" it away though it didn't really seem to care.

Bud fried up bacon and some delicious scrambled eggs to get Day #2 started which was a good thing because we were riding round-trip (a little over 20 miles) from Preston to Lanesboro. Bud and I had a Lanesboro trip in 2021 (click here for that blog post) but from the east side then. 

The Root River Trail is fairly flat and easy. In Lanesboro, we ate and wandered around some. The weather was starting to look stormy so we headed back to Preston. It was threatening the entire way so we did not dawdle. We made it to the cars and started to load the bikes right when the clouds opened up. We jumped in the cars and waited for the deluge to end before finishing the bike load and getting back to camp.

I am writing this almost a month after the adventure, so my memory is not great. I think the second night we ate in camp. Sweet potatoes baked on the fire coals with two different Indian curries. There was another beautifully clear night. While I was looking at the stars, a trout fisherman came by (he was night fishing) and told me he saw a 30" trout eating a mouse!

Day #3's event was a tour of Mystery Cave. Reservations are required. The South Root River runs underground through parts of the cave system. Having the river run underground is how trout can survive here. The water is always in the high 40's year round! 

The cave tour is an easy walk/stroll and the State Park tour guide was informed and even turned off all the lights so we could experience the total darkness.

The road to the campsite was being repaved and was limited to a single lane. While we were hanging out with the road guard, we were able to get her recommendation for eating in Preston. She suggested the bowling alley and while not a high culinary experience, it was decent but surprisingly the drinks were very mediocre.

We were definitely some tired campers by the time we made it back to the campsite. Thursday, we packed up the campsite and headed home to Minneapolis. 

The trip video is here (best viewed landscape).

New carpeting

I think the carpeting in my condo bedrooms was the original from when the building was built in 2006. For the 2 1/2 years that Mrs. Kravitz the Roomba has been working, she has filled her bin with carpet fibers and gross dirt from the carpeting. I had the carpets professionally cleaned before I moved in, but it didn't seem to do much good.

Three rooms into one.

So, I finally made the decision to change the carpeting out. I went with Empire Today again. I used them for the carpeting in my Emerson house and the wood flooring in the rest of the condo. I also went with a top-of-the-line plush that feels oh so nice on your feet.

Three rooms into one.

The big challenge was going to be where to put all the furniture. The master bedroom and dressers had to come out and so did the loveseat and 2 bookcases from the office/guest bedroom.

Somehow it all fit in the living room!

Three rooms into one.

New padding.

Most comfortable spot.

Maggie did really well with whole ordeal and most importantly, she really likes the new carpeting.

Oooo, so comfy.

Maggie approves.

Ahhh.

The installers did a good job though I had to remind them that moving the furniture was part of the contract. Also, they could not make short cuts (literally) in the master bedroom around the baseboard heaters.

Boundary Waters - Cross Bay Lake

This year's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, BWCAW, trip had special meanings. Last year we were not able to make our annual trek into the Wilderness and this year is the 20th anniversary of our foursome.

Click here for the video recap (the video is best viewed in landscape).

Recapping the trip...on Tuesday, August 22 Brian, Jenny, Julie and I drove up to Jenny and Andrew's cabin at Gust Lake to spend the night and prep for our trip into the BWCAW. The temperature in the Twin Cities was headed into the 90's but before we even hit Duluth it was 30 degrees cooler. Good timing for our trip.

Wednesday, we got up early to drive up the Gunflint trail to Tuscarora Lodge and Canoe Outfitters. Our two canoes were dropped off at Cross River which is where are journey started. You don't actually enter the BWCA until reaching Cross Bay Lake.

I believe we had 7 portages (land between bodies of water) to get through. The weather was overcast and cool, perfect for paddling.

Things went fairly smoothly though we did have trouble finding the portage into Cross Bay Lake and ended up on an old, non-maintained portage (oops). Our destination was Long Island Lake.

We had stayed on Long Island Lake before (2005) but had entered via a different route and with 5 campers instead of the usual 4.

It took us 7 hours to get to Long Island Lake. Whether it was lack of paddle practice or age or directions, that was a LONG paddle. Add that I had a big arthritis flare up as we got to Long Island Lake. We had been given heads up to some available campsites. The first site on the lake was already occupied and didn't really meet our requirements (western facing with a swimmable area). The next one was available, and I had to confess that I could not continue paddling as my arthritis made it nearly impossible to continue.

Turned out the campsite was great, and we proceeded to setup our gear. I wasn't much help due to the previously mentioned arthritis. My flare up also meant that we were destined to have stormy weather...and it proved to be true.

