Month: July 2019

Some great ‘sky’ photos as we have been having some dramatic weather around here.

But first today’s sunrise.

Yep it is peaking out. Supposed to be a nice one today.  About time because we have had some ugly weather going through the area lately.

But let’s look back a little first:

Sunrise last Wednesday, July 24th.

The misty farmer’s field with the sun in the process of peaking out.

Sun is still working on waking up the world.

There it is!

Now Sunrise Thursday, July 25th:

Very dramatic!

Beauty.

Then the weekend brought some awful ‘stuff’ our way.

Friday, July 26th…whoa..

We had gone to the Burning Brothers Tap room – gluten free beer and food after work.  There for maybe an hour or two. Left to come home around 7 pm and wished we’d left a half an hour sooner.

Of course we were in the car, so you see reflections in the photos.

The skies were decked out with some pretty impressive clouds.

Then the rain began and quickly we were in a pocket of very severe weather:

And hail – the sky where it looks ‘yellowish’ well should look more green.

Traffic STOPPED and we hid under a bridge, nothing was going by us as it was raining and hailing SO hard, not only could you not see, but you were concerned for your car.

Photo taken under bridge as we waited for it to slow down a little. Something that hasn’t happened to us very often, bad enough to ‘hide out’ from the storm while on the road.

Then it slowed down and we decided to make a break for it.  Thought it had passed but about 10 minutes from home we saw this again.

Yep, about 5 minutes from home we were hunting for someplace to hide again…we found a person’s driveway under some trees (maybe not the safest place to park in a storm) it provided some shelter from the hail. We seemed to escape damage as far as we were concerned.  And at this point it was not so windy, but just slamming rain and hail.

We got home okay, but you could see neighbor’s planters rolling around all tipped over. We have 3 colorful metal flower ornaments in the front of our house, the biggest one was tipped over, busted…oh well. Considering, not much really was hurt in our neighborhood (that I am aware of).

But then around 9:30 pm…it all fired up again.

 Yep…those are some large storm clouds, but the most of it stayed just North of us.  I took some video of the sky later as the thunder and lightening continued to be *very* present. It looked like the trees were having a strobe light show.  Was pretty cool to watch, but I am betting not so fun for the folks who were in the storm zone.

Saturday we met with the kids and had some Mexican food, then on to their house for some gaming and visiting.  Home for the evening after that.

Then Sunday – – no photos, but some very bad storms passed through in the afternoon into the evening.  We ran out for errands and ended up in a rain storm again, not as bad as on Friday.  When we got home from everything, about an hour later another storm just pounded us. We didn’t have a tornado in our neighborhood, but there were several around where we live. Not really close, but in the vicinity.

Lemme: It’s all behind us now, everyone should just chill. Besides, not a drop of rain of ever touched me.

Mandy: And *I* just want to mention…*I* have the fuzzy pink bone! (Get your own, Fidge-cat).

Happy Monday!

This morning’s sunrise.

So yesterday was our wedding anniversary, so after work we went out to dinner. That was nice. 44 years!!!

And for some reason Mandy disappeared from all her usual snoozing places. I was all…Mandy where are you?? Then I saw this:

What ya’ doing there Mandy?

Are you okay?

 

Mandy: Just chillin’!

Okay, well she has never laid there before, but whatever makes her happy!

Happy Friday!

Sunrise this morning.

Moisture on the outside shows the high humidity this morning. By the look of our security cameras over night, we had some sort of a shower, some driving rain. Missed it though I was awake.  No lightening or thunder though.

It’s been a few days since I last posted as we were up by the North Shore in Two Harbors over the 4th of July holiday and the weekend.

Gonna’ be a long post – lots of photos to catch up.

Let’s start with some sunrise photos of the last few days.

Monday’s sunrise:

Tuesday’s sunrise:

And now we are going back to our 4th of July Camping trip up in Two Harbors, MN.

We generally camp at Burlington Bay campgrounds, but don’t stick around the campground much. Normally we spend a day in Duluth, but didn’t this time because of looking for land the kids wanted to buy to keep their camper on.  Spent all day, one day, going from one piece of undeveloped land to another.  What they decided is not to go that route.

