Hot Hiking

Whilst Mrs. Hobbled toiled away for the greater good - she went into work to move her own office - fun - the Dad and the kids had a busy Sunday.

First off to Grandma's. She is a very busy woman. Grandma quickly advances up the ladder in the senior high rise political world. She is now vice-chairman of the RAC. Not sure what that stands for but it sounds like some sort of uber-committee, a committee on committee. Bottom line: she must attend 16 different meetings a month. Each month. Ugh!

Next stop, Minnehaha Falls where we hiked from the Falls, following the Minnehaha Creek, to where it runs into the Mississippi River. Hot day (90+) but it was a dry heat. As we all know, it's not the heat it's the humidity. Highlights of the hike: climbing the sandstone (limestone??) cliffs. Throwing rocks into the mighty Missipp, and finding all sorts of very large fish skeletons (and one very smelly muskrat/beaver?? carcass) along the banks of the river. We even enjoyed a little dip in the creek before marching up the 130 steps (yes we counted) from "below" up to street level.

Topped it off with ice cream cones and iced coffee, the former for the kids, the latter for the Hobbled Runner. Little change in the eating accommodations at the Falls. Gone is the concession stand of days-gone-by, and in it's place is a new place, the Sea Salt Eatery.

Obligatory restaurant review follows Sea Salt Eatery - nice, but not your father's old concession stand. Two ice cream cones and iced coffee set us back $12.00. Wow! It was good stuff (Sebastian Joe's ice cream), but my how times have changed. The old concession and souvenier stand sold popcorn, postcards, ice-cream, and pop. $12.00 would have bought two cones, a couple of popcorns, some pop and postcards to send all you guys (pre-blogging). Next time, we hit the Dairy Queen - conveniently located just a block away.

What was nice was the staff didn't seem to mind that EVERYONE was there for ice-cream cones. Perhaps it was the time of day, 3:30, between lunch and dinner. Maybe we all just missed the old concession stand. Another nice thing - BEER. Didn't order any this time, but saw a British family order an entire pitcher of Summit and take it outside to one of the nice little tables. Oh - and the iced coffee was damned good.

Pics to follow.