The camp site got set up in no time as usual. To our amazement, there were nearly no bugs! So, we were able to have a campfire and stay up after sundown. This is usually not the case. From this point, the video really shows how the camping went.

We did have rain that first night (Wednesday) but it was not bad and sounded soothing on the tent. Thursday night was another story. We had a severe thunder and lightning storm and very, very heavy rain. So much rain that the base of the tent got soaked and so did pretty much everything on our camp site.

Friday had been forecast to be rainy but another piece of luck, it was sunny and warm. We were able to dry out pretty much everything and most importantly the tent and tarps. We re-assembled the site in time for another rain shower. We retreated to the tent to play cards and let the rest of our gear get all wet again.

We paddled out on Saturday expecting another 7-hour trip. Somehow the paddle out only took 4 hours...we shaved 3 hours off! We really don't know how. The weather conditions were the same and we were never really off course going in or out. We certainly didn't complain that we were more efficient.

Once back at the cabin, we put out everything to dry and ate a very filling meal. We drove back the Twin Cities on Sunday with a stop in Duluth for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory caramel-dipped apples.

And now for the 20th anniversary. I found photos of that trip! Boy were we young!

2003 - Brian, Jeff, Jenny

2003 - Brian, Julie, Jenny

Marlin's Birthday Adventure

Marlin invited me to celebrate his birthday this year by doing a big adventure. Cut to the chase...we skydived!

Click here for the video of my dive. (Marlin's video to come if approved)

It was hazy from the Canada forest fires but it was cool and dry. The skydive is located in Baldwin, Wisconsin which is just 45 minutes from the Twin Cities.

We had kind of a long wait for our turn but we got to watch the take off and return of many types of skydives. It was interesting and kind of comforting at the same time.

I have actually skydived before. Back in 2014 while in Hawaii. That blog post is here.

New York, New York

The trip video is available here. I want to acknowledge that I am fortunate to have the wherewithal to to travel and to also have friends who also have the wherewithal and similar travel adventure bug.

My friend, Bud, needed to use a Delta companion ticket before August and invited me to go to New York City for a long weekend - July 21 to 24. We left early on the 21st and hit the ground running.

Landing at La Guardia, we took the free transfer bus to Subway Line #7 to Grand Central Station, Manhattan. We walked from Grand Central to our hotel for the weekend, the Hilton Millennial United Nations. The hotel is located immediately next to the United Nations building on the East River. Our room was on the 36th floor with amazing views of Manhattan including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Freedom Tower in the distance.

We got an early check-in, dropped off our luggage, and headed out to Times Square and the discount ticket office, TKTS. We were in line for about 1 1/2 hours and decided to purchase tickets to a Friday evening show and a Saturday matinee. We didn't have real plans for shows so were open to whatever was available.

Friday night we went to Grey House at the Lyceum Theater. It is a "straight" (ie. not a musical) play which I wanted to support. It fit its billing as being a creepy, horror story. Very difficult to describe and very thought provoking about what it was or wasn't representing. Laurie Metcalf (of Roseanne show fame) appears in this production.

Starting Friday and throughout the weekend, we hit as many Irish pubs as we could between Times Square and our hotel. The weather was pretty much fantastic the entire time. It did get hot but not humid. We were lucky.

Saturday, we walked nearly completely across the island of Manhattan...from the East Side to the West Side and the High Line near the Hudson River. We walked a good portion of the High Line towards downtown. We got off around 14th Street and jumped on the subway back to Times Square for a matinee of New York, New York at the St. James Theater.

Before the show, we went to my favorite diner, Westway on 9th. It was perfect. New York, New York is a HUGE musical. We had 2nd row seats! We could read the conductor's music score! The show as full of unknown Kander and Ebb songs with additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The 2nd Act is really a block buster. Unfortunately, the closing notice was published after we saw the show. Hopefully it will tour so people get a chance to see it. The lead actor, Colton Ryan, is freakin' amazing.

Bud hasn't been able to get authentic Japanese sukiyaki in the Twin Cities so we went to Jukai for dinner and opted not to see a show Saturday night. I had never had sukiyaki. It was delicious and the staff's attention to detail was impeccable.

We had stopped by TKTS after the Saturday matinee to get tickets to the final preview of The Cottage, another "straight" play. This one a farce/comedy at the Hayes (formerly Helen Hayes) Theater. It was fun and fluffy and full of a lot of sexual references. It was directed by Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame. It opened on the Monday after we saw and, unfortunately did not receive good reviews.

