Day 1 of our 21st Anniversary Vacation

I'm not really counting Friday, because all we did after I got home from Denver was do some laundry, re-pack and come up to the casino.  We checked in, played a little, and came back to the room.

Today, however - we did a lot of driving.  We drove from Hinkley, MN to Danbury, WI where I got some gas, trying to dodge all the ATV people.  The place was a zoo!

After that, we drove to Hayward, WI where we stopped at the Wal-mart, and I picked up a clip so I could use the phone as a GPS guide.  It took a while to figure out how to setup the phone, but I eventually got it to work.  Except, the screen shut off is limited to 10 minutes, so every 10 minutes I have to touch the screen or I lose the GPS map.  We took a turn at Drummond, WI and drove a county road, where we passed a lot of lakes.  We stopped at the Delta Diner, which was the whole point of this meandering trip (besides the sightseeing).

After lunch, we headed to Duluth, MN, but got on a little detour looking for a historical marker, and ended up at Wisconsin Point, WI.  We got to see Lake Superior from the Wisconsin side at least.

After that little side trip, we headed to the Canal Park in Duluth, and took a little walk on the boardwalk and Tulana did a little shopping.  Then it was dinner time.

We drove down to Superior, and stopped by a candy store, Sweeden Sweets.  They had fudge, and popcorn and sweets and taffy and... a lot of things bad for us. :)  We went there first because they would have closed before we had dinner.  We went to dinner at Shorty's Pizza and Smoked Meats.  I had the smoked meat soup, and it was awesome.  We also had the Thanksgiving Turkey Balls as an appetizer - mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey, all rolled into a meatball sized ball, and deep fried, and served with a cranberry dipping sauce.  It was pretty good too!

After dinner, we drove back to the hotel.  By this time, we were tuckered out, so she took a bath, I updated my blog, and started researching for tomorrow's trip.  I'm hoping we can find the headwaters of the Mississippi without too much trouble! 

New steps

Well, we did get those delivered and installed on Friday.  I'll share some pictures.  We also went to the movies every day this weekend.  We'll probably do that again in a couple weeks, because there's a lot of movies coming out we want to see.

Did stay home from work partly today, and worked from home in the afternoon.  Had a rough night last night.  Hopefully, I won't have a repeat.

Steps

Due to a scheduling conflict (they had us down for Tuesday, not Monday), I had to reschedule the steps for Friday.

Ah well.

Planning on going to the movies all three days this weekend.  Really want to get all these in, because lots more are coming, and they're going to push the others out pretty quickly.

Tired

...that about sums up the last week or so.  Working longer hours (is that because the sun is up longer?), not sleeping well with weird dreams and/or bad sleeping positions - all of it is combining to just make me tired.

I did get a call today that they're ready to schedule delivery of and install our new steps, so I just have to call them back.  So that'll be something.

Then we have to work on the garage and retaining wall.  More fun there.  But at least it will be done, and we'll be a little safer.

Nice weekend

except for the thunderstorm last night, we had a nice weekend.  Saturday I did some yardwork, chopping some more saplings behind the garage.  Both days we opened doors and windows to get some fresh air in the house.

Today I ordered our steps to be replaced, so in about 10-14 days we'll have new steps.  I'll have to take pictures to document everything!

Wednesday

Iowa reservations - Check.  Indiana reservations - Check.  Steps Scheduling - Going to do that Friday, when I actually am not in all day meetings (or back to back meetings all day).  New Lawn Service - requested.  These guys will do more than just mow, which is what we need.

Other than that, nothing exciting (except maybe snow on Friday)...blech.

Wedmesday

We hit some high temps today, and then had thunderstorms about 8pm or so - dark enough to interrupt the satellite signal.  Luckily enough nothing was recording.

I worked some more on our anniversary trip dvd from 2009.  I'm slowly learning new things, like cross-zooms, which is pretty cool.  This tool can do a lot more than what I"m using it for now, and I'm looking forward to learning more. The only issue is finding the time to learn it.

The estimate for the front and back steps came in at around 2500.  I imagine we'll do it shortly, because our front steps are becoming unsafe (and unsightly), but wish it were slightly less expensive to do!