Saturday June 25, 2022
The boys woke up early and we built forts out of the pillows in the basement. I cooked a big breakfast of pancakes, chocolate chip and strawberries which seemed to be a big hit.
After breakfast we took the two older boys to Hyland Lake Park Reserve. This is a large park/recreation area about 11 miles from my son's home, a 30-minute drive, in the City of Bloomington, administered by the Three Rivers Park District. I had been to this park in February to take the boys downhill skiing, with limited learning success, but had not gone to the playground area then. Over its 2600 acres, in addition to its downhill ski area, the park contains a large lake, lots of trails and a magnificent play area.
The layout of the playground is very creative. It has three tiers with platforms, hexagonal climbers, swings and slides up to 50 feet long. The boys immediately set out for climbing, swinging, sliding and jumping. It was hard to keep track of them, but I felt confident in letting them run freely since it was a semi-confined area. Being a Saturday, it was well attended with kids and lots of parents standing around holding their coffee cups. Toward the end of our 2+ hour stay the older grandson went over to the merry-go-round. After pushing for a while, I began to talk to another dad. The grandson and another kid on the structure then got into a big argument after which my spouse declared that it was time to go. We paid a visit to the restrooms which was next to the concession stand. The boys wanted snacks there, but since it was past lunch time we decide, the adults, to go to the Great Harvest Bread Company. It is a big operation getting them into the car seats.
We had been to that Bread company outlet; it is a chain which also has an outlet in SLC which is a sponsor of the SLC marathon/10K, so we had also patronized that store in SLC, several years ago and taken the boys to lunch there. Alas, not only did I make a few wrong turns trying to get there on memory, but when we arrived, we learned the store no longer offered lunch. Instead, we purchased some fresh bread and a large package of trail mix and then headed out to find another place for lunch. Lots of opinions about where we should eat as we walked the neighborhood. We finally settled on the Zumbro Cafe. We ate outdoors and were served by a very understanding and tolerant waitress.
Resisting the urge to get dessert at the cafe, although we repeatedly dipped into the trail mix bag, we retraced our steps and went to Sebastain Joe's Ice Cream Shop. We had previously been here too and appreciated the tasty, albeit pricy, ice cream. The turtle and other outdoor structures are also nice. The visit required much scrubbing of hands and washing faces. Walking back to the car we stopped off at Pinwheels and Play Toys, a toy store. We got the boys revved up for future shopping for their upcoming birthday presents.
From there we took a short drive to another playground, albeit a more traditional one, Baird's Plaisance, (Pleasure Ground) which overlooks Lake Harriet. It was named for Beard because in 1884 he donated the land upon which the park was built. It was later determined that he did not own the land and thus it was his to give away, but wrongdoings were forgiven and in 1893 the park was named in his honor.
From there we traveled to Target for some grocery shopping. Lots of I wants from the boys followed by repeated rejections.
Home by 6 for dinner and the bedtime ritual.
Sunday June 26, 2022
It was decided to order breakfast from the Hot Plate, a Mexican restaurant a few blocks from my son's home. They go there regularly, but this time we ordered food to be picked up. Shortly thereafter the order was ready and following a short walk there and back for the pickup we had breakfast.
I the early afternoon I took my spouse to the airport. She was flying over to France before me to go on a tour of Provance that would be led by her daughter.
The boys and I then drove to Goodwill Industries to scout out the toys there as potential birthday presents. We walked across the street to the Cub Foods market and picked up some dinner items.
We spent the afternoon playing in the backyard.
Monday June 27, 2022
My son took the day off. After an oatmeal breakfast we took the two older boys up to the Tamarack Nature Center in White Bear Lake. It was about a 45-minute drive and the boys were reasonably well behaved during the drive. The 320-acre park is an awesome place for kids who like to get dirty. It has many trails and green acres, but the highlights for the grandsons were a mountain rock climbing area and an artificial sandy stream. The former offered many avenues to climb while the latter provided an opportunity to get wet and dirty while building dams in the stream, creating new streams, building lakes and generally immersing oneself in mud. We stayed there for several hours and left only because the boys got hungry, and we forgot to bring any food.
