SURPRISE!!!

To celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, my dad organized a surprise party at Maggiano's last Saturday night. Here is the crowd waiting for the guest of honor: my uncle Jim (my mom's sister), aunt Sara, cousin Eric and his wife Megan, my cousin Brett's wife Sheena (Brett couldn't make it) and Mikey.

 SURPRISE!!

Except some of us were surprised too -- Jordyn came home! My parents went to Chicago for a night on Thursday, and before they left, he said they were going to dinner on the north side of the city. Instead, they went to O'Hare to pick up Jordyn. We were just as surprised when she showed up at dinner... all the way from China!



FOB: Fresh off the Boat

Cheers!

 Cheers again!

What a birthday...



Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Tuesday night, Mike and I went to our first Twins game. We went separately -- he was with a group of work people for the power gen leadership conference, and I went with a friend from home who moved here in June for his residency.
Target Field is a really impressive stadium. It just opened in March of last year and, most importantly, has great food options.

Too bad they lost by one run to the Mariners... final score was 5-4.

Pedal Pub

Around the city, we have seen groups of people out on these Pedal Pubs.. Just like it sounds... it's a pedal-powered pub for up to 16 people. Here is a fuzzy action shot:

They seem like a great way to get people together for an evening!

I don't know these people... but they looked nice enough to use their picture on our blog to show off the Pedal Pub.

Now if we just had 14 more friends... the fun would begin!

The Playdate

While we were in Columbus last weekend, we were lucky enough that Ethan had time in his busy schedule to get together for a playdate. We played at his house for awhile, then went over to the park. Ethan hitched a ride in his Radio Flyer.

There were lots of things to do at the park. First, we tried the swing. Ethan liked swinging, but he liked the girls on the bench behind him even better. He was a little distracted by all the ladies at the park.

Future engineer, learning how things work:

We also played with chalk. Ethan designed his own gangster logo to compliment his gangster name: "E-Money."

E$ for life.

We knew it was time to head home for lunch when he started snacking on the chalk. What an exhausting play date! Uncle Mikey and Ethan both had to recover with a nap afterwards.

Log Rollers

While biking around Lake Calhoun, we stumbled upon a new sport to us: log rolling. There was such a crowd we had to stop to see what was so entertaining.

The girls were first, and they seemed to be a pretty fair match against one another.

The competition was good, and when blondie #1 managed to win the match by rolling blondie #2 off the log into the water, they hugged it out.

This sport is complete with live commentary from underneath the tent! Good city views in the background.

The boys weren't quite as entertaining. The yellow kid just couldn't manage to stay on. The commentator mentioned he was from Wisconsin -- a long way to travel to lose within just a few seconds!

If they would have opened the tournament to the public, we would have tried. Maybe next time.

My Best Friend's Wedding

Last weekend we went our separate ways to celebrate two different weddings: Riester's in Louisville, and Becca's in Trinidad, CA. We wish we could have gone to both, but each had a great time!

Here is a picture of Mikey in his tux before Riester's wedding. Oddly, this is the only pic I have seen of the whole weekend. I will have to bug Riester and Sarah to see more at some point.

Meanwhile, I took off for California on Wednesday morning. I met two friends from high school, Benjie and Danny, in San Francisco and the three of us road tripped it north for the weekend. It was a beautiful 6-hour drive up the 101 through lots of winding roads and redwood forests.

 

We took a quick detour to stop at this tourist attraction where we could drive through a redwood that was 2400 years old.

And finally we arrived in Trinidad. The wedding was held at a small B&B called the Lost Whale Inn. It only had 8 rooms, and just immediate family stayed there... we stayed across the street in a 2 bedroom cottage at View Crest Lodge. Here are some shots at the Lost Whale:

Backyard that overlooks the Pacific, and site of the reception:

Here is the setup for the ceremony. Becca and Eli stood under a chuppa -- a canopy that symbolizes the couple will build in their life together. Like the tent of Abraham, is open on all four sides for hospitality. Becca's uncle is a rabbi and officiated the ceremony. There were only about 100 people there, which was a nice size for an initimate setting. It was a wonderful weekend, and after 8 years together... Becca and Eli are finally married!

We drove back to San Francisco on Sunday, and I caught the red eye out that night.

 

Becca and Eli leave for their 10-day honeymoon in Bali tonight. Can't wait to see pictures from their trip!

The Islanders

Labor Day weekend, we took a much needed to our favorite island down south. The weekend was a typical SSI vacation -- lots of golf, sun and most importantly, food! We had all of our usual meals: Bubba Garcia's (triple tostada), Gnat's (yummy salads), Southern Soul (bbq sandwiches, Barbara Jean's (crabcakes). We even ventured out to try a new place -- Halyard's.

Sunday evening there was a Labor Day concert in the park by the lighthouse. We heard the band play for about 15 minutes before a huge storm rolled in, and sent us running toward the car. It turned into movie night at home!

Carolyn and I did a little shopping and also went to the beach club. Mike and Jim were able to play both Plantation and Seaside courses. And no trip to SSI is complete without seeing the Keaches, who were down south too.

We're ready for another visit right away!

Weekend Visitors

We had our first vistors last weekend -- my parents got in late Thursday night and stayed until Monday. We had so much fun showing them our house, and also the limited sights we know!

While Mike earned a paycheck on Friday, we explored the Mall of America because it is such a tourist destination and we all wanted to check it out. Talk about overwhelming. It's a double-edged sword that every store you could ever want is in one place. Definitely not a place to visit during the holidays!

Since Mike and I love to eat, we grazed our way through the weekend starting with dinner Friday night at Mill Valley Kitchen. We heard it was a great restaurant, and it was!

Saturday during the day, we biked around Lake Calhoun. Mike and I rode our new bikes and my parents tried out the Nice Rides. These are public bikes to rent -- you can pick them up and drop them off at several different locations. Some pictures from our ride:

Biking was followed by a well-deserved snack (and margaritas!) at the Cafeteria -- a restaurant in the uptown neighborhood that has a rooftop deck. Here was our view of the city:

The margarita theme continued downtown Saturday night at Barrio, a mexican restaurant and tequila bar that Mike and I like. Afterwards, we met up with Sarah and Josh Dahms, and also Kate DiNardo and Greg Buikema who were visiting from Indy. Kate and Greg lived across the street from us at the Hudson, and he works in HR at Cummins and is interested in a position with power gen. More friends could be moving our way! We had a drink at Brit's Pub, which has lawn bowling. The waiting list to get into the league is 5 years long! But anyone can sign up to play for an hour on non-league nights.

We started Sunday with brunch downtown at Hell's Kitchen and the rest of the day was much less exciting, although very productive. We made a trip to Home Depot for landscaping supplies: more grass seed, bush spray to get rid of the bugs, loppers and hedge trimmers. 4 people can accomplish a lot... 100% improvement!

The rest of the evening was low key, and my parents left on Monday afternoon. We hope to have more visitors soon!!