While at the campground, there was some wood chopping for the fire.

The kids decided to cook their lunch over the fire:

We also stopped by Black Sand Beach:

Hiked at Tettegouche State Park. Had dinner at the Rustic Inn, which is one of our favorite places to go.

Also stopped at Betty’s Pies, a first for me. Probably the last time as well.

We go out to the beach to collect sea glass right off of the Burlington Bay campground. It was pretty foggy most mornings.

So beautiful.

One of the strangest things we saw at the campground was:

Yes, that is a beautifully restored hearse. Filled with folks, dog and all, camping???

We also went further up north, love this place, to Grand Marais. We looked at a new possible place to park our RVs while up that way, it has a 6 year waiting list.  They also have some first come – first serve, spots that you cannot reserve. Not sure we want to drive that far only to find out none of those are left.  Thinking about it. 😉

While in Grand Marais ate at a nice little place we enjoy eating at when we are up there called:

They do pretty well with the Gluten Free food items. Food is pretty good, prices not awful and there is generally a decent line for the restrooms – as you can see.

Normally, we sit outside, but today we sat inside for the first time.

 

Pretty good service, folks there were nice. They are generally a very busy place.

Casual.

Waiting for food. Eating with the kids of course.

This is a fresh catch grilled white fish sandwich with coleslaw…and oh yes…just a couple of chips. (No I did NOT eat all those chips, just a few, but they were good so I had to get the wait person to take my plate away before I ate them all).  Fish is on a gluten free bun.

I also had their Angry Palmer…which is like their version of an Arnold Palmer….a mix of lemonade and Iced Tea.  Not so good, I ended up adding some sweetener, it kind of tasted peppery.

But I think the food there is pretty good and I have Celiac Disease so it is important to do the Gluten Free thing properly. I had no problem with their food.

While we were in Grand Marais were lots of boats. But two in particular stood out to me.

A schooner sailing around, had maroon color sails. Not a great photo of it, sorry about that.

Then also,

Okay, Robin (Robyn) is spelled wrong, but pretty close. For those who know me well enough you should get why we took this photo.

Now to cover July 4th, we did fire works and Floating Lanterns while waiting for the big show put on my Two Harbors.

Boy Howdy, we had a few things to launch, but everyone enjoys it.

It had been a little rainy but broke up in time for the fireworks fun to begin.  First fireworks was a lovely Rainbow. You can see in the background a lighthouse.

People waiting for the BIG display put on by the city sitting by the water as the fog begins to roll in.

A ship leaving port to go out to sea coasting through the fog sounding its fog horn to help keep it on the right path.

We did enjoy the fireworks show and at the end…the fog seemed to be setting in again as we left the area.  Remember that lighthouse I mentioned before in the photo with the rainbow?

It had its lights on and you could see the fog as the light cut through it.

That’s really all I have to report on the last few days.

Oh yes, and the fuzzy pink bone battle still rages on at home…

At the moment it is cat domination, much to Mandy’s dismay.

Fidget: MINE!

Happy Wednesday!

A misty morn hides the sun. The farmer’s field across the road is starting to show progress.

This weekend was fairly low key. Got the RV out of storage, weighed it along with the car to determine correct tire pressure and check the tires. Then met the kids for dinner at Biaggi’s. Ran some errands after that.  Also, my mother-in-law was ill so we spent some time at the hospital.  She is doing okay, is still pretty uncomfortable.  Feel Better!!!!

We were up there again last night. But once home again, had a late dinner and I glanced out the window at some point during dinner and saw this

Not sure why the photos are so yellowish – but the sky was a weird color anyway. You can see it is a double rainbow, even more interesting is that it was pretty vivid and solid all the way to the other end….right down to the ground.  I was standing out in a light rain taking these photos.  There is also an interesting coloring between the two rainbows.

Seriously, I cannot recall ever seeing a rainbow(s) quite like this one. (or these two)

Here is one the camera took that the sky looked more normal.

The one above is most natural and agrees more with what my eye was seeing.  I have to say, it was pretty fantastic to witness.

AND the battle for the pink bone fuzzy still continues.

Mandy: Let’s see if that cat can get it now!

Happy Tuesday!