From the play we walked to just off Central Park to eat at Serendipity, a New York institution. We found an interesting beer bar while we waited for our table. I have been to Serendipity before but do not remember it being the crazy, weird place that appears to be now.

I can't remember is we walked back to the hotel or took the subway. We did A LOT of walking!

We had time before our flight on Monday to get in some more touristing. We took the subway to the upper east side to visit The Guggenheim. I had never been. The building was designed by Frank LLoyd Wright. There were 3 very interesting exhibits (check them out on the website). I really enjoyed visiting this museum.

We took the subway back to the hotel to get our luggage then to Grand Central to back track our route to La Guardia. Everything really went really well on weekend.

Another link to the video.

Wisconsin Roadtrip - June

Well, I've been back from a Wisconsin roadtrip over a week and finally edited the photos and put together the trip video. You can see the video by clicking here. A lot was packed into the 10 days.

First of all this was a trip with my dear friend Jill. She flew to Minneapolis where we started our driving adventure.

First stop - Madison, Wisconsin. Jill is from Madison. We visited the house she was raised in. The current owners had just sold the house and by chance, the lady of the house was there when we stopped. She graciously let us walk through the house so Jill could see it. Turns out she and her husband had bought the house from Jill's parents!

We went to the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus and met an old friend of Jill's and hung at the student Union. We spent the night in Madison. In the morning I took a run along Lake Mendota and through the campus. After that we went to the huge farmer's market that surrounds the Wisconsin capitol building. We went in the building briefly. It was a very hot day.

From Madison, we drove to Milwaukee. There we met friends that Jill knew from 35 years ago, Shannon and Will! Destination was the James Taylor concert at Summer Fest. Sheryl Crow opened for James in the ginormous American Insurance venue...23,000 James Taylor fans.

Spent the night in Milwaukee. Left for Door County, Wisconsin in the morning and stopped at another childhood friend of Jill's who has a house on the lake (Lake Michigan). Made it to Sister Bay in Door County for a week's stay at the Liberty Lodge.

The video covers the Door County portion of the adventure pretty well. But in brief and in no particular order we ... 1) took the ferry to Washington Island where we saw lavender fields, a really weird building that someone told us was a Scandinavian church?, and visited a rock beach. 2) sat out at Newton State Park (a dark sky location) to see the stars, however, the moon was so bright the stars weren't all that visible. 3) went to Cave Point County Park to see the waves (not too wavy) but saw what turned out to be a duck with all its baby ducks tucked under her wings...you had to see it. It was cool. 4) strolled in Ellison Bluff County Park where Jill and I had been a winter ago. 5) ate and drank a lot 6) went to the world premiere of a play at Peninsula Players Theater 7) listened to steel pan music at Birch Creek Conservatory 7) ate and drank a lot 8) it was crazy smoky (Canadian fires) most of the time but had a few days of clear air 9) hung out at a beach on the Lake Michigan side (beautiful) 9) drove across Door County (it is the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan) every which way you possibly could. 10) saw some beautiful sunsets. 11) and have a mentioned that we ate and drank a lot?!

After we dropped Shannon and Will off at the Green Bay airport, Jill and I drove straight back to Minneapolis. I've basically been sleeping ever since.

The weird building. It has serpents and scary things.

It also has these strange goad gargoyles.

May Biking and Camping Trip - North Central Minnesota

Quick link to trip video

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I returned from a 4-day biking and camping trip with my friend Bud. I've been trying to get a video edited and this blog post completed.

A quick summary of the trip. We drove up to Akeley, MN on Wednesday, May 24 (the Wednesday before Memorial Weekend) where we spent 2 nights at a private campground, Akeley City Campground on the 11th Crow Wing Lake. It is a really nice site with RV and tent camping. We were the only tent for the first night.

The campground is next to the Heartland Trail, one of the first in the country rails-to-trails. It is a really well maintained trail and like our previous experience on rails-to-trails, it was relatively flat and straight.

We jumped on our bikes as soon as we got our campsite set up. It was a cold first ride.

Wednesday night we ate in Nevis, the town just west of Akeley. Had some good barbecue. Back at camp, Bud tried some fishing off the public fishing pier next to our campground.

The second day was warm and sunny. We had breakfast in camp and then biked to Walker, MN. We stopped at a coffee shop in Walker and headed back via the "scenic" route...which meant lots of hills and turns. This took us onto the Paul Bunyan Trail.

Bud has an electric bike...I do not! I did a pretty good job of keeping up. I think I gained an inch on my quads. We finally encountered some other bikers.

We drove back to Walker for dinner as there were more options.

