So our fun in the sun is over. :(  It is so hard to get back to work!

We started the long road home on Friday.  We stopped in Montgomery, AL to see the capitol building.  I pointed out to Eric all the important places from my last unfortunate trip to Montgomery.  It was really emotional for me to go back there after the dump truck incident in 2011.  The capitol is very lovely.  We also so the First White House of the Confederacy.  I think the town has some charm to it.  Here is the two buildings: 

Alabama State Capitol

 

First White House of the Confederacy

After Montgomery we continued north to Birmingham (which also looks like a cute city) and eventually made our way to Nashville, TN.  Again we drove through the downtown area to see the capitol building, again very nice building.  Downtown Nashville is very charming too. I definitely want to come back here some day and show Eric around.  I was in Nashville when I was younger.  I remember it very vividly.  I won 2 life sized penguin stuffed animals on the milk can toss.  There is a pictures somewhere with me smiling with my two huge penguins and dad in the background with the trunk of the car open and he has his hand on his chin trying to figure out where he was going to put them. LOL!  Memories!  Here is a picture of Tennessee capitol:

Tennessee State Capitol

We drove through Kentucky and made our way to Mount Vernon, IL, a small town with 3 or 4 major interstates intersecting there.  Needless to say there are tons of hotels, gas stations and restaurants off one exit.  It is kind of a crazy place.

Saturday morning we started our last leg of the journey home.  We drove through St. Louis which is a construction nightmare.  I thought the Twin Cities were bad but St. Louis far worse.  Three interstates cross the Mississippi on one bridge and they reduced that bridge to one lane.  Yikes!  Thankfully I had us go around it through downtown St. Louis.  The rest of the journey home was uneventful…except when we ran into the Iowa Hawkeye fans leaving their game.  I never thought I’d run in to traffic in the middle of nowhere in Iowa!

We got home around 8pm. Swirl was very pissed at us.  He wouldn’t come out from under the bed.  And when he did finally make an appearance he meowed and meowed….”how dare you leave me for 10 days, you are going to pay”…is probably what he was saying.  He of course peed next to litter box.  Such a spiteful cat!  He warmed up by Sunday morning and was constantly at our side.  He doesn’t hold a grudge nearly as long as he did in his younger years…he is, after all, a senior citizen!

We spent all day yesterday relaxing. We went out to fill gas and get a car wash. The love bugs are still on there.  Stupid flies!  We also made a quick trip to the apple farm for some apples. Yum! 

It was a good trip but I’m glad to be home.

We departed the swamps of Louisiana and headed for sunny Florida.  Granted we only went as far as Pensacola but still it is Florida!  We went to the Naval Air Station to see the National Museum of Naval Aviation. It was quite an impressive display of lots of airplanes used by the navy and marines.  Dating back to WWI through Vietnam and probably even sooner than that.  We saw Marine One (the helicopter that the president flies in).  We got to see what the aircraft carrier looks and feels like when running drills.  Pensacola is also home of the Blue Angels so their planes are there and we even got to go inside an old one.  Just a really awesome display. We spent over 2 hours! 

After a light lunch we headed to the Lighthouse. 177 steps were a lot.  It seems like it was harder this time to climb up then the last time.  I guess I’m really out of shape! LOL! It was a lot hotter too.  Unfortunately, they have had a lot of rain so the water wasn’t the beautiful emerald color it was last time…it was brown :( See…

We wound our way back to Orange Beach, AL for the night.  Our room is very nice, balcony with a waterfront view but I wasn’t upgraded like last time.  So we just have standard queen beds with no microwave or fridge.  This is the first hotel on the trip that we didn’t get those and it is the most expensive…go figure!  The beach is great…this is a white sugar sand beach.  We took a dip in the gulf, the water is really warm! We went to a local pizza joint for dinner and of course played some mini golf.  We like our mini golf. We both won free game tokens which we used this evening. 

Today we spent the entire day either on the beach or by the pool.  It was such a beautiful day and the waves were great.  So much fun. I don’t think I got burned, maybe a little on my face. But my freckles really came out!  My face is very brown…not tan…stupid freckles.  We ventured out in the middle of the day to a local cheesecake place, Hope’s Cheesecake Incorporated.  Cheesecake Factory step aside, this place has you beat!  We got the red velvet and Twix.  The red velvet was good but the Twix was beyond delicious.  Best cheesecake ever.  After a day of swimming we went to the Hurricane Grill and Wings.  Meh.  My steak was very peppery…if you know me that means trouble.  My mouth is still tingling.  And it really wasn’t that great.  I wasn’t impressed with this place.  Thankfully, I had a slice of Twix Cheesecake waiting for me at the hotel.  We used our free mini golf games and played the “harder course” and both of us finished under par (we tied, I won rock, paper, scissors so I win!)  

