A Week of Doing Nothing

Ian and I are sitting here in the Wilmington, NC airport heading home from our very relaxing week on Topsail Island where we did just about nothing.

We met up with a bunch of Macalester alums to hang out at a rented beachhouse on Topsail Island---there were about 13-14 of us at any given time although people came and went throughout the week depending upon their work/vacation schedules.

The most stressful decision to be made on any given day was which swimsuit to wear and if we would hang out on the deck overlooking the beach, sit down on the beach and read, or get in the beautifully warm and clear water. We had a game involving tossing golfballs attached to a rope, onto a rack where each rung had different points. I was very bad at it--as I am bad at most things that involve tossing/throwing with any degree of accuracy. Ian, on the other hand, was quite good at it.

What I did turn out to be good at was boogie-boarding(sp?). By the last day I finally got the hang of it and was able to catch waves to ride all the way into shore, and it was fantastic! Too bad I couldn't have figured it out earlier.

We had a great time. It was an interesting mix of personalities and they were all great company. I had never taken a vacation where I didn't feel the need to do anything and, while I don't feel a need to do it often, it was definitely relaxing. At the beginning of the week, we were thinking that we would probably borrow one of the cars and take a little day trip to explore the Outer Banks to our north but the week just sort of flowed by and we never really felt motivated enough to bother.

I must say that 13-14 people--at least half of them being young men in their mid-20s eat a lot! It seems that everyday someone would go to the grocery store to stock up on massive amounts of groceries and within 24 hours we would be down to just about nothing. One day Ian and I decided to cook for the group and we chose spaghetti and meatballs because we figured that would be about the easiest but still it is a lot of work to feed that many.

From here we fly to Atlanta, then Chicago where we pick up Ian's car, which is there because he had been working in Rockford, IL for the 2 weeks prior to our trip, and then we drive to Minneapolis and we should get in at about midnight. Poor Ian hasn't been home since July 7th and that was only for a couple days since just before that we were in Montana.

Caleb Turns 4

For his fourth birthday, Caleb, my ultra-cute, cultra-cool nephew, decided he wanted to go to a Twins game so the family converged on the Metrodome on Friday. In attendance were Margaret and Meredith, Greg, Me, and then Chad, Tara, Noah, Ellie, and the birthday boy Caleb.

Seriously, it is ridiculous how cute this kid is. And not only that, he has the sweetest personality! All three of the kids are cute and they draw a lot of attention because they are cute, incredibly well behaved, and funny, but Caleb is special. I was watching the strangers around us watching him and they were all sort of smiling and mesmerized. I don't know what it is about him but nobody seems to be immune. Caleb is a big Joe Mauer fan and everytime Joey was at bat or got a hit, Caleb would raise his arms and do this gesture...what is that called? I don't know...



We had a lot of fun. The Twins won. The kids were in a great mood and very entertaining and the adults all behaved themselves. Ken and Mary Jo missed the festivities since they were on their big Alaskan adventure...or supposedly they were on their big Alaskan adventure. As it turns out, they only made it to Regina Canada before a number of small events convinced them to head back and reschedule the Alaska trip for another time.















Why is it that hotdogs taste so much better at a baseball game? Dome dog and beer...does it get any better than that?

Very Funny!

I don't remember what was so terribly funny, but clearly something was. Margaret, Ian, and I went kayaking on the St. Croix yesterday afternoon and it was a beautiful day for it. The water was a little low but we only got caught up on the rocks once and other than that it was pretty decent.

I wish I could remember what was so funny...


We saw a couple eagles--or maybe the same one over and over--during the afternoon. There were also a ton of turtles out sunning themselves, and Ian and Margaret saw a couple deer.

And here are a couple photos from our drive home from Montana. We stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt National Something-or-Another in North Dakota for a little break and it was beautiful. I love the Badlands. I think this is the greenest I have ever seen them.

Smith River, Montana - 2009!

We have just returned from our second annual float down the Smith River in Montana. I must admit that I was a little concerned that it would not be as fun this year as it was last year. You know how it is when you try something new for the first time and it is fantastic and then you try to repeat it but the next time around if falls flat...well, this was not like that. The Smith River was just as fantastic the second year as the first and a great time was had by all!

While the core of the group was the same--Tom and Devin, Ray and Jake, Doug, and Ozzie, we had some new faces this year and a slightly bigger group than last year. In the front row, starting with the guy sitting on the red raft, its: Ray, Jake, Ryan Palmer, Devin Palmer, Me. In the back, it's: Doug Bermingham, Ian, Tom Palmer, Mike Samuelson, Robert Samuelson, Danny.

We stopped at a different campsite each night and they were very basic sites--a firepit, clearings for tents, and then off in the distance, a latrine. The latrines tended to be away from the group and out-of-sight from the site but very exposed and just a toilet over a pit. They were pretty gross but the nice thing was that they were often in very picturesque locations. The photo above is the path to the latrine which is just around the corner to the right.
Here is the eagle that kept an eagle-eye on us while we ate one evening. We saw a couple eagles throughout the five days.
Ian, kayaking in our rented, inflatable kayak. They worked pretty well but since it was open and designed more like a canoe, you couldn't get any leverage from your feet or knees so you had to rely on upper body strength for everything. Plus it was a self-bailer so poor Mr. Barker was sitting in about an inch of water the entire time.

I used the smaller Dragonfly inflatable kayak which was designed much more like a standard kayak and nice and dry inside (until I nearly capsized it when I wasn't paying proper attention).

There are a lot worse ways one could spend 5 days...here I am lounging on the raft, re-reading my Sookie Stakehouse book, and soaking up the 80 degree, sunny weather.