Pauline's Happenings

We are currently on our flight back home.  It has been an active visit.

But lets start at the beginning….Wed was spent fighting with the dang scanner part of our printer.  There must have been a stupid Microsoft update because my laptop is no longer communicating with it, BUT yet I have no issue with the printer and copier part of it.  I am so pissed off by it.

I discovered a few days prior when I was trying to scan our passports just so our family has them on record in case something happens to us when we visit other countries….who knows what would happen when we visit Canada…….LOL….crazy canucks…..grin  It is just recommended that your family members have it for emergencies.  Well, it wouldn’t be that big of deal…I would just figure it out when we got home…BUT then I needed to scan something for business and it was time sensitive….ggrrr  On the day that I need to be tieing up loose ends and finish packing….that really pissed me off.

I ended up heading down to Kinko’s just to get the paperwork scanned…I hate dealing with pc setups that aren’t mine.  I feel like an idiot, but I got it done and emailed off.

We actually slept Wed night, which is surprising.  We really get to sleep the night before a trip because our brains won’t stop and then we are getting up early….like 03:30…icks.  But we did do much better than normal, if we just had about 2 more hours it would’ve been perfect.  And we got out on time….

This was our 1st time leaving PDX without being dropped off.  We ended up finding parking ok, even with all the construction and had plenty of time to spare.  When Harold booked the flight instead of ending in Minneapolis, we took another 26min flight on to Duluth and saved 3 hrs of driving….not a bad trade off…even with the quick walk from one end of the airport to the other.  We liked using the small airports like Duluth, they may not have much, but there is so much less hassle.

Then we had about 2 more hours of driving and got there in decent time.  Dropped everything off at the hotel, refreshed and went off to visit.

Harold’s mom made stuffed shells, which I love and had been thinking about….lol…so that was excellent.  Boy, the river is majorly up…….I’ve only been up there a few times, but even I can see how high.  And driving around their area we saw more deer then we ever have in all the trips we have taken together up there…..took to counting them…..within the 17 miles from their place to our hotel…one night over 60, then 37…but it went down as time went depending on weather.

When we checked the weather before we left, we saw that it was suppose to be overcast and rainy the whole time.  But we got a really nice day Friday.  Ironically, that was the day we went on a mine tour that went half mile underground………lol  Got to see bats and see how we would never survive as miners…icks….that was horrible work.

Saturday was the rainy overcast…..ironically, it was the day we went to International Falls..so since we were outside, it was rainy…when we were in the mine it was shiny….LOL…only to us.  But I got my national park passport stamped.  =)  Later that night as we were sitting and chatting it started to snow and then started to come down hard….must have gotten 2 inches, on May 10th!!!  Crazy….wasn’t even fully melted when we got up the next morning.

The winter has lasted much longer than usual.  The trees were barely getting buds on them….so MN wasn’t as green as it normally is at this time of year.  And we also noticed something we never did, the woods there look “young”.  I know that there is logging in Oregon and not too far from Portland, but where we live within the housing area and the surrounding parks you can tell the trees have been there for many years, may not be ancient but not new.  While MN, especially where we were, has been logged so many times that the trees never get the true growth.  You can even see the differences in the old pictures of the logs….they are so much thicker from years ago.  Kind of sad.

Sunday we went to see the falls.  We’ve seen them every time we visit, but never get tired of them. It is so cool to see the power of mother nature in the river.  It is something else.  When we got back from there Harold’s dad took up to one of the big hills near their property.  It had been logged a couple of years ago but it was growing good.  We got caught up in the under bush and found dear trails everywhere…..lol  But the view from the top of the hill was worth it.  It was great.

We got back to the hotel earlier then we the last few nights.  We still had to get things packed up or I would be stressing it….lol  Plus, I had to call mom for Mother’s Day….we can’t get a signal from Harold’s parents place….but she did get my card in time.  =)

It was a good visit, playing catch up, Harold showing things on his folks pc to them.  His dad got a newer model of the olympus that I have.  It is really nice and he gets some pretty good pictures.

Can’t wait to get home because I had more work then I even want to think about…icks…I’m already stressing that and the gym.  I have got to work my ass off on the treadmill tomorrow.  We did some good hikes, but not enough to make up for my diet being blown…..grrr  That is ok, I’ll get it back tomorrow, but I’m afraid of how bad I’m going to be when I have my session with my trainer Wednesday.  =(  Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

We still have about 2hours left on our flight, I think I’m going to look over some the pictures that I took but haven’t checked out.  Then maybe a power nap, if I can get comfortable.