Summertime Activities...and Abby alert!

I'm often asked by friends and family, "What is it exactly that people do in Minnesota?"  Without the mountains, or the oceans, or famous city streets like Broadway or Santa Monica Boulevard.  And my response is usually "Uhhh, well, we just sort of do all kinds of stuff"  So here is some summer stuff.

We do things like the Muddy Buddy, a run-bike-mud pit obstacle course.  I didn't do it, but that is only because I was in Vegas.  But, I did take the red eye out at 1am Saturday morning so I could get to the course by 8am to cheer on my favorite buddy.



Here are Mike, Pat, Jessie and Dustin Benson, 4 good run club friends putting the muddy in buddy. 



She'll hate that I did this, but that's Abby smiling and teammate Kelly in the final stage.  At least the helmet is still white.

Muddy and Buddy. This is how you're supposed to look at the finish

Post Muddy, still Buddy.  The Bensons, Pat and Mike, and Kelly and Abby

On top of outdoor activities like this, we appreciate what living off the land is all about.  Farming is a big deal here, so once a year your are reminded of its importance, when the farm comes to you at the Minnesota State Fair. 

Flower contests abound. In this room, dahlias everywhere, some the size of a basketball.  There was a weird Halloween theme going on, which I'm sure made sense to some, but not to me.




Mike and Abby waiving the dahlias goodbye till next year.....or maybe the year after. 

Corn is taken seriously, but not so seriously.  Minnesotans have a good sense of humor.  They gave this scarecrow a vacation once it's job was done. 

I had no idea what "seed art" was, and admit it, neither did you, but it's taken rather seriously here.  The winters are long, I guess this is one thing to do.

People lining up to get a closer look.  The wall goes to the left another 30 yards. It's......magical

Did I say magical?  I meant.....MAGICAL.

This deserves the largest size the blog can do.  Despite her tightly held district here, as my friend Mike said "Damn right, this ain't Iowa" 

Just in case you thought it was a fluke

There were awards for all kinds of foods, with the majority baked goods and desserts.  One day, God willing, I will be a judge.  I considered breaking the glass and trying myself, but didn't want to get kicked out.  Bet they were pretty damn good though.  

There were a number of "large vegetable" displays, but the pumpkins were by far the most popular.  Mike and Abby clearly were excited 

For those that have heard all the crazy hype about butter sculptures, here they are.  Bottom line, they're downright eerie and I'm pretty sure they talk to each other late at night when the building is closed.

We were so excited to get to the State Fair we forgot to put on our arms or legs. 

Abby was really excited to the baby animals, as the Miracle of Birth Center is full of pens of extremely pregnant goats, pigs, rabbits, cows and sheep.  TV monitors above broadcast recorded and live births. In a word, shocking, and not for native Californians.  Granted, the resutling little critters running around afterward are adorable, but due to the graphic nature of the place I continue to lobby for a name change to the Miracle of Afterbirth Center.

There's no surprise that patriotism runs strong out here, but that doesn't mean you can't get creative in how you celebrate.  One of Abby's uncle's was a butcher for a good 20 years, and learned the fine art of pig roasting, enough that he welded a roaster just for the ocassion.  Granted it hadn't been used in a while, but Abby's parents thought this year was as good as any to resurrect it.

Here's the Abby, aunt and uncle inspecting the equipment. 

There are actually two grills, and the pig is sandwhiched between the two.  Abby was clarifying how you flip the grill, which sounds simple, but with a 125 lb pig stuck between it got pretty complicated

Logistics had to be considered.

Abby's dad was more than happy to watch me dig. He designed the cinder block frame perfect for the grill

Abby was happy to watch as well.  Actually, there are some key photos missing, as this is after the fact.  We split pit digging duties right down the middle, and she is good with a shovel

Poor Wilbur

 

 The design worked flawlessly.  Pig fit nicely between the grates, and we were off to the races.  Total cooking time was 6 hours, producing by best estimates about 25 pounds of nicely roasted pork.  We had about 50 people over and there was plenty of meat left.  Lots of pork sandwiches that week.

