Kristi's photo hunt favorites are all complete and chosen from the photo hunt that ended on June 30th. If you get a chance, go vote for your favorite photos. Almost half of my photos made it and I think even more of my sister Jamie's did too. Enjoy looking at all of the final photos!
www.photohuntchallenges.com
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Weekend Recap July 17-19
Friday: M and I went to Acme Comedy Club to see Emo Philips. M has seen him before and I was thinking I would be annoyed by his fake falsetto voice, which he uses on stage but it wasn't irritating for more than a minute. He was hilarious. His humor is the type where he will say something and it totally goes in the wrong direction where you didn't expect him to say that. One of his jokes went something like this: I went out on a first date but I don't think I'll be seeing her again. She got mad when I didn't open the car door. I just swam to the surface.
My drink at Acme: A Bomb Pop--Tasted just like one!
Saturday: We didn't do much all day. We were supposed to go on the motorcycle ride for the Vikings Ride for Life but I wasn't feeling very well. I ended up sleeping away most of the afternoon and we watched movies at night. It's been a while since we had a weekend day that we weren't running around so it was nice to relax and do nothing.
Sunday: We went to Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis late Sunday morning. We had never been there before but somewhere I've wanted to go for quite some time. The place was very interesting and surprise, cultural. There were many different food vendors and shops to go to. M ate at Jakeeno's and I ate at Holy Land. I love that place! I took a couple of pictures of the place but it was hard to get a good perspective unless you've been there.
I woke up a little crabby on Sunday morning. M realized while we were eating that my shirt was inside out, which was our analogy why I was crabby. Once my shirt was on normal, my attitude changed and the day was good!
We ended up coming home and taking out the bike. It was the first time I had been on the bike in a week since we got back from our trip. We rode down to Stillwater and through Hudson, WI. We hung out and walked on the boardwalk/pier. We saw a guy that was passed out on a park bench and I was seriously thought he was dead. He did not move at all and when we came back about 20 minutes later, he was in the exact same position. Only when we were leaving and literally driving past him did I see him move his arm to his face. It made me feel so much better. M wanted to take a picture of him earlier but I wouldn't let him because I would have felt horrible if he really was dead!
Happy Hours
I've had three happy hours in the last week so I thought I would write about them all at once.
Thursday the 16th:
I met my cousin Laura and sister Jamie at the Freight House in Stillwater for a couple vodka cranberries and some food. We have been meaning to get together like this for so long and we are always busy and it never happens. Laura showed us fantastic pictures of her Alaska trip. I will go on an Alaskan cruise sometime in my 30's. She also had news that she and her husband are closing on their house tomorrow, which is exciting. The next scheduled get together is the house warming party.
Monday the 20th:
I had yet another happy hour in Stillwater to meet Becky, who was on vacation up here from Florida. If you remember, I visited her when I was in Florida last November. I also got to meet up with Kari, another girl we went to high school with who I haven't seen since my early 20's. It was fun catching up with both of them and reminiscing about our younger years.
Wednesday the 22nd:
I met with my friend Ben at McCormick & Schmick's in Edina today for a couple of triple berry martini's after work. I've known Ben since I was 17 years old and recently reconnected with him after losing contact over the last few years. Despite that, we work right down the street from each other and have worked very close to each other for at least the last 5 years. BTW, someone has a new hair color. It's really dark and I'm not used to it yet even though it's pretty close to my natural hair color. (I think) It's been so long since it's been natural! What do you think of the color?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
July 1st-15th
I'm back! There is lots to write and show you for the first half of July. I can't believe we're in the 2nd half of July already. Here's what's happened in the past couple of weeks:
Me on the bike in the town of Isle
Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of M with his gas station beef jerky on the way home. It was so gross looking that I couldn't eat a bite. It looked like it was thinly sliced right off the cow. Yuck!
Fourth of July Weekend:
M and I went up to his parent's house in Isle on Thursday, the 2nd. It was a low-key couple of days up there as there weren't as many people up there as last year but relaxing.