Well I guess this means our vacation is technically over.  Tomorrow we started the 20 hour drive back home.  I’m ready to get home and see what Swirl has been up to.  I’m sure we will be greeted with pee next to the litter box and a pissed off cat who will punish us for a few days.  To the “Vet Specialist” who said that cats are not spiteful obviously never met Swirl or any other normal cat.

MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE:
http://www.kim-eric.com/2013/LoneStar/LoneStarBaseball.html

So I like to “countdown” to things and right now there are really 4 countdowns going on.

1 – Our 10th Anniversary (can you believe it has been 10 years!)

2 – Eric’s last class (hopefully his thesis will get approval)

3 – The Lone Star Baseball Adventure (on the road again…)

4 – Triathlon (I really haven’t trained, oh no)

So first things first…our 10th anniversary is coming up in a week.  We have had a crazy 10 years but I’d say most of it has been happy.  I’m sure I will reflect on that later.

If Eric gets his thesis approved, he will be done with school in 8 days and 18 hours. Fingers-crossed this will be the end of his master’s program but I’m very fearful it may not be.

The long awaited and highly anticipated Lone Star Baseball Adventure road trip is in 12 days and 20 hours. The name is kind of a misnomer.  Yes we are going to be spending many days in Texas and we will be going to two Twins baseball games (one in Arlington, one in Houston) but we are also heading over the he beautiful state of Alabama.  Even though my last trip to the Orange Beach area ended badly, I still have fond memories of the area.  I loved our hotel and I loved the beach.  When people tried telling me that Jamaica had white sugar sand beaches…I said no, these aren’t white beaches; Orange Beach, AL has white sugar sandy beaches. We are spending a few days there and then we are making the long way back home.

Last but not least is the Triathlon.  That is in 30 days and 12 hours.  I really haven’t trained. I’ve gone on a few long rides.  I know I can do it but I could do so much better if I was training.  Eric hasn’t trained either and said that the will be walking some of the 5K. It should be interesting…

We had a fun, exhausting weekend in the DC area.  We flew out to DC Thursday afternoon. Eric’s cousin, Elizabeth, picked us up at the airport.  First stop was the Burger Joint for some delicious burgers.  We didn’t really do anything the rest of the evening except get friendly with the various critters at the house.  

Friday morning Tropical Storm Andrea decided to pay us a visit (what is it with me and hurricanes on vacation?). We knew it was coming so some of us came prepared.  I had a little umbrella which was a life saver.  I was still got wet but I wasn’t soaked to the bone like Eric and my camera was saved from the torrential down pours. Elizabeth kept saying the heavy stuff is still coming. LOL!  Elizabeth, Amanda, her daughter, Eric and I ventured down to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s plantation. I had visited the place in 1995 with my mom and dad.  I remember some parts of it but some of the exhibit places were new. We checked out the plantation and the museums. After lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn, we went to Old Town Alexandria. We didn’t get out, just drove around the streets that George Washington traveled.  We also drove up to the Masonic Memorial to Washington.

Soaked at Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon

Saturday turned out to be a great day.  Eric and I took the Metro into downtown DC and rented some bikes and biked around the monuments.  It was so nice to not have to walk the whole distance. We biked over 8 miles so I couldn’t imagine walking all of that.  We started at the Capitol and made our way down the National Mall, over the Tidal Basin to Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the slow making our way to the Lincoln Memorial with stops at the George Mason, FDR, MLK and Korea Memorials. MLK is a new one. On our way to WWII Memorial we stopped by Vietnam. So we saw all the monuments and even a few new ones that I haven’t seen before. It was a great day. My arms and face got sunburned. I bought sunscreen, just forgot to put it in my camera bag before we left Elizabeth’s house. Oops!

Eric at the Capitol

Lincoln Memorial

Kim on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Washington Monument in back.

After we finished with our biking tour we took the Metro back to Springfield and we went out for dinner with Elizabeth and Amanda at a really good steakhouse and then she took us around downtown DC so I could take pictures of the monuments at night. It was such a beautiful night.  I got some good pictures.

