August fun times

So I started typing this up on August 7th and am just now finishing it up. I'm going to finish this post up to right before the cruise and hopefully write another one tonight but we'll see how it goes.

Last weekend I went camping with Vicki and Sybylla at Great River Bluff State Park near Winona. We drove down through Rochester and played "Cows Running" in the car. Basically it was a couple of super long lists of random things to find, and whoever found the most won. Sybylla and I were on a team against Vicki but she still managed to win by a landslide. We got to the campsite fairly late on Friday, started setting up the tent in the dark and soon realized that we were missing a piece of a pole. We decided to improvise with three sticks and a lot of duct tape and it worked!

At this point the rest of the weekend is mostly a blur - we ate a lot of pie ironed foods, along with a ton of delicious watermelon, went on some hikes and saw some pretty sites over the Mississippi river, and generally had a good time.

The following weekend I drove up to Heath's Resort (had to drive past Crow Wing State Park again!) with Kory to spend a long weekend with the Coughlin clan. Again, very foggy memories, but I had a really great time with my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins! We played volleyball in the sand, ate delicious food, went fishing, tried tubing, swam in the lake, and all sorts of fun activities. I was sad to see it end but it reminded me how fun it was to hang out with my family.

Man this going back and trying to remember things is just reminding me how I need to be more consistent with my updating.

A couple weekends later I drove down to Rochester and spent Friday night shopping for clothes for my vacation. Sara and mom played dress up with me and I walked away with a bag full of clothes. On Saturday morning we drove over to Lanesboro where we met up with the Koenigs. Spent the day floating on tubes down the Root River and hanging out at their campsite. Another good family day.

The last week in August was a very busy week. I had my first Microbiology lab on Wednesday and it went terribly - it was stupid easy but the other people at our table were morons and had no idea how to work a microscope - and the professor did not help at all. Before I left for lab, mom stopped by to pick up Addy to watch her for the next week and a half while I was on vacation.

On Friday it was of course my birthday :P (I feel so old at 25!). Went to work but left a tad early. Walked from work to Sara's apartment where I met Nathan. We then walked to the bus pickup on our way to the State Fair! Once we got there we met up with Vicki and Sybylla and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening at the fair. Eating fried food (got a free deep fried candy bar from Sara), watching lumberjacks, and just having a good time with good friends :)

Saturday morning I volunteered at Como again and afterwards Megan, Sara, Kory, and Adam met me there and we went through the zoo (I had done a similar zoo trip with Sybylla and Vicki two weekends before... the last time I'd volunteered there). Afterwards we drove to Har Mar Mall (very slowly through all the State Fair traffic) and met up with Nathan at Old Chicago. Ate more good food, then went home and cleaned my apartment and packed.

Sunday morning Nathan and I got up at like 4am and walked our luggage to the light rail station. From there we went to the airport and started our vacation!

I probably won't manage to update the cruise stuff tonight, but hopefully I will before too long...