Weekend Recap July 24-26

Friday: M and I went with Tanya and Chris to Acme Comedy Club to see Arj Barker. Arj Barker is a part of the HBO series, Flight of the Conchords, but that's something I didn't learn until days before the show because I don't watch TV. Arj Barker was super funny. M and I just went to Acme the week before to see Emo Philips and while their styles are completely different, they are both hilarious in their own way. After the show, we went across the river to Northeast to Nye's Polonaise Room, which believe it or not, I had never been there before. I know, shocking since we go everywhere! We watched the famous Ruth Adams and The World's Most Dangerous Polka Band. The range of ages in this place was anything from 21-80. The place was pretty neat with some swanky booths and even a piano type bar thing where this very old lady was singing and playing more of a keyboard I guess and other very old women were all sitting directly around the keyboard while the very old lady sang. Odd, but interesting. It's just something you would see in the 70's or so I would imagine.

Michael Mojito

Don't mind Tanya's umm....shirt. She had a white tank top on under her shirt that REALLY showed up with the camera flash.

They're getting married in just over 3 months!

At Nye's and Ruth Adams and the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band

Saturday: M and I woke up and took a quick ride on the motorcycle just directly south of downtown St. Paul on Wabasha to the Wabasha Street Caves. They are different packages and tours you can do but we did just the cave tour, which M surprised me with as a I did not know where we were going. I loved it. It was a short and sweet tour, just 45 minutes but perfect and interesting. I won't give many details but this place was hopping for the people that had money back in the days of prohibition and many gangsters frequented the place as well as musical acts such as Cab Calloway, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman all played there at the club called The Castle Royal, which was built in the caves after it's use as a cave to grow mushrooms. Did I also mention that it's haunted? I had lots of fun on this tour and recommend it to all.

Where the dance floor and stage is from the nightclub

Something bad happened in this room but you can't find out what unless you go on the tour!

Orbs everywhere in the picture....ok, it was probably dusty in there too. Make of them as you wish

The caves are made mostly of sandstone which rubs off when you touch it. They do not allow you to touch the walls because they erode tremendously easy.

This room was scary. It just had an eerie feeling to it. The lights were completely off and it was very dark but the flash from the camera provided some light.

The Hieroglyphics on the walls of the cave from when the Egyptians were here. Ok, maybe not.

Some junk in part of the cave after a flood

Boo!

After the caves, we went to Harriet Island. It was awesome to be here when something other than the Taste of MN or the Irish Festival wasn't going on. Here is a great shot of the cathedral we got from the entrance of the park. We never noticed that the entrance and the cathedral match up perfectly together. It's hard to notice when there are usually tons of people around during an event. We went to Cossetta's after for pizza and next door to Maharaja's to bum around the store and pet the cats. They have 2 cats, gray and black that roam the store. The gray cat is usually on the floor and the black cat sleeps or hangs out in the merchandise glass cabinets but this time he was sleeping on a pile of record albums.

There were a few people flying kites, which was a perfect day for it

Downtown St. Paul

Saturday night we went to M's friend Tabitha's going away party/grad party. She just graduated from UMD and is on her way to Chicago next week to start law school. We're super proud of her!

Michael and Tabitha

Me and my hair before I got it cut on Monday

Sunday: I went to M's sister Lisa's baby shower at their sister Kim's house. (Got that?) She is due in just about 5 weeks and it will be her first baby. She is having a girl and is naming her Cheri, after their sister Cherrie (Cheryl) who passed away last year. The baby shower was huge! There were about 33 people there and Lisa received so many gifts, including numerous bibs and sleepers that were all the same that had cherries on them. We all had the same idea.

It's kinda hard to tell who's the pregnant one, isn't it?

After the shower, M and I went for motorcycle ride around the lakes by our house. I've been wanting to feed the ducks all summer and I finally brought along bread to do so. The ducks got so close to me and they were so pretty. I don't know what kind they were, except for the hungry kind! There's lots of duck pictures. I act just like a little girl when I see the ducks and feed them. I appreciate the most simple things to do in life and this is just one of them.

Hi Michael's Shadow in Vadnais Lake!

It started off like this with the ducks