Bismarck Weekend
Enjoyed a few days with the Baumann's out in Bismark this past weekend. Neil got his first haircut, courtesy of Aunt Sara's barber shop:
We visited the Dakota Zoo which was pretty impressive... certainly Ava's favorite part of the whole weekend. She is obsessed with "mean wolves," so we had to go through the zoo twice in order to pay the wolves a second visit. At one point the civil defense sirens sounded (presumably for their monthly test) and the wolves began to howl. I have to admit that was pretty cool. I've never seen or heard a real wolf howl before and of course that's all we heard for the next day: Ava howling like a wolf.
On Friday night we left the offspring with a sitter and Jon, Sara, Beth and I went to the Blarney Stone Pub in Bismark which had absolutely terrific food and a huge assortment of beer. Beth found a new favorite brew, "Dead Guy Ale," and I was able to find it at our local bottle shop - so she is a happy camper tonight. She's on call at the moment, but as soon as she's off, I suspect a top will be popped.
Later on Friday night we all went to the Teddy Roosevelt Bar at the Elks Club and enjoyed a stogie... one of the few (only?) places remaining in the city where one can still have a smoke and a beer. I think TR would have approved. It seemed strange sitting in a public place smoking a cigar, because God knows that's a mortal sin these days. But it was a lot of fun, that's for sure!
Anyway, we came back home Sunday evening, but we had a great time and it was nice just to get out of Dodge for a few days.
We didn't do much this Labor Day but watch the cold rain fall. It suddenly feels like autumn... I'm trying to figure out where the hell summer went to - it was just here a minute ago.
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| Neil had more fun doing other things, that's for sure! |
We visited the Dakota Zoo which was pretty impressive... certainly Ava's favorite part of the whole weekend. She is obsessed with "mean wolves," so we had to go through the zoo twice in order to pay the wolves a second visit. At one point the civil defense sirens sounded (presumably for their monthly test) and the wolves began to howl. I have to admit that was pretty cool. I've never seen or heard a real wolf howl before and of course that's all we heard for the next day: Ava howling like a wolf.
On Friday night we left the offspring with a sitter and Jon, Sara, Beth and I went to the Blarney Stone Pub in Bismark which had absolutely terrific food and a huge assortment of beer. Beth found a new favorite brew, "Dead Guy Ale," and I was able to find it at our local bottle shop - so she is a happy camper tonight. She's on call at the moment, but as soon as she's off, I suspect a top will be popped.
Later on Friday night we all went to the Teddy Roosevelt Bar at the Elks Club and enjoyed a stogie... one of the few (only?) places remaining in the city where one can still have a smoke and a beer. I think TR would have approved. It seemed strange sitting in a public place smoking a cigar, because God knows that's a mortal sin these days. But it was a lot of fun, that's for sure!
Anyway, we came back home Sunday evening, but we had a great time and it was nice just to get out of Dodge for a few days.
We didn't do much this Labor Day but watch the cold rain fall. It suddenly feels like autumn... I'm trying to figure out where the hell summer went to - it was just here a minute ago.
