Well I’ve been try my hand at quitting smoking again. My inspiration? Barack Obama. About a week ago I decided that if Barack won the election, I would quit smoking. Not like I was making a deal with the world, that if the world helped to get Barack in office, I would return the favor by quitting smoking. The idea behind it was simple. Obama quit smoking shortly before he began running for President. He made a sacrifice along with many others in order to get to where he is today. And in my support for Barack and as I’ve been inspired by him, I’ve decided to quit. Almost as a “thank you” to Obama for his sacrifices. I know it might sound lame, but that’s been my inspiration. And honestly it’s one of the greatest inspirations I’ve used in quitting smoking. I’ve tried for others in my life and I’ve tried for myself, but this time I’m quitting for an idea and a symbol (with a living person behind it). It’s been a lot easier to say no to my desires for smoking when I just think about the fact that I’m doing it for Obama and myself. Hope for the future. Again, I know it sounds pretty lame. But I’m closing in on day two. It’s been going well so far, and although I’m not guaranteeing it to last (I hope it does though) I feel pretty good about the choice to quit and how it’s gone so far.
Well folks, were back from our amazing trip at the boundary waters. It was definitely an amazing trip. Thursday night we got into Grand Marais and thought we’d stop off of a night cap before getting to the camping area, and what happens? Kate knows the bartender. Insanity. It was a good night and we all had a couple of cocktails and then headed on down to the campsite. Got things set up and were in our sacks by about 2am. Not ideal, but at least we were able to get a good start Friday morning.
So Friday morning we put it on Bearskin Lake, which actually isn’t in the Boundary Waters. We had to paddle from Bearskin out to Duncan Lake. Once we landed at the portage we were in the boundary waters. From Duncan we got to the Staircase portage which led us to Rose Lake where we were planning on setting up camp for the weekend. The Staircase portage is exactly what it sounds like. Fairly steep terrain (at least when you’re carrying a canoe). And there actually were a couple of sets of staircases that some volunteers had put in this past year. Thank you volunteers. Halfway through the portage there’s this beautiful water fall. We ended up stopping there for lunch and Kate and Andy took a little dip. Laura’s and my water wear where packed a bit too deep to get in. Although I did venture down and dip my face in for a bit. And on we went to the camp site on Rose. Set up camp, ate, drank, watched the moon rise and went to bed (by 10 o’clock).
Saturday was a much more relaxing day. In the morning it was quite chilly and windy, but by mid day it had warmed up quite a bit, the wind died down, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was gloceous. We ended up going for a hike in the afternoon where were saw this amazing view of the Lake (pictures to follow). After some lunch we headed back down to camp and started up for dinner. That evening… oh, wait, dinner. We had this chili that was made in Andy’s new dutch over with cornbread topping. It was outstanding… after dinner with sat around the fire for quite a bit drinking wine and whiskey and chatting about anything we could think of. And around 9 o’clock, we took the canoes out onto the lake to watch to moon rise and go star gazing. It was incredible. The lake was still and the moon and stars were quite beautiful.
Sunday, was pretty basic. Packed up camp, ate some breakfast and made the trip home. We got back to MPLS around 10 o’clock last night. It was a long exhausting haul, but very well worth it. I’ll be sure to post pictures soon (once I get them off the camera and onto the computer). And hopefully I’ll post a few more stories about the trip. Just wanted to get a quick rundown of the trip up while I’m stalling here at work.
The time has finally come. Tonight, Laura, Kate, Andy and I head up to Grand Marais, MN for a night of camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior and then we’re off to the Boundary Waters. I haven’t been up there in a few year (probably longer), and I’m super excited. It’s going to be Kate and Laura’s first time up there which will make the adventure even more exciting. Hopefully the weather stays nice up there. Here in Minneapolis it’s been warm and sunny all week, fantastic weather. But I think the forecast for Grand Marais is supposed to be a bit rainy. Either way it’ll be a good trip. It’ll either be beautiful and sunny, or rainy and challenging. As long as it’s not too much of a challenge I’m sure we’ll enjoy either.
Yesterday Laura and I heading out to Midwest Mountaineering for supplies (after two previous trips to REI – one with both of us and one solo trip by Laura). I’d never actually been in Midwest Mountaineering, but I’ve gotta say for all the sales they had going on, I was very impressed. I got a couple of Patagonia shirts, pants, shorts, and knickers (just to cover all bases), a couple of pairs of wool socks and a hat. In the end it was around $200, but if I’d paid the full retail I probably would have spent close to $600, so that’s awesome. We’ve definitely spent a lot gearing up for this trip though. But it’s pretty easy to do when we’re getting stuff that we know we’ll using again. Most of the stuff I got yesterday were also great purchases for biking (wearing my knickers now). Always fun getting some new stuff.
Hopefully my next post will be filled with pics from the trip.
This past weekend Laura and I went down to Lawrence for Lauren and Shad’s wedding. It’s always nice to get down there. The weekend was pretty rushed and exhausting, got in Friday night, left Sunday noon, but there’s always a lot of good people to see while were there and this weekend was of course no exception. I’ve got a few photos of the wedding reception on my picasa site. There aren’t too many though, which I guess just means we were having too much fun to shoot too many pictures. I ended up getting pretty tanked, oops. It was quite a blast though.
It’s Monday. The office is slow. The weather’s crappy. And oh yeah, did I mention it’s Monday?
This weekend was pretty fun, but definitely exhausting. Ended up hanging out with Wes and Mason all day on Saturday. Basically a long day of bikes and booze. Good times, but by 10 o’clock I was definitely ready for bed. Sunday turned out to be an extremely lazy day. Which is cool. With all the traveling Laura and I have been doing this summer, an nice lazy Sunday is a welcome. Speaking of travel this weekend we’re heading down to Lawrence, KS for Lauren and Shad’s wedding party. For those folks that don’t know they eloped about a month ago and are now having their reception. Should be pretty fun and always fun to see the KS crew. The only part that stinks is that my buddy Chris Emond is going to be back in town for the first time in about a month and I’m gonna miss him. At this point I’m just figuring it gives me more of an excuse to take a weekend to go out and visit him soon. Got to finally talk to him last night for the first time since he left. Sounds like he’s having fun, but definitely working hard. I guess he’s been pulling 70+ hour weeks (7 days a week). Also got a chance to talk to Molly again last night on Skype which is always awesome. She seems to be doing well also, which is always good to hear.
I think my headset should be arriving today. Definitely excited about that. Unfortunately though, most of the other stuff I’m waiting on for this new bike are taking some time to get shipped. Don’t know what’s up with that. I’m banking on (most) everything being here by Friday though. Of course I won’t be able to do anything with any of it until after we get back from KS. Oh, well.
How boring is this post?
Had way too much fun last night. Went out to happy hour with Ryan, Wes, and Mason. Started out at Market BBQ and ended up at McKenzie’s. I seriously haven’t laughed that hard in quite some time. I almost pissed myself. And mostly from piss and fart jokes. It was an awesome time though. Just fun to be able to hang out with those guys again. Makes me miss the time when all four of us worked together. They’re just good people. Unfortunately, I’m feeling a little hung over today though. Oh, well. Good times.