Ryan's Garden

Ryan has a beautiful natural garden on the point by our "summer home". After a recent rain, my camera caught some of the beauty.

A visually striking area just a few yards from home - what a place!

PICTURES

At the FMCA Rally last week, Bonnie and I took a painting class - yes, now I am into oil painting. Only problem is that it takes 7 - 10 days to dry thoroughly and where do you put it in the motorhome... my two originals completed in the class will probably be the only ones I do until I'm "in the home". Carol and Bud were our neighbors at the rally; we have known them for a few years but got to know them better over the week. They have dreams of being fulltimers - hope it works out for them.
When we returned to the lake on Friday, Barry and Bonnie came down to spend a couple of days before they return to Tucson. Wouldn't you know it, within the first hour, a four pound bass was caught. I love the smug look on Barry's face.

On Saturday, we went to a fundraising go cart race. Here the fiancee, sister and mom look on as ...
Grandson Chris takes to carting like a pro and passes the competition!

He just kept going and made us all very proud!
Then his dad, Terry, took the cart and the lead continued.
This was Amariah's first race and she watched it intently. Here great grandpa holds her as she cheers for her grandpa in the number two cart.

It was a great week and weekend!

St. Paul, Minnesota - Who Knew...

(St. Paul is really a study in contrasts; old and new side by side.)

While we were at the FMCA Rally at the state fairgrounds, we took the opportunity to be tourists in our home state and went on a "gangster tour" of St. Paul. We visited the Wabasha Caves and found out about the booming mushroom business that existed before prohibition turned the caves into a speakeasy. If you ever get a chance to visit these caves, I highly recommend it - $5 is what they charge. Oh, and did you know that the representative who sponsored the prohibition law was from Minnesota - that is something I don't remember learning in history class... Nor did I know that prohibition created gangsters...

You can just imagine what it used to be like during the Speakeasy days.
Some parts of the cave looks the same as it did "in the day". If this safe could only talk...
We drove by many apartment houses where various "Bad Guys" had lived and found out about the city of St. Paul being one of just a few "safe cities" for gangsters. Seems all they had to do was register, pay a small protection fee and promise not to raise cain and they were then protected by the police. A very interesting shotout took place in the caves and within an hour of the police arriving, the bodies disappeared and witnesses were assured they had "seen nothing".

Another infamous tale is of a "Madam" who did a roaring good business by one of the first Ford dealers in St. Paul - seems you could get an oil change and ... well, you know... The rumor has it that she donated much of the money to buy the stained glass windows in the St. Paul Cathedral - trust me, these are beautiful windows no matter who paid for them!

We also toured the Landmark Center and saw the court room where Dillinger's girlfriend was tried and found guilty of "associating with criminals". This was a federal building years back and it is so good that the city decided to purchase the building for $1 and reuse it rather than destroy it.

What attention to detail in this building.

Overall, the tour was one of the highlights of the week. Oh yea, and would you belief that Mike knew the driver of the tourbus from racing days - small world!

Catching Up!

After Mike's demonstration of patriotic pride... or whatever, we did have a great July 4th! We enjoyed the parade in Elysian and even saw our host as he rode with the posse.

Later in the day, we enjoyed a picnic lunch and then beautiful fireworks over the lake. It was tough to know in which direction to look since so many individuals had fireworks going off and we could see them from the town of St. Peter. Since Elysian really celebrates Independence, the weekend continued with bingo on Saturday and "thrown" pancakes on Sunday - yep, the guy serves them by throwing them - fun to watch; I preferred getting them placed on my plate - clumsy you know. Sunday was Corky's birthday, so I made my first ever all protein "cake" for her - what do you give a gal who is doing so well on low carb, low sugar... I understand it got eaten up.



Also on Sunday, Mom and Rich and Anita came out to the lake to visit - what a treat for mom to feel well enough to make the trip over to see us. Then later in the day, Janet and Kaci and Amariah paid a visit - of course, then the camera had to come out. I love this smile!

It was a beautiful MN day and it was fun to have family around!

On Thursday, we headed north to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the FMCA rally.

We met up with Bud and Carol and made our way to the grounds where we were parked on "Machinery Hill" under the FORD sign - you natives will know where I mean... We came in early because I had volunteered us to do "security". We were assigned to sit for 6 hours (over two days) at a gate that was locked, closed and secured... needless to say, our job was very easy. The highlight was talking with a delightful young gal in law enforcement and swapping tales. In the evenings we had some bad weather, but we were spared and even my plants survived!

The MN fairgrounds has wonderful carved statues all over the grounds - this is one of my favorites.

On Saturday, we drove to North Branch and picked up our new JEEP. We had ordered it a couple of months ago and it finally came in. As it was a bright and sunny day, we took off two of the roof panels and enjoyed the feel of a convertible on our way back to the fairgrounds. Here she is parked in front of our home and our friends' place. I absolutely love the new car and feel a bit like this lady...

I know we will enjoy the week - who wouldn't enjoy looking at over 600 motorhomes, talking travel, meeting new people, and spending time with old friends! More on the rally later.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL

TIME...

In the past week, we have spent time doing very little... Sometimes, a person just needs to sit back and enjoy what is around her. Let me tell you about three 30-minute periods of time.






One night, it looked like rain. The clouds in the sky were very dramatic and constantly changing. Mike thought he would get in a few casts and maybe even catch a fish. I grabbed my camera and we walked across the road. These pictures were taken over a 30-minute time frame (nope, none of Mike with fish this time).

It had rained somewhere, but we never felt it. I must have taken 15 pictures of this rainbow.

It was one of those remarkable evenings; my pictures just don't do it justice.

AND THEN, on another day, we went to Friendship Days in Nicollet; a true small town Minnesota experience. As usual, there were friends and relatives to greet and root beer floats from the Legion booth. As members of the Legion, we had received raffle tickets to sell and of course decided it was just easier to buy them. So we had to stick around for the raffle; yep, I "won" some golf balls and a $15 gift certificate to Schell's Brewery - not bad, huh. But the best 30 minutes was the parade (it may have lasted a little longer - I wasn't keeping track).


What's a parade without a truck hauling wrecked cars...


The true highlight, of course, was the giant tractor pulling 15 tanks of anhydrous ammonia...


Or perhaps, it was the tractor pulling 3 other tractors - all from the "olden days"...

The parade was a definite success and well-spent time.

And then there was the 30 minutes where I just sat in my lawn chair and watched the heron. He was hanging out on the dock across from the Motorhome for awhile ... and then he must have spotted something.

And after the catch, he posed on the dock - must have been drying his wings; this is a pose I had never seen before.

So, my message this week is - take 30 minutes and do nothing - it is a real joy!