The Day that Devolved into a Trip to The Mall of America

Did you know it was "Take a Kid Ice Fishing Weekend" this weekend in Minnesota? I learned about it weeks ago and finally looked up events at local state parks yesterday. Finding a Child/parent ice fishing clinic at our nearby Fort Snelling State Park for this afternoon, I was psyched. I asked Theo if he wanted to go. He certainly did and starting planning his day around it, wanting to call a friend to come along. Just to make sure we could participate, I called the park. Turns out the clinic filled up weeks ago. Damn.

A very disappointed 4-yr old quickly rejected all alternative suggestions for an outing. Even our typically successful offers of going to the Mississippi River Gorge for a walk/ski or going to the park failed. Descriptors like "boring" and "not fun" were used. Theo was dead set on going to "that place that Henry went to with the baby sitter yesterday, that place with Legos and other fun things". That place would be the one and only Mall of America. That place that I avoided visiting during my first five years in Minnesota. That place that I have only visited about three times during my second five years here. Truly enjoying these occasional forays to the MOA, I offered to take Theo and Henry to the MOA for Lego land time, one ride at Nickelodeon Universe, and one food item. It would be our first outing together to the Mall and I knew I better set some limits ahead of time.

We set out with the double Bob stroller on the 3/4 mile walk to the light rail station. Once there, we were offered meat to buy by a man waiting for the train. We politely declined. He looked at T and H and proceeded to tell us about the $150,000 he has sunk into child support for his son who reputedly just got a scholarship to Yale. (BTW, you gotta love the characters that you meet and the stories that you hear while taking public transportation. They never cease to amaze!)

Long story short: we joined the mobs at the MOA, breezed through Lego land (Theo was not that interested), rode the carousel and Ferris wheel, got ice cream, strolled around a bit, and headed home. Both kids fell asleep on the train giving me the opening to pick up some things at the grocery store on the way home. Ah, the beauty of being able to go everywhere with a stroller and not have to get in and out of car seats! Yes, it was a long excursion, five hours, but I sure got my exercise in!

The MOA was fun in its novel way. But I really wish we could have gone ice fishing.

Riding Phrius to the Opera

The free parking ticket was of no use. But the affordable tickets for two to the Minnesota Opera were just the gift for me to give to Hillary for Christmas this year.  (An opera buff friend suggested it - little did I know she had been wanting to go to an opera for a long time!)  We decided to go all out on our clothing since it was opening night.  I donned my tuxedo from orchestra playing days and Hillary wore a beautiful long burgundy dress.  We had the babysitter all lined up and even checked in with her earlier in the afternoon. Due to the house by 4:55, we were quite worried when she had not arrived at 5:10, 15 minutes before our bus. When we weren't able to reach her, we scrambled to find a backup plan.  Hoping to at least make the opera (skipping our dinner reservation), Hillary began calling alternate sitters.  Long story short, our original babysitter thankfully arrived at 5:38. We quickly reviewed the transportation options: catch the next bus in 3 minutes (long shot) and arrive at the restaurant with well less then an hour to eat, or call a taxi and maybe make our 6 pm reservation.  We called the taxi, hoping it would arrive quickly.  Our lucky night.  It came within 5 minutes and got us to Pazzaluna in downtown St. Paul at 5:58. Well worth the $20 cab fare to ensure we got to eat dinner and enjoy the full evening.

Perks of dates via the bus: the extra time you need for the bus gives you plenty of flexibility when situations change.  This time a taxi provided the backup.  In the summer months our bikes have served as a good backup.

The opera - Donizetti's Mary Stuart at the Ordway - was fantastic.  It was our first real opera production, and we savored the opening night scene.  As our opera guide told me, you can never be overdressed at the opera!  It was amazing to see everyone all dressed up and hear about others' opera going traditions.  And of course it was great to hear and see great singers acting in an excellent set.  The ice sculptures for the 125th St. Paul Winter Carnival were a nice bonus, and we enjoyed a relaxing bus ride home. But thank goodness for taxis when you need one!

Taxi Time and the Siberian Express

Living car free for us means using many modes of transportation. That includes taxis. Last winter we used a taxi 13 times during December - February. That comes down to about once per week.  With some serious cold (-15 one morning) and mashed potato snow on the roads over the last few weeks, our taxi use has mushroomed.  I asked Hillary how many taxis she took during the first week of the deep freeze. "Not enough," she replied.  One day entailed three taxi trips - one for a chiropractor appointment, one the the kids' doctor appointments, and one to return home.  The next day came to two taxi trips - one to get the kids to school from which Hillary walked the 1/4 mile to the food co-op and took a taxi home.  For that one week alone we neared last year's whole winter taxi total.  A similar scene played out the next week.

The mid-December "Domebuster" storm in action.  Theo is loving the shoveling action and weather drama.  Henry is telling me, "Enough!  Cold! Inside!"

