Month: July 2018

So I just had to post a couple of photos from my Daughter’s Birthday get together yesterday evening.  Lover of animals as we all are in this family, they have cats right now – no dogs.

SO a new kitty has joined their household – Raviti. He is such a little guy and eats his food slowly. So cute….

But – because he eats slowly THIS GUY….(see photo below)

…named Sprocket, who was also at one time that small, has to be held at bay while little Raviti finishes eating.  Who looks happier, Sprocket or my Daughter?

Rain!  Liquid Sunshine doesn’t stop life on the banks of the river. As Mandy and I look out the windows of the camper we can see the sky is darkening and it has begun to rain. 

Not raining hard enough yet to keep the residents of this RV Park inside.

And as Mandy’s bathroom is outside…no doubt we will be out in it at some point as the forecast is calling for rain all day.

Hey, it’s only water.

Hope your Thursday is Terrific!

Hi all.

Since we are on the banks of the Mississippi River for the next few months I thought it might be a little interesting to track day to day in photos. I am not sure I will be doing it everyday because, to be honest, it looks the same A LOT!  So we will see how it goes I guess.

We have a post we can hang things on. I have some petunias and my Greyhound Spinner hanging out there.

Lots of wildlife  – Geese, Ducks, Turtles and Fish jumping.  Birds galore as well. The other day I saw a Bald Eagle diving over the cove by the river (which we are parked on) to catch his breakfast.  Took him 3 tries but he finally landed a pretty big one.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!

Today is my oldest daughter’s Birthday. Whew….no way I can have a 40 year old child!!!

I hope your day is –

During the week of July 4th we also went to Fairlawn Mansion.

Fairlawn Mansion  – Victorian House Museum
906 East 2nd Street, Superior, WI

Built as the family home for lumber and mining baron, Martin Pattison, his wife Grace and their six children, Fairlawn was completed in 1891 at the cost of $150,000; an equivalent of well over $3 million today. The mansion stands as an enduring testament to Pattison’s success and standing in the community. Later turned into a home for children from 1920 to 1962.

It was really a very nice tour, lots of good information and a lot to see. About an hour tour, then you can do the grounds if you like.  Again – mostly photos follow, not much chat.

This is oldest daughter- she looks pretty good in that room.

A few photos from the music room.

Love the ceiling.

This is a chair that was embroidered by the lady of the house. She embroidered each chair herself, so each chair around the dining table is just a little different.

Grandson, Oldest Daughter and Son-in-Law…what are they looking at??

TA-DA…beautiful painted ceilings.

Some gorgeous stained glass windows in this house.

A nice tour. I recommend stopping at the Fairlawn Mansion if you are in Superior, Wisconsin at some point.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

This last weekend we mostly ran errands and spent some time with our kids. One errand was getting over to Costco to get a few things. When we pulled into the parking lot we ran into this:

Vintage cars towing vintage campers.  We were very intrigued and wished we  could have looked at them a bit closer.  The station wagon on the left is a old Chevrolet and we ‘think’ the one on the right is a Cadillac. The owners must have been in Costco, we didn’t get to speak with them. Wish I could have seen inside the campers too.

And speaking of campers, as you know, we are currently living in ours while our house is being built.

You can see our Retired Racing Greyhound, Mandy, lounging outside…on her ‘outside’ bed.  We are sitting at the fire ring enjoying a fire in the evening. Mandy also often joins us around the fire.

SOOOO we do bring her nice bed out next to our chairs to lay on when ever we sit around the fire now because she seems to want to be with us, but as you can see, chooses ‘her’ way to lay on it.  To her it is more like a large pillow.

Our camper is pretty large and has slides going out from the left and the right side to make our living room pretty spacious..  However, a lot of the inside belongs to Mandy. She has three beds and, when we aren’t using it, the couch is hers as well.  She generally won’t get up on the couch while we are present in the camper unless we are in bed sleeping.  These are rules she has imposed on herself, as we have never really made her stay off the couch in the camper.

Here is a photo taken of her early in the morning when I came out from the bedroom.

She also lays here in front of the fireplace:

There is also a bed for her in at the foot of our bed and right beside the couch where I sit.

But she also sprawls out in front of the sink and the fridge. She is pretty comfortable everywhere.

