Chicago

Back in April Diana and I decided that we needed to find a nice weekend get a way for just the two of us. We decided that Chicago would be a fun place to go  since it was somewhat far, but still very easy to get to.

We flew out last Friday in the early morning and took the train into the loop. 

From there we stopped by the JW Marriott to have the bellhop hold our bags for the day and we were off to the tallest building in the world.

It's still the Sears Tower to me dammit.

To get to the top of this thing you have to go down an elevator, snake through a lobby area, get your picture taken, pay $18 each, snake through another area, watch a movie, and then wait in line again for the elevator. The elevator feels like it is moving very fast and you are at the 103rd floor in no time. After a quick calculation I found out that what I thought was "fast" was only 16mph.

Surprisingly there are only 3 floors

Once at the top there were great views of all over the city. It was a gorgeous day and you could see for miles. The big attraction at the top are the 3 glass bottom rooms that put you right out over the sidewalk below.

                           
For some reason I did this lame ass shuffle out onto the platform as if that was the safe way to do it.
We tried to take some pictures with the city in the background by my photography skills can not compete with glass and a bright background.

Soon after we were back on earth and started walking around looking at some architecture and sculptures.

The Flamingo

Picaso (My favorite)

These bulls are like St. Paul's Peanuts characters, only better.

Cloud Gate

Art Institute of Chicago

Now seems like a good time to mention that Lolapalooza was going on in Grant Park that day as well. there were college kids everywhere. It was a real mess highlighted by not being able to see Buckingham Fountain because it was enclosed in the festival grounds. There was a Japanese couple that were standing at the entrance to the park to see the fountain as well and they kept looking down at the map and back up, as if they were somehow lost. Sadly, they were not, some young kids just wanted to listen to Nine Inch Nails.

After that we had lunch at the Sweetwater Grille, which was great and had an awesome beer selection. We were soon headed to Navy Pier to ride the ferris wheel and then headed back to the Marriott to collect our bags and wait for my friend Dave to pick us up.

We went to Giordano's for some Chicago deep dish and then over to Hugo's Frog Bar for a night cap.

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast and headed back into the city to drop our stuff off at The Westin and head out for a little pre-gaming at Harry Carey's.

I don't remember a lot about Harry Carey and was not old enough to truly appreciate the way he broadcast games, but I just consider myself lucky to have watched enough Cubs games on WGN to get experience his work live.

Heading to Wrigley you could tell that there is a real culture or vibe on the north side when there is a home game. People out on their balconies drinking and socializing, streets closed down because bar patrons are spilling into the streets. It's the culture that we are told will develop if only we get a new stadium, and it hasn't...

                            

Dave was able to get some great seats from work. We were right behind the visitor (Dodgers) dugout, 9 rows back. It is the way to watch baseball. I was most excited to get a chance to see Yasiel Puig play, and continue the great start to his career.

Puig's first at bat

It was never really much of a game. The Dodger's played well and the Cubs did not. Final score 3-0. I was really hoping for Puig to have a good game (which he did) and that the Cubs would be winning most of the game so that the fans were excited.

Quick tangent: The last time I was at Wrigley Field was 1998 in a game against the Phillies. Kerry Wood had just came on the scene and struck out 20 the game before, this was his first home game since and everyone was there early and excited. This was also first year that Sammy Sosa was really chasing the home run record. Well, long story short Sosa hit 2 home runs as the crowd went fucking nuts, and Wood struck out 11 and hit a home run himself as the Cubs won 9-4. It was the 3rd best game I've ever been to behind Game 1 of the 91 World Series and Game 163 of the 2009 season.

After the game we went out for sushi where I had a $9 Summit Saga (Low light of trip) and then went back to Navy Pier. Dave had a work function that he said he had to go to "Since I'm the boss."  He tried to play it down a bit, but it was great to go. We went out on this Seadog boat that was supposed to go fast (it didn't) but was fun to be out on Lake Michigan regardless.

After cruising around for about 30 minutes we got to watch the fireworks from a great vantage point and then headed back to shore.

Once again my shitty photography

Not wanting to end the night we planned to go to a place called "Howl at the Moon" it is a popular piano bar and looked like a lot of fun. When we arrived there was a line about a block long and people were complaining about the line not moving. We decided to abort that plan and head back near the hotel. We ended up at Harry Carey's again for a couple more rounds and then off to sleep.

We flew back Sunday morning and were back at the house by noon. It was an awesome trip, that I still catch myself thinking about a couple weeks later.

I'll be back

Lacrosse Week

This past week was the final week of lacrosse and it saw us playing 7 games in 8 days and a practice.

