Cozumel Spring

I do not use my blog site very much anymore but I do like to post my travels here still.

I got back on Wednesday from a wonderful trip to Cozumel. I know. I know. I go to Cozumel a lot. There is a reason...actually several.

There are wonderful people on the island of Cozumel. The smiles. The friendliness. The warmth of everyone you meet, is infectious...in the best possible way.

It is also the people that I travel with. This trips including two friends I have known for a long, long time. Jenny, who hadn't been in 11 years! And Dave, who goes with me or I with him at least once a year. The amount of laughter cannot be accounted.

And this year for the second year in a row, the trip to Cozumel overlapped with another dear friend, Shirley Venard. The story of Shirley on the island is a blog post all its own some day.

I did not get any good underwater photos this year. The stupid Sony camera I bought last year takes horrible photos and I couldn't get my Olympus Tough that I have had forever to work for more than few seconds.

I did get dry land photos with my iPhone and Jenny and Dave got a ton of underwater photos.

I also took a couple of videos. One I will share here that captures something of what makes the island special. This was shot with my iPhone in portrait mode.
Video


As for my photos, they can be viewed on my OneDrive storage site...Cozumel March 2020 Photos

Little video of recent cabin trip

Had another enjoyable trip up north at Jenny and Andrew's cabin. I put together this little video of the trip.

Drove up Sunday in a driving rain. I kept thinking I would get ahead of the storm but never really did. But when I arrived at the cabin on Gust Lake, the rain finally stopped.

I had developed a cold so spent most of Monday lying in the couch falling in and out of naps. Andrew left on Monday so it was Jenny and me and all the cabin neighbors.

Tuesday we went for a bike ride and explored Little Cascade Lake. 

I finally got to go up to the cabin on the hill on Tuesday, July 3. There is a fantastic view from up there. Tuesday night the neighbors put on a fireworks show. There were some big fireworks.

Wednesday, July 4, the weather cleared enough to go canoeing. It was fantastic.

Cabin time

sun rise

sun set

fern cup

Grand Marais selfie

Matching t-shirts

poop eating butteflies

this year's puzzle

Uno up north

Uno was fascinated by the outdoor view

the tree that blocked our way

The last photo is of a tree that blew over in a very quick severe storm. We were headed back to the cabin from Grand Marais. We had to turn around on a very narrow road only to find that another tree had blown over the road behind us. We were trapped but while we were contacting help, someone came and moved the second tree that then allowed us to leave safely.

Another busy weekend. Running, walking, cycling, bowling

Another busy weekend started with my usual run Saturday morning to meet the gals for coffee at Starbucks in St. Louis Park. I need to get some running miles in before the Twin Cities Marathon 10 miler in October.

Saturday evening was the Chinese Lantern Lighting ceremony at Lakewood Cemetery. Lakewood is about five blocks from my house so I walked over. Lakewood is a very large and old cemetery near lakes Calhoun and Harriet.

Kay and Christine drew and wrote on their lanterns. I wrote on the bases.

Our lanterns weren't floating out into the lake so I waded in to encourage them along.

I had not visited the cemetery's chapel. It is famous for the glass mosaics. This is a photo of the ceiling. It was stunning in the artificial light.

Early Sunday, Jenny and I rode the intermediate route (25 miles) of the Minneapolis Parks Bike Tour. It was a perfectly gorgeous day.

Sunday evening was the start of Sunday Goers bowling league. After all that I had already done this weekend, I thought bowling a 172 and 173 was pretty good. The third game was only a 115.

Aurora northern Minnesota November 15

Jenny took these amazing photographs of the northern lights at her and Andrew's cabin in northern Minnesota. Mt reaction was "WOW!" And yes, that is the big dipper in the second photo.

Jenny - triathlete

Jenny B. did it again this year. She completed the YWCA mini-triathlon. It consists of 500 meter lake swim, 15 miles bike course and 5k run course. Fantastic accomplishment,

I completed my first Half-Marathon

Yes. I did it. I signed up for a half marathon race... the Red, White and Boom... part of the July 4th festivities in Minneapolis.

The race started at 6:30am! It was a beautiful day. I had not trained at all for this which was pretty stupid on my part but I decided I would not back out. I was doing this on my own without the running group.

Here I am at the start (which you can see way in the back ground). I think you can see the trepidation on my face.

There was one familiar face in the crowd. My state senator, Scott Dibble, who runs in lots of these kinds of races. He was there and very encouraging.

And here I am at the finish... having gotten a raisin roll, banana and water.

I was very very happy with my time - 2 hers 11 minutes. I came in at an overall 10 minutes per mile pace.

I admit to walking parts of the second half. I did run the entire first half, 6.5 miles.  There was an incredibly nice woman who gave me encouragement on miles 7 through 9.

Following the race when I finally stopped for a bit I got some awful cramps in my calves... especially my right calf and even up into my quads. It was fairly short-lived but painful.  Jenny and Andrew rode their bikes down to cheer me on. They just missed my finish but I was so grateful that they showed up. We had breakfast at Wilde Roast. It was fantastic.

North country trip

Quick trip up north to visit with Jenny and Andrew at their blissful cabin on Gust Lake.

