Canada

Had a spur of the moment trip to Canada with my buddy Paul. We went to his parents cabin up on the North part of Lake of the woods. Went fishing a bunch. Caught enough for two walleye meals. Tasted amazing. My largest catch was a 21 inch walleye. We also went Kayaking around Allie Island. Did a little hiking. Mainly relaxing and enjoying the views. The mosquitos were really bad. The nice part is that it is very isolated up there. The cabin is on an island and it is a 30 minute boat ride. No other cabins around. It is God's country up there

 Paul on top of Proposal Hill

 Walleye is good eating

Keegan and his Baptism

Isle Royal

                                         Uncle Tim fishing

                                         Lake Vermillion

                                         Hiking on Isle Royal

                                       Isle ROyal

                                         Falls on the superior Hiking trail

Lake Vermillion

Well I went up to Lake Vermillion with Uncle Tim. Uncle Christopher came up for a day as well to go fishing with us. The May Flies were every where. The fishing was really bad. Only one walleye in three days.  That is really bad. But it is always nice to get up north. I then went to the superior hiking trail up in Grand Marias Minnesota. I went hiking and it was raining on an off all day. It continued that night and when I woke up everything in my tent was soaked except for my sleeping bag. I found out I have afew patches in need to make in the rain fly. Well I decided not to hike again the next day or camp out because the weather was suppose to be the same. Instead I cruised up to the border to Grand portage and got the last seat on a boat to Isle Royal National Park It was 50 degrees and cloudy. I sat on the outside and froze my butt off. It was an hour and twenty minute boat ride about 18 miles. Isle Royal is known for its wolves and Moose on the island.  I went for a hike hoping to see a moose but had no luck. The worst part was I was doing a loop hike and I saw the time and I thought I was going to miss the boat because my clock said it was going to leave in an hour. I took off running. I get back and I was an hour early. Isle royal in Michigan property and is an hour early. My phone switched and I didn’t know it. Well lessoned learned.  I then headed to Sandstone Minnesota and helped out at the Men’s Rite of Passage Retreat.  Wonderful area with a lot of neat people. It was very motivating. I have spent a lot of time fishing on various lakes around the twin cities. Been mainly catching bass around the twin cities. Then it was up to Canada I went.

 Twins vs the Yankees in which we lost but good seats

 This is a may fly in which they were everywhere up on lake Vermillion some call them fish flies

 This is one of the spots we tried fishing on lake Vermillion but no luck

Me holding Barrett which is Bobby Fox's three month old

White Bear Lake

Well it has been fun an adventure lately. I arrived in Minnesota and it was 60’s and rainy for the first three days. I hung out with Ryan and we went fishing up near north branch. He knows how to fish with a frog bait. It is this tackle bait that looks like a frog and the bass were all over it. He knew how to make act just like a frog. He caught about 12 bass that day. I caught only two. I obviously do not have the technique.  I also caught a Northern but he caught a nice 31 inch Northern which is a good size fish. After fishing we spent time with his 2 year old Keegan who has a broken fibula. He uses that cast as a weapon at times. I tell you that two year old has women wrapped around his little finger. He can get what ever he wants. 

It was sunny yesterday in Minnesota so i took the road bike for a spin along the Mississippi river. Great day a temperature for a bike ride. That afternoon I rode with Dan to White Bear lake where he swamped his canoe the day before and lost some things in the canoe. So I rented a scuba tank and was going to try and find it. Dan has hooked up a trolling motor to his canoe. Nice jimmy rigging. Well I get me gear on and dive in. It is only about 8 feet deep. However the weeds were very thick. I searched and searched but had no luck. It was fun to get out there and be on a diver search but there was no way to know the exact location and how thick the weeds were it was hopeless. That night dad and I went to the Twins game. Great weather and simply an incredible baseball park. Too bad the Twins lost 3-2. It was the 8 inning that did them in. 4 hits in a row is what cost them the game. Well I head back to Milwaukee for the National assembly on Sunday. I hope it stays sunny up here.

