Tall Ships and Duluth--Part Two

After checking out the ships, we headed up the shore a tiny bit, to just outside of town.  The kids wanted to play in the lake some more, and Brad and I wanted to relax by the lake for a bit.

After that, it was time to (reluctantly) go home.  We always love going to Lake Superior.

Tall Ships and Duluth 2011--Part One

Sorry for missing the post on Monday.  I was a little under the weather.  But I've got some good pictures to share today that I hope will make up for it!

Sunday, we headed to Duluth.  We haven't gotten out much this summer, and the Tall Ships were in the harbor for the weekend, so we took a nice day trip.  One benefit was the 20 degree cooler weather by the lake.  It has been obscenely hot this last week here.  It was a comfortable, foggy day in Duluth on Sunday. 

We ate at Pizza Luce (one of our favorite places to eat that has great food and has trained their staff with gluten-free guidelines) practically for free because of the gift cards we got at the Celiac Walk this spring!


Then we took a walk down to Canal Park to get a look at the ships.

Canal Park, with the Lift Bridge in the background.

Fountain in Canal Park

Holly crossing the fountain.

One of the Ships in the Harbor

We played in the water, watched the lift bridge and the boats (and ships), and then saw one of the Tall Ships come sailing in from the lake.  It slowly appeared through the fog, with its rigging disappearing into the clouds above it.  As it approached the harbor, I noticed smoke, as though it had fired its cannon.  Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, a whistling sound that went over our heads and made us duck, and the noise echoed off of the hill the city is situated on!  It was incredible.  The cannon shot sounded real, and it was completely amazing to experience!

Firing the cannon in the fog out on the lake.

That's one happy man right there.  Henry's not as sure about the whole thing.

A few more pictures tomorrow!

Day in the City

I'm going to try out a Monday-Wednesday schedule of posting on this blog, followed by a Friday posting on my project blog. That seems manageable, and sensible, to boot. We'll see how it works out.

Anywho, when Mom was here at the end of May we had a fantastic day in Minneapolis.

We first went to the downtown library for the first time. It's beautiful.

It was really difficult to leave. But we had a great reason to head out. Baby Aedan!

 

Mom hadn't met Baby Aedan yet.  She was very, very excited to see him. (Who wouldn't be?)

After that fun, we headed over to Minnehaha Park, where Harry was waiting for us, to have some lunch and to hike.

 Henry at Minnehaha Falls. It always blows me away that this is in the city. You'd never guess it when you're hiking the trails.

We saw lots of what we think were army worms. They were everywhere.

Saw (and photographed, but I won't bore you with those pictures) lots of wildflowers in bloom, including this wild geranium:

And finally, the kids (and Dad!) played in the creek. It was a beautiful day!

We all headed home after that, exhausted, but happy. It was a wonderful day.

Picnic day

We had a picnic and went for a walk at Elm Creek Park Reserve last week.

They are re-doing the playground there and it's currently under construction, due to open in June.  The playground is probably the biggest one I've ever seen.

It's really hard to see in this picture, and actually, I cut off part of the right hand side of the play area!  For scale, if you look closely, you can see Henry and Holly next to the fence (you may have to click on the picture to make it bigger).  We'll be heading back this summer to play, and hopefully with friends, too!

Spring is here

Como Zoo and Conservatory

We found Spring today.

January 4-H Meeting

Our January 4-H meeting was at the Wargo Nature Center, where Henry learned to snowshoe and kicksled.

I'm pretty sure you know what snowshoeing is--but kicksledding?  I'd never heard of it, and I'm guessing lots of other people haven't either.

Here's Henry's take on the day, which might clarify things for you (remember, you can click on the images to see them larger):

If you're still a little in the dark, look here.

I could only get one or two pictures of the active boy outside (Holly and I were inside), and here's what I got that turned out:

That's Henry, running back up the hill to do another kicksledding run.

As I said, Holly and I stayed inside and we worked on the craft project for the month.  Every month we make table centerpieces for the nearby senior center.  Here's what we ended up with:

Holly was very pleased with all the glitter and cuteness involved in the project, I think.

After the kids all came in from the snow, we had a short meeting, and visited a bit.

Looking forward to next month!