Homer's Travels: Easter In Minnesota

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Easter In Minnesota

I'm a little slow in posting.  I've felt slow since we returned from a family gathering in Minneapolis with the Best Man (BM) and Matron of Honor (MoH).  Frankly I think it was all the jelly beans that I inhaled on Saturday and Sunday.  Now that I've come out of my sugar coma, it's time to throw a post together.

We drove up Friday for a needed getaway.  Things are churning here at the Homer-Dog household and a visit with the MoH and BM always injects some sanity back into our lives, this weekend was no different.  Friday was spent with comfort food (grilled cheese and soup) and our usual (we should patent it) friendly, even when heated, discussions on all the topics of the day including the family.  We went to bed relatively early, 1:00 AM, early for our usual discussion sessions that is.

Saturday was jam packed with cool stuff.  We piled into the car and drove around Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Our first stops were some antique stores in the towns of Chisago and Center City.  The Wife found a couple items and I, who usually leaves antique stores empty handed, came away with a framed copy of a Minnesota & Saint Louis Railroad Oil Viscosity - Dilution Chart.  It appears hand drawn on blueprint material (white lines on a blue background) and has been exposed to water or oil sometime in its history.  Very cool in an antique geek way.

Our next stop was the Franconia Sculpture Park.  I was in one of my wandering moods and as soon as we got out of the car I wandered off in the opposite direction as the others.  Not exactly sure why I did as I'm sure I missed some interesting banter.  Anyway, I meandered around taking pictures of the cool sculptures and mostly wondering what the heck the sculptor was thinking.  Pictures of the sculptures are here.

We then moved on to Osceola, WI for more antiquing and a visit to the Cascade Falls.  The falls were at the bottom of a long staircase.  Due to a brain fart of epic proportions I left the camera in the car so I didn't take any pictures.  It's times like this that I wonder about my judgment.

Our last stop of the day was the town of Redwing, MN.  We stopped for lunch at the Stagheed restaurant (it's actually the Staghead restaurant but the BM's handwriting was a little sketchy).  The food was very good.  I had this chicken-penne-marinara-baked concoction that was really good.  On the way out of town we stopped at the famous Redwing Crock factory so the Wife could buy a crock.

Sunday was spent celebrating Easter with Mass, a great Easter Dinner, and the first annual Peep Jousting tournament.  I won two matches before loosing after two draws - frankly I think I was robbed.

The weekend hit the spot and really recharged our batteries.  I always feel so comfortable at their place.  The only bad thing was self-induced: I ate way, way too much sugar.  What is it about driving and eating crap?  No self control.

Can't wait til we get together again.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fun weekend. Sorry to hear about your loss in peep-jousting, though. You'll just have to start training your peeps harder for next year!

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  2. Shout out to the peeps!! Sounds like a super-awesome weekend!

    I always eat junk food during road trips. I've been trying to pack healthier snacks, but those darned BBQ Pringles find their way in with the grapes and celery sticks..

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  3. GH: It was. We think they would be more effective if aged so, yes, we are training peeps by letting them age.

    Miss McC: I have a thing for Nibs while I'm driving. I can be a real sugarholic at times.

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