January Visit

I took a small trip this past week. Wednesday I had a training session to attend at the Mendota Heights Office in St. Paul for “professional development” to add to my record with my employer. It was a very good training, and well worth my time. Some day I will write a post on it. Anyhow, one benefit that I have with attending trainings and meetings in our office in the cities, is that my daughter’s home in Hudson, WI is only a 25-35 minute drive, depending on traffic, away from the office. So, I like to tie in a visit with her and her family when I need to go down there. The weather cooperated this time, so I drove down on Tuesday, spent the evening with them. She and her friend Kelly, who I dearly love, spent a fun dinner out that evening.

Leaving Dawn’s house to go to the office at 8 am, sure beats leaving my house in Duluth at 5 am, to get there by 9! She and I both took vacation days on Thursday so that we could spend some “quality” time together, just the two of us. We dropped off Madelyn at school the temp was a brisk minus -16 below with wind chill close to - 30, so we didn’t want her waiting outside for the bus. We had coffee at Caribou with Skylar before he had to take off to school, (of course, he’s a senior, so you know HE doesn’t ever take the bus!) We did a little shopping - I was really surprised at how many people were out in the stores on such a brutally cold winter morning! I guess it shows that Minnesotans and Wisconsinites don’t let the cold weather keep them down! We lunched at Pier 500, downtown Hudson, overlooking the frozen St. Croix River. I was on the road back to Duluth by 2:00 to avoid the cities rush traffic, and to get home by dark. It was a good visit and a good drive down and back. The weather was very cold, but the car was warm, and the roads were dry and clear.