OK, so I’m like about 20 posts behind on all my sites right now, but I thought I’d write a quick one here just to let the Google crawlers know I’m still alive…

While visiting the north shore of Lake Superior this weekend, we ran into a high school (and college) friend of ours in Grand Marais. Twicks and his family were up for the weekend too and invited us to visit them at camp in Lutsen. Turns out his wife’s family has run the place for 40+ years.

It was great seeing them and we had a fun time swimming and touring the facilities.

More posts coming soon…

Kid one and kid two made a cake and sang happy birthday to the MINI Cooper today, which I took delivery on four years ago today. Mileage is now around 55,000 miles, but it’s been running great (knock on wood). Only one more year of payments, too.

Oh, and by the way, the answer to my most asked question: I average about 29 MPG, but could get closer to the rated 37 if I didn’t drive it so hard (but what fun is that?)…

Let’s Motor!

Got to cross item #8 off my Things to Do Before I Die list this past weekend:

Wade across the Mississippi headwaters with my kids.

We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota, staying in the wonderful Itasca Suites near Douglas Lodge. Worth every penny…

We spent some time hiking around the south end of the lake on Friday, visiting the Old Timer’s Cabin and the Clubhouse. We then went to the headwaters for the classic wade across the Mississippi before taking a trip around Wilderness Drive to visit the large white and red pines. For dinner Friday, we ate at the Douglas Lodge dining room, which serves a mean Lake Itasca walleye.

After sleeping in Saturday morning, we rented bikes and rode from the bike shop back to the headwaters area for lunch. Colleen and kid one headed back to the rental area to switch to kayaks, while kid two and I rode our tandem/trailer bike on the 16 mile loop around the lake. Way too many hills, but spectacularly beautiful scenery (on par with 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach).

The kids went swimming for an hour before we went back to the room, cleaned up and hit the road for Lake George, Minnesota. I love the diners in small towns in rural Minnesota–friendly staff, huge portions and low prices. Our total for dinner for four at the Lake George Cafe was under $23.

On Sunday morning, I woke up early to run, but was still too sore from the bike ride to get out the door. Everyone woke up and packed the car to beat the 11AM check-out time. After another quick visit to the Old Timer’s Cabin (and the gift shop), we hit highway 71 and headed south. We stopped in Wadena for another great, cheap lunch at Larry’s Family Pizza ($15) before dodging rain storms and hitting heavy Sunday traffic on I-94 back to the metro area.

Loved everything about this trip and hope to go back again soon. Highly recommended.

Pictures posted in both the private and travel galleries.

The family attended a Sunday afternoon performance of Oklahoma! this weekend that was produced by the Eagan Summer Community Theatre. Colleen couldn’t wait to finally hear the real Surrey with the Fringe on Top after all of those When Harry Met Sally references.

The production quality of this show was quite high and we enjoyed the lead actors: Ashley Lemaire as Laurey and Jared Oxborough as Curley. Douglas Castle was also great as Ali Hakim and the kids liked Honey Ribar as Ado Annie the most.

The worst part of the show by far was the audience - why can’t people shut up for two hours? Aside from that, it was nice to finally see the play that every Okie is duty-bound to watch at some point in their life. Ok-la-hom-a, OK!

Got back yesterday from several days worth of wedding activities for my wife’s cousin in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Our kids were in the wedding party and everything went great. A few pictures are up in the private section of the photo gallery.

Congrats to the newlyweds and thanks for including us in your celebration.

Yesterday my wife Colleen defended her capstone/thesis project at the University of Minnesota and found out afterward that she is now officially done with her masters program in health journalism.

I know firsthand how hard it is to work full-time and go to school–but I never had two kids to deal with too for my degree. Colleen worked extremely hard for this and we are very, very proud of her.

After all the signatures were obtained and the form dropped off with the graduate office (just in time for an official July 31 graduation date), we visited the shoe tree on the west bank before heading to Al’s Breakfast for a celebration lunch.

Congrats!

Michael Alvin Kingsbury and Karen Leslie Smith were married forty years ago today. We celebrated by inviting them over for some grilling, cake and ice cream.

Congrats Mom and Dad!