Happy Halloween!!

The view out our front window is beautiful. Our front maple tree is bright red/orange color. I'm sure after next week, all the leaves will be gone. We are pretty much at 100% full color in MN.  

Steve and I continued our fun after getting home from a 12 day vacation and just working two days (Thursday/Friday) we were back at having fun! 

Went to Northfield and stopped at two breweries and shared a chicken sandwich and fries. Also caught some of a jazz band playing at the first brewery. 

Covid hours have changed and the restaurant/ Brewery closed at 8pm. We made it just before the kitchen closed!!! The chicken sandwich was excellent but still not as good as the one in Milwalkee. 

We went for a walk yesterday morning at Lebanon Park to soak in the fall colors. A nice 57*F day! Today is a bit cooler, high of 46, but sunny! 

Guess Last weeks colors when we were away in Texas was even better! 

Last night we went to Cannon Falls, stopped at the brewery and played a few games of cribbage before heading to Hastings. We just went to the leagion which is the only place on the river and payed a few more games of cribbage in the sun before it got chilly and we headed inside to eat dinner (shared a burger/fries) finished our cribbage games and drove home around 9pm. They also had a band playing old rock songs, so that was a nice surprise even though the band wasn't that great! We stayed longer then we were going to just to enjoy the entertainment while playing a few more games of cribbage and eating our dinner. 

I sure am missing this view we had on our vacation of the ocean. Just was nice to have 84+F temps in October! Felt like an extended summer. Now we have to wait till May or June for it to be in the 80's. That's far too long to have to wait! We also don't have any other vacation plans to get away to a warmer climate this winter. Maybe a cold weather mini vacation skiing but that's about it. We seem to be going to Texas every 2 years now since our friends moved down there 10 years ago. It makes for a some what cheaper vacation not needing a car or paying for a hotel and all meals. We only ate out one time a day at a restaurant and that was usually for lunch so cheaper. Made meals and bought alcohol to drink by the pool. We also found free activities like hiking but did rent a speed boat and the electric bikes. Totally worth the cost! We did spend more this trip just to visit the ocean which was a 3-1/2 hour drive from their house. We rented an SUV which was 100% worth the upgrade since we used the hatch back to sit in the truck at the beach. A must have! Plus, we ate out every meal, and paid for a hotel room for 4 nights. Totally worth the extras to extend our vacation at the ocean! 

Today, I'm going back to the park to walk Zoey, do some shopping for a few items we are out of. Go over to Kendra's to see my grandchildren dressed up for Halloween. I also need to pick up a few goodies for them. 

I do need to start a diet. Trying the keto, eat more protein to fill me up and veggies (I'm okay with the carbs from veggies!). Definitely need to drop some weight and cut back on drinking alcohol (empty calories) Just saving that for a Friday or Saturday night. On vacation, we pretty much had a drink every day. Far too much to keep doing obviously. 

Back From Texas!!

We had a wonderful 12 day vacation in Austin Texas and Corpus Christi! It felt like the vacation went on forever!  

I actually got the window seat coming back for half the way home. I switched so Steve could have the window as he loves looking out and I really don't care either way. 

We ended our trip the last few days Sunday - Wednesday in Corpus Christi at the ocean. We decided to take the country roads to see some of Texas small towns as we drove 3-1/2 hours to the coast. 

Lots of oil drilling /ranches and cows, poor towns along the way. 

Stopped and had our last BBQ Texas meal in a small town. 

The last sunrise at the beach. It was cloudy and not much of a sunrise to look at but still nice to be at the beach watching the waves roll in, the sun come up and the birds start to arrive.