Summer Draws to a Close

Today is Labor Day, which means summer must be almost over. I have already noticed that the days are getting shorter (BOO!) and I believe the local college students have all moved into their dorms. Before we officially declare it over, a brief recap of our final few weekends before fall sets in...

Last weekend, my uncle Jim was kind enough to invite us out on his 'toon for a cruise down the St. Croix River. The day started out cloudy but by the end it was sunny and warm and we enjoyed several relaxing hours out on the water:

Mom, relaxing in the bow.

The beginnings of the new river bridge. It's going to be immense.

The captain at his post.

The remains of an old railroad bridge.

Our trusty 'toon.

A mid-river island that we stopped to explore.

And then, all of a sudden, it was time for the Great Minnesota Get Together, aka The Fair. I've been twice now, once with EMSA (he humors me - he's not a huge Fair goer) and then a second time with my parents. My second visit has already been recapped excellently on GZMoohoo's site, but I wanted to at least share a photo of my Mighty Midway winnings:

Boris the Husky and my Ninja Banana.

That was Saturday and we have profited from the rest of the long weekend - some biking has gone on, we've had a chance to go out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, and generally just relaxed a bit. 3 days off in a row is pretty fantastic for us non-retired folk. Another great thing about Labor Day weekend? It's an excellent time to buy a brand new car...

Desmond on the left, as-yet-to-be named new car on the right.

It's my very first brand new car, a 2014 Chevy Cruze. We've been looking at them for a while and there was a heck of a deal this weekend, so we jumped on it. Desmond will be returning to his original owner (Mr. Moohoo) and the new car is coming home with us. Yay! While we were at my parents' house we also had an opportunity to take a picture of the entire fleet:

Chad, Mom's Camry, Desmond, new car. It was fun getting them all lined up.

We like blue cars, can you tell? Chad is an anomaly, of course, just because it happened to be in stock the day my dad went to order his new car that year. None of us would ever choose green on purpose, that would be silly. We're pretty excited about the new car. I might go outside again now to look at it. Chad will be going up for sale, and I hope he finds a good home. He's been a good car all these years.