So I’m almost a week late posting this, but I’ve been busy so cut me some slack. Last Friday, Miles the Dog and I ventured down to Red Wing to spend some time on the boat with my parents, and the regular pack of river rats down at Red Wing Marina.

Seeing it was a sunny Friday afternoon, I loaded the Wiener and myself into the G-RAFFE and we set out for a pokey jaunt down Hwy. 61 thru Hastings, and then down to 316 past Treasure Island and finally pulling into Red Wing while taking in the beginning of fall colors on a few of the trees along the way. I took along the Garmin and compared the speed in the dash to the GPS, and turns out the speedometer runs about 5mph past has normal posted speeds on the highway, so I’m good to go.

We arrived, got settled in and took a few photos, because, that’s what I do. I of course had to crack open a couple of beers while we all decided what to do for supper. There were about 9 of us going out, so we decided to just walk into town the mile, so we didn’t have to mess with cars and such, plus, it was a nice night for a walk. – Mind you, I’m still in flip flops and shorts this time of year when most everyone else is bringing out the sweaters.

We walk downtown and were planning to make a stop at Norton’s for supper. It appeared to be an upscale venue, a little out of place for Red Wing, but settled right on the main drag, it was packed. Some of the others had eaten there before, and knew the management from what I understood, so there wasn’t a concern for getting a table. We walked in, and were told rather rudely that they had no more seating, and to come back another time. – No list, no offer for a drink on the house, just a very rude turn-away.

We took ourselves, and (what would have likely been a few hundred dollar bill) and walked back outside, and down the street to The Staghead (which was originally run by the current owner of Norton’s). Within two minutes, we were seated, and having our drink orders taken by a nice gal in college that had explained she was filling in, and had been in class all day.

Trying to keep a table of 9 all straight with drinks and meals, I imaging cannot be that simple of a task, especially when we ordered many of the same things, with minor variations, but she did an excellent job. Many of us got burgers, which we ALL raved about. They were very tasty, juicy and flavorful. Hand patted burgers with applewood bacon and pepper jack cheese was on my order that night, and it was just a damn good burger.

Anyways, we all enjoyed our meals, and wandered back to the marina, running into another large group of people from our hometown, and part of the St. Croix Yacht Club as well, some of the group, was the kids that I had grown up with on the beach, that I hadn’t seen in few years, so it was good to see them.

We retired to out beds at a decent hour after another few drinks on the end of the dock.

My Saturday started early, as Miles had to get out and take a tinkle, so we did that and checked out the sunrise and the lack of activity, kind of nice. Our group started to get up, little by little and we made breakfast on the doc, everyone pitched in from eggs, meats, toasts, pancakes, beer.. The standards of course. After we all had our brunch and cleaned up, we decided to wander up to the Red Wing Art Fair and take a look around.

I’m not really what you’d call an Art guy, aside from my fetish for photography, but it’s always interesting to see the talents of others, especially if you can actually earn income from it. Mom spotted an artist who took photos of little animals in funny poses, and spotted a photo of a Wiener dog, sniffing a cocktail wiener, I’ll have to find the website for the artists, as some of the photos are excellent, and the rest are just downright cute.

We ventured into a bookstore where I spotted both a new Grisham and Sandford novel. Actually I say two Sandford books, but opted for the most recent Prey book (turns out I missed on before this one I think) Mom picked me up the Sanford novel as a belated birthday gift, and I bought myself the Sandford novel. I was a tad hesitant to pick up the hardcovers, as that is all that was there, but they do look nice on a bookshelf. So they will end up there when I finish reading them, hopefully before they are packed away.

We headed back towards the boats, as I was needing at some point to head back home, and then up to Chisago for an annual BOOYA at a friends house from the Steam Show. I misjudged my time by about 10 minutes too late as I was trying to decide on the rain. Miles and I made it all the way back to Hastings, when we got wet, so I ducked under a gas station for a few minutes.

All in all it was a good weekend, getting out on the boat, for what will be the last time of the season for me, and visiting with friends and family.