This weekend, Kim and I joined Natasha, a coworker from my previous job (the same one who gave me the awesome red Swingline stapler), and Chris near McGregor, MN for a weekend of camping and various other activities.

We left Apple Valley at around 6 and got up to the area just after 9. The outdated maps on my GPS took us a roundabout way that led us through some backwoods dirt roads that were heavily traveled by logging trucks which took up the entire width of the lane forcing us off the road. They were probably on that road to avoid the bridge that was out another mile past our turn. We did catch a nice shot of the sunset over a farm along the way though so it wasn’t all bad!

Due to some partially completed directions we weren’t able to find our final destination so we headed out to Bann’s Bar and called Natasha as I had no mobile service until I walked into the bar — isn’t that how it always is? Anyway, the friendly guys at the bar were happy to let me know that the street I was looking for was “out on the point,” as if I didn’t already know that but were glad to call Natasha’s number for me. Natasha and Chris, realizing their mistake before I even called were already on their way to the bar to wait for us there when I called. They met up with us and we went back to the family plot where we immediately cracked a beer and setup the tent. I hung out with Chris and Natasha long after Kim went to sleep and was the first one up the next morning (without going back to sleep).

I spent the day cooking, drinking, cleaning, working around the camp. We drove down to McGregor for ice cream, a geocache, and a trip to the Minnestalgia Winery where we sampled some wines and picked up a bottle of Blackberry Honeywine while Chris got several including a bottle of Lingonberry Honeywine. These wines are amazing. Instead of drinking the bottle and wanting to pass out in front of the fire for the rest of the night, we got energized and crazy. Kim was the first one to start acting nuts and took to destroying a rotting stump with a pry bar which Chris and I helped. When it was all said and done he burned the remaining bit of the stump out and covered it in dirt. One down, many to go…

We ate eggs, sausage and hashbrowns for breakfast; brats sauerkraut, pasta salad, shrimp and pea salad and chips for lunch; and jerk pork, asparagus, and baked potatoes for dinner. Another successful camping cooking outing for me. I really think I eat better when I camp then when I stay at home for the weekend. I didn’t have any complaints but I can always improve on my camping technique. I do owe a lot of my successes to Natasha and Chris for bringing up their full sized propane grill. While my little one will do the trick, it was really nice to not have to worry about space constraints like I normally do.

This morning after a quick breakfast of bagels and some fried spam (for Kim), we packed everything up and were back out onto the highway by 9:45. We made some stops and a detour due to 35E being closed and backing up traffic on 35E near 94 but made it home before 1 PM. We had originally planned on visiting one of the Minnesota Historical Society’s many sites which were free to the public today but after the longish weekend and many miles driven, we decided to eat lunch and take a nap after a much needed shower. After the shower and nap, we talked to Chris and Laura who had a showing on their house today and needed to get out for a couple of hours. They brought over chicken and brats along with some beer and dessert and we supplied asparagus, salad, and baked potatoes along with a bottle of wine and Uno for a nice night together.

I grilled the brats and asparagus outside and baked the chicken in the oven. After downing the bottle of Minnestalgia wine and getting rowdy as hell we hated on each other with a nasty game of Uno. Lots of bitching, weeping and nashing of teeth and of course trash talk occurred with Chris winning the most games out of anyone — jerk ;) While we thought the Lingonberry wine might have been a fluke, we were assured that it was not and found that the Blackberry Honeywine was also pretty fucking crazy. We were all having a great time and decided we need to buy that shit in bulk. Apparently you can get it at MGM locally or have it shipped from the winery in McGregor to your home. The bottles are all in the $9.95 to $12.95 range and are damn good — coming from someone that has never had any wine that was more than $30/bottle and probably never will :)

While we were playing Uno we noticed that the rules mention nothing about drawing cards until you have one in your hand that matches what is currently in play. We played that way for the first two hands and noticed that while the game moved quickly, it was boring as hell. We reinstated what we all remembered as a standard rule as a “house rule” and watched as everyone ended up holding what seemed like 100s of cards in their hand. We also noticed that both the 6 and the 9 cards have lines under them so the line itself becomes quite meaningless. Why bother? Even sober it was tough to determine which one was which and Laura and I spent many long seconds determining if it was indeed a 6 or a 9 that was currently played and how we should proceed.