We don't have a whole lot of photos from the dinner, but there were fireworks. I still like a good sparkler, even when it looks like it's coming out of my ear.

Yes....I put the olives where the eyes were.  Happy belated 4th of July everyone!!

When we're not out BQ'ing, occasionally we'll dress up real nice and do an event.  This was post 4th of July, at a fund raiser with a lot of good local restaurants. 

I look like I've had a few drinks, but think we just had a long run that day.  Don't know why Abby doesn't seem so affected.

This is me, trying to describe to my friend Mike Fanous the succulent flavor of the pork at the 4th of July BBQ

Girls like to dress up in Minneapolis.  They don't all wear overalls and drive tractors, though Abby did work on a military base in school and drove a jeep around, apparently.  Their pose on the left is "OC arms" in respect to posturing SoCal style.  I can appreciate that.
 

Guys can pose too. We just need to practice a little bit.

Perhaps most importantly, we can drink too much and act like complete idiots. May that always be the case.

SO, there's a snapshot of Midwest summer activities.  But....fall has arrived quickly.  Apple picking signs are in abundance, bags of road salt are conspicuous at every gas stations, and my winter coat is smirking every morning.  There are a few more summer shots to throw up here, in particular the Lake Cabin Weekend, a right of passage for everyone, a cool trip in a bi-plane of a friend, and some other randoms.  Promise I'll get those up before the first snow falls.  I figure I have about a week.......

Summer catch up.....

Greetings.  As my favorite sister has started up her blog again to document her ultra cool road trip through the NW, I figured I would throw some highlights of failed fishing trips, etc.

BRING ON THE MUSKIE

Again, the elusive muskie has proven to thwart our most diligent efforts to trick it into biting on a barb that resembles a delicious snack.  Here are a few photos of our 48 hour ordeal, plus on bonus video that I'm sure my dad won't be able to play, but hoping anyway..............

Jason Ziemba, ESADE classmate, is on the left, and his childhood friend and Butler football scholarship free safety Steve Hall is on the right.  Both most excellent guys and great fishing buddies.  Steve used to come into the city a couple times a month and we've gotten to know each other well. 

I like this pick.  I'm finally starting to appreciate lakes.  There is a tranquility they attain that the ocean, with its tides, storms, currents, just never will.  I appreciate the ocean for its boundless energy, and the lakes for their stillfullness. 

We rented a cabin on this trip, and here was our front yard and the walk down to the dock.  The "postcard" vibe was in full effect.  The campfire pit was put to good use too.

 
The trip wasn't an entire failure. Jason is holding a nice Northern Pike, one of three fish caught over a combined 34 hours of fishing. Fortunately, we did have within our reach a nice bottle of Balvenie Doublewood Single Malt that my Minneapolis neighbor and good friend Mike Coriale, who joined us on the second day, enjoys in the opposite photo, as well he should, cause the only fish he caught is the below. The fish basically had a field day with us.

A fish is a fish is a fish


Peacefullness notwithstanding, our timing around the 4th of July weekend did prompt a spontaneous purchase of fireworks of the highest quality, which lead to a spontaneous high speed chase of our friend Steve and Jason comandeering the attack.  Nothing like firing roman candles at your friends as they try to make their escape. 

Barcelona reunion

Thanks to a perfect storm of good fortune, and some chutzpah to throw caution to the wind (remember when "pulling the trigger" was much more common and you didn't worry so much about consequences?) I spent a long weekend in Barcelona with my good friend, (who am i kidding, my best friend) Mark Bradt.  The following really only captured half the trip, but think you'll get the idea.

El Priorat is one of only two regions designated "DOC" in Spain, the other being the Rioja region.  The DOC means best teirrier, climate, topography, altitude..whatever, I'm making most of this up, but it is one of only two DOC, sits 90 minutes outside of Barcelona, so after a couple days in the city we rented a car and came here 



It's a bit of a windy road into the region, which is small....about 40 vineyards total, some more boutiques than anything.  We were early in the season, but were told by the locals that come summer it is quite a traffic jam. 

