As most of you know, Winona has a great program that teams up with Wenonah Canoes and offers free kayaking, canoeing all summer for anyone who comes to the Lake Lodge Rec Center in town. It has limited hours but is offered every day so we have had a lot of fun taking the girls out on the lake. We also try to take anyone who is visiting us for a ride as well as it seems that everyone enjoys going and it is nice as everyone can participate no matter how many people are in town. Anyhow, thought I would just do a quick blog and post a few of the pics of us enjoying the boats.
Michaela has recently taken to kayaking all by herself. At first, I was quite nervous but she does awesome and makes it all the way to the opposite shore and back to the lodge all by herself! Danielle has tried it as well, but I believe lacks the strength as well as determination to paddle for any real length of time :)
Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Mike joined us for some fun a couple weeks ago and the girls had fun showing off their paddling skills for them.
Thursday's expected high was in the 80s (after another week of 90+ temperature), so we loaded the Jeep and headed to the Elroy-Sparta trail. The bike trail tunnels are one of many items on our summer to-see and to-do list.
We enjoyed nice weather and a crushed limestone trail. We started in Wilton, riding up to and walking through tunnel #2 and partially through tunnel #3. Michaela and Danielle brought LED flashlights and LED lanterns. The third tunnel is 3/4 mile long and we only went far enough to get wet from dripping water overhead and where Danielle needed to get flashlights and lanterns to fend off darkness insecurities.
We rode 18 miles, a couple of miles longer than the a bike ride last month on the Great River Ridge Trail. Neither of these compare in length to Christine's rides with friends however. She bikes quite frequently, riding almost 30 miles today on the Root River Trail. Luckily for me, Michaela and Danielle still prefer shorter rides on the tag-alongs.
On our way home, dark storm clouds provided a stunning view of the bluffs and the Mississippi River. We snapped this picture overlooking Lake Winona while looking west into the setting sun.
With triple digit temperatures we stayed home much of the day. This evening we made a quiet stop at Frontenac State Park and observed a Bell's Vireo near the entrance, lifer #319 for me. After a half hour at the park we ate ice cream and sat near Lake City's Marina to watch fireworks.
Contrary to the fireworks last year, Michaela and Danielle's excitement prior to the start of the fireworks exceeded the excitement during the show itself. On the ride home, during which both girls fell asleep, Christine and I speculated the switch may have been due to the proximity to the launch site. We also sat on chairs this year rather than a blanket, so you never know.
We felt the summer heat today. Michaela and Danielle invited Lilly for a swim in the inflatable pool. We grilled afterwards, keeping the oven off and enjoying air conditioning that was turned on for the first time this year today. Dessert included finger licking good smores.
After supper we attended the Winona Municipal Band concert. Danielle danced to Leroy Anderson's "The Waltzing Cat". At dusk we caught fireflies and lit sparklers in the yard.
So this seems to be the summer for re-creating my childhood memories, a few weekends ago it was Itasca State Park and this past weekend it was going to the horse races! Saturday we headed north to the cities to stay at a hotel and the girls had a blast swimming and we were fortunate enough to have all of my family there as well. I even had a chance to snuggle with Randy & Ashley's little baby, Claire! Fun was had by all as we swam, had pizza and cookies and just had a generally great time.
Sunday morning we woke to have a somewhat hectic breakfast, then headed to a park to blow some energy before we headed off to the races. When I was a kid, we used to always have the choice between Valleyfair and the horse races, for many summers we all chose to go to the races. I remember watching the horses in the saddling paddock and trying to decide which horse looked like he was going to win. I even had specific things that the winning horse could or couldn't have in order to bet on them. Back in those days, my parents would give us so much money (maybe $20-$30) and we had that money to spend on meals, souveniers, candy and betting. It was the only money we had and we couldn't get more so we had to make sure not to spend too much and always watch what we were spending. My girls are obviously too young for the betting and money handling but they did have fun picking out the prettiest horses or rather their favorite number (in Danielle's case) and waiting to see whether their horse won or not.
However much fun that was for me and the girls, the highlight of the races were the pony rides, face painting and the playground. Both girls picked out the pony with the pretty ribbons in its hair and got to ride together. I had such a fun time seeing their faces as they got to ride. Both girls also picked out matching unicorns to have on their faces. Michaela was terribly worried Sunday night that her unicorn might rub off in the night, but it did happen to stay on enough that it was acceptable.
Danielle is in the videos below and was enjoying her two favorite things at the playground...the tire swing (notice her singing in the background) and the tire horse swing. I think she spend at least half of her time on it :)
This afternoon we rode part of the Great River Ridge paved bike trail. We hopped on the trail near Eyota and rode 8 miles to Elgin, where the girls enjoyed an orange push-up before returning to the vehicle.
This is the longest distance the girls have ridden their tag-alongs and near the end they were tired. I felt similar, as the recently purchased 20 inch 7.2FX bike wore me out more than the 22.5 inch one I've been riding the past two years.
In case anyone is wondering, the new banner is from the top of the bluff at John Latsch State Park near Winona. It is one of the recently edited pictures from last fall in this album. This link gives a cool virtual tour of the views from the trail at Latsch SP.
We were busy yesterday enjoying the activities of Steamboat Days in Winona. After brunch with friends I walked in the parade for St Mary's while the girls watched.
We then went to the carnival, where the girls took advantage of wristbands and rode various rides for nearly four hours. In between we grabbed a bite to eat and watched the dirt bike and clown shows of Victoria's Circus.
The merry-go-round was Danielle's preferred ride, where she favored the horses with red roses on them. They of course tried out a couple otherrides as well, with Michaela being much braver with Lilly than Danielle.
