Enjoying Family in Minneapolis MN (July 28 – August 3, 2014)

The Place

This trip started with our spending time with our new family members in Cleveland, and it is winding up spending time with our daughter, Marie, and her family in Minneapolis.  Family bookends on a marvelous trip!

Minneapolis is a small city of about 390,000 people.  It is very cold in the winter, and delightful in the summer.  There is a young vibe to the city with coffee houses, and bike trails and water sports on the lakes.

The Adventures

Minneapolis has a series of lovely lakes with bicycle and walking trails around them, and beaches and marinas and places to buy ice cream alongside them.  Some of our extended family cousins keeps their sailboat at a marina on one of them.  We spent two days along Lake Harriet.  We walked, ate ice cream, and swam Tiki.  The next day we returned to take our kayaks out on the lake.  We were joined by Chris, a college friend of Marie’s, and took turns paddling out and around the lake.  Russ and Marie swam in the lake.  It was a warm, sun drenched day. 

The Dinette Makes into a Bed!

Finished the Puzzle!

A continuous highlight of the week, was the time we were able to spend with our 8 year old granddaughter, Marina.  We had so much fun cooking together, doing puzzles, reading Molly Moon, doing crafts, coloring, throwing balls for the dogs, and playing.  We even had a sleepover in Grandma and Poppa’s “camper.”

We had the motor home parked in their driveway off the alley behind their house.  The driveway was about 36 feet long and was bordered at each end with Marie and Dean’s garage and a neighbor’s garage.  We parallel parked the beast into the slot without nicking anyone’s garage.

Dean returned on Friday from his week on the road at work and was able to spend time with us over the weekend.  We celebrated Marie’s birthday with a yummy cookout on Friday evening with Chris and Mike. We sang Happy Birthday again at a pool party with the extended in-law family (Judy, Gordie, Terry, Heidi, Mike, Susan and Nolan) on Saturday.  We had such a great time and left with good memories.