Roadie

Well, I had an eventful weekend...

Sat. riding at River Valley, this time with the book club girls + 6 of Necole's friends. We had a group of 15 total so no cantering. :( But it was fun anyway, and I got to spend some time with my girl Robin... isn't she pretty?

Just to get a visual of a 17 horse trail ride (we had 2 guides with us). You can't even see the beginning of the line. It was a ridiculous number of horses.

After riding we took off for Necole's for pizza and fun. Got home about 2:00 after rocking out on Rockband.

Sunday on the way to meeting mom & dad found a kitten in the middle of the road. On hwy 10. Stopped the car in the middle of the road and called him, he came running. Poor little guy must've been so scared. If they didn't stop he would've been killed, no question. It's a busy road.

Got him home and called me to come take care of him. He has 2 little marks on his coat where the hair was singed off, but not all the way down to the skin, thank goodness. Also has a respiratory infection. He's wheezing a bit and will have coughing fits. We think he might have crawled up into a car engine and that's how he got the singed fur and ended up on the road. Who knows though... He was also super hungry, took a chunk out of my hand when I was scooping out some cat food. I think he'd been without food for a couple of days.

He's feeling better today, got an appointment with the vet for tomorrow. Probably will need to go on antibiotics for a while, but that's ok. I think he'll make a full recovery.
We're calling him Roadie for now. It's cute and it fits. If you had a band he'd totally haul your gear for you and handle crazy fans.

Think we have a few leads on people who might be able to give him a home. Will have to wait and see how the vet visit goes. I'd love to keep him but with the 2 antisocial girl kitties we already have, it probably won't work out.

He's such a sweetie though. Will NOT let you out of his sight. Cries if he's away from people and just rubs all over you. He's sleeping on my lap right now his head rolled off the side of my leg. Adorable! I can't get over how tiny he is.

Last Call

Ahh Duluth. City of my soul.

I truly love this place. It's where we would take our family vacation in the fall before school started. Château Lavoux, where you fall asleep to the sound of lake Superior crashing on the rocks and have your morning coffee on the deck overlooking the lake.

Hawthorne Suites (now just called The Suites) in Canal park. Enormous rooms in a converted warehouse, pool where the loading dock used to be.

But most of all I loved the hiking. We must've hiked up and down every river along the north shore from Duluth to Grand Marais. My favorites have always been Tettegouche, and Temperence River. Although Devil's Kettle is amazing, Cascade is beautiful, Caribou is just a great walk, and everyone should see Gooseberry and visit Castle in the Park at least once.

This trip we got back to our roots, sort of. Just the immediate family and just a weekend trip. Up on Saturday, home on Tuesday. Ok so that isn't a traditional weekend, but still, our trips lately have been 7-9 days.

It was amazing to go back to all the old places and find them pretty much exactly the same. Rock doesn't change much, even in a decade.

The difference came in our after hours.

Irish car bomb. Offensive name perhaps but oh so tasty! Half a glass of Guinness, a shot of half Baily's half Jameson. Pop it in the beer and drink it fast. Like an alcoholic milk shake.

This was at Green Mill in Canal Park. I highly recommend the bar in the evening, Chris the bartender is the best I've ever met, plus we had great conversations about brain tumors, the ability to cross ones eyes and books.

We also tried Old Chicago- noisy and not so much fun. And an Irish pub further up the hill- great atmosphere but horrible specials. The Long Island has SPRITE in it (blech!)!

So Green Mill became our jumping off point for other shenanigans. Like walking across the lift bridge to find out if the other side was, as Kip asserted, Wisconsin and not an island. Katie and I both knew he was wrong, but the most fun was finding a small hotel, getting the guy to unlock the door and asking where we were. Yeah, it's still Minnesota and most definitely an island.

Also saw a big ship go under the lift bridge at about 10:00.

Gorgeous with the bridge all lit up and the moon shining down.

We got to go out to Castle in the Park where the Gooseberry river empties into the lake, and Katie found this amazing little spot where you can sit just above the waves and soak in the sun. The words Kay's Cove were carved into the rock. I love the ancientness of this place.

At the mouth of the gooseberry we stopped and set up the camera for a pic.

Also got one at the lower falls in Gooseberry.

My room had a great view of the Irvin. LOVE The Suites. The rooms are incredible and it has the feel of the lake, maybe just because we have so much history here.