WWII Memorial at night

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Memorial at night

Lincoln Memorial at night

Sunday we started the day at Ford’s Theatre, the place Lincoln was shot and across the street at the house that he died. It was an interesting presentation; I learned a lot more about his assassination. 

The Box where Lincoln was shot - Ford's Theatre

After that we went down to National’s Ballpark to see the Twins play the Nationals. The park was nice, nothing to special.  It didn’t really have a view of anything.  You can see part of the capitol dome in one part of the stadium but that was about it. I got a picture of me and President Taft. The highlight of the day was the Presidential Race.  Teddy Roosevelt was winning but he was tackled by a giant cicada bug (cicadas are large insects, about an inch and a half long, with black bodies, red eyes and delicate wings, they only surface every 17 years, and now is the time). George Washington won.  Poor Teddy never wins. 

Me and President Taft

Presidential Race...Teddy is winning!

Teddy was tackled by a cicada bug (check out the red eyes)!

Nationals Ballpark

So that is our DC trip in a nutshell.  It was fun!

More pictures can be found:
Mount Vernon and Old Town Alexandria, VA

Biking DC & Monuments at Night

Ford's Theatre & Nationals Park

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.

We had a good weekend.  First of all, the weather has finally started to cooperate.  It got over 70 degrees the last three days!  Shorts weather finally!

Friday I went for a pedicure with Celeste.  My toes needed it and with this warmer weather I can now show them off with sandals.  Granted this warm weather is short lived as snow is in the forecast for Thursday. :(

Saturday we broke out the bikes. It was a beautiful, sunny day.  We went on a short ride, about 6 miles.  I know I have a long way to go to get to 14 miles but I'll get there.  Of course my ass hurts.  Why are bike seats so uncomfortable?

After the bike ride and shower we went to the Twins game.  This is my first game of the season. The first game we couldn't go because it was a day game, the second game was rained out and the third game (also rained out) was when mom had surgery.  Eric went to that game, it was Tuesday night.  He froze and ended up leaving after the 5th inning. Anyways, the game was perfect.  The sun was shining, the the temperature was perfect and the Twins won! All around good day. It was also WE Fest Cowboy Hat give away.  Here we are modeling off our new hats...the are made of 100% paper...that is so weird!

After the game we drove to Wisconsin to surprise mom. The whole family was at the nursing home for lunch today.  It was delicious. Mom seemed to be doing good.  She even got in the cowboy hat mood.

Look at the beautiful view from our seats...not a cloud in the sky!

Hey, hey its fall and that means playoff baseball…too bad the Twins are out.

Bottom dweller #1: Minnesota Twins
So the Twins have the worst record in the AL. They are trying not to reach 100 losses. They are currently 60-95, 29.5 games back in the AL Central, 7.5 games behind Kansas City…the next worst team!!! And they are playing their AAA Rochester team. Ack! Boo! I have 3 Twins game in 9 days, 2 down (Saturday with Byron and Paula & yesterday with work) and 1 to go (Monday with Alice and Bill). They won yesterday…the first game they have won in like 2 weeks = Awesomeness.

Bottom dweller #2: Minnesota Vikings
I know it’s early by the Vikings are 0-2 and at the bottom of the NFC North. They have had 4 great quarters…too bad they were the first half of each game. They were leading both of those games but somehow lost them in the second half. We got the see the melt down this past Sunday with Byron and Paula. Byron surprised Paula with tickets. She was very surprised…she thought we were going to the apple orchard. HAHAHAHA.

Bottom dweller #2: Minnesota Gophers
They are 1-2. Hopefully Coach Kill (ya, that is seriously his name) won’t suffer anymore seizures during a last minute scoring drive. :-(
On a positive note, the Minnesota Lynx (WNBA) is in the second round of playoffs and the NBA is still locked out so we don’t get to be tortured anymore with another bottom dweller team.

Also this week…
As mentioned above Byron and Paula visited last weekend. We went to a Twins and Vikings game. Byron is seriously cursed….he has never seen a win for the home team at any pro event he has attended. We also went to the Mall of America and rounded out the night at IKEA. Fun! Wednesday we went to Chanhassen Dinner Theater for their production of “Hair Spray” with Mom and Jeanne. It was great! I love that musical.

Mission for this weekend: Recover from this nasty cold.

