Heat Wave

The temperature climbed above 30 degrees today, so we decided to take in the events at the Minneapolis Loppet (the main event of the Loppet is a cross country ski race).  Anders got to try out the backpack we bought while visiting Pete, Betsy, Henry and Clara in Chicago this summer.  He LOVED it!  It might be our best purchase ever.  

The main thing we went to see was the skijoring event - which is skiing with a dog or two pulling you.  I wish we had done this with Lucy years ago - she would have loved it.  There were tons of people out - again, it was a heat wave as this was our first day over freezing in 2009.  These dogs seemed to know what they were doing.

This could be Anders in about 10 years.  No pressure. 

Some of the dogs didn't know what they were doing and were just out to have fun.  I was surprised at how many people there were skijoring. 

I think this dog's name was Elroy, but it might have been Harvey.   Regardless, he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing and a minute after this picture was taken, his owner came skiing up bellowing the dog's name, which Will and I cannot remember exactly.  It was quite funny.

Elroy/Harvey wasn't really cooperating at all - he really just wanted to play.

Minnesotans don't wear coats when the temperature gets to 30.  But they do make igloos.

Cute, cute, cute!  Anders talked and squealed and kicked Will the whole time.  When I was changing his diaper tonight I told him that if he slept all night, we would go on hour long walks in the backpack every day.  This made him crack up - seriously, and I'm not really sure why.  He might of been delirious from the warm temperature and possibly overwhelmed with sleepiness.

There was also a bike race.  The riders had studded tires and rode around the track for 30 minutes.  The track is on one of the lakes in Minneapolis - the skijoring was on a lake too. 

This is my cool shot of the riders in the Spiral of Death.  

Here is some of the ice we were walking on.  I should have taken a picture of one of the cracks so you could see how thick the ice was - I think it was about 2 feet thick.  These are just air bubbles and looked a lot cooler in person.

This is another Minnesota past time - I don't know what it is called - ski-sailing?  Para-boarding?  Anyway, there were about 10 people doing it on Lake Calhoun - the person on the far right of the picture is attached to the sail.   There was also somebody out on the lake with a wind-surfer - wind-skiing?  My picture of that was worse than these are. 

More cuteness.