Wolf Cubs

It rained yesterday so Jeanne had to bail out their boat at the end of our morning walk.

cute little flowers

Goldfinch

Instead of morning coffee, Jeanne and I headed off to the Wolf Museum.  We wanted to be there by 10 am, which is when the new cubs would be brought out. They did a short lecture first, telling us about the 2 new cubs.  It is quite the process.  They got them when they were only a few weeks old. After the lecture they brought them out.  They are no longer babies  but they still are very cute.  They were born May 2nd in Canada. meet the wolves 

They like to chew on beaver tails.  Ugh

One of the adult wolves was curious. There is glass between us.

The wolf disappeared when it started to rain.

sculptures out front

We went back to a store we missed yesterday.  They had a cool garden.  Now it is sunny.

Then we went home for lunch.  We headed out to go to church to a memorial service of one of the church members.  It was followed by cake and coffee.  Usually Thursday night is choir practice but since everyone in the choir were all at church they decided to have choir practice after the refreshments.  So we did not have to go back after supper.  We had a very nice steak, baked potato and corn dinner.  Delicious.  We had a very good wine with dinner.

We got a call from Laura saying they would be getting here tonight instead of tomorrow.  So we went out after dinner to go grocery shopping and to pick up a few necessities.

No caffeinated water was not a necessity.

It was a gorgeous sunset but there were too many trees in the way to take a good picture.

Laura and family will not get here until after midnight so we will not wait up.  

Ely

Jeanne and I went out on a morning walk before the mosquitoes got too bad, though we did put on bug spray before we left.  It was still chilly.

Saw a deer

the lake

lupins

Jeanne's garden deck

 After breakfast we went into town for morning coffee group with the church friends.  They feel like my friends too, now.  They do that 10 am Monday through Friday.  The group size varies each day.

Then Jeanne and I walked around through downtown Ely, dinking in the various shops.  Did not buy anything today but I got a few ideas.

especially these

These chair are everywhere. Each decorated in some way.

This is one of the murals around

This is where we went for lunch.  Britton's Cafe

Jay went to be with his dad.  He then met us for lunch.  The Wednesday special was enchiladas.  Huge ones.  Jeanne and I split one.

They had a bunch of fun sayings on the wall.  I especially liked this one.

After lunch we went to the nursing home to add voices for the songs.  They do a Wednesday service once a month.  I don't think my voice added much.  Then we came home and crashed.  Worked on the computer, or Sudoku.

We had a delicious dinner of chicken squares.  Hmmm I am wondering how I can convert this recipe to be vegetarian?? 

What a nice day.  

Travel Day All Day

Dale fixed a very nice breakfast of eggs and toast.  I got myself organized and packed up.  We left the house about 9 am to drive to the airport.  It was very nice because we had some extra visiting time. Going through security was very easy because I had the TSA Prechk.  But it was different.  I had to take my laptop out of my bag and I had to hold a plastic laminated sign saying I was TSA prechk. wierd.  Oh well.  I wandered around a bit but mostly I found a comfortable place to hang out.

note the name of the bookstore

 It was a short flight, about 1 1/2 hours.  Time enough to eat the lunch I packed from Trudy's.  Once I arrived in Minneapolis again I had to find the Skyline Shuttle Service.  Luckily they gave very good directions on their ticket.  It is a shuttle service between the Minneapolis airport and the Duluth airport.  Duluth is much closer for Jeanne to pick me up.  It was cheaper to do a round trip flight from Minneapolis to Chicago and do the shuttle that in would have been to have flew Minneapolis to Chicago to Duluth.  But I guess it did take longer.  It was nearly a 3 hour van ride.  Jeanne met me in Duluth.  We went out to Olive Garden for dinner before driving another 2 hours to Ely.  We arrived in Ely pretty close to 9 pm.  So a 12 hour travel day.  Sorry - not many pictures..

the lake

Nice to get here and relax.  

A Full Day in Crystal Lake

We had a very full day today.

morning view of the lake

After breakfast we went to Trudy's church to meet up with a few other people to take the collection of cans to the recycling center.  They get paid by the weight.

Then we went to the small airfield where Dale keeps his plane.  He built it himself.  It is a Zenith Zodiac CH650.  It is considered an experimental plane since it is not mass produced.  It is for 2 people. Dale took me up in it. Very cool.  

view from the plane

Trudy and Dale

Trudy gave me a tour of their camper

Then we went home for lunch.

Then we went to 3 Oaks Recreation Area.  First off we had Culver's ice cream, which was delicious.

Then we walked over to the quarry where they have sent up a very interesting set up.  They have combined zip lines, snow boarding and water skiing all in one.  Not sure how to describe it.  They have wires set up in a big circle, high up.  There is an area that people put on snow board type boards, hold a handle attached to a cord and off they go around in a big circle.  They have ramps, too.   

We sat and watched for a while.  It looked like a lot of fun but also exhausting.  We wandered around and looked at some of the other parts of the park.

Then we went to a Crystal Lake Brewing company.

Trudy and I shared a flight.  I did not like the dark one but the others were good.  We came home to fix dinner.  Dale grilled pork chops, Trudy made a salad and I made fried rice from the left-over rice from the Chinese food we had Sunday night.  

Whew. What a day.