Todd Swank: Bocce Ball at Pinstripes

January 12, 2020

Bocce Ball at Pinstripes

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for January 12, 2020

Winter break is wrapping up and our boys are heading back to college. We thought we should get in one more afternoon of entertainment before we went our separate ways so we headed to Pinstripes in Edina, Minnesota.

None of us really knew what we were doing to play tournament style bocce ball, but figured how hard could it be? You throw a little silver ball down the court and whichever team gets their balls closer to it scores points.

Judging by this ladies expression next to us, I'm guessing we weren't doing something right. In any case our family tradition continued and dad ended up in last place. Even if we weren't playing the game correctly.

Pinstripes had these attractive looking birds staring at us from different locations. I'm guessing they are some kind of spy-cams or something.

Our mellow winter continued this week with this open body of water attracting a large flock of trumpeter swans. I tried to sneak up close to get some swan shots.

I didn't know it before, but apparently trumpeter swans were nearly hunted to extinction. Back in the sixties, their known population in the world was down to 3700 birds, but they have since recovered to more than 63,000 in 2015. I find them to be pretty cool looking birds, so glad they're doing better.

Our other exciting bird photo this week was of a red-bellied woodpecker. Kind of a silly name for a bird since it's their head that's red, but who am I to judge.

Our albino squirrel friends seem to enjoy the warmer weather as they continue to stop by to feed their bellies. We are planning on starting a squirrel weight watchers club this spring as many of them look to be getting quite plump.

We had out January get together of the Prior Lake Empty Nesters Club at T.J. Hooligans in Prior lake. I usually say a Good Time was had by all, but this month I suspect a couple of them only had an OK time. We'll work on that next month.