Friday:
- Recovered over much of the day.
- Ate pitiful crap for lunch in there somewhere.
- Discussed the plans for Saturday via text with file cabinet.
- Went over to see Varelse and met her dad.
- Ate dinner with her and her parents.
- Hung out there until sometime after 2300 mainly talking to her dad/parents.
Saturday:
- Dropped by file cabinet's place at 1045 or so, where I picked him and cascademn up.
- Drove to Franconia Sculpture Park, where we wandered around looking at sculptures. For some reason the less formal meets with INTPs involve looking at artwork, especially sculptures, and often primarily of the found item variety. I'm reminded of the trip to the Albany Bulb, only it was much sunnier here.
- I may have been the fastest one at climbing the post, in spite of my weight and size.
- From there we went to Taylors Falls, where we obtained ice cream based beverages (one shake and two malts, one of which had extra malt powder but no cookie), I drank some root beer, and we all split a pizza with red sauce on it (one of us also applied white powder to the pizza before consumption). The naming conventions on the menu here were amusing. We were also informed that they were out of hotdogs, which ruined cascademn's day, because she was dreaming of a big, juicy, all-beef hotdog with pickles, sauerkraut, and horseradish sauce.
- The pickle jar disturbed us and kept us from eating pie. We also learned about marketing and diapers (thanks, file cabinet!)
- Went to the park next door and rented a canoe, which we paddled down to Osceola. We beached the boat to check out a couple islands, were amused by the amount of interest some crazy/noisy people had for a crappy little sand bar, and took quite a few pictures (many of which were silly). Somehow we avoided losing anyone in the dark waters of the St Croix River...
- We found at least four ticks, but none of us were bitten by them. I thought I would be the only one, but then cascademn found one wandering on her. This made me feel a bit better since someone that should be familiar with them also collected some. They're curious little creatures, slowly crawling over your clothes and body with their tiny crustacean-like short legs looking for a place to stop, insert their barbed mouth, and suck out your blood. Since I saw my first one on this trip, I have also learned more about them than I'd ever known. Apparently they won't bite you if you pick them up with your hand. Only people that are familiar with them would know this, though.
- Failed to avoid the sun enough and got myself a sunburn.
- Walked/hiked/jumped around the St Croix pothole/lava flow area up the road from the canoe rental place.
- On the way back to St Paul I heard a confirmed tornado siren for the first time.
- Confirmed that I actually have been growing recently.
- The storm that caused the tornado sirens came this way and the sirens went off here... A little concerning, but not enough to really do anything.
- I'm pretty sure one of those islands was at least partially in Wisconsin, and would have been my first time ever in the state. We definitely crossed the border in the canoe.
My trip is now winding down. I fly back home this evening at 1920 CDT, so I drop the car off sometime after 1700 today...
I suspect that cascademn will post some pictures when she gets a chance, and I have some that I'll probably be posting soon...