The tournament was in Coon Rapids and games didn't start till 7pm so that everyone had a chance to make it there on time.

Some of the best grass I've seen at a park.

The first game we lost to Rosemount 2-1. They were a much better team than us, but the kids hung in there. There coach was also an extreme douche and almost got kicked out.
Game 2 that night was a tie 1-1 and we "lost" based on goals scored to that point. This was a little fishy because we were playing the host team Coon Rapids, and they knew they had one more goal than us and the rule also changed the next day...
Tuesday we played Chisago Lakes and beat them 3-0. Then we played Coon Rapids again and lost 4-1. They had a different kid on there team that must not have been there the night before and he dominated.
Wednesday we played Chisago Lakes again and lost 2-1 in overtime. I felt we kind of got screwed by the refs, but the kids didn't play all that well either.

On Thursday we had practice and it was just a big water balloon fight,

Yesterday we played our final regular season game of the year against St. Paul. The kids seemed refreshed and came out fast. They were passing well and had a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Cooper had a nice goal but it was disallowed. I am sure people would have argued more, but we were up 6-0 at the time. The final score was 10-0. We passed better than ever before and it was good to see the ball moving.

Intense

It was a good season and Cooper had a lot of fun. I've said this several times, but lacrosse is so much more fun to watch than baseball. It's not even close.

2013 Oakdale Lightning (U9)

Next up: first year of tackle football and soccer for Rora.

Last saturday I got a Strava message from a guy (Wes) in Arizona. He said that he was coming up to the cities and wanted to ride at BC. He rented a bike from Erik's and met me at my house Friday afternoon. We rode 3/4 of BC and then over for a lap at Carver, and then back through BC. He was a good rider and we got it all in in about two hours. He loved the singletrack in the woods. It was much different for him compared to the desert.

Friday night was a bit chilly, but we had a little backyard camp fire and slept in the tent. Everyone made it all night without getting too cold and needing to go inside.

Cuddling to stay warm

I also attended the IMBA trail care school and did some trail work at the Bertram Chain of Lakes trail.

It was a fun filled weekend with very little down time.

Had to go to Hudson for the lacrosse game so we stopped by
the Nova and got a growler of Toppling Goliath Golden Nugget

Work Commute

It seems over the past two weeks the only real time I've spent on the bike is riding to work and back. It's an alright ride, but not having a road bike sucks. A lot. I can't get out for a quick 40 miles anymore and it is really starting to drag on me. I look at more and more bikes, but it's just not gonna happen in 2013. Hopefully in the spring I can pick something new up and get back to so fast paced rides.

With the hot weather MTB hasn't been at the top of my workout list. It gets so humid in the woods it feels like you can barely breathe, plus its slower and harder to get in higher mileage.

With that said I decided to go out to Whitetail Ridge on Saturday morning and ride a few laps. I sent out an email, but no one could make it. So I got there about 9:30 and hit the trails. On my 4th lap I was getting a little bored and decided that I would pack my stuff up and then ride BC, over to Carver for a couple laps and then back through BC. As I got to the car I saw a message from Don and gave him a call. He was on his way out to Whitetail so I decided to stick around and ride 2 more laps with him and Todd. The day ended up being 33.5 miles. I could have sworn that the laps were longer out there, but I guess not.

Sunday I woke up to a thunderstorm and I knew that since I don't have a road bike that I would not be biking today. I decided to do some long overdue yard work. Getting rid of overgrown weeds it not a fun thing to do. I need to come up with a plan to make sure that they don't come back.

Sunday night was Cooper's first of 7 lacrosse games in the next week. They passed much better than they have in the past and the scoreboard showed it. They won 6-1 and Cooper got his first goal of the season.
I asked him why he didn't do the robot when he scored and he said that it would be embarrassing.

Sorry for no pictures :(

It's Time

Cooper and I have been out to Carver a few times and he has also done some trail work at Battle Creek, so I figured that it was time to take him out on the trails.

I started thinking of a route that minimized the hills and decided to ride up to the Rec Center trail head and take the usual route down across BC Road and then down the luge, from there we would go left and then ride to the Overlook and take the road back home. There's a few climbs in there but nothing that he can't handle.

We headed up the road and he quickly fell behind as usual even though I was going at a slow pace... I hollered at him to keep up, and when he did, he said that he wasn't pedaling because I wasn't pedaling. He's already a roadie I guess.

Once we got to the trail head I snapped this picture to commemorate his first ride of hopefully many at BC.

Good thing we didn't drive.

