The rest of the riverboat story

Okay, I am finally ready to continue the story I started Thursday night before I got sleepy!

Earlier this summer, my sister surprised Josh and me with two tickets for a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi Queen Paddleboat! I was so excited, for many reasons:

1. After asking about our schedules, she chose tickets for a specific date (Thursday night), so it was "we've got this on the calendar!" not "we'll do this fun activity someday in the future."
2. I love a midweek date - and a unique activity to boot!
3. I've been on a couple of riverboat cruises before, but they've always left from near downtown St. Paul, so I was excited to be part of a Minneapolis excursion.
4. I love being out on the water in the summertime.
5. The Thursday night cruise includes a pizza buffet, and as many of you know, I love myself some pizza.

I'm not exaggerating when I say I was looking forward to this boat ride all week, so one of our takeaways is that we want to book more Thursday night outings early in the week to properly anticipate the night out (and reduce the chance of bailing in favor of our comfortable routine!).

Josh and I met at Bohemian Flats, near the University of Minnesota campus, and boarded the boat just before 6 p.m. for a two-hour cruise up and down the river.

Here we are - after the boat ride, but it's the only picture that shows the boat!

Right away, we approached downtown Minneapolis:

And then we turned back and went almost as far as the Lake Street bridge! I loved being on a section of the river that I run along often and seeing it from a different perspective. Also, the captain was talking about some of the history of the river and bridges (fascinating to me!), but we could only hear that narrative on the second level, outside, after we enjoyed our pizza at one of the tables inside. It was a warm night, but there was a breeze on the water that was great. There seemed to be a fair number of tourists on the boat, as well as a large group of locals celebrating a birthday, and I think this activity would be super wherever you call home. You guys know I love tourism at home.

The clouds were extraordinary:

This company runs cruises through late October, and I would love to book another trip for late September when the fall colors are peaking. Wouldn't that be gorgeous!? Big thanks to my sister - it was such a treat!

Riverboat

Tonight I spent the evening on a riverboat on the Mississippi in Minneapolis.

I have to tell you more about it tomorrow!

Glowing thistles

Another milestone

It's hot this week.

Here's what the conditions were like yesterday evening, courtesy of my beloved Weather Underground. Check out that dew point!

And here's the forecast for later in the week. Could this really be true? I think it might change, but the trio of 99s boggled my mind.

Though it's easier to manage (and even appreciate) at the end of the summer, when we know cooler conditions are around the corner, I just ran 3.5 miles and it felt like about 12. The heat wave's timing is also less than ideal for college students moving into their dorms and for the State Fair crowds over at the fairgrounds this week.

But some things love the heat, including our garden. As soon as the days got warmer again last week, the tomatoes started turning colors beautifully and rapidly. The cherry tomatoes seem like they're going from green to red in the span of a day or two.

Drumroll, please! The first round of heirloom tomatoes are ready!

We went to the garden on Sunday afternoon and harvested two big bright red heirlooms. I am especially proud of these guys because they started as small and kind of fragile plants given to me by my cousin, and through the cool early weeks of summer, I wasn't sure they were going to make it. It was a huge relief to even see them flower. And now they're full of big tomatoes!

We skipped turning on the oven last night and sent caprese sandwiches, complete with those red tomatoes, straight to the grill. I have high hopes for the rest of the heirloom crop and intend to strike a 50-50 balance of using them in recipes versus eating them whole with a little dusting of salt. I am very excited.

Marvelous Monday: Week 34

Hello! It's Marvelous Monday:

1) Caprese sandwiches on the grill for dinner = one of my favorite ways to start a week.

2) The garden is loving this heat wave. (More on this later.)

3) A family member of mine discovered that our wedding day is in the (very) extended forecast!

4) We are a little late to the party and just watched Justin Timberlake's VMA performance, which was completely amazing. We are also a little dismayed because Wish wondered afterward if he could go live with JT instead of us.

5) Tennessee football starts on Saturday!!!

Hope your week is starting out very nicely, Reader.