We have been home now for 4 days. We eventually got on our original flight from Newport News, VA to Atlanta…it took off at 5pm. By that time most of the original people on the flight had found other flights so our plane was pretty much empty. The comforting thing is the mechanics that fixed the plane were from Atlanta so they were on our flight back. It is comforting that the guys who fixed the plane had enough confidence to fly in it. What a plus! We even gave them a round of applause. Weird. We got plenty of snacks, peanuts and pretzels and cookies, oh my! We had a 2 hour wait in Atlanta for our connecting flight home. We eventually got home at around midnight. What a long day! All told it took us 14 hours to get home. I see now in an email that Delta has compensated us for our delay with 2,500 miles. How nice of them…snicker.

The trip was pretty much a success. Delaware was surprisingly cool. I liked the state capitol grounds and the Fort. The rain sucked but we were in Atlantic City which is so dumpy outside that it didn’t matter that we were inside most of the days. Ocean City was a huge let down. I was expecting gorgeous beaches and beautiful weather. Instead we got very cloudy, rainy and kind of cold weather. And the beach was awful and the hotel was old and stinky. Yuck! The only silver lining with Ocean City, MD is that the weather was so crappy that making the decision to drive 2.5 hours to Baltimore for a baseball game was easy. I really enjoyed the drive and the game, best of all we got to cross another ballpark off our list. North Carolina’s outer banks were nice, the northern part anyways. I can’t wait to visit there again to see the southern side of the outer banks…the place I really wanted to go but couldn’t because of Irene. It wasn’t the best trip but it was still a good one.

Since we have gotten home, I have done absolutely nothing. I haven’t worked out except for the 30 minutes of tennis I dragged Eric into on Tuesday. I haven’t actually cooked a meal at home yet either. It is going to be a bad month on the fitness spectrum.

I’m really looking forward to this weekend. Byron and Paula are coming up tomorrow. We have a Twins game Saturday afternoon. I haven’t been to a Twins game in ages... For various reason we have only been to 4 this year. With my summer concerts, Eric’s surgery, vacations and family events we haven’t had much time for games. That will change...I will be going to 3 games in the next 10 days! Too bad they suck badly now and are probably going to have 100 losses. What a dismal year!

Usually at this time of year we are either in the hunt or have the division so we can look forward to playoffs. That isn’t the case this year. I can only look forward to next year. Thankfully MLB released the 2012 schedule yesterday. I have so many road trips planned in my head right now. Recently I was telling Eric I wanted to go to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh to see their stadiums. The 2012 schedule is very kind to me because shockingly the Twins play back-to-back series in both of those towns in June. Sweet! Can you guys guess where my annual road trip will be?? Ha Ha I thought so.

Well it is day 5 of our trip and I'm ready for the rain to go away. Yesterday was a good day we got up early and headed south to the Cape May ferry. We got there in time for the 9:30 ferry. The ferry takes about 80 minutes and cuts over 100 miles off the trip.

We drove down the coastal highway through Delaware and Maryland to the Assateague National Seashore where you can see wild horses on the beaches and marshes. They were beautiful. Check out my pictures.

After checking out the beach we head back into Ocean City, MD for some lunch at the Dumser's Drive-In. I definitely suggest it. Awesome food and apparently good ice cream. I had strawberry shortcake. Yum! Our hotel is on the beach but the beach is awful. I got spoiled in Alabama and Myrtle Beach. But maybe the beach is suffering from Irene? I'm not really sure. We couldn't go into the ocean as the surf was atleast 6 feet high. Not happening! We spent some time in the hotel pool and hot tub. After relaxing a bit we went and played some mini golf...27 holes! It was fun...mom had 2 hole-in-ones!

Today is a dismal day with showers in the area. We are currently heading to Baltimore for an Yankees/Orioles game. Tickets were cheap so we thought why not?

We had a crazy whirlwind weekend in the windy city. Get it? It’s a pun. Ha ha. So we flew to Chicago after work on Friday, getting into Chicago at 7pm. We hit the ground running. First stop, drop off our stuff at the hotel and hop on the bus to Navy Pier. We ate some hot dogs at the Chicago Hotdog stand. Eric had a Dallas dog (Chili, Onions and Cheese) and I had a Green Bay dog (Cheddar cheese). Pathetic I know! Next we went on the Famous Ferris Wheel and got some nice shots of Chicago and finished the night off with some mini golf.

