Happy 4th of July 2018!

Happy 4th of July 2018!

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 8, 2018

Sad to hear that Ed Schultz passed away this week.  Hard to believe it's been 10 years since we went to see him debate Michael Medved, but we had a blast when we did.

I woke up the other day, came down to work at my desk, opened the curtains and saw one of our albino squirrel friends sitting in the yard looking up at me.  That usually means it 's going to be a pretty good day!

On the 3rd of July, we traveled to the St. Croix River to see our old buddies, the Zitzewitz Family and go for a ride on their boat.

The water has been extremely high lately so there's been no wake restrictions on the river.  Combine that with a forecast that called for rain all day and we ended up pretty much having the river to ourselves.

Which is fine with us because it ended up being a beautiful afternoon and we were ready to relax and have some fun.

Because the water was so high over it's banks, we thought kayak rides along the shore would be a bunch of fun.

It's so cool to be able to take a boat through land that is normally dry this time of year.

There's a small creek that goes under this bridge when the water is at normal levels so it's pretty cool to be able to go back here and follow it's path.

It's so peaceful and undisturbed to float through.  The only problem is the dang mosquitoes are relentless!  They don't get much fresh meat back here so they started chomping down on us immediately and just wouldn't stop.

The coolest thing we saw was when we approached a large group of sticks that ended up being home to a very large beaver.  He ran out of his home and dived in the water right when we arrived. The ladies were able to catch this incredible beaver shot for us when they went back there later.

This was a fun way to spend the afternoon going back and being one with nature.

Eventually we made our way back to the boat and were treated to a stunning round of King of the Mat starring Ana and her dad.  Ana put up an incredible fight throughout the match, but she eventually succumbed to the size and strength of her dad.  A few more years though and I'm quite sure she'll start crushing him.

  

On the 4th of July, we celebrated at Mystic Lake Casino's outdoor festival.  They had live bands, food trucks, and a fireworks display to end the evening.

Some of the Vikings cheerleaders saw me and asked to get their picture with me.  I was happy to oblige.

It's a sad state of the world that we continue to see K9 units deployed at most events where the public comes together in mass.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm very glad they are there.  Just sad that they need to be.

We had fun Oohing and Aahing over the beautiful fireworks display.

On Thursday, we had our monthly get together of the Prior Lake Empty Nesters Club at Charlie's on Prior.  We saw some new faces again which always makes it special.