Final Weekend of 2012 WCHA Games for UMD

This past weekend I went and covered both of the UMD Men's Hockey games against St. Cloud State as a photographer with Andrew Craig from Collegehockeyhighhorse.com.  Andrew Nippert also went as a photographer for the Saturday Night game.  I spent most of the games looking through a camera lens which does cause you to lose some perspective of what is going one, but none the less was able to watch some as well.  Unfortunately for UMD it was not their best effort of the season, but in reality they didn't seem to play that bad.  They ended up losing Friday night 2-1 and Saturday's result was a 3-3 tie.  One definate negative was the powerplay, which just can not stop anybody right now.

UMD seemed to have a tough time playing the angles in the beginning of both games.  We also noticed throughout the games that on more several ocassions a UMD player was anticipating the puck to be in a different place, this had to be due to the Olympic ice sheet at the National Sports Center.  Speaking of the National Sports Center it will be nice to have some renovations done to it, asof  right now it just a concrete box that is not all that pleasing for watching hockey games.  Enjoy a few pictures from the games and be sure to checkout http://www.collegehockeyhighhorse.com/ for complete UMD coverage.

1st Winter Storm of the Year

Well it is hard to believe that the first real winter storm of the 2011-2012 winter came on February 28th and continued into leap day.  It started yesterday with a few flakes and then turned into just a nice rain.  And rain it did.  It rained until I went to bed and when I got up in the morning we had about four inches of wet slushy snow.  It was really heavy and difficult to shovel.

It actually broke off many branches on trees in our yard, mostly from the Chinese elms and cottonwood trees.

New Years 2012

It had been a few years since we had gone anywhere for New Years and thought that it was probably a good time to do something different.  Sue's friend Brenda from Kalamazoo, Michigan has been dating Captain John who lives in Islamorada and they decided to invite us down share a beach side apartment with them for the Holiday.  We decided this year for New Years we would to enjoy the warmth of the Florida Keys. 

We flew down to Miami on Friday December 30th and Brenda had flown into Fort Lauderdale and picked us up on the way to Islamorada.  It was a beautiful day and we stopped at Gilbert's Resort in Key Largo for Lunch. 

After a nice fish sandwich and oysters we continued onto the hotel, La Siesta in Islamorada.  We had a great two bedroom ocean side hotel.  It was two levels with two patio balconies for enjoying the great setting.

Captain John is a fishing captain who fishes mostly the backcountry waters on the gulf side of island.  So, I brought a few flies along to try and see if I would have any luck on the water.  We went fishing two different times during the trip.  John keeps his boat at the World Wide Sportsman's in Islamorada and we headed out from there.  Both trips were successful fishing outings as we caught bluefish, Spanish mackerel, grouper and snapper.  I didn't catch a tarpon but we did watch them roll on the surface near where we were fishing and I did spot one right below the boat as I was casting for them.

For the New Years eve the girls got all dressed up and we went and had a nice diner at the Turtle Inn.  The restaurant was very busy and the food was delicious.  After dinner we stopped by a couple places for a drink and to listen to some music.  The first place had a tent and a live band.  We danced to a few songs on the beach and then headed to the next place.  There we listened to a few songs and then headed back to the apartment. 

It was a great trip and very relaxing.  It was so nice to be able to get up in the morning and sit on the balcony and have breakfast.  The pace was perfect for midwinter break.  We will definitely be going back to the area again. 

Occupy Deer Camp 2011

The first two weekends of November I spent attending rallies in the north woods of Minnesota to do our part in harvesting a deer.  The protest message we were trying to convey was that we had not harvested a deer in 3 seasons and this year with my lottery permit we were going to make sure we got our share of venison.  The protests that we participated in were quieter then the knuckleheads vandalising buildings and property in the name of progress.  We basically just did sit-ins in the forest with an occasional march. 

The first weekend of November I hunted with Al Craig, Andy Craig and Greg Olson near Long Lake in Koochiching County at our usual spot. 

Al and Greg arrived early and set up camp and Andy and I arrived late Friday night.  After listening to UMD get a come from behind 3-3 tie at Denver we unpacked and got ready for the opening day of hunting.

Saturday morning we went out to our usual stands and no deer were taken.  After a nice hot breakfast at camp we went back out and had the same results. 

