"My Crazy Kids"

Our family spent some time hiking/geocaching in Duluth over the weekend. Our biggest accomplishment was hiking to the top of Ely’s Peak on Saturday afternoon. Hiking in Duluth By Allan Olson I would never have guessed that this late in the season hanging out near lake Superior and climbing several hundred feet high above the flat ground that we wouldn’t be freezing this time of year. It was crazy beautiful outside this weekend and it makes me wish we would have more nice fall weather like this last weekend. We left home early Friday morning with our destination to the big city of Duluth, with plans to hang out with my cousin and family all weekend long geocaching and playing games and whatever else we felt like doing. That afternoon the fun began, as my cousin and our boys all took off to play in the woods. We visited an area named Hawks Ridge, apparently right in the peak of bird watching season – in particular for hawks. We climbed and we trudged through brush ...

A Major Milestone Achieved My kids and my niece celebrated the achievement of finding our 2,000 geocache on Sunday, October 16. This particular cache, located in Polk County, was last found in 2012 . It certainly wasn’t easy to find this many caches, but we did it! By Allan Olson Our geocaching explorations have been very few and far between this summer but this last weekend, I had a goal in mind and that was reaching 2,000 finds. On Saturday we had 22 left to accomplish this number and I knew that was too many to leave for Sunday and I really needed to get out and find some to narrow down that number. Saturday morning after a nice breakfast of pancakes prepared by my wife and niece, I mentioned that I would like to go out and find some geocaches sometime today. As great as my idea was in my mind, my wife had other plans –cleaning. I have my share of pet peeves when it comes to cleaning and dirty dishes is one of them – but if I want to go play I can ignore a few ...

My kids and my niece at the Headwaters of the Mississippi on a footbridge at Itasca State Park. By Allan Olson I mentioned in last week’s column if the weather was going to be nice we were going to be outside and on Sunday we were outside for a good portion of the warm day a considerable temperature difference from Friday. While some called it a week on Friday, the first home football game in two weeks had me out braving the very cool and damp fall weather at the game. Prior to the game, I grabbed my warm orange hunting jacket along with my carhart for extra warmth if needed. I was thankful the concession stand was selling hot chocolate to help keep me warm also. The game wasn’t in favor of the home team, but it was still overall a nice cold night to be watching some home town football. Saturday morning, I was back in town for work again and once I finished those obligations – we headed to town to pick up a few things for the family. Marcus was the only one of the kids wh...

Band on the run Abigail at a geocache near Andover, MN, on our way back home from the big city on Friday, Sept. 30. By Allan Olson The song “Band on the Run” comes to mind lately. In truth, though, only the title applies. That’s exactly what comes to mind to describe this past week, when this whole family was really on the run. In the last month we have shuffled various medical appointments into the daily routine of work and school, all while while trying to find time for fun and leisure. Generally speaking I don’t like to let the dust settle beneath my feet. I figure the dust can settle all it wants either when I’m old and can’t move, or dead and gone; for now I just want to go (most of the time). The last couple days of this month were spent in the big concrete jungle to the south, certainly not my idea of the perfect place to visit. It does have its perks, but when it comes right down to it, the wide open spaces is the place to be, for me. We got to the big...