Thursday the 2nd:
Ricci laying in the driveway
That's M's last name---(I know, I know, I got used to it a long time ago)
I played my first game of Jenga made by M's Dad...and won
We went on a motorcycle ride around Lake Mille Lacs, which is about 70 miles with M's brother and Dad on Friday afternoon. We ran into so much traffic from all the people coming up for the weekend. We ended up stopping at the Blue Goose in Garrison, MN, about half-way since it started to sprinkle. The sprinkle turned to a heavy downpour so we waited until the rain passed and got back out on the bikes. We were about 5 miles from M's parents house on the other side of the lake when we hit the rain again. We rode back in the rain for those remaining miles. Here's what we looked like:
Chuck and his winning from the can toss. Every time you finish a drink, you can toss your empty can from a certain spot and try to get it into a 5 gallon bucket. It cost 25 cents to throw a can but if you win, you get the pot, which carries over from each holiday. There was $32 in this pot. I think the last pot was won on Labor Day 2008 so it had been building since then.
We left M's parents house around 2:30 pm and heading back to the cities for a 4th of July party at my parents house. I didn't get many pictures but here's a pic of my G-ma and G-pa, Dad and sister playing a game of croquet.
We went to see fireworks in downtown St. Paul from the Taste of Minnesota. Last year's fireworks were fantastic but this year's were not as good, but still fun.
Tuesday, July 7th:
Alphabet Gang Members:
A-Aaron
B-Beth
C- Catha
Da- Dana
De- Deanna
I met gang member A at Harry's in Minneapolis for a drink before heading to see the Twins vs. the Yankees at the dome. A had an extra ticket and so kindly asked me to go. It was fun despite the 10-2 loss. At least we got to see Gomez rob A-Rod of a home run.
The rest of the Alphabet Gang got together the next day at Stella's Fish Cafe in Uptown on the rooftop patio. Aaron had to leave for another Twins game so it was just us girls for the majority of the time. They have really good food here. I had salmon. It was pretty windy up there so don't pay attention to my hair.
Catha striking a preggo pose
We both had the day off and we went to the cemetary my grandma is buried in as it was the 1st anniversary of her passing. After spending a short time there, we were on our way to M's brother's house to go on a weekend motorcycle trip with their cousins Jim and Lorrie and friend Lynn.
Here's a fortune that M got 2 days before our trip:
We rode down Hwy 61 until and went across the Mississippi River to LaCrosse, WI. We traveled about 20 miles further south until we reached a small town called Genoa. We stopped at Rudy's Bar before heading another 20 miles or so south to Lynxville to where we'd be staying for the weekend.
I had to take a picture of the menu to show you the prices. Everything was so cheap here.
This "thing" was a device that the bartender pulls out every once in a while for people to play. 4 people grab a handle and it blinks in the middle and once it stops blinking, you press the red button. The last one to press the button gets a big shock. Only in a small town.
Ok, we arrived at our "motel" type place for the weekend in Lnyxville, WI. As soon as we pulled up, M said it was the cockroach motel. We luckily got out of our reservation because M's brother Ray was told when he booked the room that it slept 6 when it really only slept 5. Note to self: Never let Ray pick the place to stay for the weekend and never book a room at a place called Hoochies II! Hoochies II? Where's the original Hoochies?
Here was another really good reason not to stay here....The Mayflies! You can see them all over the sign and on the wall of the building. They were everywhere.
We had to find a new place to stay so we drove back up to Genoa. There are rooms above the bar at Rudy's so we stayed there for Friday night but they didn't have room for us on Saturday night. The upstairs of the bar is kinda like the upstairs of a house. There were 6 rooms up there and 3 shared bathrooms. At first when I heard this, I was not too thrilled but it wasn't bad at all. And for the price of $11 a person? I'll take it! We ate dinner at a place down the road and then came back to Rudy's and spent our night there. We closed down the bar and our bartender Matt, (from MN) was awesome. He told us stories and gave us plenty of drink chips for free drinks.
