Sister visits MN

It seems I'm not very good at blogging here these days.  Once a month at best - I'm not even sure that's considered a blog.  I struggle with what to write, what is worth sharing, and what is worthy of capturing for memory's sake.  I love looking back at my previous posts and stories, so I shouldn't care if it may not be the most exciting thing for readers.  But I do.

So there's the dilemma.

For now, I do actually have something interesting to post about - my sister's visit home! 

She and her husband were home for a whole week, and it was so great.  I think I've spent more than 4 days in a row with my sister twice in the last 10 years.  Once for her wedding, where my parents and I invaded her apartment for the week leading up to her big day.  And once when she and my parents came to visit in Costa Rica.  Otherwise, I've only seen her in 3-4 day stints, in town here or in her location at the time.  So needless to say, 9 days in a row was awesome.  I'm so glad they could fit that much time in!  Technology is great, but it's always good to spend time together in person.

The weekend they arrived we headed up to Duluth. My brother-in-law (I call him BIL to save on the key strokes) had never been up there, and it seemed like a great place to visit. 

We hit the road in my aunt and uncle's SUV, since none of our vehicles sat 6, and stopped at Tobies for delicious doughnuts.  Because what would a trip up north be without a stop there? 

Then we headed straigh to Split Rock Lighthouse and were delighted to see that we had chosen the one day a year they had an Open House and we could get in for free.  We took some pictures, wandered around, admired the blue water and bright sunshine, and loved the fresh air. 

 

 

We even managed to do a little jumping, despite the uneven rocks and concerned looks on our husbands' faces. 

Then it was off to Gooseberry Falls, where my dad wanted to replicate a photo from when we were little kids. 

 

So we didn't fully reenact it...I wasn't prepared with a duck sweatshirt, paper bag, OR velcro shoes.  But it is fun to look at the comparison.  Can't believe my hair used to be that white. 

I also reminisced a little of our wedding, as we had visited the falls just 2 days after getting married in 2010.  Oh, how I feel like I've been married forever, and yet that still feels like yesterday.

We stopped for a late lunch at Betty's Pies, which was clearly the place to be that afternoon as we had to wait quite awhile.  The food was good, however the pieces of pie that we split looked an awful lot smaller than the pieces we saw the guys next to us get.  Nevertheless, it hit the spot.

We stayed in Canal Park, which was a great location.  We wandered down by the water and over to the bridge, did some serious people watching, took a few photos, and ended up back at the hotel playing Mexican Train dominoes and ordering pizza. 

I think we played dominoes at least 4 or 5 times that week.  It might be our obsession.

On Sunday, the weather had done a 180 and was cold, rainy, and dark.  We fortunately had planned to take a scenic train ride, so the rain did not bother us.  However, the "guided" train ride left much to be desired, as we could barely hear the speaker (over the loud children running about), and when we did hear him, he was telling us about some high school building that is now a middle school.  Not quite the Duluth history I was looking forward to hearing.  We were glad we had gotten tickets at half price online - the couple across from us, on the other hand, were ready to request a refund.

We stopped briefly at the beach that we had been to as kids.  My dad and I were the only brave souls to head out in the pouring rain to walk on the beach.  We were there 4 minutes.  And my shoes were soaked beyond belief by the time we returned to the car.

Then it was lunch at Grandma's, with so much laughter that my sister and I were in tears.  It started with my dad telling the waitress he was too busy squeezing his lemons and hadn't heard what she said.  (No, we're not pervey...but oh it got us going in a fit of laughter).  I had a most delicious wild rice burger that is making me salivate right now just thinking about it.

That was our eventful trip to Duluth.  The drive home could not be fast enough for sister (she must be out of practice with long car rides), and we may have unintentionally left my dad locked in the back seat a time or two at stops along the way, but all in all the weekend was full of lots of laughs.

Jon and I took Monday off, so we decided to all head to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.  You know, show BIL the cherry and spoon!  Then lunch, which was a fiasco in itself.  We went to Joe's Garage, only to find it was closed for renovations.  Then we decided we wanted Chinese food, so we headed over to the Red Dragon on Lyndale, which I knew wasn't the finest establishment but had good food.  We discovered they were clearly not open for lunch, unintentionally insulted a homeless man when we refused to sign his banner, and ended up at Famous Dave's in uptown because we knew it would be open.  My BIL has been to MN 4 or 5 times now, and has been to Famous Dave's 3 times.  Oops.

The rest of the week Jon and I had to work (someone has to pay the bills), but we spent most of the evenings back at my parents' house hanging out with the clan.  There were games galore.  Canasta, Phase 10, dominoes, Candy Crush, and even my cousin's kid's baseball game.  My mom made her renowned Peanut Buster Parfait dessert.  We had extended family over one night for a summer MN dinner of crockpot food (which BIL, the Californian, quickly pointed out).  It was great for us all to see so many family members, as even those of us that live here don't see them all that often. 

Saturday we took Dad out for Father's Day breakfast, played one last game of dominoes, and then Sis and BIL were off to the airport.  I can't believe how quickly the week went by.  It was so great having them home, and now I can look forward to our trip to visit them (whenever we figure out that will be).