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Well happy birthday to me (on the 22nd). It was a nice day. In the morning I rode my bike to the Arboretum. I wasn’t 100% sure I could get there on my bike but it turns out there is a new trail that just opened along Hwy 5 that leads right to the Arb. I was able to ride under the highway through a tunnel and right up to the gatehouse. We are members so it didn’t cost me anything. I rode my bike along Three Mile Drive, which is really hilly! I just didn't realize how hilly from driving it in a car. I was contemplating doing a dualthalon there in August, but now I don't think so. I'm not in that kind of bike shape! Then I rode back the way I came, around 13 miles total. In October more of the trail will be open and then I think I could do a loop, continuing along Hwy 5 and then returning on the trail along Hazelton Blvd.

In the evening we took the boat across the lake and went out to eat at Vann’s Restaurant in Spring Park:  https://www.vannrestaurant.com. When we got to the boat it wouldn’t start! Dang. We went back to the house and got another battery, switched batteries and we were good to go. Its nice being only 5 minutes from the marina! Lee thinks the new bilge pump must have drained it. He’s going to get a solar powered battery charger like we had on the sailboat and then that won’t happen again.

It was very windy on the lake, but the third pontoon made it nbd. Without that extra pontoon it would have been miserable. Vann’s has their own pier, with a tiny faded white sign. We are blind so we had to get very close to make sure we were tying up to the right place. They ran out and helped us, very nice!

This is a really good restaurant, basically in the middle of nowhere. Spring  Park is a little town on the north side of Lake Minnetonka, inbetween Mound and Wayzata. There is no convenient way to get there (except by boat!). The food was delicious and the presentation was beautiful, so pretty that I had to take multiple pictures.

They have a three course meal for $75 with several different offerings to choose from. We also got a glass of white wine from Sonoma. The waiter said it had smoky notes. No kidding! To me it tasted like it had been in a fire! Lee liked it, me not so much. 

For the first course Lee got the oysters and I got the hamachi, aka amberjack. The waiter didn’t know where the oysters were from but he asked the chef and came back with “pink moon oysters from the upper east coast”. I kind of laughed and said that was a pretty large area. We looked them up and they were PEI oysters. He didn’t know where that was. Like I said, a small town in the middle of nowhere.

Oysters

Amberjack

We had halibut for the second course. It was truly delicious, in a rich mushroom sauce. I told Lee that it’s been a long time since I wanted to lick the plates in a restaurant! 

Halibut

The last course was a chocolate hazelnut eclair with espresso ice cream. They were so good. Even Lee, who is not that into dessert, ate every bite. It was so delicious I forgot to take a picture!

We tooled back across the lake, still windy, the sun lower in the sky but still not ready to set. Mid summer in Minnesota, it’s still staying light until after 9. As Lee said, this is why we picked this area of Minneapolis to live.