Hikes and Activities August 2025

August kicked off with a Bang in the form of the Blue Angels for Sea Fair on Friday.  

I thought I was going to miss them this year because of our camping trip, but Friday shows for the win!

Made it to a lake front park in Seattle to watch the whole show from the hertiage planes and trick show early on to the stars the Blue Angels. Unfortunately due to a road closure and 1 wrong turn it took me an hour to get back to the east side and home.

Saturday we took a 3 hour drive and  headed into the Olympics for a camping weekend. We stopped at Tugboat Annie's In Olympia for lunch. A personal favorite that I try to get to when I'm in town.  As for camping, given that we certainly forgot a few ways to pass the time at home, it was overall successful. Took in a short waterfall hike day 1, had dinner by the lake.  

Day 2 took a hike on one side the the lake- not as long as we had planned because the smoke got the better of me, but I still hit my mile goal that day of 10 miles just not all on 1 hike. Had chili for dinner and rested okay for half the night before packing it in early so my partner could get in a half a days work back home.  

First week of August was/is hard. I'd be lying to say that divorce isn't still shaking my life a year later. A lot of me just wanted to curl up into a ball this week and pretend that the world doesn't exist. Let this week go by without me having to interact with it. But I do know that's not healthy nor is it practical, so I did a limited number of things. 

1. Got up and dressed every day. - Seriously if this is all you did today- I know how hard that can be and I'm proud of you. 
2. Volunteered with a group of friends for Teen Feed Seattle making dinner. 
3. Finished up another round of Dental work
4. Continued work on some online learning
5. Got a new tattoo

Weekend 2 was pretty low key. Went to a brewery, took a day nap, spent a night in and went to church on Sunday. Tattoo is healing nicely, but I wear out pretty easily. 

Week 2 kicked off with simple, but necessary tasks. Returns to Amazon, groceries, make bags for good will, and pack for my trip home. 

Well the bag for good will, will have to wait until I return home. I had a fainting spell while out and while I am okay, it took an entire day from me and left me in a place not wanting to drive and a pretty swollen knee. I've had fainting episodes before, actually almost a year ago to the day was my last one and just across the street. Thankfully I wasn't alone and had someone to walk me home just down the road. But it made the getting all set to travel process a bit more stressful and a lot slower. 

Going into weekend number three we got on a plane and left for 9 days in Minnesota. 

Day 1 was spent with my two best friends from college, who happened to marry each other I feel very lucky makes coming home easier. They had their third child in May and it was soul and bucket filling to get to spend the day with them. 

 

We had lunch at Leader in Cambridge, Which is quickly become a favorite of mine when I’m in town I got the Swedish pancakes, but I should’ve gotten the Reuben Benedict because that looked way better. We spent the rest of the day at their place, giving lots of snuggles and hugs and Reading the books I brought and enjoying one of the activities I brought digging for Dino eggs if you have kids obsessed with dinosaurs, I highly recommend this. 

Day 2-  started out at Maggie’s in Wayzata and a little hometown tour, they just changed the menu. I miss the old one, but that’s just cause they took my breakfast choice off of it. 

Watched the Tigers lose. 

Definitely not my favorite part of baseball, but there are a lot of games in baseball and you’re bound to lose some. But it was still a great day because I got to watch the Tigers with my dad. Ended the day at my favorite brewery in Minnesota- Indeed. 

Day 3 was a day off for me until the afternoon when we drove up to Duluth. We stopped at Tobies in Hinckley on the way up to get cinnamon and caramel rolls for breakfast Day 4. We had dinner with a friend of his at Fitger's Brewhouse.  I had the Wild Rice Burger and they both had Elk burgers. Seriously a great slice of home.  We stayed at a small cabin up the shore about 7 miles outside of town. 

Day 4 was a serious see it all day. 

• Palisade Head
• Split Rock Lighthouse from down on the water
• Gooseberry Falls
• 7 Bridges Road and Hawks Ridge
• UMD Campus highlights
• Canal Park and North waters Smoke house for some very good smoked salmon
• Park point where Will jumped in Lake Superior

Day 5 - a Day for rest. Yesterday took a lot out of us, so today was low key during the day.  He had work and I got lunch and a walk with my childhood bestie at a local favorite Turtle bread bakery.  In the evening we went to the Guthrie Theatre to see Cabaret. A little awkward for me sitting between my slightly more conservative mother and my boyfriend, but the acting and performance were nothing short of incredible. If you are in the area I strongly encourage attending. 

Day 6 - Today was spent driving 90 minutes south to have a 90 minute lunch with my aunt and drive 90 minutes home. But it's lovely to get to spend time with her when I'm in town.  In the evening we had steak dinner at my dads and then went to Pryes Brewing to meet up with a former workmate of my partner. Its a great venue on the river with the largest outdoor space in that part of the city. 

