So Much Fun, So Little Time

Yesterday's schedule was a bit maniacal, but the truly scary thing about it all is that it totally worked out. Wow.

I did the gym thing first, then had breakfast and wandered to my new bank to finalize documents, get my debit cards and first checks, and make sure that I could begin to use the new checking accounts. After getting all of the banking settled out, I started the laundry and headed out to Minneapolis and Lake Calhoun to meet Huinare. That's when my day took some turns and twists - but fun ones.

It was a day of wrong directions and turns, but I just got the
scenic tours through Minneapolis and around the lake. 

I missed my exit from one freeway to the other, forcing me to go a slower way. Of course, that brought me right through downtown Minneapolis when everyone was streaming in to watch the afternoon baseball game *sigh*. After fighting traffic, I finally got to the appropriate road to the lake, then turned and realized that the parking lot I needed was in the opposite direction.

Of course, the street didn't allow me to turn around for a long distance, so I got the scenic tour. Finally I was turned around and heading in the correct direction, I found the parking lot and paid for a few hours of parking (very inexpensive, so that was good) and began walking to meet Huinare. EXCEPT, I walked in the wrong direction - for quite a while. In fact, I even passed her and although I thought to myself, "Self ... that looks like Huinare from the back," I didn't act on my suspicion, merely kept walking west when I should have been walking east.

Fortunately I realized my mix-up, turned myself around, and headed towards the boats. Silly me - having boats in the water might be a good indication of where I could get into a boat on the water. I got to the building in time to see Huinare sit down on a nearby bench to wait for me, and sure enough, it was the person I had thought looked familiar. Sometimes my life is the blind leading the blind.

We pedaled under both of these bridges to be in calmer waters. It was
a good workout - we were pedaling against the resistance of the water
to get anywhere. I think we may have almost run into one of these walls. 

We rented a pedal boat and headed out into the lake, peddling madly and steering like drunken sailors. The boat was as responsive as a ... well, I'm not coming up with anything that describes how incredibly poorly the steering mechanism was for this plastic scow, but it was really horrid. As we made our S-shaped curves toward bridges, swimming ducks, docked sailboats, and other poorly steered boats, we had a chance to talk while laughing about what an abominable steering job we each were doing.

Per Huinare's request for privacy, I removed

her picture from my public blog. 

We split the steering with each of us cutting really poor figures of competence across the water, finally arriving back at the dock and leaving our pedal boat behind. Our exercise component for the day had been reached and it was time for lunch and easier conversation which we did back in my own part of town. Finally, sated and with much back and forth talk about Real Life behind us, I dropped her back near her home and headed back, happy to have had the chance to see her again.

Of course I got turned around on the way back home too, but
it brought me past this really funky shop with a calliope in front of
it and lots of scrapped lighted lettering in bins along the side and
towards the back right of the picture. It was really an amazing
place,, but I had no time to stop and look closer. 

Everything after that was rather anti-climactic. I continued the laundry, went to the wallpaper store and chose more samples to look at, and finally had dinner and collapsed. But it was a wonderful day and I can hardly wait for Huinare to come to town once more so that we can play again. Maybe next time we'll go to the Zoo or the Conservatory or both? The possibilities are huge! Thanks for a great time, Huinare. Fun, fun, FUN! Have a great Thursday, all!