Our annual pilgrimage to the Minnesota State Fair. This year we were all a bit crankier than usual, but that didn’t stop us from staying for nearly 12 hours (and 17,000 steps, according to my trusty fitbit).
Fair food included (basically covering all of our meals today):
hot waffle ice cream sandwiches (just as good as last year!)
chicken in waffle cones (another favorite from last year)
mini-donuts
strawberry rhubarb milkshake from the dairy barn
hot dogs and pronto pups (verifying that regular corn dogs beat pronto pups)
samosas from the midtown global market
gyros from holy land
cotton candy
Favorite discovery this year was the play area outside the Eco Experience. Sand + water + building supplies = infinite fun.
We thought we’d kick things off with hot waffle ice cream sandwiches.
Divine.
Seriously.
Puppet show. Kinda weird this time, but the kids enjoyed it.
Ram
Lamb
Rabbits
Piglets
Griffin loves this ride.
Last year he was nervous.
This year he had no qualms.
Maggie on her wheels.
Maggie riding a whale (or something).
Carousel
Carousel
Pilot
Examining the map
Pronto pup
Eco superheroes!
A quieter moment in the agriculture building.
My favorite seed art of the year.
And a close second.
In the skyride
Happy skyrider
As a postscript, in the interest of keeping things real, I should mention that shortly after putting this post together, Griffin puked all over his bed. Besides being gross, it was a good reminder that fair food, though fun, isn’t really what a growing body wants.
Raven and Max, and their parents, came for a glorious visit during the last week of July. Many adventures were had, some of which are documented below. Click on any photo for a larger version (and a slide-show interface, if you’d like to flip through all of them).
Continuing an awesome summer of seeing distant friends and family, we enjoyed a perfect Twin Cities weekend with Tyler and Mieka. I’ve known Tyler since college, and we became close while working together in the Oberlin computing center. Then we were housemates in Oakland for a few years and neighbors thereafter. (Plus probably a thousand hours of D&D and video games.) Suffice it to say that he has been a rock in my life for the past twenty years and I miss having him nearby. Marrying Mieka, of course, added some outrageously good icing to the cake, and not just because we got to hang out with them at an Italian villa for their wedding. We were thrilled that they could make it to our neck of the woods this summer because they’re preparing for a major move from the Bay Area to Zurich in the coming weeks. Our house marks their eighth temporary home for the month of July.
In two short days we covered a lot of territory without feeling frenetic. Highlights included a Korean rice bowl feast cooked up by Sarah, a walk to Highland Fest with the kids, strolling across the Mississippi on the Stone Arch Bridge, an evening at the Guthrie to see a spectacular performance of The Music Man, a lovely Sunday brunch at The Buttered Tin, and a visit to Minnehaha Falls before heading to the airport. (And despite some hearty meals, I think we can claim a healthy weekend, earning more than 25,000 fitbit steps each on Saturday alone!)
We’re already trying to figure out how we make it out to Zurich in the next few years…
Photos of some of our activities below. Click for larger versions.
A Maggie and Mieka duet
“Let it go!”
Mastering the climbing wall at Highland Fest
Victorious descent
Mieka and Tyler catching some shade at Highland Fest
At the Guthrie for The Music Man
View from the Guthrie’s Endless Bridge
Tyler and Andrew, discussing geeky esoterica
Perfect Minneapolis evening
Panorama focusing on the Stone Arch bridge
Griffin perched on a rock by Minnehaha creek
Maggie enjoying the creek
“I’m swimming!”
Nothing better on a hot day
Grudgingly returning to shore
Serendipitous encounter with Scott who agreed to take the kids for a ride
The culmination of our road trip was a glorious fourth of July weekend on Cape Cod with our friends Nate and Christine. (Nate and I went to high school and college together… whoa!)
The original seed for this crazy road trip was planted during the summer of 2010 by Nate and Christine. We were at Karen and David’s wedding (our friends from Ithaca, a few posts back) in Arizona and we had such a good time that we agreed we should do it again (it = hanging out, wedding not required, though it was a good one). Nate mentioned having access to a family house on Cape Cod. We were interested. But then Maggie was born and life got busy and years went by. It wasn’t until this winter that I reached out to see if the invitation was still standing. It was. And a road trip was born.
The house is in West Falmouth, at the southwest edge of Cape Cod. The time here was the definition of relaxation. Tons of room for the kids to romp, an air hockey table, plenty of bikes for all of us, nearby beaches, mojitos, great food, puzzles and conversation in the evening… what more could you want?