On Sunday I went to Greg's normal stand and watch a small doe with two fawns eat below the stand for 20 minutes.  Even though I had the only doe tag for the group I decided to pass on the doe.  In the afternoon I made a drive to Greg's stand, but right as I started the drive I spotted a doe or fawn about 20 feet into the woods.  I hoped a buck might be in the area, but the deer was very content on eating and was not being pushed.  Again passing on the opportunity to harvest a deer.  No deer were taken.

On Monday we went out in the morning and it was very quiet for a third morning.  As Andy got out of his stand in the morning he kicked up a doe and walked back to the truck where he meet Greg.  They then posted Greg up on the trail and Andy pushed it out right to Greg.  After a short stand off, Greg got a buck that I tagged.  A successful hunt for the first week of deer camp/Occupy Deer Camp.

St. Paul Triathlon

Last weekend was the St. Paul Triathlon and I again was a participant.  This summer I had done a good job training getting in five days of training on average per week.  This usually consisted of running three days a week, swimming at last one day and biking the other. 

I arrived at 6:30 and setup my spot in the transition area which was about half way between the bike and run exits on the second to last rack from the beach.  This basically the same spot that I was at the year before.  Sue and Lisa biked over to watch the event and they arrived around 7:30. 

The Craig's and Doyle were also in the Sprint event as a team. 

Prior to the race we meet up with Jerry House from our swimming group as he was competing in the Sprint once again.

Overall I was very pleased with my results.  I was in the second swim wave which started at 8:03 and finished the swim in a person best of 15:48 for the half mile swim. This was the 89th fastest swim time.  My bike time was 39:21 for the 20K and my run was 28:44. 

My total time was 1:27:21 which was 165th place out of 308 and 27th out of 36 for my age group.  After the triathlon we had about 20 people over for a BBQ, which was a lot of fun.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.

For the results follow the link.

http://www.frontrunnerusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/stpaultrilsprint2011results1.txt

Pad locks at the Stone Arch Bridge

After our trip to Venice we could help but notice the bridges in Venice and Verona had padlocks attached to the railings.  Margot and Claus explained that these are love locks and are on many bridges in Europe.  For a Anniversary surprise I decided to put two padlocks on a fence railing along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis a week before our wedding Anniversary.  This is the spot that Sue and I would talk Lily for a walk and was always one of her favorite spots. 

Over Memorial weekend Sue and I walked along the river and locks were still there.  I put a larger lock out that had our wedding date and initials and a smaller lock attached to the bigger one for Lily.  I also brought out another small one for Sue to lock to the bigger one for Honey. 

The river was still very high and flowing fast.  The falls were sending up a lot of mist, if it would have been sunny there would have been nice rainbows at the falls. 



Venice

The last week of April we went on a vacation to Venice.  Neither one of us had ever been there before and we were really looking foreword to visiting a new place and having a few days to relax.  It was a short trip as we left on Wednesday and came back home the following Monday.  Even though it was short it was a very relaxing trip and a great time.  We arrived in Venice Thursday mid-day and took a bus from the airport to the bus station in Venice and then took a boat-bus to a stop right by our hotel. 

We stayed at the Locanda ai Santi Apostoli, which was right on the Grand Canal and our room was one of two rooms that the windows were right over the canal.  We were recommended this hotel and got it early, which got us one of the best rooms available. 

We stayed four nights at the hotel and same most Venice and were able to also get to the Neighboring islands of Murano and Lido.  Murano is famous for the hand blown glass.

We were on the early side for tourists in Venice, which only made us wonder what the peak season would look like.  On Saturday and Sunday all of the street were packed with people and St. Mark's square was very busy during the day.  Thankfully mornings, evenings and night was not crowded, so we actually did a look of walking around during those times. 

While in Venice we met up with  our friends Margot and Claus from Munich.  They drove down to Venice from Munich and stayed in Venice for the same number of days that we did.  It was a lot of fun meeting up with them.  They had been to Venice before and were pretty good about finding their way around.  They also wanted to show us some of the neighboring cities and since they had a car they drove us to Verona for a day.  It was a beautiful day and the streets of Verona were busy with people as well.

We had a great trip and lots of found memories and definately a place we would like to get back to someday.