M and I
I woke up to the click-clack, click-clack outside our room window. Look on the street and you can see what it was....the Amish in their buggy! We did see an Amish man and his son walking on the street the night before. I don't know much about the Amish but they are kinda fascinating so I just waved at them when I was on the bike and they nodded back.
M woke up earlier than all of us and took off on his bike some 20 miles east to a town called Viroqua. The Amish had all their goods set up to purchase. M said that one of the Amish boys was so fascinated with his motorcycle and stared at him drive all the way down the road.
We ate breakfast at the same place we ate dinner the night before. The town consists of a few hundred feet of businesses and that's it so there isn't much choice. We checked into our new place, the Genoa House. We rented the loft apartment. We had the whole upstairs to ourselves including a full living room and kitchen, a loft which had 3 beds up there, 2 other bedrooms, a bathroom and the whole deck. Again, not bad for $22 a person!
We headed south about 40 miles to Prairie du Chien, WI before heading west a little and going across the river to Marquette, Iowa. This was my Iowa debut! Yep, never had been there before and it's a border state! (20 states down, 30 to go) We stopped at Lady Luck Casino which is a riverboat casino. M and I got carded to get in!
A pink elephant at the casino
We went back to WI and drove further east and south to Cassville, WI. We took a ferry over the Mississippi River to cross back into Iowa and drove north up Hwy 52 to Guttenberg, where we stopped for dinner. M noticed a liver cancer bracelet on a man sitting at the bar eating and M told him of his sister passing from liver cancer. The man's wife had died and she was a donor and was able to donate her liver to someone who is alive and well today. He was very proud of being a donor and we were all proud to say that we were donors as well. He gave us each a green liver cancer pin.
A train going by while we were waiting for the ferry. We saw and heard plenty of trains this weekend, including at 4 am when we were sleeping.
After dinner, we headed to a place called Pike's Peak in McGregor, IA. It is a bluff that is 500 feet above the Mississippi River. It was so beautiful!
We finally drove up further north until we got to Lansing, IA. We stopped here for a quick drink (1919 rootbeer on tap for me. Yum!) before heading back to WI. Here is the bridge in Lansing that we took to get to De Soto, WI, which is only 10 miles south of Genoa.
We didn't hit Rudy's until later in the evening but spent most of our time at Tuna's.
Ray and M
We left the area around 12:30 pm and headed home on Sunday. We got home around 6 pm and was exhausted but not before a slight accident on the bike. When we were just south of Alma, WI, a bird flew into the bike. Ok, not really the bike, but into Michael....his stomach to be precise. Of course it freaked us out and M was trying to get him off of him as he was still trying to drive. He hit his stomach then fell in between his legs and he was flopping around his lap when M looked up on the road then looked down and then the bird was gone. Our group behind us saw him fall off the bike into the street. Sorry, he was a goner. The bird might have been able to survive if it weren't for M's abs of steel. M did have a red welt on his stomach. I don't know what kind of bird it was but was bigger than a sparrow and smaller than a robin.
We rode 600 miles on the bike from Friday to Sunday. It was by far the longest trip M and I both had been on the bike. The scenery in every state was beautiful. Cliffs, bluffs, rolling hills, lush green trees, winding roads perfect for motorcycles and just beautiful nature. We could have done without the mayflies though. I got pelted in the middle of my forehead on the bike. They were so thick at one point we both had to duck on the bike behind the windshield to avoid them. The people in every state were so nice to us. When in WI, I couldn't help to think that these were Packers fans and we're getting along! It was also different to see the baseball team that they root for. I guess I thought it would be the Milwaukee Brewers but from at least Genoa, WI to Lansing, IA, it was the Chicago Cubs!
I had SO MUCH FUN this weekend. We are definitely in to do this again next year.
Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of M with his gas station beef jerky on the way home. It was so gross looking that I couldn't eat a bite. It looked like it was thinly sliced right off the cow. Yuck!
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