Goodbye Washington, Hello Minnesota

Saying goodbye to all our friends in Washington was not easy. We managed to make things crazy by planning our departure date just a few days after the DoubleDay. This guaranteed us lots of driving from Bellingham to Tacoma in order to see friends and family before leaving. Miraculously, we managed to pack everything, meet people, say our goodbyes, and even enjoy ourselves!


One of our final views of Mt. Rainier from downtown Tacoma.


After saying farewell to some dear friends, we climbed on an airplane--but we brought two other Washingtonians with us! Although not as interested in the view of Rainier from the plane as we were (since they would be returning in a few days), Josh and Julie were really excited to come to Minnesota.

Here they are disguising their enthusiasm.

















We've arrived in Minnesota! Kristina and I demonstrate some of the safety procedures taught to us by the airlines. Remember: Safety First!

A delayed but interesting rendevous at the airport: We wrote a song for Carina and Peter.





I suppose that since their shared birthday is coming up, we can humor them and admit that they DO indeed look like twins. (The Minnesota Twins?)



After unpacking and spending our first night in St. Peter, Minnesota, we went out to the tennis courts to play for a bit. Little did we know that the military was landing a helicopter barely 200 yards from the courts! That disrupted our game for just a short while...









Playing tennis: Peter, Alex, Josh, Coni and Carina.











We left Saint Peter and drove to Red Wing, enjoying a road trip of sorts across the farms of Minnesota.

Eventually we arrived in Red Wing and set up our instruments. We were playing in a friend's wedding, and so we needed some time to rehearse.



After running through the pieces for the wedding, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner. We made some new friends and enjoyed talking to some old friends.




After the dinner we drove to Frontenac State Park were we set up the tents and made a fire. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."




The mesquitoes were not that bad, but there were Daddy Long Legs EVERYWHERE!

Enjoying a Minnesota sunrise.








Goodmorning! After waking up we struck camp and headed to Florida on our "family vacation". Alright, so what really happened was we began taking pictures and realized that they looked like one happy family. The beach looks like an ocean, but really it was the Mississippi River. We swam--OK some of us swam and others of us sank--but the water was nice.

Although the cafe we ate breakfast in was very old fashioned, we modernized this picture by adding a cell phone and digital camera to it.





Wedding time! After warming up, it was showtime! Congratulations DeAnna and Eric!!!

















After the wedding there was time for this candid.


Dinner was fantastic! Great music, fun dancing, and check out this pig that was roasted! You can tell that Kristina was going "Hog Wild!"



We stayed in really clean rooms at a very smokey casino. It is always sad to see retired people pouring their savings into slot machines, especially when you have to walk past them every time you go to your hotel room. The best thing about the Treasure Island Casino: The swimming pool had a waterfall and both smoking and non-smoking hot tubs. Too bad it closed at midnight.
Although the wedding was great, a few of us were just a little bit sleepy the next day.








After we returned to Saint Peter, we had only a few short hours before Julie needed to head back to the airport. We used this opportunity to take a group picture with the extended family (Peter, Alex, Julie, Rachel, Jamie, Coni, Carina, Tina, Josh and Johann). Say "cheese!"