Awfully nice day

An October day can't be much nicer than this one. NCW was gone for a couple of days to Pengilly for a baby shower, and since that's mainly for people with two X chromosomes, I stayed here and enjoyed the best week of the month. When she came back this afternoon, we decided to walk around the Minneapolis park with the highest waterfalls. We weren't alone. Nowhere near alone. The Se Salt restaurant had a long line out the door and down the street, but we weren't there for the clams. We just wanted to see the falls and the walk in the crunchy fallen leaves. We walked over to the less used Hiawatha garden, near the place where the old zoo stood. In the early part of the 1900's it was a hopping, popular place to visit on a beautiful October day. The attractions of the place have mostly disappeared leaving only a battered old statue of Longfellow, the guy who wrote the Song of Hiawatha. The area is being restored to prairie grass, a project that is endorsed by the Prairie Princess, and by me, too.

Another beautiful maple tree caught my eye as we began to exit the park. It seems like the maples have outdone themselves this year with their sparkling oranges and reds. They'll be done showing off soon, but in the meantime we can enjoy their transition.

If this isn't nice, what is?

It's a darn nice October

It was a very nice day for walking and also for just breathing the warm 70º air. There is a big red-orange maple on the corner of my block which just came into its glory. There are trees that are still holding back, but this maple just decided to go for it. It'll be bare in a couple of days - everything is temporary - but today it was a star.

When we got back from the walk around the neighborhood there was a package from Shutterfly waiting for me. We decided to use some northern Minnesota photography to decorate the new kitchen wall above the sink. The picture that I chose was one that I posted on September 25 when Santini was with us on the Mesabi trail just outside of Calumet. I cropped it and had it blown up to 10 by 24 inches, and printed on a suitable surface. I got it back and mounted it on the wall. I must say that I'm pleased with the result.

My own photo on my kitchen wall.

There was some tennis with the hard core girls and Jerry again tonight at Wooddale. It was a fun night and I again realized that playing inside is more fun than playing outside in wind and sun. The quality of play is better and the ball usually stays in play quite a bit longer.

October meandering

It was a beautiful October day. One of the nicest October days in the history of October days. NCW and I used the opportunity to roam around Como Park, around the lake, by the old Lexington bridge (which is being restored), and past the labyrinth and back to Black Bear Cafe. This was the prettiest of the maples we encountered and one of the nicest this whole month, standing alone in the big park.

Unky Herb and his new bride gave me a birthday present earlier this week, a photo from their wedding. It's a pretty wild shot from the photo booth attraction at the reception. NCW and I were at our craziest and the photo is quite colorful. I think that we'll put it up somewhere in the renovated part of the house. Here I'm holding it up in the sun in the back yard.

I couldn't help posting this photo from last week. We were at the Twin Cities marathon watching the runners go by and cheering their efforts. One of the other spectators had a catchy sign that got a lot of attention and brought some chortles from the runners and the spectators, too.