No matter how much of a jerk the guy on the other cell phone may be...

YOU screaming and cussing on a cell phone, in a park, full of children, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, for approximately 15 min (could have been longer but we left) - makes YOU look like the jerk.

What is it??

To some it may simply appear to be a trash can with a red basket attached to it with some blue rope. To others it is a 'coon catcher - courtesy of my girl.

The trash can lid doesn't close tightly anymore and a couple of times when I threw in another trash bag I noticed that the inside bags had been torn apart. My theory is a raccoon since we have seen them around late at night before.

The girl was excited to hear about the possible raccoon "raid" and decided she'd find a way to trap him (or her). Not sure how it works - but I'm sure my dh will get a bit of a surprise in the morning if he does find a raccoon inside the basket tomorrow as he takes down the trash.

In the past the kids have tried to figure out a rabbit trap...guess they are moving onto bigger and better things...

Minneapolis - Day 2

OK - finally on to the last day of our trip in Minneapolis - our busiest day.

We started out with a trip to the Mall of America. It's large - but wasn't as big as I thought it would be. The mall opened at 9:30 (but most stores don't open til 10) and we got there close to opening time. We first went to "the spectacle"...the inner mall with all the rides, the Lego Store and the American Girl Store. It was interesting to just wander around and thing how unbelievable it was that there were these rides inside a building.

We then headed on over to the Lego store...it was fun to see the HUGE Lego creations...this store was no doubt the favorite of my boy...he enjoyed just wandering around looking at all the Lego (over-priced) kits. I was rather surprised that he came away without a purchase. At the front of the store is a play area where kids can build, race Lego cars they've made etc.

While the boy spent more time at the Lego Store - the girl and I headed on over to the American Girl Store. Being that the nearest AG Store to us is in Chicago - I was glad that the girl was able to visit the one in Minneapolis. It was fun for us both to look around at all the dolls and accessories and to see the doll hair salon and the Bistro. Though we both like the American Girl dolls - they are definitely over-priced, especially if you buy into the whole "experience". You can have your doll's ears pierced for $14 (includes earrings) or have her hair styled for $10-$20. An outfit for an AG doll costs (at least) as much as an outfit for my 9 yr old! I love the themes for each doll and all the fun accessories and furniture - I can see how it could add up very quickly.

After we hit the two main stores of interest to us all - the girl and dh, and the boy and I - went off on our separate ways until lunch. We had lunch at the food court (regular fast food prices) and by the end of the meal we had decided that we had had our fill of the mall and we were ready to go somewhere else. As we were leaving the mall via Sears - I spotted some jewelery on clearance and made our only non-food mall purchase :)

Next was a visit to Minnesota State Capital - an appropriate 4th of July place to visit. We went on a guided tour of the building, as well, looked around some on our own. We were actually able to go out on the roof of the building - probably a highlight of the visit (in spite of my fear of heights). On top of the building are some golden statues..."One of most enduring images of the Minnesota State Capitol and one that has come to symbolize St. Paul is the "Quadriga," the golden horses and chariot that sit atop the roof at the base of the Capitol's dome...The term quadriga refers to a chariot drawn by four horses. It features four figures - the male figure driving the chariot represents the state, two female figures portray Minnesota agriculture and industry and the four horses represent earth, fire, water and wind. The inspiration for the statue was the charioteer and four horses that French had modeled for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago."

View of Minneapolis from the roof of the State Capitol.

As we were leaving the capitol, we noticed some folks protesting. It would have been fun to join them - but it looked like rain was imminent and we had more things to do - like visit the historical St. Paul Cathedral.

As we parked our car - I remarked I asked my dh if he wanted his jacket in case it rained. He declined - but the kids and I took ours. We were crossing the street as a few rain drops hit us and seconds after entering the cathedral there was a TORRENTIAL downpour. We were thankful to be indoors and I comfort in knowing we were in a building that had been standing for many a year.

After about 1/2 hr the rain began to let up - and we were ready to be on our way - next stop was the Sculpture Garden. I love the whole concept of huge outdoor art. And though there were some fun pieces such as the giant spoon with a cherry - I think overall the St. Louis Laumauier sculpture park is more interesting.

Next stop was finding Bethlehem Baptist Church (John Piper's church). The church has services Saturday early evening, as well as a couple on Sunday. We found the church without too much trouble, so decided to drive around a bit and see what was in the general neighborhood foodwise as we knew we'd be hungry after church.

In driving around, can you believe that we saw only a few restaurants like The Old Spaghetti Factory and some bar-type places?! We finally found a Subway - took note of the location and headed back to church.

Piper wasn't preaching that evening (which we knew in advance) - two other men were taking the service (one did communion - one did the preaching).

When we left church around 7:00 PM, we were indeed hungry, and headed out to Subway. Only now - we couldn't find it. We went up and down and around the streets - both dh and I remembered the same street we thought it was on but it had "vanished". Well, we'll just somewhere else we thought - but we couldn't find anything that would work. We had no desire to hit The Old Spaghetti Factory at 7:00 PM and just wanted something fast and easy. It seemed like we drove around for nearly an hour before we came upon the "Fast Food District". We had never been in such a situation before - it was bizarre. Mental note to add to any future trip plans - a map of eateries in the area.

We ate at Burger King. The children were crowned, fed and ready for the next part of our adventure. Mom was tired and grouched and ready for bed...but it was to be a late night - because our next adventure was to see the fireworks out on the water.

It was too early yet for the fireworks (I wished our motel was closeby so we could have all taken a wee nap) - so we wandered around the Mill Ruins Park area - which was very interesting.

We decided to make a loop around the park while we waited for the fireworks to begin around 10:00 PM. We enjoyed this little side-show flame juggler...

