Kid one receiving her Presidential Academic Award, Black Hawk Middle School, Eagan, Minnesota

Kid one and two at Shipwreck Bay, Holiday Inn, Fargo, North Dakota

Outside the Fargodome with kid one and two, Fargo, North Dakota

They snuck up quickly, but tomorrow is the TC 1 Mile in downtown Minneapolis, followed by the Fargo Marathon on Saturday. Fargo sent me an email today with my bib number, which will be the very cool 1001. I hope the weather forecast gets cool too, but it’s not looking good (upper 70s and thunderstorms).

I’ll have to hustle from my last work meeting and drive straight to the starting line in Minneapolis tomorrow. Thankfully they have packet pickup on race day, but that will still be a hassle to get the stuff, run back to the car and get back in time. Looks like I’ll either do the masters wave at 7:24 or the open wave at 7:39. Two goals for this year: 1) beat last year’s time of 6:20 and 2) beat Megan. I’d really like to get a sub-6, but I don’t want to risk injury before the marathon.

The whole family is going to Fargo and we plan to get the kids out of school early and start driving around noon. Google says a little more than four hours to the Fargodome, where packet pickup is located. We have until 9 p.m. to get there, so we should be fine. We have reservations at the Fargo Holiday Inn, which has a big pool area for the family to hang out at until I get done running.

Mentally, I feel ready for both of these. My running log has been a little light this month, but the 2012 year to date totals haven’t been awful. I’ve done a fair amount of cross training this month too, so I should be fine. No pressure on the Fargo time, so I’ll just see what the weather dictates. In fact, I don’t think I’ll even run with a watch this time…

Lake Superior Trip ’84, The Kingsburys and the Smiths, Grand Marais, Minnesota

Several weeks ago, Colleen requested Mother’s Day lunch reservations at Gather, the new D’Amico restaurant at the Walker Art Center. Located in the same space as Wolfgang Puck’s old 20-21, we secured a noon reservation and headed over today.

The space is mostly unchanged, although the Warhol paintings are gone from the entry and there are a line of nice padded leather chairs in the bar and lounge area. The view of Hennepin out the window is still spectacular and a lot of people decided to sit outside on the balcony patio (we decided to skip that this time).

I thought the food was pretty good before, but it looks like the new place is in good hands too. Gather has a guest chef program that brings in people for one month at a time – local heros like Steven Brown (Tilia), Isaac Becker (112 Eatery & Bar La Grassa) and Tim McKee (La Belle Vie).

The current menu on their website was a little different from the one they used today. My non-alcoholic cocktail, the “spring fever,” wasn’t on the web version, but the kid’s drinks were (the push pop – blood orange, cherries and pear nectar). Colleen had a mimosa and there were several Mother’s Day specials, including a sweat pea and shrimp risotto with watercress pesto that she ordered.

I ordered another special, soft scrambled eggs with chive Mascarpone, bacon and baguette (above), but it looked like they were serving a lot of Eggs Benedict (and Champagne) today. Kid one had the buttermilk-marinated chicken, while kid two ordered the grilled cheese with white cheddar. Both added french fries, that came with an awesome truffle aioli (at least I thought it was awesome).

Everything was very good and service was outstanding. Prices were reasonable for this type of restaurant, but it was still nice to have the Walker member discount. I recommend checking it out, but make sure to be mindful of their strange hours (open for lunch Tuesday – Sunday, 11:30am – 2:30pm and dinner Thursday evenings, 5pm – 9pm).

Calla Lilies for Colleen, Bachman’s, Eagan, Minnesota

Kid two swim meet, Bloomington, Minnesota, followed by kid one band concert, Eagan, Minnesota

Marketing event, Aspen Clinic – Highland Park, St. Paul, Minnesota

Family pizza night at Carbone’s on Randolph, St. Paul, Minnesota

My grandfather sent this in to the Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota

Kid one, two and an extra one, Buffalo Wild Wings, Eagan, Minnesota

Kid two spring concert, Eagan, Minnesota

Kid one watching Little Shop of Horrors with me, Eagan, Minnesota

Kids (plus one) at IKEA for dinner, Bloomington, Minnesota

Shopping with kid two, Aéropostale, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota

Kid one and Slug, The Current morning show third anniversary, Red Stag Supper Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Family dinner at Uptown Cafeteria and Support Group, ordered the “Apple Sauced” cocktail with Night Train chicken & waffles, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Kid one and kid two before the Hunger Games screening, Regal Cinema, Eagan, Minnesota

