Superior National Forest: Pfeiffer Lake Campground

Yesterday we decided to get out of town to do a little camping. We packed up the car, loaded the canoe on top and made the drive down to Cook and over to Pfeiffer Lake, a Superior National Forest Campground and recreation area. We arrived in cool drizzly weather and set up camp. We spent the rest of the day playing games near the campsite, exploring on foot

and sitting around the campfire.

We all enjoyed a few s'mores.

Today, we awoke to clearer skies. We had breakfast at the campsite, complete with coffee and hot chocolate.

Then we drove over to the campsite's namesake lake for a short paddle.

We explored a campsite that's only accessible by foot or boat and spied a small frog along the shore there.

Then we paddled back into a small bay where the surface of the water was covered by lily pads.

It was a quick paddle back to the boat launch along the other side of the lake.

After getting the canoe back up on the car, we took a short swim at the beach, then packed up camp. on the way home we made a side trip to the Leander Lake Picnic Area where we went for another swim. It made for a great end to our weekend.

Franconia Sculpture Park

After packing up our hotel room, we hit the road for the long drive back to International Falls. We wouldn't be headed straight home though. I thought Sierra, Noelle and Mom would enjoy a visit to Franconia Sculpture Park. I stumbled upon it by accident back in 2010 and have been wanting to return ever since.

We parked the car and walked past a wall of boom boxes

to a sculpture that I had remembered from my previous visit that you can play on.

Sierra seemed to enjoy it.

Then I watched a little TV

before we moved through the rest of the large sculpture park. Here are some images of what we saw:

Target Field: Minnesota Twins vs. Oakland Athletics

Today we took the bus-rapid transit (my first time riding BRT) from the Brooklyn Center Transit Center to the vicinity of Target Field and this interesting Bob Dylan mural.

This would be the first Twins' game for Noelle, Sierra and I. Grandma's second game at Target Field.

We walked around the outside of the stadium and admired the murals built into the walls.

We had a family photo taken with Bullseye

and soon enough headed inside.

We were quite early for the first pitch, so we had plenty of time to explore the stadium. Being Family Day, there were some activities geared towards children. Sierra made herself a Twins pennant

and we got another family photo.

Eventually we made our way up to our seats.

There were on the first base side, second row from the top, but not a bad view.

It was a long game, but a good one. The Twins won on a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th inning!

St. Anthony Falls Heritage Trail

It was cloudy when we packed up camp at Moose Lake State Park this morning. We hit the road, headed south on Interstate 35 and the Twin Cities. Soon enough we were driving through a pretty heavy rain. With rain in the forecast for the early afternoon, we decided to start our visit to the Twin Cities with a stop at Surly Brewing.

Their Minneapolis destination brewery is quite a site to behold. We had some delicious beers, of course.

However, the food was also very good. We got the smoked meat platter and it did not disappoint.

It was still raining when we left Surly and so we decided to head downtown to the Mill City Museum. We parked in a garage, made our way towards the museum and soon enough the rain stopped and traces of sun started to pop through the clouds. Our plans had changed. Instead of being inside, we would explore the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Trail along the Mississippi River. The trail started by crossing the river on the Stone Arch Bridge.

There were nice views upstream to the "falls".

On the other side of the river was an interesting neighborhood with restaurants and apartments in old mill buildings. The view from Water Power Park was quite impressive.

Eventually we crossed back over the river on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and the famous Grain Belt sign.

We found some interesting animal sculptures as we headed back towards the start of our hike.

Once there we explored the Mill Ruins Park

before heading to Brooklyn Center and our hotel room for the night.