Casinos, Skiing and Ice Caves, Oh MY!

Have you heard of those ice caves on Lake Superior up in Northern Wisconsin that formed for the first time in five years this year?  I am just assuming you have because they've been in literally every news outlet across the country the past few weeks.  Anyway, I had a huge, and I mean HUGE hankering to go up and see these caves for myself.  That is kind of around where we sail during the summer so my interest was sparked even more.  Drew and I had planned on going up to Bayfield on Sunday, Feb. 16th, staying over night, looking at the caves on Monday and then coming home.  We had originally wanted to plan a full weekend up there with skiing in Lutsen, too, but it just wasn't working out with our schedules.  Or so I thought...

So Friday the 14th (Valentine's Day) rolls around and it's just another day at the office.  I am really looking forward to leaving on Sunday for the ice caves and excited for my "don't worry about it" plans for what Drew had up his sleeve for that Friday night.  Well 9:00 AM rolls around and I get a call from the receptionist: "cupid strikes again," she says, and I waltz down to pick up a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  On my way back up to my department, a small army has gathered and all eyes are on me and are googling (not the search engine) over the fact that I got this huge bouquet delivered to me and what a sweet guy I have, etc.  My red face almost matched the roses in the bouquet.  Anyway, I open the card and I see a note that says something along the lines of "Let's Go! (Time to leave)" Love, Drew.  Of course everyone, including myself, is sent into a frenzy.  I glance out into the parking lot, expecting to see Drew in the Highlander waiting for me.  Anyway, long story short is he had arranged (with the help of my mom) with my boss for me to have a half day off (the flowers were supposed to arrive at 11:30 and he WAS going to be in the parking lot, waiting) and I was to meet him at my house at 11:30.  We met at my house and I opened my gift and inside the card was a typed out itinerary for the entire weekend.  We were scheduled to leave that afternoon, head to Duluth, spend the night, ski at Lutsen Saturday, stay in Grand Marais Saturday night, ski again on Sunday for part of the day and head over to Bayfield, stay the night and see the caves on Monday as planned.  I could not believe what I was reading!  I don't think I wiped the grin off my face until we hit Forrest Lake.  :)

It was a jam-packed weekend and it was so much fun!  It was one of those trips where you felt like you were gone a week, we packed so much in.  Drew definitely out-did himself.  It makes those 'cozy pants' I gave him for Valentines Day look pretty lame!

Before I get to the insane amount of pictures I took, I will type out some of the highlights of the weekend:

• Two casino stops on the way to Duluth--we both won money.
• Valentines dinner at Black Woods Grill in Duluth
• Tequila shots (not my decision) at some local bars
• Hungover skiing on Saturday in not the best of weather conditions - I took a couple wipe-outs but managed to keep my tears of frustration at bay (gotta be tough, you know)
• My Sisters Place & Sven and Ole's in Grand Marais
• Taking in the best local "up north" people watching scene that you'll ever see at the Birch Terrace Supper Club bar Saturday night 
• Excellent skiing conditions Sunday. I was not hungover and the weather was awesome --therefore had a pretty good day on the slopes
• Stopping at Gooseberry Falls to see the frozen, snow-covered waterfalls on the way out of the North Shore area
• Lunch at the famous Betty's Pies
• Stopping at the Port Superior Marina on the way into Bayfield to see the snow-covered sailboats on top of their stands.  It's unreal how that marina changes in the winter
• Red Cliff casino lodging in Bayfield Sunday night --neither of us won money and Drew beat me in pool, 2 games to 1
• Taking the "ice road" from Bayfield over to Madeline Island--how Lake Superior freezes that much to allow the weight of cars is beyond me
• Going to the caves and walking a total of probably 5 or 6 miles in boots, snow pants and on ice but it was totally worth it!
• Doing crossword puzzles on the way home and actually learning a thing or two!

And now for an abundance of pictures...

 

 

 

The less I write the less I have to say.

I know I say this before every post I post after it’s been awhile, but this blog has been neglected since my birthday and has grown a long, long beard.   The beard is so long I think I see some hairs starting to creep down below the screen.  Not cool.  I think the less I write, the less I have to say on this little slice of internet heaven that is my own.  Again, not cool.  This is valuable space that people would love to have.  Ok, not really but whatever. 

Anyway, what can I tell you that’s interesting?... 

Did you know that I was getting new/used kitchen cabinets?  Well I was and I was super pumped about them.  My friend’s mom was gutting her kitchen and offered me her solid oak cabinets.  So after measuring and looking at them, I decided to take them.  Well long story short, after four pickup truck loads of hauling cabinets and putting them into my garage, I decided that they weren’t going to work after all.  Too much time would have to be invested and they maybe wouldn’t have looked right in there anyway.  So after discussion with some other peeps in my circle, I decided that I was just going to keep the cabinets I have and do some updating to them.  I am kind of excited about it.  It’s going to be a long project but will hopefully be worth it.  I plan to start it after vacation so that will HOPEFULLY mean that my blog will be back in business in the New Year.  There is also another change to it that I have been thinking about making to the blog so stay tuned for that, too. :)

Did you hear all the ruckus about the Holiday Train that made a stop in Cottage Grove?  It was kind of a big deal and was the only stop in the country that had a free little concert to go along with the stop.  There were three acts: The Claytones, Take 6 and Sheryl Crow.  Drew and I went and it was cold, but it was also really fun.  We were about 15 feet from the stage—I could literally see the pattern on Sheryl’s mittens.  Sheryl played for an hour and the other two acts played for about a half an hour each.  It was a pretty sweet gig.  Nothing like a free concert in CG to kick off a Saturday night! 