Friday, we drove to Cass Lake to get a tent site at the Chippewa National Forest park outside of Cass Lake. We found a beautiful site but there were LOTS of mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes brought out LOTS of dragonflies. It was fascinating and we really appreciated the work dragonflies do. There were also LOTS of ticks...horror movie LOTS!!

We were expecting the campsites to be busy (Memorial Weekend) but there was only one other person there when we arrived. By the time we left on Saturday, there were 3 other families camping.

We took the Mizigi Trail around the lower portion of Cass Lake. It passes through a section of the Chippewa National Forest that has mostly been harvested and re-planted with pine trees. The bike path is completely covered with pine needles and cones. And there were millions of dragonflies!!!

We ate dinner at Stoney Point Resort, the only place close by.

We returned to the Twin Cities on Saturday. We drove back through Federal Dam, Emily, Crosby, and Mille Lacs. It was a great adventure.

Click here for a video (best viewed landscape). The "music" you will hear is a recording of the many songbirds that serenaded us in Cass Lake.

A simple update - office

Before (stock photo)

For years I've been using a bungee office chair. It was pretty comfortable to begin with. I don't know if it is age -- the chair or mine -- but it was causing my right leg and butt cheek to become very sore.

I took the office chair to Goodwill and found this dining chair. I removed the seat covering of batting and fabric to reveal a rattan seat in perfect condition.

After

After

North Shore and Lake Superior

Lake Superior was angry but we were happy

Had the opportunity to travel up to the North Shore of Minnesota and Lake Superior. The purpose of the trip was to attend the Cook County Commission hearing regarding a permit to build a gravel pit and temporary asphalt manufacturing facility off the Caribou Trail near a friend's north country cabin.

The Commission hearing was to determine if an Environmental Assessment Worksheet should be requried for the project. The hearing was on a Tuesday morning.

Jenny and I drove up Sunday to Schroeder to stay a few days at a home on Lake Superior. There happened to be a Winter Storm Warning for the North Shore that Sunday. We decided to go any way, take our time, and, if necessary, stop until the storm eased. Turned out it was bad with snow blowing across the roads but we were careful and made it just fine.

Since the hearing was on Tuesday, we had Monday to "play" in the snow...and there was lots of it everywhere.

Lake Superior was churning with big waves and lots of ice on the shore when we arrived. By Monday it was clear and sunny and gorgeous.

Snowshoeing into Gust Lake

The snow up at the Gust Lake cabin was beautiful. Someone had plowed a good portion of the road so we were able to drive in and park. We put on snowshoes and trekked the rest of the way to the cabin.

Everything at the cabin was in good order. From the cabin we drove down to Grand Marais. Jenny did some shopping and we ate a hardy meal at My Sister's Place.

The house we stayed at in Schroeder was amazing. Right on Lake Superior and with all the comforts. There is a fantastic view of the Lake. We saw deer and I saw an otter (briefly). The sound of the waves is so relaxing.

The house faces mostly east so the sunrises were spectacular but the sunsets were equally beautiful as the entire horizon filled with all the colors of the rainbow.

The Cook County Commissioners agreed to a petition asking for the Environmental Assessment Worksheet...a victory for the cabin and homeowners along the Caribou Trail and Grade.

View from the house in Schroeder

The house in Schroeder is near Temperance River State Park. We were able to walk over and hike the upper and lower gorges of the Temperance River. So incredible with snow and ice and how the river has carved through what was once lava!

We made our way back to the house for a peaceful night before heading back to Minneapolis with much calmer weather.

To see a video of the trip click here.

A Week in Mazatlán

The sunsets never failed to amaze.

I was very fortunate to have the chance to spend a week in Mazatlán, Mexico. I have never been unlike a lot of people I've talked to that said they were there 30 years ago.

Mazatlán is a very large city on the Pacific coast. There are so many high-rise condos which seem to be filled with Canadian, American, and Mexican citizens on vacation and full-time owners. There are also a crazy number of construction projects.

The colonial downtown is beautifully restored. There are even lights in the sidewalks to highlight the architecture.

We ventured to Observatorio 1873 for the sunset, drinks, funicular, and animal exhibits. We took wild rides in open-air pulmonia taxis. We also took advantage of the super cheap bus system.

We walked the beach. Played in the Pacific Ocean. Saw dolphins and even whales from the 12th balcony of the condo.

Big thanks to Susan, Bud, and our hosts Pam and Samantha.

Here is a video montage of photos (the photos are in chronological order).

Birthday Axe Bash

 Hard to believe but I am now 64 years old. To celebrate I had an axe throwing party. Drinking and throwing axes! It went better than you'd think.

Here is a video of the fun.