Happy Halloween

Mike and I took a road trip in the car, to southern Minnesota following the great Mississippi River.  Southern MN is beautiful with the bluffs along the river and the leaves turning amazing colors. 

Our first stop was Red Wing, home of Red Wing shoes and Red Wing Pottery.  I happen to grab a picture of a very large boot outside the Red Wing shoe store.

 

Historic downtown Red Wing.

The colors are not yet at there best, but still wonderful.

Our next stop was Lake City, as you can see from the sign it is the birthplace of waterskiing.  Lake City is located on a part of the Mississippi called Lake Pepin, the river widens in this area.

    We stopped and picked up some delicious MN apples and some snacks for the rest of the trip.

 

The people in Lake City really now how to decorate for Halloween, there were some pretty awesome displays. 

We stopped in the Old Bank Bar and Grill for a glass of wine and hamburger.

Our last stops were Lanesboro and Harmony well known Amish communities.

We traveled 330 miles, saw some beautiful country, maybe next time we can do it in the MH and spend more time enjoying the small towns along the river.

A Birthday Celebration and Catching Up

Dad is still on the mend, seems to be getting stronger everyday.  He has a couple more follow up doctor appointments, in the next few weeks, and if everything looks good we will head south the 1st of December. 

Looking forward to leaving the cold north and seeing some sunshine.  We have had very little sun, in the month of October.  In fact it has been the 6th coldest and wettest October since they started keeping records..

A few weeks ago we went out to dinner with our son Rich and his wife to celebrate Rich’s birthday.  My youngest is 39, (I want to say my baby, but he reads the blog and might not appreciate being called the baby) no way could I be old enough to have kids that old.  I’m way to young, at heart anyway.  We went to one of favorite restaurants, Phil's Tara Hideaway.

    

They have the most amazing Greek menu and the food is to die for. 

We go to breakfast every Wednesday with dad and the breakfast club, and always have the best time.  There were 12 of us this past Wednesday, what a wonderful group of people.  They all read the blog so I have to say nice things, really the are all so kind.

Mike has been doing some work on the MH to get it ready for traveling, and I have been cleaning drawers and closets, trying to get things organized inside the MH. 

I should start my Christmas shopping soon.  I hate to shop, any kind of shopping, I really detest it all.  I also have been working a few days at the compost site, 10 hours today.  Next week I will put in a day or two, to help out.  Fall is a busy time of year hear, with all the leaves.  I personally think you should just let them blow into your neighbors yard, and let the neighbors worry about raking them.  The way the wind is blowing today the leaves could end up in the next county.

A Visit With Friends

Monday October 26, 2009

Friends Charles and Nancy Deutschmann came for lunch and a visit on Monday.  They are on their way south, stopping in the area for appointments and family visits.  Had a great time going over what each of us will be doing this winter in the warmth of the southwest.  Sure we will be seeing them sometime in the near future.

We met Charles and Nancy in Quartzsite AZ, Jan. of 2008, and have had many great times the past couple of years.  Nancy is Mikes best friend, she makes the best lemon meringue pie, Mikes favorite.  Guess what dessert was on Monday, right Mikes most desired pie. 

Tuesday evening we went to granddaughter Elizabeth’s swim meet. She is a senior at Woodbury High School and swims the varsity team and has for many years.  Lizzy is an excellent swimmer, she came in first in all her heats.  Woodbury won the meet.  Go Royals! Go Lizzy!

Snow, Snow and More Snow

Here we are still in Minnesota, and we have had the snowiest and coldest October ever.  Let me tell you our MH is not insulated at all and it gets plenty cold.  What ever happened to our fall and Indian Summer that we are so well know for.  It started snowing this morning and at 4PM still going strong.

Dad is doing pretty good, he finished up all his doctor appointments.  Not much they can do for him other than make him as comfortable as possible.  So far he has no unusual pain just his normal old age stuff, which we all have from time to time.  He does tire pretty easily , but as long as he doesn’t over do it he makes it through the day with a couple of naps.  

Dad did hire some help with his yard work and snowplowing, I was very happy about that.  Now I have to talk him into some help with the housework.  I will have to wait on that can’t push him, he likes his privacy.

Dad is doing so well we plan on heading south after Thanksgiving if everything works out.  I figure I can always fly home if need be.  My son Rich and his wife Marion spend Saturdays with him and daughter Sherry has breakfast with dad on Wednesdays.  