In the late afternoon we walked to Lake Nokomis and swam in the lake. We had dinner at the concession stand at the beach. It was a late return to home.
Tuesday June 28, 2022
Today was my day with the older grandson. We left early and I took him on a trip to the Interstate Park, about a 1hour and 15-minute drive mostly along highway 8. He was pretty good during the drive, and we talked about his preschool, favorite TV shows, movies and video games.
I had visited Interstate Park for several days in 2019, so I was somewhat familiar with the town and the area. The park, as its name implies spans two states, Minnesota and Wisconsen, with bookend towns Taylor Falls and St. Croix respectively on both sides of the St Croix River which divides the two states.
The geology of the park is very interesting and contains some unique geological features. The story, according to geologists, begins about 11 million years ago when the North American continent began to tear apart along a line from present day Lake Superior to Iowa. Lava flowed from these cracks in intermittent waves forming layers of basalt. After the rift closed and the lava flows stopped the area became an inland sea. Erosion of the basalt created Cambrian sand and later Franconia sandstone which contains lots of fossils. The final part of the geological story was the last, or Wisconsen Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. The water from the melting glacier, which covered most of present-day Minnesota and Wisconsen carved out the St. Croix valley and created the St. Croix River. At the same time Glacial Lake Duluth, the ancestor of Lake Superior, was dammed up at its eastern end by glacier deposited moraine so it kept rising. Once the lake began to overflow the water poured out gouging out the gorge which lies at the center of Interstate Park and creating the cliffs on both sides of the St. Croix River. The north end of the park is called The Dalles of the St. Croix. It was originally a waterfall as the water cut through the rock creating the ancestor of Taylor's Falls. However, the turbulent flowing water eroded the falls until all that is left today is a series of rapids. The lower rapids are visible from the highway bridge connecting the two states, but the upper rapids are covered by a hydroelectric dam built in the 1920s.
None of this was of interest to my grandson, nor was he impressed by the towering cliffs. What did greatly impress and engage him as we hiked through the Minnesota side of the park were the potholes. Over the years was the rushing water from the St. Croix River, which ran faster than any current North American river, swirled over the cliffs it carried pebbles and rocks which when the water eddied gouged out potholes. Theer are over 200 potholes of varying sizes, some as wide as 20 feet and some as deep as 80 feet. Many contained water. Interstate Park contains more and larger potholes in a smaller area than any other location in the world. As we walked through the park, we chucked many a rock into the potholes and while doing so I walked into a protruding rock and gouged my head. Lots of blood. I had my grandson wear one of my long-sleeved ski school shirts to avoid lathering sunscreen on him and to minimize rock scrapes.
After about 2 hours of hiking and rock chucking, we walked through the interpretive center and then drove into town. The town was named for Jesse Taylor who built a sawmill in what is now Taylor's Falls. It is a one stop light town, but there is a nearby ski mountain and the town does a brisk tourist business during the summer. We ate lunch at the Juneberry Cafe and the wandered through a craft shop where my grandson picked out a smooth rock.
We then drove over to the Wisconsen side and into the town of St. Croix. It is considerably bigger than Taylor's Falls. We stopped in the library for story hour and then drove up to the St. Croix National Riverway Visitor Center. The ranger was very patient.
Before leaving the area, we drove a mile further north to a riverside park. After using the playground equipment, we took a short walk at the beginning of the Ice Age Trail. This is a 1400-mile trail that meanders across northern Wisconsen marking the southernmost boundary of the last ice age.