Saturday was no stop action. We did a walking tour of the “Loop” and checking out the famous sculptures. We made our way to the Magnificent Mile to see the new Marilyn Monroe Sculpture. Chicagoans hate it. Ha ha. This is when the rain started to fall and soon it was down pouring. We took refuge in a Walgreens. Their umbrella stand was a hot spot! Once the rain sort of let up, we took a bus to Art Institute to check out the Impressionism gallery. We didn’t see every painting but we saw quite a bit. After that we went to Wrigley Field for the Cubs game. It is such a dump but it historic so that makes it ok. It is cool to think of all the baseball greats that have played there and the human run score board is way cool. We stuck around for the 7th inning stretch and then beat the crowds back to Chicago. First stop on the way back into town was the John Hancock Building. It’s the 3rd tallest in Chicago. They have an observation deck on the 93rd floor. Amazingly there were no lines!! We took the elevator up and what an awesome view. Loved it! We got some nice pictures of Lake Michigan and the skyline. Next stop Willis Tower on the other side of town. This place was nice but I like John Hancock much better. The lines were ridiculously long. Thankfully we had the Chicago CityPass which entitled us to skip the lines. Awesome! We took in the view, which wasn’t as great as John Hancock’s view but it was still nice. We noticed that the lights were on at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox. We were shocked to find out they were actually home! That night we bought tickets for Sunday’s game. Anyways, we made our way back down and hopped on a bus back the Navy Pier for the 9:30pm fireworks cruise. Well it wasn’t exactly what I expected and it was a bit steep in price. I probably wouldn’t do that again. We basically paid money to see fireworks from the Lake as opposed to just on the Pier itself…same view just $50 more. Lame! Next time I’m doing the Chicago River Architecture tour. It sounds cool. We got back to our hotel pretty late.

Sunday was another packed day, but not as crazy as Saturday. We started out the morning at the Shedd Aquarium. All I can say is way overrated. Yes it was nice, yes we got to see Beluga whales but is just another aquarium. I think the Aquarium at the Mall of America is cooler… I know *gasp!* But it was included in our CityPass so we took advantage of it. Again thankfully we had the pass the lines were awful. Those poor people! The line was seriously a quarter mile long at least. Ick! After that we went to U.S. Cellular Field for the White Sox game. It was an ok stadium. Not the nicest one, actually it ranks down near the bottom with Miller Park. Eric wanted a Jim Thome White Sox shirt. I went into the Custom T-shirt Shop and asked them if they could make one. The guy at the counter seriously said, “Who is Jim Thome?” My response, “Are you serious?” The dude says, “Is he a current player? Minor league? Retired?” My response, “You don’t know who Jim Thome is? The guy that played for you guys for years? The guy who just hit his 600th HR? Wow!” The dude says, “When did he play for us?” Me, “Like 2 years ago!” To quote Dylan, “Typical Chicago sports fan. Clueless.”

We got home about 9:30pm last night. All in all, it was another great get away weekend.

...on the road near Pine City, MN

The Edmund Fitzgerald sunk near hear

Well we are almost home, only 90 minutes to go! Woo Hoo! We hadn't plan on driving home tonight but we got to Thunder Bay at 7pm ET and decided what the heck, lets just go home. So here we are. I know I'm exhausted and looking forward to my bed a day early. Today was another day of driving, driving, driving. But today was the most scenic by far and just makes my case even strong that Lake Superior is by far the most superior of the great Lakes....ha, ha, ha I crack myself up. But seriously the beauty around Lake Superior is amazing, the high cliffs, the waterfalls, the rivers and trees make it just idyllic. So we started out heading north on Hwy 17 out of Sault Ste. Marie, ON. Our first stop was near Pancake Bay. This is significant as it is close to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I'm sure you all know about the Fitzgerald wreck, I mean Gordon Lightfoot wrote a 8 minute ballad about the wreck. I am fascinated by it.