With dad doing so well, I have been filling in at the compost site.  Seems the H1N1 flu has made an appearance here.  I’m working  10 hours today, but it is snowing and cold so no big deal.  Not many people are showing up to drop off their yard waste in weather like this.  Catching up on my reading and my blogging, of which I fell behind on.  

A few Turkeys made their way thru the yard the other day, this one just stood and posed so pretty for me.

It has been so cold the cats think they have to be in the MH all day.  Tee Tee is the one standing up and sleeping and babe is laying down.  Stormy is hiding in the bedroom, she just does not appreciate my love of all animals.  I know your wondering were the 3rd cat came from, well she is another of the neighbors cats that I sort of adopted, Mike calls it fostering them, not adoption, they have to go home when we leave.  We'll see about that.

Revisiting Spain 2002

 

We haven’t been doing much here in MN since we left the lake Sept 5th. other then spending time with my dad.  I was going through some old photos and came acrosss of our month in Spain and Portugal in 2002. I have a theme going here, can you guess what it is. 

 

Our first evening in Madrid was spent on a tour of the Tapa Bars and our host was the Chairman of the Wellington Society.  He actually made the position up, basically he was a person that hired himself out to take you on the tour of the bars and you bought his drinks.  I can’t remember his name, but it was a wonderful tour, we had a blast with him.  A tapa bar serves what we call appetizers and were they good. 

 

In the first picture we visited a Sherry factory in Jerez Spain.  Personally I don’t care for Sherry but it was very interesting.  The second picture I’m about to enjoy a glass of Champagne in Ronda, Spain after a hot air balloon ride Mike and I took.  Now that was an experience not soon forgotten.   This was our second ride in a balloon, the first was out of Afton MN.

I enjoyed a glass of wine in the first picture in Plaza Nueva, Granada, Spain.   The second picture is an evening out in Madrid. 

 

Cadiz is were the first picture was taken and the second one was in Seville. We rented a car when we left Madrid, and visited many small towns on our way to southern Spain the visit our daughters family. 

 

A glass of wine enjoyed in Sintra Portugal.  What a beautiful town Sintra was. 

 

Our bartender is showing off pouring our wine   

The Bull Bar in Madrid, check out the tiles on the wall, they are all hand painted, very decorative.  This was a very interesting tapa bar.

Everyone that knows us know we enjoy our wine, and when your in a country that is know for delicious wines you have to enjoy them, and we did.  We spent 3 weeks traveling thru Spain and a week in Portugal, it was a trip of a life time.  We have been to Europe 2 other times and enjoyed them just as much.  We spent a month in Italy and two weeks in Pairs during the Christmas season visiting our daughter, son-in-law and grandkids.  

 

A Birthday Celebration

 

It was Sandy Weis’s birthday a few days ago and we had a celebration.  Peggy and Don Telin, Ken and LeeAnn Chevrette, Mike and I, and the birthday girl Sandy Weis, went out to dinner.  We have all been friends for more then 30 years some as long as grade school. 

We went the Broadway restaurant in St. Paul Park.  Just a small town bar that serves pretty good food. 

 

The first picture is Ken, Peggy, LeeAnn, birthday girl Sandy, me and Don.  The girls Peggy, Sandy and LeeAnn.

After dinner we stopped at another small bar, The Clover Leaf in Newport.  Mike had fun playing bartender.  We all had a fun time.  It had been awhile since Mike and I went out, we really enjoyed our time with friends.  And thanks to LeeAnn for being our DD. 

Dad is Home

Dad got the okay from the Transitional Care people to go home.  He was a gold medal winner in his physical therapy class.  He is able to go back to living on his own.  Many things have changed no more cutting his grass or snow blowing his driveway, he just does not have the strength for that any longer.  Keeping up on the house cleaning also will pose a problem, but I can take care of that.  He can fix his own meals, and so some simple housekeeping.  He is still very weak, but getting stronger. 

His life and our is getting back to normal once more.  Still not sure when we will or if we will be heading south for the winter.  Dad has many doctor appointments, cardiologist, oncologist, neurologist and maybe a few others that I don’t know about yet.. 

It is getting a bit chilly hear in MN the highs have only been in the low 50s and rainy.  A week ago are temps were in the high 70s and low 80s, to much of change for me.  It gets pretty cold in the MH by morning, guess who gets up early and starts the wave heater in the morning, not Mike.