Minnesota trip, 4th of July

Hal writes:

We are a little behind on blogging about our Minnesota trip in June. Anna and I are adjusting to life without Internet and TV at our home. So, I've been able to put together pictures and blog posts from our home computer and then upload them while I am at work.

Our journey begins on Father's day where we joined Anna's parents for a Twins baseball game.



This is a photo taken of Joe from our seats. I took the picture with our Nikon and then cropped it up close. Turned out to be a pretty clear photo. I have some others of him swinging and hitting a pitch, but I haven't played around with those yet.

While in the Twin Cities I stopped by to visit a former student, Jen, who is now a hall director at the University of Minnesota. (No, I have no way of explaining Riley's expression in this photo.) Dogs are not allowed in the buildings at U of M, so Riley was dubbed a "therapy dog" for my visit.

We met up with another friend, Heather, at the Como Zoo to see the butterflies. Here is a picture of Heather and Anna, sans butterflies and not at the zoo.

Our next visit was with Staci, a classmate of Anna's from the Clarke DPT program. Here they are outside the Grand Old Creamery in St. Paul.

After a couple of days in the Twin Cities, we transitioned to the cabin to spend time with my family. Here is my dad teaching Riley how to steer the pontoon.

Lauren also came to visit us at the cabin. And, in recent news, she is now employed. Congrats Lauren! :)

Beth and Anna on the pontoon. Anna spent a lot of time on the pontoon (reading, riding, tanning, with the occasional swim breaks and the obligatory cups of coffee in the morning to start her day).


There are two loons that were fishing near the dock. I wanted to get a photo of the two of them flapping their wings in the water, but they wouldn't cooperate with my directions. But I did get this picture when one came a little bit closer to the dock.

A view from the lake looking up the hill towards my Uncle John's cabin (next door to my parents cabin).

On the other side of the lake is the pub where we went for my belated birthday dinner. We took the pontoon across the lake and tied up at their dock. Anna was having some fun adjusting the colors on this photo.


Mom and Dad on Little Hanging Horn


Beth and Jake

Hal and Anna

Anna enjoys sparklers, so we had some fun playing with those while we were learning how to adjust the aperture and other functions of our camera.



Later in the week we went to Stevens Point to the wedding of Jenny and Doug. Jenny is a high school classmate of Anna's.


Anna and Jenny the bride.

Dale and Sandy attended a different wedding, but Anna was able to get a quick picture before they left.

Anna and I took Molly (Dale and Sandy's dog) and Riley to walk some trails.

As an added bonus, here are a couple of photos from 4th of July. Anna's Clarke DPT classmate Molly was in town on vacation so we went to see her during the day.


We're still unpacking boxes and collecting furniture in our new house. Hope to have some photos up in the near future, but you'll have to wait and see.