Seems like the kids and dh were all enthused and had an enjoyable walk about - while mom, was a bit of a "wet blanket". I hate being in crowded places - worse when they are noisy as well. My mind was thinking ahead to approximately 10:30 - wondering how we'd find our way out of the park with the thousands of other fire-works-gazers. And once out of the park - imagined the way the traffic would be.

After our walk we found the perfect place to watch the spectacular fireworks display. My lame-o photo of course does not do it justice. The parents enjoyed the show as did the children. Especially the loud, bright final round. The boy who loves weaponry and wars - probably was imaging he was out on a battlefront.


As predicted, the throng of people was stifling as we made our way out of the park. There was a staircase that needed to be navigated...I held tightly to the hand of my son and hoped that my daughter and husband would not get separated from us as I'd never find my way back to the car (well at least not easily). I almost died when I saw the traffic jam, immediately outside of the park...never have I seen cars like that. I figured perhaps the kids could fall asleep in the car while we sat, and sat, and waited and waited to get moving.

But - my fears were not realized. We had picked a good enough parking location that we had barely any trouble getting moving.

We finally stumbled into bed around 11:30 - and it was nice to know that we could sleep in as late as we wanted the next morning and that the adventure of the past 9 days was (just about) over (except for the drive home the next day which was uneventful).

I'm relieved to have our trip journal completed! Now I just need to put it all together along with a huge stack of photos - into some scrapbook format.

Free 7.11 oz Slurpee at 7-11

Participating 7-11 stores will have free 7.11 oz slurpees today.

I wrote myself a note and almost forgot about going this morning. My dh mentioned that he was having a craving for a Cherry Coke and we were wondering if they sold diet Cherry Coke...I said I thought 7-11 might and then it hit me - free slurpee day!

I quickly gathered up the kids and we drove to 7-11. In the "good old days" there were about 3 7-11s within close driving range and we could hit them all - but now there's only one :( I got a cherry/coke mixture...frozen Cherry Coke as it were.

Girl's Garden

Looks like the girl's garden is thriving! We don't have much sunlight in the backyard so we were hoping this little patch would be bright enough and it appears to be.

Here is the garden when it was first planted.

Now here is something peculiar - this little reddish/white petunia is growing on the same plant as the pale pink petunias.

Minneapolis - Day 1...Minneapolis Institute of Arts & Ikea

I woke up around 5:30 AM and we got the family on the road by 6:30 AM...

It's about 2 hrs to the Canada/USA border. We were thankful to have not had any delays crossing into the USA...one of the questions we were asked at the border was how much money we were bringing into the USA. Don't recall ever being asked that question coming or going before - so not sure what they were trying to ascertain.

We arrived in Minneapolis around 2:30 PM and headed to the Minneapolis Art Museum (free admission). We especially enjoyed the Egyptian and ancient arts section and the Modern & Contemporary Galleries...Art Deco & Arts & Crafts eras (particularly the 1926 Frankfurt kitchen and the Prairie School collection ). The boy really liked any area that showcased weaponry and the African Arts.

I wish I had researched the exhibitions before we went because I would have liked to have seen: Play & Ceremony: Cherished Items for Children and Unspoken Messages : The Art of the Necklace.

Next on our list was a stop at Ikea - a first for us all. Being that we had driven for 7 hours and then walked around for about 2.5 hrs - it probably wasn't the best time for us to be heading to a store like Ikea. But our time was limited - so we went. We started off with supper in the restaurant/cafe on the 2nd floor. Having heard about cheap eats like 50 cent hotdogs - we were enthused. The food was relatively inexpensive but no hotdogs, 50 cents or otherwise, were seen on the menu.

The kids had Swedish meatballs, french fries and chocolate milk. The hub had Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes and lingonberries, I had a Greek salad. The food was delicious and calories aside, I wished I had had the Swedish meatball meal (I sampled some off my dh's plate).

Later we spotted the place with the 50 cent hodogs, $1 ice-cream cones and $1 large cinnamon buns (all sampled by us - though everyone just sampled one item).

We were overwhelmed by Ikea. It is not the place to see for the first time around 6 PM after all the aforementioned driving and walking and probably not the best place to look around with 2 young children and maybe not even the best place to look around with a spouse :) I think I would have enjoyed it more - starting out fresh and early in the morning - by myself.

Can you believe that the ONE item I specifically wanted from Ikea, and wanted it very much - they did NOT have. Well actually they did have it as a sample hanging inside the doors as you first walk in - giving me false hopes.

A simple item - some orange fabric with birds. The fabric can not be purchased via Ikea online and buying it elsewhere online costs about double the price. sigh. I was disappointed. We left Ikea empty-handed.

Canada Trip - Day 7...Dragon Fruit

Our last full day in Canada was a day for packing up and staying close to home.

Early in the morning my dad and I got in a tennis game. My dad has played tennis for probably close to 30 yrs - but I had never had a chance as an adult, to play a game with him (b/c I had no interest in it up until very recently).

My youngest sister and niece came over in the morning to visit and the afternoon consisted of a nap.

I stopped by the local grocery store to pick up a few things and was pleasantly surprised to see some dragon fruit in the produce department. We tried some dried dragon fruit 5 months ago and found it to be pretty tasteless...

This single fruit was rather pricey at $4.99 but worth it to finally see what it tasted like.

The brilliant colored outer skin hides the black and white interior. The inside reminded me of a kiwi with many, many little black seeds - kind of like poppy seeds. Unfortunately the fruit was pretty tasteless just like the dried variety. While we (including my parents) had a little taste of it - the girl wanted to eat the remainder. It was very easy to scoop out - like a soft melon.

I have never come across a fresh dragon fruit in the USA and lo and behold I find one in a small town in Canada. The fruit was a product of Vietnam.