The long 4th of July weekend is over.  I’m so sad. I really enjoyed my 4 day mini vacation.  Let’s see what did I do all weekend?  I spent quite a bit of time in the car, hence the “road tripping” title.  After work Wednesday we got an oil change…exciting I know!  Then we went for a little ride around Chaska, Carver and Jordan.  I wanted to see if the Minnesota Valley SRA campground was open.  We had quite a bit of rain a while back and the river was near flooding in Shakopee so I thought it might affect the campground. Surprisingly, it is closed for the season.  I’m not sure why and the DNR website doesn’t say why.

Thursday we went to Boston Market for lunch and took it to the local park and had a picnic. Not your typically picnic fare but it was cheap (50% off family meals). There is a really nice park by our Boston Market.  We walked around the park and enjoyed the warm air.  After that, I had to go to the 4th of July Celebration in Eden Prairie.  We played our annual concert. Normally we leave afterwards but my friend, Jenny, convinced us to stay for the fireworks.  So we stuck around and watch her kids play in the new playground in the park.  The fireworks were not bad, the show last about 25 minutes.  After fireworks there was a massive traffic jam and it took us almost an hour to get home.

Friday morning we went to the DMV at the courthouse (and stood in a very long line) to renew Eric’s driver’s license and to renew the tabs on our car…$332 later we came home with stickers and a piece of paper saying Eric can drive.  Man the State of Minnesota likes their taxes!  

We packed up the car and slowly made our way to Rice Lake State Park in Owatonna.  We definitely didn’t take the most direct route, we went through towns I’ve never been to before. We decided the weather was perfect for camping.  We met DJ and Ethan there.  We walked down to the lake (which they are drawing down :( this summer so no canoeing) and that was about the extent of our hike.  We made burgers on the open fire…I am very impressed at my outdoor cooking skills. And of course the delicious s’ mores later. We didn’t stay up too late which is unusual. Sleeping was very comfortable.  The weather was perfect.  We awoke to the birds chirping and the massive amount of daddy long leg spiders covering our tent. Thankfully they were on the outside! We packed up our site and headed to Mankato.  Danielle asked us to come see her new place.  We went out for lunch and then spent some time at her new apartment. It was nice, the typical starting out apartment.  We left there in time to make it back for 4:30 Mass.  Of course it wouldn’t make sense to take the most direct route so instead we decided to venture into Le Sueur; you know the home of the Jolly Green Giant.  Not really out of our way but it was nice to finally see what the town looks like. After driving to Mankato for over 10 years and seeing the sign for Le Sueur, I finally drove through the town.  It was cute.

Yesterday was a day of relaxation. But it was stinking hot we decided to get wet to cool off. We went to the water park at Valleyfair and hit all the slides, lazy river, raging rapids and of course the wave pool.  We were there about 2 hours.  We were starving afterwards so we went to Eden Prairie to Punch Pizza (delicious!).  After a couple of hours of watching TV, I treated Eric to Dairy Queen.  We got a car wash too and decided to “dry it off” by going for a ride.  Well the ride didn’t start off that great because the concrete on Hwy 169 exploded which put us in a very long line up of cars going very slowly.  Then we drove down to Jim’s Apple Farm for some candy.  I found maltesers…my favorite!   Look a whole box:  

Isn’t it disappointing that is the only picture I took the whole weekend!  And it is blurry! I’m really losing my photography abilities! We took the back roads back home and ran into a thunderstorm. So much for drying off the car.  LOL!

As you can tell the long weekend involved two things, eating and driving.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Wow, my legs are tired today. We had a very busy weekend. Michael and Cassidy came up Thursday evening.  Friday morning, after we took Swirl to the vet, we started our first day of touring. We started out at the Sculpture Garden at the Walker art museum so they could see the famous Spoon and Cherry.  You have probably seen it; the NFL always show it whenever the Vikings are playing on national TV. 

After that we went downtown and had lunch and walked around Nicollet Mall. I took them to the downtown Target to show them the cart escalator. It is a crazy thing but I think it is cool and so did they. We buzzed by the Metrodome so Michael could see the Vikings home.  Next stop was the Guthrie Theater and the Stone Arch bridge followed by the Minnehaha Waterfall. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls and even put our feet in the water.  It was a little cold.  Then the rain came. We ran under a tree but it wasn’t letting up so we darted up the stairs to the car.

We hit the Mall of America and Nickelodeon Universe. We did a lot of shopping, probably the most I have ever done at the MOA.  It was fun though. We also went on two rides.  It was a fun! After the Mall we headed across the street to IKEA so Michael could get his meatballs.  When they lived in Virginia, they would go to IKEA often and Michael devoured the meatballs.  We bought him some frozen one to take home with him.  (number of steps: 15,545)

Saturday I did a 15 mile bike ride in the morning. We went back downtown, first to the Gophers’ new stadium and shop and then Target Field for a Twins game.

The game was fine but the wind started to really blow and then the rain came. Twins won so that was good! We got a picture of them in the glove.  I love this sculpture!

In the evening, DJ, Abbie and Beth stopped by for dinner.  Abbie had a soccer tournament in Maple Grove.  (Her team was undefeated in pool play but lost the championship game on Sunday with 50 seconds left in overtime.) After they left, we made another trip to the Mall of America.  Man, Michael likes to shop!  (number of steps: 23,471)

Yesterday I went for almost a 4 mile run. My GPS watch stopped working and was stuck at 2.73 miles for a few minutes.  When it reconnected with the GPS I was at over 3 miles.  It was pretty amazing I went from 2.73 to like 3.14 in less than 5 seconds!  My fastest pace ever!  The only bad thing is it didn’t get all of my miles logged so it was off by 2 tenths of a mile. After that, we went to Valleyfair and rode a ton rides.  My face got sunburned, I'm so red! And it hurts.  I'm stupid, I didn't think about sun screen. It was cloudy and 60 degrees. Oh well, I'll probably be tan here soon.  After that we just chilled at home. (Number of steps: 18,167)

So what’s the deal with the “Number of steps?” Well we are doing the Get Out and Get Fit Program at work. We are supposed to get 10,000 steps a day. Well my average for the last 3 days was over 19,000. :)  As you can tell, my legs are tired.