Tandori style pork tenderloin served over sour cream mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, with a caramelized fennel/onion ragout, in a creamy asparagus sauce, El Meson, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Highline Trail with kid two, Eagan, Minnesota

Juicy Nookie Burger and chicken strips, Casper’s & Runyon’s Nook, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Kid one and two, row 5, section 105, Wild-Flames, Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Kids one and two (plus one more), Raising Cane’s, Burnsville, Minnesota

Kid one and two at Annie’s Parlour, Dinkytown, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Kid one with the tuba and kid two with the baritone, Eagan, Minnesota

Kid one’s latest art project, turning a blank birthday canvas into something special

Hawaiian Host Maui Caramacs from my sister, Tower, Minnesota

Birthday dinner, Luci Ancora, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Kid one birthday party, Eagan, Minnesota

The way too small plate of cupcakes for kid one’s party, Eagan, Minnesota

A long time ago, Grand Marais, Minnesota

Tower, Minnesota

8th Grade Declam Team Award Ceremony, Blackhawk Middle School, Eagan, Minnesota

While driving yesterday with kid two in Saint Paul, she says “Before I die, I want to go to an antique store.” A block later, we passed the Mall of St. Paul (aka the Antique Mall). Located on the corner of Selby and Fairview, I’ve probably driven by that place a thousand times, but never went in. Until now.

The place was huge – two sides on the first floor, plus a large basement jammed floor to ceiling with a lot of junk, er, treasure. The kid was in heaven, grinning from ear to ear the entire two hours we spent browsing.

We ended up only spending three dollars this time, but the kid said all she wants for Christmas is money to spend there. I was a little sad to find a lot of things there I remembered from growing up, but it was cool too. A few samples:

Kid two and her House Special Chicken, Leeann Chin, Eagan, Minnesota

Goes well with the pink hair, Eagan, Minnesota

Tonight we squeezed in a quick happy hour visit to Republic, located at Seven Corners in Minneapolis. The specials run from 4-6 and the place was packed. Given the close proximity to the U of M west bank, that’s not too surprising.

Colleen wanted to try the $6 turkey burger, which she said was good, but not good enough to knock off her favorite (which is still, somewhat surprisingly, Red Robin). Kid one had a so-so hanger steak and kid two just had fries. I ordered some fish and chips, which had a very heavy, peppery breading that I ended up removing and discarding. The chips were pretty awesome, though.

It’s funny how much that part of town has changed. The old Grandma’s building is completely gone, the Carlson School looks totally different from when I went there and Republic used to Sergeant Prestons (I think). One thing that hasn’t changed? Traffic still sucks as much as ever…

When my daughter’s favorite group, Atmosphere, announced they were performing in the first ever winter show at my favorite venue, Red Rocks, we had to figure out a way to make that happen. After some mad Google Mapping and creative budgeting, the road trip was on.

We packed up the MINI and hit the road last Thursday afternoon. After a quick stop at the Axel’s Bonfire in Eagan to eat some free birthday Bull Bites, we drove to Lincoln, Nebraska (420 miles). Holiday Inn Express was our hotel of choice this trip, thanks to their decent breakfast food and relatively low prices.

On Friday, we drove from Lincoln to Littleton, Colorado (500 miles) and checked in earlier than planned at the hotel. I totally forgot about the time change, so we had an extra hour before the concert started. We hit the local King Soopers grocery store to check on discounted lift tickets (not a great deal – skipped it) and had dinner at a surprise Chick-Fil-A (totally forgot they are in Colorado). I don’t care what anybody says – that food is damn tasty!

The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30, but I wanted to hike around Red Rocks before the sun went down. We had about 45 minutes of daylight, which turned out to be just about perfect. Since we were so early, we also got an awesome parking spot in the VIP area immediately below the main exit. We hung out in the car until gates opened at 6:30 and made a beeline to the merch table, which unfortunately was at the very top of the amphitheater. Many stairs later, the kid got what she wanted and we hiked back down to row ten to watch the show (it was general admission, so we took what we could get).

The bill consisted of Get Cryphy, Grieves and Budo, Common and headliner Atmosphere. Get Cryphy was playing as soon as the gates opened, which was nice. The set by Grieves and Budo was brief, but entertaining. Technical difficulties delayed the start of the Common set by about 30 minutes – I felt bad for his band (two keyboardists, a drummer and an MC), who just sat there in the cold the whole time.

