We spent several wonderful days with Donna’s brother, Cara and Bruce, sharing memories and telling jokes! On Friday, July 25, Bill and Diane, our friends from Michigan cruised in for a few days, and joined the family for an afternoon celebration the next day. They’re on the right below.
Our nephew, Chuck, and his lovely wife, Jill, on the left in the photo above, hosted a great afternoon party and dinner! Their home in an elegant neighborhood in St. Paul, MN, is perfect for a party! We enjoyed an absolutely perfect meal of homemade chili with lightly toasted buttered bread and ice cream and cake for dessert! Wonderful!
Late the next day, Bill and Diane and Donna and I dropped by a local brewery, the Liftbridge Brewery, which is named for the lift bridge at the edge of town that carried traffic across the St Croix river and allowed river traffic to travel up and down the river. We tried a bit of everything at the brewery, including a flight for Bill and Diane.
My choice was a slow-pour Czech inspired beer that left me a bit worse for wear!
Donna selected a Mango Blonde and critiqued it like a pro: “light, hint of flavor, cool and easy drinking.”
It seemed that we ate and drank for a week straight! A meal at Machete Cocina Mexicana took us two hours to eat! A little talking, a little drinking and a little eating filled a great evening.
Thunderstorms rolled through on two consecutive nights, downing trees, flooding streets, and causing leaks in the trailer!
Our Michigan friends and ourselves finally allowed things to return to normal with our family, and hauled north to Duluth. Known for its shipping, primarily of iron ore aboard “salties”, Duluth is a strong blue collar town. We traipsed down to Canal Park to look at the shipping channel and the lift bridge.
A quick stop at Grammas Tavern let us enjoy a warm day with onion rings and…..beer.
A short walk through the tourist shops killed a couple of hours.
Bill and Diane are members of the Moose Lodge fraternity, and invited us to join them at the local moose for a ….beer.
We were able to take a drive along the western shore of Lake Superior, and stopped for a little rock hunting and a couple of photos of two lovely ladies.
Unfortunately we have had to part company with the Michiganders and headed west. 360 miles later we pulled into West Fargo for a quick overnighter. We are in site 15 at the Red River Valley fairgrounds.
This is a barebones location, with a Renaissance Fair on one side and a Friday night derby race on the other. Between the noise from the events and the rowdy neighbors we may not get much sleep tonight! Oh well, at least it’s only 50 bucks a night…..