Silence

Well I have had action and silence these past two weeks. Went to the Mogollon rim with Fernando. Did a weekend of camping. Beautiful weather during the day but it got a lot colder than I expected t night. It got down in the high 30's with a cold wind blowing. We had a fun weekend. With many beautiful views driving along the rim. He did a 24 hour fast with me. It was fun watching how antsy he was the last few hours. We had some goo time for sharing. I then headed to St. Rita's Abbey in Soniota. You have to take dirt roads to get there and you feel out in the middle of no where. There is a adobe retreat house that maybe holds 10 people. 100 yards away is the Sisters convent. They are cisterncian and focus their life on prayer. Their chapel is in the shape of an L. I was on one end of the L and they were on the other end with the altar in the center focal point of the L. I would go there for prayer and mass. I could only see a few of them from where I was sitting. It is very pretty down there and very quiet. I was the only one there in the retreat center. Thus begins my time of silence. I spent most of my time just clearing my mind and staring at the mountains. very quiet. No phone, email, no people. After about 8 hours I started to feel this loneliness. There is no one out here. The only person I think I would have seen would be an illegal immigrant walking by. After a while I had to open a book and read just to feel some sort of connection with someone. As the sun went down I felt more and more desolate. Having a whole day of silence really makes one reflect. The sun rose and it was a beautiful sunrise. I went to mass in the morning and one of the sisters recognized me. She came over and said you did my bone scan. I did and I remembered her. She said, "let's meet after dinner". I said, "Ok what time" SHe said, "1:00pm". Ok then I responded. 1:00pm is after dinner. It was great meeting up with her again. It is a small world. I remembered our conversation when I was doing her scan at the Hospital. It is weird how things work. After the retreat I was ready to head back to Tucson and spend time with people.
That I did. I have been running around trying to see everyone. Went to breakers water park with Rand, Austin, Reed boy, and Fernando. Watching two children is a lot of work. I was whipped out at the end of the day. Then I went to the Salt river with my roommates and my cousin Laura up in phoenix and with her friends. I think I put on about 8 layers of spf 50 and I still got red. It was 107 that day. Well time is winding down here in Tucson. I stopped by the hospital and saw most of my former coworkers which was wonderful to see them. I have a few more days to enjoy Tucson.

 Austin who has no fear jumping into the pool

 Up on the Mogollon Rim

 In Soniota at St. Rita's Abbey

 Sister Catherine

 The Chapel

 Reed boy, Myself, Austin, and Fernando at breakers water park

The gang ready to go down the Salt River  and get burnt.

Randy and Austin in wave pool

Time

 Sleeping dogs

 Filling up 3 packages of Medical supplies to be Shipped out to Tunduru Hospital in Tanzania

 Sid getting ready to jump off the roof into the pool. It was his 50th birthday

Austin showing me how to play angry birds
Mom and dad took off yesterday towards Minnesota. Spending a lot of time visiting friends. It is really good to see everyone. I miss Tucson. It is very frustraing not being able to hike or bike due to my knee. Progress is very slow. The Salvatorians raised $205 during lent with emptying pocket change. I was able to use that money to ship 50 lbs of medical supplies to Tunduru Hospital in Tanzania thanks to Southwest Medical Aid. SOuthwest Medical Aid collects medical supplies from all the surrounding hospitals in Tucson and then ships them out to other countries who could use the supplies.
It has been nice catching up with everyone on what is going on in their lives. I was babysitting Randy's little dog and he is very popular with who ever he runs into. Well I am going to try and soak up the sun and the wonderful views of Tucson

Arizona

Finished finals. Glad to be done. It was a stressful week but now it is time to enjoy. Went to lake Michigan because it went from 40 degrees to 80 degrees in two days. Went to Lake Winnebago for fishing opener in Wisconsin. No luck. It was nice for canoeing. Just arrived in Arizona. Clear blue sky. Beautiful desert landscape. Time to recover from my knee surgery.

 Driving across Wisconsin I had to make a stop and tour Leinkugels Brewery

Lake Michigan