Christmas in July

This morning Anna and Elyse and I went to the Grayson "Christmas in July" market (J. went to Granny and Pa's house to make cards.) Here are three of the pictures I took there:

Vines Park Critters

This morning J. and I went for a walk at Vines Park. Here are some pictures of the critters we saw:

Minnesota Summer 2022

Anna and the kids have been home from their week-and-a-half long visit to Minnesota for two weeks now; it's taken that long to sift through the pictures, over 200 of them, that they texted to me and select a few to include on this blog. Here are 20 pictures, I think in chronological order, from their trip:

When this picture was taken, Claes Oldenburg, who was responsible for the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture seen in the background, was still alive; he passed away at the age of 93 just a couple of weeks later.

Downtown Faribault

July 4th lunch at Tim and Peg's house on the lake

Denny emerging from the camper at the campground

Elyse made s'mores!

Helen Tubing 2022

Today we went on our annual summer-time trip up to Helen, so Anna and Elyse (or Anna and whomever she can convince to go with her) can go tubing on the Chattahoochee. Here are some pictures from today's outing:

I think I've written before about my indefensible fondness for Brach's Chocolate Stars, which they have at Betty's Country Store (where J. and I went to get a snack after dropping Anna and Elyse off at the Helen Tubing start point):

I'm also very fond of attraction brochure racks, which they also have one of at Betty's:

After about an hour and ten minutes, we went to the bridge by the Chattahoochee to watch for Anna and Elyse. The fence underneath the bridge is festooned with "love locks," including many interestingly shaped locks, such as the fish, camel, and owl shown below:

Finally, after about an hour and a half, Anna and Elyse floated into view:

J. and I spent the next half hour or so looking around in various stores, then went and picked up Anna and Elyse at the end point. We then all went and had funnel cake or ice cream; I don't have any pictures of that, but here's a picture of downtown Helen:

Lenox with Margarette and Kristin

Today I met my friends Pearl and Kristin at the mall for lunch. Here are a few of the pictures I took while we were there:

The mall wasn't as empty as these pictures make it look. It wasn't exactly bustling, but we didn't have it all to ourselves, either. Lenox is far from the "dead mall" status that Gwinnett Place and Northlake have earned. It's doing okay; it might even be accurate to describe it as thriving.