Day 7- The Great Minnesota Get Together.  The state fair.  Did a morning tour with my mom. This included the animal buildings, guessing the weight of what was a no so big pic this year, barely 900 pounds is the smallest I've seen in a while, but not surprising based on the economy. We got a wonderful raspberry milkshake at the dairy bar, I got cider from the apple booth at the horticulture building. Mom got a corn dog and I stuck with sweet corn. The crop art was spectacular as always. Happy to get a morning fair run with mom before the rain started.  

Went home and rested for a few hours before going back with my dad and partner in the evening for shandy, more milkshakes, brats and music. 

Day 8 - Wisconsin - Today we met up with another of my partner's friends from Alaska (actually the brother of the women we met up with in Duluth). The mid-way point between St. Paul and Madison is of course Norske Nook in Osseo, WI. However, because my partner wasn't feeling well- we took our pie to go and go lunch at Northwoods Brewpub on the other side of town. Decent selection of beers, though the first few things we asked about on the menu weren't in stock or available. The pulled pork sandwich was pretty good as was the Mango Wheat beer I got to drink. 

After lunch we went and walked around a park on the south side of Eau Claire. Picked up a 12 pack of Spotted Cow - IYKYK- before heading back to St. Paul for a quiet night at home. 

Day 9- The last one. Don't worry it wasn't short. Our day started at Historic Fort Snelling. We toured the property, learned about the lives and experiences of Dred and Harriet Scott when they lived at the fort, in a State where slavery was illegal, but still kept as property. We toured the buildings of the fort and took in some beautiful view of the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. 

We took the long way home and drove down Snelling past the Governor's Mansion, the J.J. Hill house and the St. Paul Cathedral. I grew up loving these neighborhoods and thinking maybe one day I'd be able to live in these neighborhoods.  You can get a house in the Snelling area for about $1 million, and the houses actually look the price instead of what the same $1million will buy you in Seattle. 

We took the afternoon to mellow out, and pack. Why is it stuff never fits back as well when you go home? 

In the evening we went out the whole crew, mom, dad, my brother, partner and myself went out for dinner.  Finding a place we all enjoy can be hard, but the default is Buca in St. Paul. Everyone can be happy and we all leave full enough for a very long night of travel....and that is was. 

Flight was fine, but we had to land on the tarmac and bus to the terminal. There was an issue with bags and it ended up taking forever to get home. Flight landed at 9:50 I got home at 11:50, only to wake up at 5:55am the next morning to go back to work. 

Back to work. 

I am refusing to believe summer is over, but here it sits. Today I had my first day of training back at work. It reminded me why I do my job and am learning to disconnect and care less. You may not think that's a good thing for a teacher, but we all need better work life balances. We are teachers, not family not friends of students, we are there to do a job, and I do it well, but I need to continue to work on prioritizing myself. So here's to picking up leadership roles again and maintaining balance. 

Today was our first day back in the building. 3+ years of construction and still going. I'm over that, but it's coming together. Today I worked on doing what I need to do professionally to get my work done. Sometimes, PD doesn't apply to me, sometimes I could run the training, my time is better spent working on the things I need to do to ensure my students have a schedule since that time is no longer provided. Funding gets cut, districts take and take and take and expect improved outcomes, but at some point we cannot do it. So today thanks to the reminders from friends I focused on what I needed to do so I didn't feel like I was drowning. 

On the morning of August 27th a coward shot through stained glass windows at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis, MN. These people were literally praying. Fuck thoughts and prayers. America wants common sense gun laws, our politicians have deciding that the NRA lining their pockets is more important than the safety of children. Than safety in the classroom. Then safety in church or temple or mosque. I felt like I held my breathe as I drove into work this morning, to prep for the start of my school year. To have to think about the safety plans for my classroom spaces. I shouldn't have to put the trauma and fear of being hurt at school in a mental puzzle box so I can go in and do my job without falling apart. 

2 children died, 14 children were physically injured all the children are victims of a senseless act of violence. All of those children, teachers and parishioners will be forever changed and impacted as a result. 

This is my 13th school year as. teacher. That means I have worked as our country experienced no fewer than 900 school shooting incidents. We cannot become numb to this. But I also don't have the priveledge of allowing it to dictate or control my life, so in the mental puzzle box it goes so I can wake up and keep doing my job. 

I will be taking the rest of the month to mentally prepare for my first day of work, prep my classroom with materials provided by me and my friends, because government funded class rooms aren't exciting spaces. So that's it for August. 

And back to school I go....