On vacation: The Twin Cities

Hal writes:

Anna and I have begun our two week adventure vacation. I am taking an opportunity during the first part of our trip, while I have some access to technology, to share some pictures and add some comments.

The first stop was Kevin's ordination into the ELCA. If you need any baptisms/weddings/communions or any other sacrament performed, he's the man. You can't see in the photo below, but he has bright red shoes to match the stole.

The next day Anna and I went to Como Zoo and Conservatory with Anna's mom. The picture below of the outside makes me think of "Clue" but I suppose the next generation will view it as some Hogwarts like structure of magical plants.

Anna and her mom in the Japanese garden.

I took a few flower pictures, but you don't want to see them all. So here is just one of them.

After having lunch with Dale, we brought him back to work before we went shopping at IKEA. We then returned at the end of the work day to see Dale's office. One of the joys of his office is disposing of all he hazardous waste on the U of M campus. After proving that we were not a threat to the Security of the Homeland, we were given permission to enter. I'm not sure about you, but I'm a little alarmed that this guy has clearance to a door with all those warning signs:

Across the street from Dale's office is where they are building the new stadium for the U of M. The building in the background to the left is the field house, where I ran for four years in the MIAC indoor conference track meets. I'm not sure if the nauditorium is close by, but that is where my sisters swam for eight years (four years state meets, four years MIAC conference meets).

We got to see a lot of pretty houses around the Minneapolis/St. Paul border area. If anyone has a half a million that they want to spend on a house, I saw a couple nice ones. Pictured below is Anna and her Dad leading the way on one of our urban marches around the cities.

Minnesota, Hail to Thee

Today we are off to Bayfield to camp on the Apostle islands for a couple of days. Barring any unforeseen bear attacks, we'll be back to civilization later in the week.