When the RV is in travel mode and we are moving along she also has a variety of places she sleeps.  I really like her to lay on the floor, she makes me nervous laying on the couch. And she does mostly stay down on the floor on her bed – or behind her bed.  But occasionally decides to ride up on the couch.

And this is how she rides with us the most:

Behind the bed – can’t believe it is more comfortable but whatever makes her happy!

Happy Monday!

So every year for the last several years we go camping up in Two Harbors, MN for the 4th of July. This year the weather was all over the board, foggy, cool, rain, sun, warm….  but it just wasn’t as hot as down in the Twin Cities area so we were glad to be there.  The weather was pretty quick moving, changed a few times daily.  So you just stayed pretty much ready for whatever Mother Nature was going to throw at you.

Though throughout the week we were up there we wandered all around the North Shore area, however, on the 4th we stuck around the Two Harbor area where we attend the fireworks show.

The kids bring their own fireworks to shoot off while we are waiting for the show to start and for after the show while the traffic and the crowds diminish.

Photos: The kids shooting off fireworks before the show.

Then we saw a ship coming into the harbor:

The fog was rolling in and out pretty quickly at this time, it is amazing how quickly the weather can change on Lake Superior.  It was a slow process for the ship to finally doc so the sun began setting which allowed me to get some nice photos with the sunset, fog and docs in the background while the kids did sparklers on the shore.

Then at the end of the night the wind was pretty high so we went back to the beach by our campers to send off the Chinese Lanterns.  I like to do this and dedicate one to my Mom that passed away a few years ago, and recently my husband’s Dad passed away, so this year we dedicated one to him as well. Hoping they will touch the sky and sending our love to both of our love ones at the same time.  We also make wishes as they leave us and fly across the sky.  This year we lit 5 of them.  One per person.

 

Not the easiest photos to see I know.

While up north during the week of July 4th one of the places we stopped at on a rainy day was the Old Firehouse & Police Museum. Though it was not all that large of a museum it had a lot of interesting things, upstairs and down.  Lots of photos to come, not much chat.

402 23rd. Ave. East, Superior, WI
Always FREE admission at the last of Superior’s 1890 Fire Halls. It is last of Superior’s 19th Century Fire Halls.

Whoa…what’s with Clifford the Big Red Dog?

Grandson in chair made of old Hoses.

Old Fire Extinguishers

Asbestos Suit worn by Firefighters.

Control Center in the upstairs portion of the station.

Pole, hose upstairs in the Station.

Lockers for Firemen and Police.

Gear

Quarters

Police Gear

Awww – someone was not behaving!! Grandson Locked Up!

We left the Saturday before and came back the Saturday after the 4th.  We went up to Two Harbors, MN and visited Grand Marais, Duluth and all points in between with our kids. 

Photo: Looking over Lake Superior from our campsite on the hill

This is something we do every 4th of July with our kids, well with my oldest daughter, son-in-law and grandson.  My youngest daughter and her family is still in Chicago and generally go elsewhere for the holiday.

Photo: Son-in-law and oldest Daughter around the campfire.

Photo:  Grandson Kee sitting by fire listening to audio book.

The weather up north was really pretty good, while it was high 80s and 90s in the Twin Cities, it was in the 70’s and cooler up where we were in Burlington Bay. There was some rain, but over the week it really was pretty nice weather.  No rain for July 4th fireworks, which is pretty nice.  Rain was a little worse in the Duluth area – south of where we were, so they changed their 4th of July Fireworks to the 5th.  We were down in Duluth that day but decided not to stay late for their fireworks since we’d seen them the night before.

Photo: Two Harbors Fireworks began before it was completely dark…still beautiful.

We went to a Firehouse/Police museum over in Superior, WI as well as Fairlawn Mansion. We went over to Wisconsin on a rainy day to get more fireworks to light on the 4th, along with Lanterns to light and let float up into the night skies after the main fireworks were completed. Saw these couple of inside attractions and decided to do them since the weather wasn’t good for outside activities.

I will share photos of the things we did that week in separate posts so this won’t be too long.

My daughter has fiends that often join us for some of our activities together. Their daughter is just SO cute we love getting to be with them too.

Photo: Here everyone is cooling it by the lake!

All in all everyone had a nice time.

Hope your 4th of July Holiday was a great one!