Wrapping Up the Journey

Maybe you are all tired of hearing about our trip to MN and our visit with Jim. After all, we've been home since the 4th... But I still have more photos and since I'm sure at least my Mom wants to see them, I insist upon sharing them. (So deal!) One more photo journey. This time to Gooseberry Falls and then a couple additional shots from the next day, so this brings our journey to a close...

Days # 6 and # 7:

We started the day off driving around Duluth, which is where we had spent the night. We were looking for a good place to eat breakfast and our GPS led us to this little cafe. It was quite funny actually... Adam asked Jim to look up bakeries in his GPS and the first one that was on the list was the Amazing Grace Bakery. It was 0.0 miles away. It just so happened to be in the basement of the building next to us. Talk about delicious, homemade, good cooking. And a great atmosphere to boot. I'd recommend any day.

After a hearty breakfast, we headed a bit north to see the falls. They are as follows.

Falls #1 (or 2) Notice the bear cave in the background. We climbed
up and peaked in, but it wasn't really big enough for any bears.

Jim, being a good mountain man, commandeered the falls for us.

Another view of the above falls. In all there were three or
four different falls. We saw all of two of them. Boo to that.

Jim, being a good photo bomber. I will unfortunately never be as good as he is.

And now we are onto the next day, back in Minneapolis. The weather was cruel to us while we were in MN, but how could anyone expect Minnesota weather to be any different than cruel? The week started off in the 90's but by Friday, it was 55°. We were freezing and ill prepared. I had forgotten to pack Adam a sweatshirt so that was our first order of business. The second order of business was to toss around the "ol' pig skin" at the park down the street. I am not much on playing catch, but I brought a book and found a park bench. Before too long, Adam and Jim had some company. Three neighborhood boys came along and asked if they could play. And they played for over an hour and a half. It was a riot!

We wrapped up the day with a baseball game at the Target Stadium. I got some great picture of the guys and I waiting for the game to start. I hope you like them as much as I do.

The Capitol Building and The Como Zoo

I decided that I am much too factual when it comes to relating happenings in my life. For instance, I like to go through every detail of each day. And who likes to read that?!? Gross... Pictures and short descriptions may be that way to go, but then how will I remember all that I have done ten years from now? Maybe that is why I get dialoging when I write. But anyway, more about our trip to MN.

Day 3: We were going to spend our Monday at the Minnesota State Fair, but when we learned that Tuesday's were "$2 off each ticket day", we decided to save ourselves the $6 and wait the extra day. Instead we went to the state capitol building in Saint Paul, which is one city over form Minneapolis. If you know anything about MN, Saint Paul and Minneapolis are called the Twin Cities, because they just are. There are like twins. So we went to Saint Paul. One great thing about going to see the State Capitol Building was that they give free tours and you could see nearly every part of the building. We were even able to go up on the top, where they were having the Quadriga replated. Even though we weren't able to get the best look at the gold artifice, the rest of the view was spectacular.In the afternoon, Jim took us to the Como Zoo. Adam and I both agreed that going to this zoo was waaay better than going to the Toronto Zoo, which is super sad. Not only was the Como Zoo free, though a donation of $2 was suggested per person, but we were able to see sooo many more animals. The Toronto Zoo cost at least $20 per person, plus parking, and it was so expansive, that very often you could barely get a look at the animals because they were so far away. One might think that going to the zoo would be for kids, but we really had such a nice afternoon there. The Como Zoo also had a butterfly conservatory and an arboretum. I absolutely loved the arboretum and would've spent longer in there if Adam wasn't waiting for us. (Adam, will you take me to the arboretum in the city? I would really like that. It'd make a good date.)

(Hitching a ride through the Como Zoo.)

(A butterfly. Duh!)

By the time we were done at the zoo, the heat had really gotten to me. It had been in the mid 90's all day and my head was pounding. We all decided that a relaxing evening in the park would be a good way to end the day. Jim and Adam made a quick trip into the grocery store for some picnic supplies and a football, while I rested my eyes in the truck. It was tough work scouring the park for a grill to cook the burgers and corn on the cob, but once we located one, it was easy going. One grill over, there was a rather large group gathered, where a few rednecks were cooking up their own corn on the cob. They seemed to be a friendly bunch and they let us use their lighter fluid. Haha, they even offered us beer! Jim said they were probably from Wisconsin, they were so friendly... Not that Minnesotan's aren't friendly or anything... And that basically sums up day 3.