Another new bike has joined the Haraldson household. This time it is a 29″ wheeled full suspension mountain bike aptly named The King. It is as fun to ride as it looks.
Julie is someone who was only in Laura and my life briefly but the one day I got to know her left a lasting impression on me. She was funny, passionate about what she was doing in life, and an extremely talented photographer. This past week Julie lost her life trying to save a member of her church group from drowning on a trip to the North Shore. Please keep Julie and her family and friends in your prayers. She will no doubt be deeply missed in the photography community.
I recorded some audio clips from that day and pulled out some of the ones involving Julie.
[audio:http://www.theharaldsons.com/audio/julie.mp3]
This past weekend Laura and I headed north to Duluth for the 32nd running of Grandma’s Marathon. It turned out to be a great weekend. My brother kindly let us use his apartment as he was out of town and my folks and Laura’s folks also joined us and camped just outside of town.
Laura, battling some stomache problems, finished in four hours and twenty minutes. She’s already looking for her next marathon to get some redemption as the legs felt really really strong. Here she is at the top of Lemon Drop hill.
I stopped into a local liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine and was surprised to see one of my all time favorite bicycle posters on a bottle. The Merlot was a bit sweeter than I prefer but they had quite a few varieties so I’ll be trying some more.
After the race on Saturday we went out to visit with our parents at their camp spot. Lucy and Calvin keeping an eye on things.
“Grandpa” Mike and Lucy.
I finally said enough is enough and got myself a nice bike to commute to work on. With just a 17 mile round trip to work it only takes me 20 minutes longer to ride my bike than it does to drive. I still find that hard to believe.
Am I content to just be outside, enjoying the fresh air, the wind in face? Of course not! I just had to go add a radio (ultra dork alert) to my handlebars so I could listen to my talk radio. 
I know it’s not something everyone can do but for those who can I highly recommend it. I like to think my quality of life has gone up just in the past two weeks I have been riding. I get to work feeling much more ready to tackle my day and I use my ride home as a great time to reflect on everything going on in life and just enjoy the view.
As to the bike it is a Surly Cross-Check that I outfitted with a rear rack and Axiom monsoon waterproof panniers. Not having a backpack is such a blessing!
Laura’s work had a company outing to the Saint Paul Saint’s game last night. Laura’s coworkers and our friends Katie and Yola got the chance to go out on the field to take part in one of the many activities they do in between innings. I grabbed my camera and tagged along.
Laura and Becca hosted a couples wedding shower for Jessop and Jen at our house yesterday. Audrey brought along a pinata and Lucy really wanted to get in on the action.
Laura and I got our first chance to meet Matt and Kristine’s new son Jack for a small little photo shoot. He’s quite the little cutie and after a little settling down we got some really fun photos. We’re looking forward to taking more of little Jack in the future.