The time was made even better by getting to know Nate’s cousin, Emory, and his partner, Ben. They were both awesome in their own right, and were unbelievably good with the kids—seriously, I haven’t had so much time-off from parenting in years. We were all sad to see them go on Sunday, but none more so than Maggie and Griffin who remained cranky with us for days over this betrayal.
We also hit a new milestone for Griffin’s physical endurance: a 16-mile round-trip bike ride to Woods Hole. He was on an unfamiliar “big kid” bike with gears and handle breaks, and he did a fantastic job. No complaints at all. (The photo of him in the two-seater below was on a different, shorter, ride.)
The best part of all of this is that Nate and Christine will be driving through Minnesota in August so we’ll get to see them twice in one summer. Feels almost gluttonous.
Click on any picture below to see larger versions in an interface that makes it easy to scroll through the full set.
The Falmouth house
Dinner on the veranda
Like a Burley, but the kids are in front.
Swan nest by the trail
Ready to go
Bike path to Woods Hole
Woods Hole Aquarium
Dinner at the farm
Teeth
Air hockey with Emory
Air hockey with Ben
Loving mama’s hat
Prepared
Staring at the sea
Happy daddy
Great fireworks view from the balcony
The kids with their new besties, Emory and Ben
Face full of sprinkles before heading inland for the journey home.
The new antibiotics were victorious, so after a good night’s sleep at the Worst Western, we resumed our journey to Jamaica State Park in Vermont. Upon arrival, we happily rendezvoused with Mark, Tracy, Cora, and their dog, Holly. The park and countryside were beautiful, and despite nearly constant drizzle, we had a great time—explored nearby paths, played at a playground, cooked up a pasta feast, and finished with smores around the fire. The kids went to bed easily in the tents and the grownups enjoyed some conversation time around the flickering coals.
In the morning, the rain was coming down harder with some thunderstorms coming through. The weather report showed more of the same for the next 24 hours, so we all agreed to cut the camping trip short. We headed to Milton where we stayed in Mark and Tracy’s lovely, and very dry, home.
View from the lean-to
Ants on logs
Praying mantis
Caught in a sudden downpour while walking the dog
Ellsworth Cafe, owned and managed by Cora. Griffin worked in the kitchen.
Chef Maggie
Happy at the playground
Friendly neighbors invited Griffin and Maggie to play in their yard
Sarah’s first course of antibiotics didn’t wipe out her strep. She started feeling ill again as her New York weekend wrapped up, and it was clear as we began driving north that she was going to need to see another doctor. After doing a bit of smartphone research, we found an urgent care outside Albany and stopped there on our way to Vermont to meet the Redmonds. (Our road trip, it turns out, was sponsored by urgent care…” this was our third visit since leaving Minnesota.)
Strep test came back positive again, and Sarah got another, different, course of antibiotics. She was in pretty bad shape, so we postponed Vermont and found a hotel for the night.
Unfortunately, I booked us at a pretty vile hotel—a musty “Best Western” that was undergoing renovations. It wasn’t truly terrible, but had lots of minor issues that grated—doors that wouldn’t close right, loose faucets, slow-as-molasses internet, etc. We dubbed it the “Worst Western” because that’s the kind of mood we were in. Note to self: next time someone is so sick that we need to recuperate in a hotel, aim for a few more stars.
Despite this, there were a few highlights:
When I asked Griffin what he liked about staying in Albany, he said, without hesitation, “The pool the pool the pool!” I remember it with less fondness, but I did take the kids down to the pool before dinner to burn off some energy and give Sarah some quiet time. Griffin practiced diving for plastic sharks while Maggie practiced drowning. To be fair, she didn’t know that that’s what she was doing, but she was so bloody fearless that she scared me out of my wits. As I was helping Griffin with his goggles, she walked down the stairs until the water was over her head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her flailing around underwater. I dove for her and pulled her out, expecting her to come up scared and possibly spitting up water, trying to remember my water first aid (which adds up to finding someone who actually knows something). Instead, she laughed and shouted, “I was under water!” Uh huh. Definitely time for swimming lessons.
Another highlight was a great bar, City Line, not far from the hotel. I took the kids there for dinner and brought food back for Sarah, who was dozing off with Seinfeld. A modern, industrial sports bar, it was not the sort of place we usually attend, especially with kids, but we had an excellent dinner and the kids were mesmerized by the dim lights, big TVs, and pyramids of glowing liquor. Seriously, I’ve rarely had a meal out with less kid drama. And the mango jalapeno (!) cocktail I ordered didn’t hurt either.
City Line kiddosThe hypnotic arrayGourmet mac’n’cheese + hypnotism