Granted, it has been quite a winter here in the Twin Cities.  Low temperatures during "Taxi time" were accompanied by weather descriptions like "Siberian Express"  and "Arctic Invasion."  In mid-December we got the 17.1" "Domebuster" snow storm, the fifth largest snow storm on record for the Twin Cities.  So far we have received 55.4" of snow in the Twin Cities, nearly a winter's average...by mid-January.  Oncoming cars are nearly invisible behind the 4+ foot snow banks at intersections.  Streets are very narrow with plow berms extending 4-6' from the curbs.  We have had a mini-snow drought the last two weeks, but with a few 1-3" snow storms here and there (never enough to declare a snow emergency and get the side streets plowed) we have been slogging through mashed potato snow, especially challenging for riding the 'Roo.

All told, I haven't done my bike commute to work in nearly 2 months.  Depressing.  But I am hoping to try a bike trail focused route soon.  And now with the return of more average temperatures, we are back to riding bikes to get around the neighborhood.

Kids biking Seattle's Seward Park

It is always fun to bike in new places, especially when it is one that is mild and snowfree in December.  We are in Seattle to celebrate the holidays with Hillary's sister and family. This is the wonderful family that blessed us with the gift of the Winther Kangaroo trike.  Thinking ahead to our visit they recommended we bring a helmet for Theo to wear so he could experience Seattle from two wheels with his cousins. 

We threw two bikes in the car and headed to Seattle's Seward Park.  We walked through the gray Seattle morning, freshened up with spurts of light rain.  Theo appreciated having a bike with larger wheels so he could go faster, or at least not have to pedal furiously like he does with his own bike. 

 T and S having a blast chasing each other along the perimeter route of Seward Park.

Embracing the wet- puddles, long puddles!

  

Taking a break to build a stone fort along the shores of Lake Washington.

Summer Memories 3: Rental car camping

Not having a car does not stop us from escaping the city for camping trips and visits with out-of-town friends. In fact we rented cars for 6 weekends in 2010. How many times did you use your car for a 2 or 3 day weekend trip this year?

We love camping and it is great to have two boys who love it too. In June we drove to Iowa City for my Seward Concert Band and opted to camp out for two nights. We enjoyed some midnight views of some very vocal and flying Great Horned Owls before testing our new family tent through a very impressive 2 inches in 2 hours downpour (we stayed completely dry!). In the photo below you can see the whole family hiking out after a beautiful 4th of July night at the Afton State Park backpack campground. This was our first backpacking trip with both kids and we were so out of practice we managed to leave behind most of our food, the adult's sleeping bags, and Hillary's rain coat, among other items. But all was good, especially after some other campers donated their bag of marshmallows to us.

In mid-October we headed out with about everyone else in Minnesota for a weekend of record breaking temperatures and fleeting fall color. We were aiming for the gorgeous Frontenac State Park but the unseasonably warm weather and our rambling trip via apple orchards and such got us there late afternoon only to find the campground was full. Guess we should have made that reservation after all. But our poor planning led us to discover a fantastic campground five miles south, Lake City's Hok-Si-La Campground. This campground has a really great model- cars are allowed in to drop-off and pickup your gear but then must be parked in the parking lot. The greatly-reduced traffic makes it safer for kids and eliminates the annoying opening and closing of car doors that typically punctuates car camping.

The best thing about Hok--Si-La is the readily accessible long sand beach along the shores of Lake Pepin. We had the best time building "beaver dams" as the last blast of July weather touched our October day.

Rental car camping weekends have another bonus- the kids (and the dog) get to ride in a car! Here is the happy, and tired crew.

Summer Memories 2: Accepting the SpaceLiner

It came to me innocently enough.  I was at a friend's house while he was packing to move (Dana are you reading this?).  He asked me if I wanted this old purple bike with the detached chrome fenders.  I obliged. 

Five years later I was still trying to get rid of it.  I thought our local bike co-op's used bike sale would find the perfect home for it. 

Problem 1: I had to pay for yet more repairs of it for them to sell it.  The shop recommended a sale price of $140.  Seemed high, but I at least didn't want to lose money on this proposition. 

Problem 2: 
Didn't sell.
Damn.
I'm stuck with it. 

So the old purple Sears SpaceLiner has become my neighborhood cafe cruiser.  It is quite fun to ride, save for a rather uncomfortable seat.  Here I am cruising in my matching purple shirt. 

Winter Slogging, I mean Biking

Ok,  it hasn't been a huge storm yet.  But when we left T's pre-school for his "Ball Investigation" celebration at the local bowling alley, there was about 1.5 inches on the ground.  2+ hours later there were over 3 inches on the ground.  Above three inches and the biking gets much harder, especially biking the Kangaroo with two kids.  For me I added to the burden/workout with our 6 foot cargo trailer, expecting I would go food shopping afterwards.  That was a very bad idea. While the snow was beautiful, it did become a bit of a slog.  We walked part of the way and rode most of the way.  It took like 50 minutes instead of 10, but T had a great time offering ways to help out, even climbing out and pushing the Roo as Hillary pedaled the last blocks home. We all agreed it was a better night for a sleigh ride than a bike ride.

 

Check it out!  H just graduated to riding the on the real seat instead of being scrunched in his car seat.  He immediately loved his new view from the Roo.