Just in case it got worse, we at least wanted to stop and enjoy the anticipation.  We do look like a couple of Southern Californians on a road trip.  I dig that.

Upon arrival, we hit the wine center, picked upa map and got some recommendations (they were very careful not to play favorites) and started our afternoon at El Celler de l'Aspic, a recommended restaurant when we said we needed food, as 3 cups of coffee in the morning eventually burns off.  This place was great, and w/ their selection we knew we were in the right place.  I'd say about 80% of these were from Priorat

The first winery was disappointing, as Mark's expression and pose suggest on the left.  It was more a food / wine store than a winery. We didn't let it bring us down, however, and got on the phone to confirm the next stop was more what we were looking for. It was better, but unfortunately we don't have any shots of that.  The last stop, however, was everything we were looking for and more.

Spain is full of little towns resting on hilltops and nestled in valleys, and this was no exception. Cellar Burgos Porta, named after the two founders, is about 3 miles down a muddy, rutted road that looks like the first 5 minutes of a cheap horror flick.  Senor Burgos was so excited when we called to confirm they were open,  he met us in the little town, escorted us to the bodega, and gave us a tour.

 

We talked about the fermenation process, the grapes primary to Priorat, what their blends were, and of course what made their wines special

There is something about being in a wine cellar, you just connect with the "old ways" of doing things.  Fermentation in bottles has been around for thousands of years.  On the right is Mark, me, Burgos and Porta on the right.  These two were incredibly gracious and happy to have us drink their wine and talk about their business.  Of course, we more than made up for it in purchases.  I have 3 bottles in my apt that Mark and I will drink at some point.  It was one of those days that started off weird and ended just fantastic.  That usually only happens when you're traveling. Which is why I like traveling.  Oh, it got better.  We left Burgos Porta in search of our hotel near Suiranna, in Priorat.  I remember Mark saying when he booked it "This place sounds ok, let's stay here."



The view from the front of the hotel.  There are 6 rooms, with a great restaurant El Carcaix.  Visible in the distance is the spanish town of Siurana with its 700 year old monestary, little cobblestone streets and more fantastic vistas.  



This is looking north from the hotel.  As you can imagine, the place is very well known for it's rock climbing.  Can't see them, but they're there...all kinds of people scaling these walls when we drove down the next day





Couple more shots.  We spent a lot of time just staring at the vista, imagining invading Moors trying to figure how they were going to conquer the spanish hilltop fortresses.  I don't get to see mountains like this in MN, and Mark can't see anything in London cause of the fog



 Had to throw a couple of these in for further perspective.  Pretty sure OSHA would have a problem with this design, but you are free to walk the "staircase" from the hotel down to a platuea where these photos were taken.  At first, no chance, but curiousity got the best of us.  We were sure to stay as far to the right of the rail on the way down, lest a stumble and then a tumble stright down a 700' rock face.

Funny how quickly conquering fear turns into bravado. Mark doing his impression of "Neo" from The Matrix.  We each took turns taking pictures here.  If you look closely, he is standing on a bridge 10 feet long and no more than 3 feet wide.  Fall forward, you tumble about 80 'into a very narrow ravine...fall backward, and it's closer to that 700' again.   

BACK TO BARCELONA!!

We considered stopping in Tarragona on the way out of Priorat, but it was a nice day and we wanted to get as much time in Barcelona as possible.  Our hotel had a nice roof deck, and pretty much there was nothing left but drink wine, eat Spanish ham (jamon serrano) and stare at the rooftops. So that's what we did. You can tell we were excited......

Traditional bread rubbed with tomato and garlic, check.  Jamon serrano, check.  1 bottle consumed, second bottle open, check. Andrew acting like an idiot, check.  Mark with silver plate cover on his head.......check.

More fun, post jamon....

We'll finish off with a nice sunset view, looking south at the Parque Olympico and National Art Museum.  I feel very lucky to have spent time here and be visited by great friends and family.  I'm pretty sure most of them would remember this vista, so this is for you all too. 

COULDN'T HELP IT.......WE'LL FINISH WITH THIS ONE