My Dad's Benefit

This post is a hard one for me to write.  Saturday, September 29th was my dad's 58th birthday and the day of his benefit.  It was held in the lower level of the VFW in South St. Paul.  My sister and I spent the majority of the summer planning this benefit.  I put all my heart and soul into my part of the benefit planning.  There were multiple instrumental people that helped make this benefit a success.  One person I need to name is my cousin Daniel.  He helped us so much along the way and in the end, I don't know what we would have done without him. Thank you, Dan!

I was so busy and stressed the day of the benefit that it's a little bit of a blur.  I just wanted everything to be perfect for the guest of honor.  Doors opened at 4 pm but we had people there before then.  By 5 pm, the place was completely packed.  It was estimated that 300-400 people showed up.  At one point, we had the big room full and our overflow room was also full.  There was of course family there but coworkers from my dad's work and past work, my mom's work, my sister's work, my work and M's work, friends of my parents from high school and even a couple of my dad's friends since kindergarten.  I got to see a lot of my friends that night as well including several of my guy friends that came out of the woodwork that I haven't seen in 6-8 years.  I wish I had more time to mingle with you all.

Silent auction items went up for bid at 4 pm and we had TONS of stuff.  We lined the perimeter of the room with tables jam packed full of stuff as well as had multiple tables in the front of the room full of gift cards and certificates.  Lots of people got some great deals on some of the items.  There was so much stuff that some of the bidding wasn't too competitive but everyone got to go home with something they wanted because we had so much.

The bake sale started at 4 pm with lots of yummy treats and everything was gone within a couple of hours.

The DJ started at 4 pm as well and played through the evening.  Charlie was our DJ and he did a fantastic job, playing a good variety of music and making announcements when needed.

The meat raffle started at 5 pm and it was a bit hit.  The packs of meat looked high quality and delicious.  The meat raffle volunteers sold 36 packages of meat.  The VFW was quite impressed!

The food started at 5 pm.  Fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, rolls and birthday cake was the menu. We had many compliments on how good the chicken was. (Thank you, Cub Foods Deli).

My dad had really started to take a turn in his health that week.  He was getting weaker and continually losing strength that at one point during the middle of the week, he wasn't even sure he would be able to make it to his own benefit.  Just days earlier, Wednesday, September 25th, my dad was told by his oncologist that the cancer was very aggressive and that his prognosis was revised to 30-90 days, with it being unlikely he would see 90 days.  Fortunately, my dad did attend his own benefit/birthday party.  His goal was to be there from 5-9 pm  He arrived at 5 pm and made it until 8:30 pm.  I am so glad he was able to hang in there that long.

With help from Charlie the DJ, we all sang happy birthday to my dad.  He then gave a speech that was very touching and heard and saw many of you with tears in your eyes.  To be honest, I remember it being a great speech and he was so eloquent in his speaking however I don't remember much.  Snippets included that he said how many times in your life can you have all your family, friends, coworkers, past and present in one room together...he felt very lucky and appreciative and he said it was the best day of his life. If you were there, please refresh my memory about what else he said.  Unfortunately, the night was a blur and I've already forgotten.  :(

I carried my camera around for a good part of the night with only taking two pictures.  M's sister Kim offered to take photos for me and I am so glad I took her up on that.  I included mostly every picture that was taken that night below so I can remember each aspect and some of the faces that were there.  Kim, thank you so much for taking these photos. The one goal I had before going into the day was to get a family photo but that didn't happen.  I forgot, M forgot and that's that.

All the stress that went along with the planning for this one night was completely worth it.  It was an extreme success in all of our eyes.

Thank you to those that donated either their time or efforts collecting donations. Thank you to the individuals and businesses that donated products and services.  Thank you to those that made all the goodies for the bake sale.  Thank you to those that made food.  Thank you to those that volunteered and worked during the benefit.  Finally, thank you to those that attended the benefit.  Each and every one of you were instrumental in making the day complete. My dad IS loved. ♥

My dad during his speech.  Thank you to Sara for sharing these photos with me.

 

 

Even though we didn't get a family photo, I am grateful for the picture that Kim took of my dad and me.  I get sad when I see it but I cherish this memory forever.

Vikings vs. 49ers

The morning started chilly on Sunday, September 23rd but it by the time it was time to go into the dome, I regretted having long sleeves and it turned out to be a beautiful, warm day.  It was just M and I tailgating and our friend Loren met us later in the morning to say hi.  There were plenty of 49ers fans as they usually come out in bigger numbers.

Before each game, there is someone famous, usually a former Viking, local athlete or celebrity that sounds the gjallarhorn.  This week's person was Josh Duhamel, who is an actor and Fergie's husband. 

I don't think anyone thought the Vikings were going to win that game but they did, 24-13. Vikings record:  2-1.

Dinner @ RL

I was supposed to meet Tanya at Red Lobster on Wednesday, September 19th but I wasn't feeling well.  We last minute decided to meet the next day after my original plan for that day was cancelled.  Tanya was craving Red Lobster.  I hadn't been there for years.  It was good though.  I had been so stressed out from benefit planning that having dinner with Tanya was a great distraction from everything else.   

North Shore- Day Three, Final Day

This is the final day we spent up north.  I woke up early to catch the sun rise on the horizon and it was bright and sunny and beautiful.  Most of the pictures I took on this little trip were taken with my iPhone and some of them were edited using Instagram but most were not, including these ones:

The beers that M and I drank the night before

I went back to bed and then woke up a couple hours later and M and I made breakfast for everyone.  We didn't have much of a plan for the day but decided to drive up to Grand Marais and see what was going on up there.  Since there were six of us, we had to take two cars.

