East & west of the Mississippi! — Lung Story Short...

Since arriving over a week ago to Minneapolis Rima and I have been trying to keep busy. Rima has been listed for a week, but we have not let that slow us down! Last Thursday we ventured out to an apple-picking farm not too far outside the city. We went on a perfect day, there were probably 15 other people there! They had apple, raspberry and pumpkin picking. We did apple and raspberry picking. The grounds were quite expansive and large. Some of it was slightly up hill, which caused Rima difficulties. Slow and steady wins the race is Rima's tag line currently.

With the apples we picked I made apple crisp and apple sauce, yummy in our tummies! The next day we ventured up north to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, about an hour north of the city. This refuge came up on our search of parks within 2 hours of us. So, we decided to give it a go. It was pretty but not Colorado, we're homesick... The refuge is very large and you can drive through the main parts of it there are a lot of walking and hiking trails, but not for us currently. Rima did her best with the map they provide, not user friendly....Apple might need to be called for a consultation. She found a part of the park where you can drive through and see more wildlife. The wildlife we saw consisted of birds...and not bald eagle type of birds. Rima is more of the animal nerd...so she was happy about the flying rats of the sky we saw. It was a bit of a snore fest for me, to be honest. We found a half-mile walk through the woods and Rima and I decided to attempted it. We brought our trusty wagon along, incase Rima got tired and I would need to pull her. Good thing we brought it because about a quarter into the walk she was pooped and I began to earn my keep with some manual labor, pulling this string bean through the woods.

**Pulling the wagon before Rima got in it.**

Saturday night we went to a drive-in movie! We have not been to one of these for over fourteen years! We went on the intention of watching at least the first two films, storks and Captain Sully. We laid out in the back of the car and put the seats down to watch the firm feature. At the credits we both agreed we were cold, uncomfortable and over it, haha. So, we drove back to the apartment and continued on our shameless, Shameless binge.

**The only snap we got from the drive-in.**

Sunday was my birthday, the "big" 2...9. I woke up and went for a 2 hour run/walk along the Mississippi. They really did a nice job of making running and biking paths along the river in the city. Rima has a surprise planned for me. I don't like surprises. I read the end of books before the beginning. I tend to watch the last episode of a series before I start it on Hulu or Netflix. I don't do surprises. Rima got me and surprised me, with a scenic fall foliage boat tour down the Mississippi. I was super excited when we pulled into the parking lot and she told me. She thought I was not going to be excited about it. I was basically clapping my hands because who doesn't love boats!?!

It was a pretty cool ride, we saw some beautiful parts of the river and it's banks. The boat had a voiceover going at times about local history or important events that had occurred along the river. One of the men on the voiceover had an amazingly thick "mississippi" accent, Rima and I lost it every time he came on and said "missesseapii" (that's how it would be spelt it had been transcribed). It was a wonderful birthday surprise and I loved every minute of it! After we went to get some dinner to finish off the day, and of course later on...more Shameless, Frank Gallagher would be proud!