I just pulled my camera out of my purse the other day to find the battery completely dead (surprise, surprise).  After I charged it I looked at my last pictures taken and they were the pictures I took during pumpkin carving!  That means it’s been almost two months since I’ve taken a “real” picture.  That’s pretty unacceptable in my book.  I need to get on that in the New Year, too. 

Since I slacked in the real camera department, I’ll leave you with some pixelated cell phone shots.  (I have since upgrade my phone so hopefully my next ones won't be so rotten!) 

Have a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!  Thanks for being a blog reader.  :)

Another Photo Challenge, Pumpkin Carving and Spooky Teeth!

So in the midst of my yearly photo challenge, I was asked to partake in another photo event.  I was honored to be asked to take my mediocre photography skills and take Niall's 18 month pictures.  Of course I love shooting pictures of my little gem, but I knew that any 18 month old on the move would be somewhat difficult to get some decent shots of.  Turns out, they didn't turn out so bad.  He sat still for long enough for me to get some nice smiles and I even got him to say 'cheese' for me.  Below are some of my favorites.  I think these out of all of them I took capture all aspects of his personality the best.  :)

How was your Halloween?  I never get many trick or treaters around my house so I still have an almost full bowl of candy sitting on my living room chair begging me not to eat it.  Although I didn't get many kids to see them, I think my pumpkins were the best on the block.  Drew was bound and determined to get some sort of ski logo carved onto his pumpkin and since he "hadn't carved a pumpkin since he was 12", his skills were tested and somewhat failed when it was time to carve skinny part of the Nordica logo.  Oh the shame.  Thankfully some toothpicks saved the day and it didn't turn out too bad.  The other two faces were carved by yours truly.

And now for the really spooky (and maybe gross) part of this post.  I am getting my two front crowns replaced!  13 years ago I knocked out two of my front teeth in a rollerblading incident and ended up with one root canal and two crowns.  The crowns looked great in their day but they were starting to show their age and I figured it was high time I got them replaced.  So on Halloween, the most fitting day for this procedure, I went to appointment 1 of 2 to get my crowns replaced with the newest, latest and greatest technology in dentistry (according to my sister-in-law, the dental assistant).  If you look real close at this before picture, you can see my front tooth is somewhat larger and fatter than my other tooth and you can see my gray gum line.  That will all go away after these new crowns are in.  I know for a fact I had never been so excited to go to the dentist last Thursday!

And now for the 'during' photo:  This is what I looked like in the dental chair for a good half hour.  These are my real teeth that are underneath those crowns.  I guess this is what shade of yellow my teeth would look like if they were never touched by a toothbrush!  Disgusting, huh?  For now I have temporaries on that resemble my old crowns (minus the gray gum line), but in a week from Thursday, I will be good as new!  I will make sure to show you another before and after shot because I know you are dying to know.  I will leave you with this image so you can have a nice mental picture of it all day long!  Hopefully when I am famous someday this image won't surface.  I guess I'll take that chance.  Keeping it real is what it's all about, right?

Have a great week!

Oh and one more thing before I go; my four legged brother turned 6 on November 1st.  I snagged this picture of him with his birthday gifts from my mom's Instagram account.  Happy Birthday Rizzo!

St. Valentine's

Oh Access Hollywood...you sure do know how to grab a reader's attention.  Your web people are brilliant..."Hey, I have an idea, let's put a story up on how to make single people even more depressed on this 'holiday' by putting up TIPS that you should AVOID doing".
Lesson one:  When giving advice, you usually tell people what TO DO, not what NOT TO DO.
Lesson two:  Young females, which I am sure frequent your site a lot because they are into Hollywood gossip, probably have seen the majority of these movies more than once, know what they are about and will make up their own mind to either spend their Thursday night watching a movie they love and know by heart or they will avoid it like the Plague--sorry to burst your bubble, but they don't need advice from you.
Lesson three: A Walk to Remember made the list?  Please.  And what's that movie with Richard Gere and Diane Lane?  I've never heard of it.  Any 'romantic' movie that involved Richard Gere after Runaway Bride should have never left the editing room -- clearly you didn't consult with any true movie critics before releasing this great "list" of yours.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Let your chocolate and sweets intake be plentiful!  I've already had my share of sweets and have gotten three Valentine's...one of which even included a little greenery that had Mr. Andrew Jackson printed on it.  :)

xoxo