Duluth, MN

Last week I was able to spend a couple days in Duluth, MN for a work training/conference in Financial Aid. Eric was able to go with me and we enjoyed spending the evenings walking around beautiful Lake Superior. It was a good conference but it was hard to be inside when it was so nice outside!

Duluth lift bridge

Eric by the lighthouse. Cant you tell he is thrilled to have his picture taken? :)

Locals swimming in the lake, in June, it was COLD!

Theodore Wirth Park

On Saturday Eric and I spent some time hiking around Theodore Wirth Park, west of downtown Minneapolis. It was a great place to get some ups and downs on big hills but for the most part we had no idea where the trails were going. There were obvious big trails and then a lot of "dear paths" that went all over the park. We did our best to get as much ground as possible in the small park.

Part of the park has a wildflower garden and bird sanctuary so we also checked this out. The flowers were mostly bloomed except for these false blue indigos, iris and lady slippers (state flower).

This was a great park to go to for the short amount of time that we had, we will definitely plan to go back!

Community Garden

One of the things I am most excited about this summer is that Eric and I have signed up for a community garden plot through Augsburg College. At the end of April we were assigned our own 8 x 8 foot garden plot. We started out slowly by planting a few starter plants of broccoli, cauliflower and kohlrabi. We also planted some seeds for carrots, raddish, broccoli, basil, and lettuce. Since then we have added green beans, cilantro, rosemary, dill, peppers and tomatoes. Our garden is booming! I am so excited to see everything coming out of the ground and getting big! I just hope it all survives and produces good veggies for us. We have not been able to harvest anything yet, but I will keep you posted!

Rainy Rainy Lake

Over Memorial Day weekend Eric and I headed up to the cabin with his mom and step-dad. The weather was overall rainy but it was still a good weekend. We spent most of Saturday doing some yard work. The grass was knee high and the weeds were out of control but we got it all to a manageable and beautiful state. The raspberry bushes were starting to show some fruit and the rhubarb bush is out of this world huge (I harvested a ton before we left and there will be lots more later on!).

Saturday night we started a bon-fire, roasted some s'mores and then the rain came. It rained all night and into Sunday. So on Sunday we spent the majority of the day inside reading, eating, and working on puzzles. The puzzles became somewhat of an obsession throughout the day and we actually started 3 and completed 2.

When Monday rolled around we were ready to get out of the cabin. The forecast didn't look any better than the day before so we decided to pack up and head home early. I wish the weather could have been better but we still had a good relaxing weekend at the cabin!