The beginner trail went well and we were soon on our first climb. He took it like a champ and was pedaling hard and passed me by at one point. I was in shock that he wanted to ride in front of me and take the lead.
Then we came on a few quick up and downs and he struggled with finding the right gear. I am always reminding him ahead of time that he may want to get in an easier gear, but he usually ignores my  warnings and then struggles up the hills.

Once we were at the top it was all smooth sailing down to BC Road. He had a little slip up on the entrance but he was back up and riding in no time.

We took the shortcut to the luge where I though he would have a blast. I let him go first so that I could watch him and see if anything went wrong. What I forgot is that even thought the luge is a downhill, you still have to carry some speed or you can find yourself in a bad position. I had to remind him to keep his speed after the 2nd turn. He made it down the rest of the trail and then took a spill right before the log skinny. I think that he didn't know if he should go straight or take a right and hit his front brake too hard. He was OK though. When I picked up his bike I noticed that the front brake cable noodle had come out of its housing. I tried to put it back in but it was bent too far apart and I couldn't bend it back with my fingers.

Luckily we were close to the paved trail so I decided that it would be best if we just headed home. Since we didn't get our full ride in I told him that he had to go hard the entire way home and that I would follow him. He did pretty well averaging about 9-10 mph. He also got a chance to work on his shifting because when he rides with his friends, he never shifts.

When we got home he was exhausted but not so much so that he couldn't join his sister for a runs at the slip n slide. I think we got in about 3.5 miles which is a little short for him, but we'll get back out there and give it a shot again soon.

Back at the farm.

Well, it was that time of year again. The time that I find a free day and go up to the farm to work on some things. This year it was putting some more screws in the roof of the shed, painting the shed, and putting a gutter up.

I decided to bring Cooper up so that he could get in on the fun as well. I try to make it up a couple times per year, and I've been trying to increase the ratio of "fun" to "work." There is a ton of things to do for fun, but I'm usually stuck crawling up on a roof.

First time riding by himself

Cooper has been bugging me about shooting the BB gun for a while and since your not supposed to shoot it in the city and our backyard doesn't really have a good spot to shoot, he never gets a chance.

I talked to him about respecting guns and how powerful they are and the damage that they can cause, showed him the safety features and then left him to figure the rest out on his own. Not really, but he certainly wasn't interested in sharing it with me once he got it down. The barrel and the site were a little messed up, but once I got it dialed in we were plinking cans all over.

From the hip!

This was the part of the day where we painted with a looming storm.... I was all for it because I knew that if it didn't get done that I would be back up there very soon. My sister was supposed to come up and paint, but she backed out at the last minute to make jam so I had to pick up the slack.

Grandpa wears his pants looooow

It turned out pretty nice. The tractor has still not made its way from St. Paul to here yet, but it might some day!

Finished product

After painting was done and I doused myself in bug spray for the 30th time I went in the house to find this:

He could have at least taken his shoes off

Once Cooper awoke from his slumber it was back to shooting at things.

Going for the kill...

I joke about having to go up there to just work, but it is a great place to hang out and do whatever. Hunting in the fall is always fun and most of all it is a great way to get four generations on family together.

Cheq 100...

With the bad weather predicted the Cheq 100 was rightfully canceled till September 21st. However, the weather turned out to be pretty good and we got a fair amount of riding in. Friday we road the second half of 38 Special and ojibwe. We finished it off with a climb to the top of the ski hill at Telemark followed by a celebratory beer. 

Saturday we headed out and rode the other half of 38 Special which was one of the better trails that I have ever been on.

There are a lot of bermed twists and turns and very little pedaling. 

After that we road some steep climbs that kicked up back out on the road. 

From there we headed over to Seeley Pass and stopped at the OO trailhead. 

We began heading back on Seeley Pass and then fire roads back to 38 Special and back to Telemark.

All in all it was about 30 miles and a great time!

I'm disappointed that there was no race, but I'm glad we got some riding in on the best trails in the Midwest. And that I was able to enjoy them. 

Makwa

I headed up to the Cheq 100 yesterday to get some riding in before the race. I decided to check out the Makwa trail since it was closest to where I drove through. 

The trail starts out pretty rocky and uphill. It soon mellows out though and provides some great riding. The trail has a nice flow to it and after some short climbs you are rewarded with some really nice downhills. 

The trail crosses the Birkie quite a bit so there was a few spots to stop without getting completely eaten alive by bugs. 

I managed to get in 16 miles just before the rain moved in and it has been raining ever since. I don't know if I'll ever be able to ride my mountain bike again. Hopefully the is a drastic change in the forecast for the weekend.

I wish we had this many rocks at BC.