Next we drove through Lake Superior Provincial Park. We stopped by Old Woman Bay beach. The water was of course freezing. What do expect from a lake that is 1,250 feet deep in Northern Ontario? Our next stop was to check out the gigantic Canadian Goose monument in Wawa, ON. Then we stopped for lunch in White River, ON. I was so excited to see an A&W!! Root Beer...yum! They also have a large Winnie-the-Pooh monument. The bear that was the inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh series was from White River, ON. It is a really cute story. A soldier on layover in White River bought this orphaned bear cub and took it with him everywhere. He named it Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg. He eventually loaned it to the London Zoo while he was off fight some war (ok Eric says WWI) and when he came back he found out that his bear was beloved and decided to let the London Zoo keep her permanently. Awe! The rest of the trip was around the northern end of Lake Superior and down toward Thunder Bay, ON. Along the way we stopped at Ouimet Canyon. It was quite quite amazing . Gitcha Gummee! (It is what the Natives called Lake Superior)


Ouimet Canyon



Sault Ste. Marie, ON -

Today was a busy day of driving. We left Toronto and headed north on the 400 towards Sudbury. We happen to find a Costco along the way so we stopped for a box of Coffee Crisp and Maltesers, my favorite Canadian/British candy. Eric even had to take a picture of me kissing my boxes. We stopped at Killbear Provincial State Park for a hike around Georgian Bay (of Lake Huron) and to wade in the waters. It wasn’t too bad. We decided we would stop at Sudbury to fill up and get some lunch. Well that didn’t quite happen…the funny thing about the highways up here is there is no such thing as a gas station just off the road. We went around for circles and eventually found a gas station in Lively, ON. It wasn’t very Lively. They had a Subway though! Along the way we saw a porcupine on the road. I wanted Eric to go back so I could take a pictures but he said NO because it is rabid! I’ve never see a porcupine in the wild before. You could see his quills and all. It was pretty cool. Eric is no fun!

We stopped a couple more times along the way for some views of Lake Huron. It isn’t as nice as the North Shore of MN where you see the Lake the entire way. Here you are lucky if you see it every 100 km. We got to Sault Ste. Marie at about 7pm. An early night! Eric wanted to cross over into Michigan so he can say we visited all the Great Lake States. I thought it would be more interesting to say we visited all the Great Lakes without setting foot in Michigan plus I didn’t want to cross the border again and pay the toll to cross the bridge twice. Well we drove across the bridge and went through US border control. She asked us a million questions and finally searched our trunk. Eric’s lucky, if she would have confiscated my Canadian candy I would have been very PO’d. She said somebody really like their Canadian candy and we were on our way. We went down to the Soo Locks in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. They are pretty cool. St. Mary’s River separates Lake Superior and Lake Huron and the Soo Locks are like the locks on Mississippi. We got to see the Paul R. Tregurtha which is currently the longest freighter on the Great Lakes. After that excitement we filled up at $2.59 a gallon and went back across the border. Gas in Ontario is $1.04 a liter….about $3.79 a gallon…Ouch! Well we checked into a hotel and hopped across the street to Swiss Chalet. I really wish they were in the US. It was really good. Well I’m off to bed.

Toronto

Well the Twins disappointed us. We lost 6-3…so sad. It was a very routy game with all the colleges and university students in attendance. They spent the entire evening chanting at each other. The ones we could understand were “UT Sucks” (University of Toronto) and “Past you bedtime” and “whitey.” Not sure about that one. It was very interesting…thankfully they were there to entertain us because the Twins didn’t! Our tickets were great we were in the third row behind first base and the Twins dugout. We got up close and personal with Morneau and the Blue Jay’s mascot. The seats behind us were empty (big surprise at a Jays game) and all of sudden I saw this gigantic shoe on my shoulder. It was the Blue Jays mascot sitting behind us putting his feet on us. I got a nice picture of him with Eric. Mauer had the night off but he pinched hit in the 9th. Unfortunately he could do anything. Earlier in the day we went up the CN Tower. It was cool, but the smog was too thick to see far. After that we jumped on the bus and did a tour of the town. It was worth it because we learned about the history of Toronto and got to see sites we didn’t even know about. After that we took a quick dip in our hotel’s really nice pool and walked across the street to Rogers Centre for the game. All in all it was a good day, not great because the Twins lost. Oh well, tomorrow we start our long road trip home through Sault Ste. Marie, touching Lake Huron along the way.

Cobourg, ON

Just hanging out at the hotel in Cobourg, ON. Nice place, I'm glad we stayed at a hotel instead of camping...added benefit...I'm going for a swim as soon as I'm done here. We are just over an hour outside of Toronto. Go Twins! Eric is watching to ESPN Canada (go figure) and they are talking about the CFL and the announcer seriously just said aboot! How Canadian LOL! Going for a swim and then off to Tim Hortons for some donuts...Caio!