We shopped at the Trading Post and some other small stores along the way.  We stopped at a bar/restaurant while some ate and others had a drink.  We stopped at Sven & Ole's and M and I realized that we will never go back there again because A) the pizza isn't that good and B) the service and timing is horrible.  

It was about 4 pm when the other four decided to go back to the cabin but M and I wanted to continue to explore so they left and M and I went up to Judge Magney State Park.  While leaving Grand Marais, we saw that gas was $4.14 there!  Remember, this was September 15th and gas was probably $3.83 or around there down here in the Twin Cities.

Judge Magney State Park is about 25 miles from the Canadian border.  We went there because we wanted to hike to see Devil's Kettle.  To get to Devil's Kettle, it's a mile or so hike that you keep going up and up and up and more inclines and inclines.

I had a red and white striped shirt on.  Where's Waldo Dana?

You finally reach a set of stairs and then you go down (and eventually up), like 176 steps. (Wiki says 200 stairs.)  (This is the day after almost the same amount of steps at Split Rock Lighthouse.)  We haven't reached Devil's Kettle yet but here's what you see at this point:

Then to see Devil's Kettle, you have to go another 700 feet up and finally, here's Devil's Kettle.

I went to Devil's Kettle when I was a kid but haven't been back since.  M had never been there before.  So what's so special and mysterious about Devil's Kettle?  Here's an excerpt taken from the state park's wiki page:

The Devil's Kettle

The main hike is the strenuous 1.1-mile (1.8 km) walk to the Devil's Kettle and Upper and Lower Falls, which features nearly 200 stairs.^[5] This route is part of the Superior Hiking Trail, which swings through the park and dead-ended here until August 2003, when the northernmost 9 miles (14 km) were completed to the Canadian border.^[11]

The park is best known for an unusual waterfall located on the Brule River 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from its mouth.^[4] The river splits in two to flow around a mass of rhyolite rock. The eastern flow goes over a two-step, 50 foot waterfall and continues downstream.^[2] The western flow surges into a pothole, falling at least 10 feet (3.0 m), and disappears underground.^[11] It is believed the water rejoins the main channel of the river or has a separate outlet into Lake Superior, but it has never been located.^[6][8] Researchers have dropped brightly colored dyes, ping pong balls, and other objects into the Devil's Kettle without result.^[12] There is even a legend that someone pushed a car into the fissure, but given that the Devil's Kettle is wholly inaccessible by road, most commentators dismiss this as hyperbole.^[5][13]

Not only is the outlet unknown, but there is currently no satisfactory geological explanation for the Devil's Kettle.^[7]:57 Certainly riverbed potholes are known to form from rocks and grit swirling in aneddy with such force that they eventually drill a vertical shaft in the bedrock. How the flow is conducted away laterally, however, remains enigmatic. As geologist John C. Green writes:

One [theory] is that, after dropping down the pothole, the river runs along a fault underground, or as a variant, that it enters an underground channel and comes out somewhere under Lake Superior. Both of these ideas have one valid aspect in common: they recognize that water must move downhill! But the main problem is creating a channel or conduit large enough to conduct the impressive flow of half the Brule River! Faulting commonly has the effect of crushing and fracturing the rock along the fault plane. This could certainly increase the permeability of the rock - its capacity to transmit water - but the connected open spaces needed to drain half the river would be essentially impossible, especially for such a distance. Furthermore, there is no geologic evidence for such a fault at the Devil's Kettle. Large, continuous openings generally do not occur in rocks, except for caves in limestone terranes. The nearest limestone is probably in southeastern Minnesota, so that doesn't help... Maybe the Devil's Kettle bottoms out fortuitously in a great lava tube that conducts the water to the Lake... Unfortunately for this idea, they are not the right kind of volcanic rocks! Rhyolites, such as the great flow at this locality, never form lava tubes, which only develop in fluid basaltic lava. Even the basalts in this area may not be the "right kind", being flood basalts that spread laterally as a sheet fromfissures, not down the slopes of a volcano. No lava tubes have been found in the hundreds of basalt flows exposed along the North Shore. Furthermore, the nearest basalt is so far below the river bed, and even if it did contain an empty lava tube (very unlikely after its long history of deep burial) the tube would have to be both oriented in the right direction (south) and blocked above this site so that it isn't already full of debris. And there are no reports of trees or other floating debris suddenly appearing at one spot offshore in Lake Superior. The mystery persists.^[7]:57

And then we had to climb up those stairs.  For whatever reason, after the last stair and being winded, I just start jogging and continue to jog the trail back and then I hear M starting to sprint behind me and then I start sprinting and we race until we see a couple and we stop.  Overall, I think we worked off our pizza. 

The last stair!

While on our hike, we saw what we think is the same bald eagle in two separate places.

We drove back to the cabin and it was dark already and they had eaten dinner and already had a fire going on the shore.  This time we had the fire by Kim and Greg's cabin and it was a mellow evening, turning in around 10 pm but not before lighting some more Chinese sky lanterns, listening to some music, drinking a beer or two and enjoying our last evening at one of the best places in this entire world.  

Sunday morning and it's time to go home.  Until next time, Lake Superior.