Big Laughs at Minnehaha Falls

 Minneapolis, MN

You can see the falls between us.  Francis looks ready to go.

Minnehaha Regional Park

Today we took a short drive to Minnehaha Regional Park to see the falls and visit the dog park.  The falls were nice but the dog park was the star of the trip.  It was huge, well shaded, had hiking trails, and Francis met a ton of friendly dogs.  He had such a good time.

The road along the park is an American Byway.  Here is a map with all of them and it is very hard to read.

We saw fungus too!

We are in our last week in Minneapolis so we are checking off the last few items on the list.  If you missed Kanabec County Fair check it out.  We went to a tiny county fair.

Looking Back at Birch Bay, Washington Camping (2021)

February 2021 Birch Bay, WA

Donna, Francis, and me enjoying our first trip after retirement

Looking Back

Today we are somewhere on the road between Baltimore and Baton Rouge so we are looking back at our first trip after retiring on February 19th, 2021.  We did the trip to Birch Bay State Park in northern Washington from February 23rd to 25th.  The Covid Pandemic was still raging.  Donna was able to get her vaccinations as a health care worker before quitting but I was still waiting for mine to be available to the healthy general public.  We had tried to stay at Birch Bay State Park earlier but just didn't find the time to do it.  It was a symbolic trip representing our new freedom and we really enjoyed it.

We drove up and stopped by Larrabee State Park on the way.  We wanted to get full value out of our State Parks Pass

Beach access through a tunnel

The Beautiful Washington Coast

We were taking Covid precautions seriously

We didn't have a reservation so we were able to pick the best site and we were the only ones there besides the camp hosts

It was pretty cold that trip.  It got below freezing over the night

My old boss gave us some salmon from his fishing trip so we planked it and it was great.

The pour over tradition started differently but continues to this day

An evening Quirkle game to keep our minds limber

The local bottle cap collection hammered into a post

The next morning we got up early and went on a hike.  We encountered Hair Ice for the first time.

On the trip home we stopped by Whatcom Falls

And the attached Fish Hatchery

It was a really fun camping trip and helped us to start setting up the routines we follow today to make camping easier and more enjoyable.  

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

We Have Arrived in Baltimore!

 Baltimore, MD

This isn't some super secret waterfall in Baltimore, this is in Ohiopyle State Park PA.

Home Base Baltimore

So today we pulled into Baltimore, MD where we are staying for a month.  We are in a neighborhood called Pig Town.  So far we are very pleased with our accommodation.  It is large and has what we need.  It isn't fancy by any stretch but we don't need fancy.  The link is here if you are curious.  We found easy street parking when we arrived and the unpacking the car went quickly.  We still have settling to do but that is the part you can take your time with.  After unpacking we walked to the Federal Hill neighborhood for dinner.  It's a popular place with bars and restaurants and shopping.  It was hopping on a Friday night.  We took Francis with us because there seems to be a lot of patio seating and we want Francis to get used to the new place before we leave him.

We can walk to both the Football and Baseball sports venues.  We will hit a baseball game soon.

I recognized the name Johnny Unitas as we walked by

We had no real plan so we ended up at Abbey Burger Bistro.

I got the Baltimore Burger.  The Crab Dip was really good.

I also got tots.  They were legit.  They had a modest beer selection as well.

We will go to the Cross Street Market when we don't have Francis

I snapped this sign and then when we walked by it was packed with bros playing cornhole.  

We have only had a taste of Baltimore but we are incredibly excited to see all that it has to offer.  I feel like we are in a great place to explore the area by foot and by transit.  We do have a couple car road trips planned too.  Stay tuned!  

If you missed the last quick post of Francis you can see it here.