During the drive back my grandson fought it, but quickly fell asleep. We arrived back at my son's home at about 4:30 to be greeted with the announcement that the grandsons' mother had secured an appointment for the three boys to be vaccinated later that afternoon. However, she was at work. So, I and the daughter-in-law's mother bundled the three boys into the car for the trip. With the three of them lined up elbow to elbow in their car seats in the rear seat it was chaos. Incredible teasing and hitting and shouting. Even promises of a visit to Target after the shots was not enough to temper the mayhem. I was driving and thought that I would lose my mind by the time we arrived at the hospital.
The vaccination process was bad. The oldest grandson had a prior unhappy vaccination experience, so we had to drag him out from under the table and hold him down to get vaccinated. The middle grandson howled prior to the shot but then was fine. The little guy was fine. Not a peep out of him even after he received the shot. After all that we took them to Target for presents, but that was unsatisfying since their desires were bigger than our present budget. We did not get home until 7:30.
Wednesday June 29, 2022
Another fun packed day with an early start. We got out by 8:30 and I took the three boys to a pool at the St. Louis Park Recreation Center. We drove in the van this time so with the multiple rear seats and stashing the oldest by himself in the rear seat we minimized the mayhem during the car trip. We arrived 3 minutes prior to the opening but had to wait for 30 minutes when the facility was reserved for seniors. I protested to no avail that I was a senior and therefore we should be let in. During the wait we watched the ice hockey practice. Amazing that we have outdoor ice-skating during summer heat.
After applying copious amounts of sunscreen to the boys we were one of the first charging into the pool. A large pool that the boys thoroughly enjoyed. The two older boys waded and paddled around in the pool, ran under the various sprinklers and played in a giant sandbox while I managed the youngest grandson. At mid-day the daughter-in-law arrived with lunch. Her presence made it easier to engage with the older boys. By the afternoon they had gathered enough courage to go on the various slides, one of which was pretty big and covered along the ride. Shades of Wild Rivers Park in CA. We stayed at the pool for 7 hours.
In the evening I visited with a friend from LA who was moving into an apartment after selling her beautiful house following a divorce. We had a late dinner at the Redstone American Grill.
Thursday June 30, 2022.
This was my day with the middle grandson. Over breakfast of cereal and fruit we had long discussions about what to do. Difficult to rationalize with a 3.5-year-old. We finally decide on a bicycle ride around Lake Nokomis and going to the beach there. We didn't get started until about 10:30 and the walk down to the lake was laborious as the grandson regularly stopped to investigate and inquire about virtually every natural phenomenon we passed. Flowers, trees, bugs, nothing escaped his inquires.
When we arrived at the lake, we rented a 4-wheel petacycle. Little did I realize that they are difficult to peddle and that I would get zero assistance from the grandson. It took me a leisurely, and laborious 1.75 hours to circumvent the 9 miles around the lake and the side trips that interested the grandson.
After our cycle trip we played on the playground equipment at the beach and then had some lunch at the concession stand.
In the evening we had a barbeque dinner on the deck.
Friday July 1, 2022
Low activity level today. I made a pancake breakfast and then I played with the grandsons in the basement and then in the backyard. There is an elaborate playhouse built by the other grandfather that we also cavorted in.
My son and his wife took the afternoon off, so we took the boys to the Lake Harriet bandshell in the afternoon. There is a nice playground there. We ate dinner there and enjoyed a concert.
Saturday July 2, 2022
My departure day to Paris, France. In the morning we played in the house, the backyard and the playhouse.
My flight to Paris was scheduled to leave at 4:40. Because of the numerous ongoing cancellations of flights and disruptions at airports over the July 4 weekend. I arrived at the airport at 1:20. Surprisingly I was able to check in, check my bags and go through security in about 30 minutes, so I headed for the Delta Lounge. It was not too crowded, had good food and drink, fast internet and I thought this trip would get off to a good start. However, nothing went to plan. The flight was delayed repeatedly, and I was getting tired of eating and drinking the same food and drink. I was able to read all the NY Times and catch up on a week's worth of emails. The flight departed about 4 hours late, but at least it was not cancelled, and all the lounge food fortified me for the 8 1/4-hour flight to Paris.
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