Tofte, MN

We took a trip up the North Shore of Lake Superior this weekend. More by luck than judgement we timed it just right to see the vibrant fall colors.



We hiked around Split Rock Light House on Friday evening and caught the last of the sunshine. The final few miles north were treacherous the rain falling so big and fast it was bouncing off the road and the windshield wipers were unable to keep up. We frequently ended up crawling along waiting for a break. We later saw a semi had left the road and ended up in a ditch along the same stretch.



We stayed at Blue Fin Bay, not a bad place, but the rooms were not stunning. The location was excellent, but compared to the brand new Larsmont Cottages we had stayed in on our last trip this seems shabby. K enjoyed the pool though, and on the plus side it was walking distance to Coho Cafe which serves the best scrabbled eggs on the planet, a blend of eggs asparagus, herbs and cream cheese, yummy.....



On Saturday we hiked in Cascade River State park and hiked around Oburg mountain. The colors were incredible and were able even to impress the 9 year old amongst us. That evening we drove into Grand Marais and ate Pizza at Sven and Oli's, apart from being slow it was very tasty.



Sunday morning we rode the lusten gondolier, and then drove south and hiked up to the high falls , and two step falls at Tetagouche. The falls were magnificent making the whole earth seem to shake under our feet. The drive home was uneventful and quick, and I finally fell asleep on the floor in the living room exhausted after cooking dinner and fighting a cold for three days.

Chain of lakes

J and I paddled through the navigable portion of the chain of lakes this morning. Starting on the north shore of Lake Calhoun, through the canal to Lake of the Isles, turn left through to Cedar Lake and then finally through the tunnel to the pond that is Brownie Lake.

Whilst paddling across Lake of the Isles we spotted a group of "real" kayakers including one in an explorer, they were all using traditional style paddles, a rare sight.

We chatted for a while and discovered they were all members (one being the president) of a group called the Inland Seakayakers. I look forward to getting to know them all and hope to explore further afield with them.

10.61 Miles of fun

I extended my fitness paddle today to include a side excursion to Candy Cove. now it is able to exhaust me :)

afterwards I took a nap.....

Global warming scares me

This image was taken by the NASA satellite Tera on September 12, it shows the coastline of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama enveloped in Hurricane Ike. Is this the new normal?

I found this and many more images at the NASA Earth Observatory site.

Paul Maritz and lamb chops

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Paul Maritz the CEO of VMware, meeting him was the highlight of the trip out west. His vision and clear grasp of the virtualization domain was impressive gtiven his short tenure. As he articulated where he saw the infrastructure virtualization cloud going it was clear how well it defined where we want and must take our own technology.

We ate at a great Brazilian restaurant Pampas while in Palo Alto, the lamb was fabulous, served with a balsamic vinegar dressing, I will be back there....

Fishing

Living in Minnesota I am frequently asked if I fish, typically I reply not for a long time, proof that I did fish at least once:



Me and my dad fishing in Birdham Pool, UK 1977.

MSFT Commercial

It must be true

its in Wikipedia.....

"The Wikipedia entry for Sarah Palin was overhauled substantially for the better in the 24 hours before the surprise announcement of her selection as Republican vice-presidential nominee.

A mystery Wikipedia user — under the name Young Trigg — put in about 30 edits to the biographical article on the website.

The additions included the fact that the 44-year-old Alaskan Governor “earned the nickname ‘Sarah Barracuda’ because of her intense play” for her high school basketball team and that she and her father “would sometimes wake at 3am to hunt moose before school”. "

Splodgenessabounds

Britsh punk at its best

Hooked on Moby

Whilst watching the kayak video I noticed one of the sound tracks was by Moby (Track Porcelain) which reminded me that Jeremy Clarkson (BBC Top Gear fame) had recomended listening to them in the last book of his I read. I search google and found this video on YouTube, weird as it is, I still love the track - off to find more on iTunes....

Present from J

thanks!!!

John Player Special

This pitcure was of me aged six, racing the wooden gokart my dad built for me and adorned with the racing colours and logos of the John Player Special racing team in 1975.

ummmm he really should not be checking her out

Katelyn goes solo

Katelyn spent several hours this long weekend alone in my Capella, this was an historic event being her first solo kayak "voyage". She did great apart from being unable to control her direction once the wind got up, which is no suprise given she weighs barely 50lbs and she was in a Kayak designed for 170lb adult!

Kauai Pictures

I have uploaded two sets of pictures to Flickr from our Kauai trip, the first are the top 100 ish pictures and the second are pictures of many of the flowers we came across.

Kayak loading

The rear spoiler (if it can be called that) on my Volvo XC70 has numerous small scratches all caused by one or more of my kayaks dragging across is whilst loading or unloading. To save on this continued abuse I recently purchased a great device called a RollerLoader, available from http://rollerloader.com/ and many other fine Kayak retailers.

It attaches with two big suction cups and a couple of straps with hooks. 20 seconds to mount and unmount and now I can single handedly load a Wilderness Systems Northstar double kayak...