401 near Trenton, ON

just been passed by 3 big rig fire trucks along with a half dozen cops and rescue as we sit on the 401....Canada's version of the I-90. Needless to say we have been sitting for quite a while...so I decided to update the pictures from today's events. Now we had anticipated we would be at the hotel by now. We were going to camp but decided it just isn't fun to drive all day and then put a tent. How long would it really take to drive 150 kilometers when the speed limit is 100 k/hr? Well when you chug along at 10 k/hr. this could be a while. It must be one nasty accident. Anyways, back to the task at hand. Today we left Buffalo, NY for Syracuse, NY. We walked around Syracuse University's campus...oh to be back in school again. They campus has some really cool buildings and of course we stopped at the book store...sorry Dylan I had to by a Syracuse T-Shirt.

After that we drove up to I-81 to the Canadian Border. Before we hit the border we stopped in Alexandria Bay, NY. It is located in the 1000 Islands Area. Every heard of 1000 island dressing? Well you guessed it apparently came from this area. So we hoped a shuttle ferry to Boldt Castle on Heart Island. It is a beautiful castle now. It has a tragic story. It was started in 1900 by the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He was building it for his wife, but when she died in 1904, the construction stopped and he let go into disrepair. The restoration is still in process so some of the upper floors are still under renovation. The grounds were beautiful and well kept. After a short ferry ride back we headed to Canada Aye! The border crossing was very slow...again holiday weekend what was I thinking? But it was less that 45 minutes to get across. Funny thing the border agent asked us how long we have been out of Canada. "Um. Well actually we were in Canada yesterday so I guess 1 day." Then came the right questions. Oh well. Hey it is 9:07 pm and we are moving again. Nice 4 car pile up....I don't think all the big rig fire trucks were necessary. Well we are less than 10 kilometers from the Hotel...Good Night!

NY Turnpike

As we are driving down the NY Turnpike on our way to Syracuse University (and I hear Eric's ecstatic...I just saw Delaware!!!), I'm updating my pictures from yesterday (9/6). This is what we did ...In the morning we did a quick trip around Downtown Cleveland. We checked out Brown's Stadium and some how ended up on a frontage road by the airport...big mistake...it was the annual air show. Cars everywhere! It also explains the crazy flying we saw over the Twins/Cleveland game the day before. It was cool to watch but very LOUD! So we said good by to Cleveland and hello PA...for only 47 miles. But we stopped in Erie at Presque Isle State Park. It is a peninsula on Lake Erie. It was very busy (I know big surprise its Labor Day weekend). I hadn't planned on swimming but sitting in the car in traffic trying to get to it made us very hot so we throw on the suits and went for a dip in Lake Erie. It was great! The water was warm considering it is a Great Lake.

Next we ventured to Niagara Falls....again...what was I thinking its a holiday weekend in the US and Canada! Duh! And a million other tourist from all over the world...I can't seem to get away from the Japanese tourist that move in a group like a 6 year old soccer game with all the players hovered around the ball....with their clicking cameras. I thought I was bad. And then of course there are the people from India who stop as people are walking in a queue and we end up tripping over them. Have they every heard of moving over to the side? Oh well. We walked around the state park and viewed the falls from the top. We then went on the Maid of the Mist tour. Surprisingly, we go right on in less than 15 minutes. We don our blue rain poncho with pride as we ventured to the bottom of the falls in a boat. It was cool...we got drenched...thank God for the blue poncho! After that we crossed the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side for some food and souvenirs...marking our first border crossing of the trip. The view from the Canadian side is much better, everybody is right! I loved our trip back with the falls lit up in multiple colors and of course I love the US border agents asking what we brought back..."4 candy bars and a magnet."

Today we ventured first to the West Beach of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It was interesting. The water temperature was 66o. I walked a bit into Lake Michigan and of course we snapped some pictures. Then we had to speed off to Cleveland. I wasn't all that happy with the $13 in turnpike tolls...you would think that that would mean clean bathrooms and perfect roads...um not at all! It is crazy in Indiana though. Interesting thing...a definite case of price gauging on the Indiana turnpike...the turnpike plaza by South Bend had gas at $2.49. That is about right, however 40 miles down the road it was $2.99. Isn't it amazing that the price of gas jumped 21% in just over 40 miles? Fortunately, we didn't have fill up and the gas prices in Ohio are about the same as MN. We made it to the hotel/Progressive field in plenty of time. Our hotel is basically across the street. Sweet! Our seats were great and the Twins won. Even more amazing...Nathan didn't blow the save. Way to go Joe! Time to live in up in Cleveland...is there such a thing?