Anyway, a great time this weekend with all of our friends. Many thanks to Natasha and Chris for inviting us to camp with them and also to Chris and Laura for the great impromptu BBQ this evening.

See all the pictures from this weekend on Flickr here.

After spending a nice Friday evening drinking at Panino Brothers with Kim and several randoms, I awoke at 4:30 AM and couldn’t sleep. Once it started getting light enough I headed out to find eight caches that were within a mile radius of the house. Being that I needed some exercise after eating a panino or three, I decided to do them all on foot.

Now, I didn’t put much thought into the route, the distance I would be walking or whether or not I’d be doing all eight caches… As I started out down CR-46 I wasn’t paying much attention to anything and ended up in Lakeville Liquor’s parking lot without watching for oncoming traffic. Whoops! Thankfully it was just after 6 AM and no one was out and about anyway.

After a couple of caches, including two in the Apple Valley Transit Station, I stopped at Dunn Brothers to use their shitter. I felt like I should at least buy something and being that I’ve been caffeine free, coffee wasn’t an option so after staring at all the $4 fruit juices and $2.50 milk options, I saw a single can of V8 for 75 cents and also chose a 50 cent piece of string cheese. After bringing the can up to the counter and asking for the cheese, the guy behind the counter looked at me as if I was crazy. Guess that was an odd sight for 7 AM on a Saturday in a coffee shop.

I found a couple more caches, walked a bunch more and made my way home. Overall, the caches were pretty lame but I wasn’t expecting much. It was nice to hike 7.1 miles and find a couple caches over 2.5 hours. I was glad to beat the rain!

Kim and I hung out around the house and then headed out to 13100 Thomas Ave S in Burnsville to check out the house. As I later told the realtor, I really enjoyed looking at foreclosures and seeing what people have done to the insides. We have seen everything from holes kicked in bathroom fixtures to houses in absolute disrepair but with brand new 50″ plasmas with a PS3 hooked up. While this house was not nearly as fucked up as some that we’ve seen, it was still bad. I was hoping to have some photos of the destruction but even though I had planned on bringing my camera, I couldn’t find it in the car while we were on our way.

We ate lunch at the Olive Garden before heading to the Burnsville Center Mall to pickup $9 pairs of jeans at Steve & Barry’s. There was much fantastic people watching including the JonBenét Ramsey look alike kids to the waitress with clumpy mascara who spit when she spoke (I tried not to have her speak when she was serving our food).

We headed home and napped before meeting up with Laura and Kim’s Aunt for dinner at PF Chang’s in Edina. Before leaving I tore apart the house, in tears, because I could not locate my camera that I had as early as 4 hours before. I was seriously concerned that I had put it on the roof of the car and it was in pieces on the road somewhere. After retracing my steps until Cedar without seeing anything I gave up, still quite upset, we continued on our way to Bloomington to meet up with everyone before going to Edina together.

PF Changs was good and I left stuffed. I learned that their chili sauce sucks compared to Satay 2 Go and that I do not care much for ginger beer. There was plenty of people watching there too as many groups were coming in for pre-prom dinners. I couldn’t imagine eating at PF Changs prior to the prom but hey, whatever.

After dinner we went back to Bloomington, spent some time chatting and watching the dogs frolic in the rain and mud and then made our way home. I had a sudden realization that my camera had been out on the porch, all day, in the rain. I rescued it and had Kim run up and get the hair dryer while I extracted it from the dripping wet camera case. The battery charger and case took the brunt of the water and after removing the battery and SD card it seemed only to be damp on the outside. I used the hairdryer on the camera and battery charger and are currently letting them dry some more on the dining room table. Wish me luck for tomorrow’s boot up. I think it’ll be all right though.

Busy Saturday and time for some much needed sleep.