A few weeks ago Eric and I took a trip up to Minnesota to visit with my Grandpa.  We were able to take an early straight through flight from Birmingham to Minneapolis / St. Paul.  When Grandpa picked us up from the airport we drove across the street to go visit Grandma first. 

My Grandma passed away over 6 years ago.  She currently resides in the national cemetery atop of a hill where she can view the Mall of America and also watch the planes go by so that she can see all of her guests coming and going.  We stayed there for a while so that Grandma and I can catch up.  Eric took some pictures while we were there, but they are all on his cell phone.  Actually they were on his old cell phone and I am not sure if they got copied.   That’s not to big of a deal though, because she really doesn’t change much these days. (White, 2 feet, stone, black descriptive name tag.)

Next stop the campgrounds.  My entire life if there is one phrase that makes me think of my Grandpa Thoreson it is; “It just jumped in the cart.”  Anything from a laptop to a brand new truck just seems to jump in the cart.  In other words my Grandpa buys what he wants when he wants it.  Which translates to him having lots of toys.  We went to the campgrounds to see Grandpa’s camper and to take a ride on the boat.

This is Grandpa’s Lake front property where his camper resides year round.  (Although in such a cold climate such as Minnesota you can not actually camp year round.)  I figure that I like this picture better with Eric in it rather than cutting him out.  I think that it adds a little something extra!

Here is a picture of Grandpa driving the boat. side note: Grandpa is 6’5, clearly he is not my mother’s birth father!  He is sitting here with Pat, his girlfriend, finance, wife, for complexity sake we just call her Pat.  I do think that if we ever decided that we were boat owning type people this would be the way to do.  Having a place to park it, being able to just jump in and being able to put the key in and go is my kind of boating.

Here we are in front of the camper posing before Grandpa took Eric and I to our hotel in the city.  I am learning to deal with my Grandpa moving on after my Grandma, but that doesn't mean that I have to stay in the same house as them, so not going to happen people!  All in all it was nice to get to learn more about Pat.  She was much more relatable in her “own” setting vs when she was here visiting for Dad’s Birthday.  We will never be best friends but I think that she is good for Grandpa and that makes me happy.

Stay tuned for the rest of our Minnesota adventures……….