Some like it hot

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Well it has finally cooled down.  It was only 86 degrees today…that is 15 degrees cooler than it has been recently. 

Wednesday was the 4th of July.  It was a busy day for me. Danielle, Bradley, Mom and Anna came up for my concert.  The day was so hot. Danielle, Bradley, Eric and I tried out the Shakopee Sand Adventure pool.  I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it but, we had never been there before.  8 years in Shakopee and we finally went to the pool.  It was so nice.  There is a big slide, 3 smaller slides and a diving board.  It wasn’t too busy considering it was 100 degrees outside and a holiday.   We spent a couple hours there before we had to get back to the house to get ready for the picnic and concert. Greg and Celeste came over to pick up our extra people and we meet up at Round Lake Park in Eden Prairie. It was still around 100 degrees at 5:30.  We had a nice picnic and listened to the Jazz Band.  After them, we got to play.  I was sweating bullets and drank 32 ounces of ice cold water.  I was so happy to be done and back in the air conditioning.  Danielle and Bradley left and Mom and Anna spent the night.  We were too tired or hot to go out to see fireworks so we watched them on TV.  I’m getting old.

Winniwissa Falls, Pipestone National Monument, Pipestone, MN 
Thursday we went to for a mini vacation to Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota. It was very interesting.  American Indians have quarried the red pipestone found at the site. These grounds are sacred to many people because the pipestone quarried here is carved into pipes used for prayer. Many believe that the pipe's smoke carries one's prayer to the Great Spirit. The traditions of quarrying and pipemaking continue there today.  We did the 3/4 mile hike to the quarry, water fall and other sites.  It was very cool…but very hot.  We stopped at a few of the state parks as well. We were going to camp at Split Rock Creek State Park near the site but it was too hot and humid…we would have been miserable.  We are becoming very spoiled.  So instead we drove to  a hotel.  We had a nice meal for dinner and played some mini golf.  I was victorious!!! I beat Eric by 5.

Yesterday we slowly made our way to Flandrau State Park in New Ulm.  For a while we were by ourselves.  We had some lunch at Pizza Ranch (yum) and made 3 trips to Target.  When we go camping, especially the first time of the summer, we always forget things.  Speaking of being spoiled, we bought a queen size double air mattress.  It is so comfy!  We went to the park and waited for the others.  Greg, Celeste and Evelyn finally got there after their rough start to the day. Evelyn fell down the steps and had to have two staples put into her head.  She didn’t seem fazed by it.  DJ and kids showed up next.  We went to the really nice sand bottom pool.  Eric bought some toys for the pool so we all had a blast.  Eventually Danielle and Bradley showed up.  We swam until 8pm. After that we had a campfire and food.  S’mores are so good.  It was still hot.  When we finally put the fire out at 10pm it was still in the 90s I think.  It was miserable falling asleep.  I eventually fell asleep, the mattress helped.

I woke up at 3am to the storm shower.  The nice thing about the storms is it really cooled down outside that I was able to get back to sleep. But I was awakened again at 6am to a massive storm with thunder, lightning and down pouring rain.  It was quite the storm. I looked at the map on my phone and the only place in the state that had storms was by New Ulm.  Go Figure!

We packed up our site after the rain went to Perkins for a late breakfast and then came home.  We did nothing today but relax.  It is so nice to be home and being in our own bed again tonight.

It was a very nice couple of days, even if it was sweltering.

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