Second-week birthday

We began with B’s first trip to the library. I have a feeling it won’t be her last.

The big celebration though, was in Lake City, 45 minutes or so east of Rochester, on a part of the Mississippi known as Lake Pepin, where we had a highly enjoyable dinner at a place called Nosh. They emphasize the seasonal and local, though their wine list, oddly, is overwhelmingly European. (It includes the Spanish Rueda, Las Brisas, which has been our house white at home for several years—so clearly they know what they’re doing!)

B takes a laid back approach to these events.


This week we toasted her with Brisas, a Vinho Verde, a martini, and a bottle of beer, rather than a bottle of bubbly (which we’ll have at home tonight instead—always a bonus to strrrretch these celebrations out, I think).

After an alfresco meal for B, a quick change, and a stroll along the marina,

we headed home for Rochester.

We’ve been turfed out of our hotel, due to a perfect storm of events here this weekend. Over 30,000 fans are arriving to watch a motocross event somewhere nearby, there are two giant antique shows going on (my guess is that the term “antique” has a very different meaning in Minnesota than it does in Connecticut), and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are back for more convention activities. So we’ll be bunking in with H, A, and B for the next three nights. I will be singing my best songs and telling my best stories, many of which H has heard fewer than a hundred times and A fewer than a dozen. Oh, how they’ll weep when we depart.