I drove up on Monday afternoon. The plan was to leave around 12:30 after work teleconference. It was almost 2pm by the time I actually got out of Minneapolis.

The drive up takes 5 hours.  There is only one way...straight up I35 then MN61 up the north shore.  The MN61 part is interesting but it is still a long long drive.

I took a big bunch of apples and a pre-made store pie crust to make a fresh apple pie.  Turns out Jenny really wanted help with her very difficult 1000 piece puzzle. So we started in on that project as soon as I arrived. 

We were working late into the night on the puzzle and I decided to take a puzzle break and bake the pie.  I brought most of the ingredients with me but figured there might be sugar at the cabin.  Jenny didn't think she had any so I substituted some maple syrup.  We did end up finding sugar so I added a little bit.  The pie turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, apple pie I have made.  We had hot apple pie and puzzle assembly till 1:30am.

The best apple pie EVER!

Tuesday we decided to take a hike in the BWCA from Brule Lake to Eagle Mountain.  We knew it was long and we knew there would be elevation changes.

 

It was a beautiful hike but it was really really long....10 miles long.  We saw lots of moose tracks and moose poop and even some very fresh bear poop.  But no actual animal sightings.

Andrew taking the lead on our long long hike.

  

Jenny pretending she is having a good time hiking.

Andrew and Jenny crossing one of the many water features.

Wednesday was more puzzle assembly.  Jenny and I took a break to paddle around Gust Lake.  The day started cool and sunny.  Our paddle was cool and cloudy.  We saw a bald eagle and some other bird of prey.  

 

When we got back to the cabin, the goal was to finish the puzzle before I left in the afternoon. AND WE DID! It was an exciting finish. 

Jenny and her 1000 piece puzzle (minus one piece)

Jenny B's big success

My friend Jenny competed in her first mini-sprint triathlon.  A mini-spring triathlon consists of a 500 yard open water swim, a 15.5 mile bike race and a 5k (3.2 miles) run.  She has been training for several weeks.

The event was sponsored by the YWCA of Minneapolis.   There were 2,000 women competitors.  I am so proud of her accomplishment and success.

Jenny getting a well-deserved hug from her husband Andrew.

Getting ready to cross the final finish line.

 

Up north adventures

Spent a great three-day weekend with Jenny at her and Andrews cabin in northern Minnesota.  It is a five hour drive from Minneapolis and I wanted to get up to the cabin early and especially in daylight. I woke up Friday at 3:30am and decided it was go now or fall asleep and end up leaving late in the morning. I called Jenny at 4am and asked if she'd be ready in half an hour. She agreed and we got started out of Minneapolis by 5am.  Best of all we made it to the cabin by 10am and had the entire day ahead of us.

There was a great deal of controversy about the plowing (or not) of the Gust Lake road where Jenny and Andrew's cabin is located. I won't go into all of that but Jeff, the plow guy, had just arrived the same time we did.  Jenny and I parked on the main road and started the trek down the un-plowed road to the cabin.

Jenny and I got the cabin open, fire started, solar panels turned on, and water pump on.  We headed back to the truck to load up our stuff on the sled to drag in. Plowman Jeff had a good portion of the road already cleared but we didn't want to wait. We got our supplies loaded and sledded back to the cabin.

Jenny prepared her tasty sopa de lima soup while we waited for Jeff to finish clearing the road.  Once Jeff finished we thanked him. Jenny offered him hot chocolate or a soda but he declined as he had other private roads to clear.

We put on snowshoes and trekked into the woods.  Jenny and Andrew keep a critter cam way back in their property. We headed up the hill to the camera to switch out the memory card and so we could look at what had been caught on it.

The snow was not super deep but it had been several weeks and snows since anyone had been on the trail. We were snowshoeing through all fresh snow. It was a good workout.

Back at the cabin we had the soup and some not so good red wine that I brought. It was still light out so we drove down to Lake Crescent for some more snowshoeing.  Even after a super early start and all the exercise, we were up until 10pm talking.

Saturday we went downhill skiing at Lutsen Ski Resort. It is just a few miles from the cabin. We dodged a speeding ticket on the Caribou Trail road.. There is more to that story.

On the way we saw an enormous bird in the distance. Using Jenny's telephoto camera we could see that it was a really big owl. We put on the snowshoes thinking we could get closer. The owl was long gone by the time we got the shoes on. We decided to trek in anyways.

The skiing was fantastic. We skied all the mountain trails. There were no long lines. The temperature was mid 20's and no wind. The sun came out near the end making the views of Lake Superior even more amazing.

From Lutsen we drove to Grand Marais. It was about 5pm and neither of us were that hungry. We had excellent hot chocolate and bread pudding at the Blue Cove Cafe. Then back to the cabin. We were hoping to see a moose. With our luck on the ticket and the fantastic skiing and the owl sighting, we were feeling pretty good about seeing a moose...we didn't. It was still such a wonderful day.

Sunday we did some more snowshoeing behind the cabin before heading home.   I cannot thank Jenny and Andrew enough for sharing their cabin with me.

The truck demonstrating the snowdrift height.

Jenny and I snowshoeing at Crescent Lake.

Jenny, the stylish snowshoer.