I’ve listened to most of the Atmosphere albums, but there are still a lot of songs I just don’t know. This was not a problem for the kid, though, who sang along to everything. I do know that God Loves Ugly was the opening song and Brother Ali finally came out for the very last song (which wasn’t really an encore, as all the performers went off stage for only a minute or two at the end). The crowd was a little rowdy, but the close quarters and movement helped keep it warmer. A few snowflakes added character, along with lots of “special” smoke in the air, too…

The show ended around 11:45 and we were able to beat the worst of the traffic, thanks to our great parking spot. We made it back to the hotel around 12:30 and were back on the road by 8:30. I decided to skip Beaver Creek this time, opting to take the Loveland Pass over to Arapahoe Basin. I-70 looked good on the traffic cams at 7AM, but all three lanes were bumper-to-bumper about five miles up the grade. We finally made it to the Loveland Pass exit and I white-knuckled it up and over the treacherous two-lane road with no guard rails. Even driving my own car with snow tires, I wasn’t comfortable at all and will probably skip that option in the future.

A-Basin was just perfect. I had been there once before in high school and not much had changed. I take that back – they had a great new high-speed detachable lift right in front of the base chalet and a nice mid-mountain restaurant called the Black Mountain Lodge, where we had lunch. Rentals were quick and easy for the kid and I loved the pricing, which was cheaper than what we paid in Minnesota. Since they consider teens to be kids and not adults, her lift ticket and rental was only $59. Add in my $74 adult ticket and you had quite the Colorado bargain.

We took most of our runs off of that high-speed quad, with the “green” run Sundance being her favorite. Parts of that run are steeper than most “blacks” in Minnesota, so I didn’t mind skiing it like a mid-length cruiser. I was also quite fond of High Noon and took a few runs from the top of the mountain too. I would’ve done more up there, but the wind really picked up as the day went on. We managed around ten runs total before stopping around 3PM.

The rest of the trip was basically a big highway blur: Arapahoe to North Platte, Nebraska (320 miles), overnight one last time at the Holiday Inn Express, followed by 640 miles back to Minnesota on Sunday. We stopped for a steak lunch in Omaha at the lovely Upstream Brewing Company in the Old Market part of town and had some boring Wendy’s in Clear Lake, Iowa, for dinner.

Great trip, but oh so short. First vacation in three years, though, so I’ll take whatever I can get.

Now to figure out how to finally become a ski bum…

Kid one on an early visit to the dentist, Edina, Minnesota

Birthday party for kid two at Bryant Lake Bowl, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Kid two opening her new Hello Kitty headphones, Eagan, Minnesota

From an earlier era, kid two at Disneyland, Anaheim, California

Kid one with the braces off, Eagan, Minnesota

Seven baby teeth in a giant plastic tooth, Eagan, Minnesota

This week we stopped at one of the few spots in Minnesota that has snow right now – Giants Ridge in Biwabik. Of course most of that snow was artificially made, but you really couldn’t tell. The quality was great – not icy and very few bare patches. It helped that there was a dusting of real snow overnight, but overall I was very happy with my first day out this season.

After the big crash last year at Lutsen, I now judge the success of a ski trip by whether or not my face gets smashed on something. The new helmut makes me a little more confident, but I’m still not as agressive as I used to be. I’m slowly coming around to the fact that I should probably dump the ancient straight skis and get something more modern (and safe), but cost is a huge factor right now.

Speaking of cost, I experienced a bit of sticker shock at the front desk. I was hoping Giants Ridge would have a reasonable beginners package available, as one of the kids had never skied and another needed a refresher after not skiing for a few years. All I wanted was a bunny hill lift ticket, rentals and a short group lesson for a reasonable price (say $50?), but they didn’t offer anything like that. I bought four lift tickets, three rental sets and taught my own group lesson and it was $250. Add in several visits to the cafeteria and it was a very expensive five hours.

A few other downers: spoiled kids, rotten parents, cursing teenagers, greasy chalet food, lack of sunshine, cold winds and frozen extremities.

But I still love the actual sport of skiing – there is really nothing else like it. Freedom to move at your own pace, a connection to the outdoors, the feeling of “beating” winter, spending time with my kids and an adrenaline rush you don’t get from running or golf.

You will never confuse Giants Ridge with Colorado, but compared to other ski areas in Minnesota, it’s fun. I still prefer Lutsen, but Giants Ridge is only a half hour from work. Both of them could use some high-speed, detachable chairlifts, though – the old style chairs take soooo long…

Tower, Minnesota

Kid tree decorating, Batinich Ranch, Lake Vermilion, Tower, Minnesota

Kid one and her box-o-ramen, Eagan, Minnesota

Lunch with the kids, Cossetta’s on West Seventh, Saint Paul, Minnesota