The Bergs

Apparently Chloe swallowed a stick or something and she is at the Vet now.  I will be leaving to pick up Becca from work and heading over there soon.  Hopefully she will be fine.

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No Becca is not pregnant….This last week we found out through Becca’s parents that one of Missy and Dougly’s puppies needed a new home. We had to go and see her to see if we would be interested in taking her. Sure enough we got to the house and saw her and she was beautiful and was just like her daddy. We couldn’t say no. She was a year old last Monday so she is still high strung and a hyper puppy but she is very smart and catching on fast. Her name is Chloee. We went out and bought an invisible fence to put in the yard due to the fact that she is very fast and our yard can not be fenced in all the way. So we will install that in the next few weeks. If anybody has any good idea on how to put a wire through a drive way let us know!

This winter just keeps hanging on, just when we think it is gone, another snow storm is in the forecast. Jonn and I are ready for shorts and sunburns. It sure feels nice stepping outside and feeling the suns rays actually warm our skin. These past few weeks have been uneventful and relaxing. Easter was spent at Becca’s Grandpa’s house with the family, it was nice to see almost everyone together. We found out some good news that our cousin Jody will be graduating from Law school this Spring and will be heading to California to study and then take the Bar exam. Congratulation’s to her and Godspeed we know she will do great.

At the Berg household Becca just got done with the cruddy cold that has been haunting her lungs and sinuses all week. But that hasn’t been keeping her from throwing away and cleaning out a bunch of Jonn’s stuff this past weekend! Stored away up in the attack Jonn had hidden away some 50 boxes of “stuff” that needed to be sorted through and thrown away. Most of it is going in a garage sale that we will be having in May.

Here are some pictures from Easter and also some pictures we took today. We spent the morning down by the Mississippi driving by the place where Jonn had asked me to marry him and then going down to the Mississippi and walking along the shoreline. As soon as we got there we saw a female eagle perched up on a huge tree then fly away and as soon as she flew away the male eagle came out to chase her. It was fun to watch. Later that afternoon we spent an hour with Cricket and Jonn snapped a few photos of Cricket and I together.

Texas.After Michael was kind enough to drive us to the airport, we flew down to Dallas / Fort Worth on February 20th. We arrived to 70º weather and clouds. The flight was nice. It lasted for 2.5 hours I think.

We got to the terminal and found our bags fairly quickly. Then we had to find the rental car facility. We hopped on a bus and rode our way around with standing room only, and finally got there. There was a line about 20 people deep. We had already pre-booked the car, so we couldn’t go to any other place that had no line… After a few minutes one of the employees came out and gave each of us that were waiting a “free upgrade” coupon for our troubles.

We were hoping that it meant a convertible! But nope. It was a Suzuki XL7 . It was actually very nice except for one thing, but… I’ll get to that in a couple days.

We decided to drive down to San Antonio and stay in a Hotel near the River Walk. It was a pretty nice place and the next morning we went down the walk towards the Alamo. The river was a nice healthy green color. We saw a gardener floating down in his boat and asked him how deep it was. 6 feet he said.

It was about 80º. The Alamo was a couple mile walk from the hotel and we had already checked out so we thought it would be cool to see. The last time I had seen it was in 1993, but it was closed to the public at that time so we couldn’t go inside.

This time however, we were able to take the whole tour. We saw the History Channel reproduction of the history of the Alamo and wandered through all of the exhibits. It was pretty cool. We got Michael’s gift there.

We then hopped into the car and drove down south. We hadn’t decided how far yet, but we figured that we would head to Corpus Christi. After a few hours we arrived to 65º weather. We had kind of expected that it would be warmer, but it was after all, February. We drove around the pier area and found a hotel to stay in. It had a good view, partly because we were on the 7th floor, but also because it was set sideways so that there was no rooms looking away from the bay.

That evening we went out to eat at Landry’s seafood house. It was a wonderful meal. I had a steak and Becca had a whole variety of seafood. It was very filling and it was the most expensive meal we had.

The next morning we made our way to the USS Lexington aircraft carrier that is berthed near the public beach. It was totally cool. We spent a full 3 hours there. We walked along the flight deck and saw all the various planes and the helicopter there. We wandered through the tunnels, saw the captains quarters, smelled the engines, saw the hospital and dentist areas. We even were able to go up into the tower to the drivers cabin. As part of the ticket cost, we got to see a movie about an Tomcat pilot going to his first Red Flag. My dad would have loved that movie. Becca bought a shirt for herself that has the “Rosie the Riveter” poster picture. She says it is cute. I agree.

We left to head over to Mustang island, only we got turned around a bit and found ourselves entering the US Navy / Coast Guard base. They let us turn around and got us back on track without much hassle. Just a cavity search… Just kidding.

Mustang Island is the northern part of Padre Island. You might be familiar with South Padre Island. We entered the southern part on highway 358 and headed north on 361. Every once in a while we would notice a “beach access” road on the East side. We decided to turn onto one and eat the lunch we just picked up. We made our way along the access road and came to sand dunes and then white crystalline sand. There were a couple of other vehicles there so we pulled up along side one of them overlooking the water. We proceeded to eat our lunch. While doing so, a big Chevy truck came barreling through the sand to our right and parked out farther on the beach. Two guys got out and setup chairs to fish.

After we got done eating, we got out and walked down the beach for a while. There were tons of “Man-O-War” jellyfish laying on the sand. As we were walking we saw a car sitting out near the water so we thought it would be fun to drive on the beach too. We walked back to the XL7 and pulled forward towards the water. After a short distance we hit the “road” part of the beach and turned north. It wasn’t long until we came to the northernmost part of that beach that allows vehicles. There were huge wooden pylons set into the sand and water. We turned around.

We drove back south towards the access road and came up to a little Toyota truck that was blocking our way. He motioned us forward so I drove us around him.

Remember the part about the Suzuki being nice, except for one thing? Who ever heard of an SUV that doesn’t have four-wheel drive? It is almost unheard of here in Minnesota, but in Texas, there are lots of vehicles that are only two-wheel drive… We had one of them.

When I turned towards the access road, the front end of the Suzuki just sank. I tried to rock us out and it didn’t get us anywhere. While this was happening, the red truck just drove off and we didn’t see it again. Luckily the big Chevy and it’s passengers were still there. I walked up to the driver and asked him how he would get unstuck. He laughed and said he would ask a guy like himself to pull me out, so I did.

He was getting into his truck to turn around and line up when a girl came running up yelling “wait!”. I turned around and saw the car that was down the beach stuck as well! I told her that he was just lining up to pull us out and that if she asked him nice, he would probably pull her out too. Just then the guy’s wife stuck her head out and laughed at the both of us. She said that she was sorry and she shouldn’t laugh, but it was just too dearned funny…

We got pulled out and we helped the girls get their car out too. Then we left the beach because Becca wanted to go shopping. We wandered around the retirement community of Port Aransas, which was really pretty nice. Becca bought a couple other things. I got my parents a gift and we got Sol and Abe something there too. I got a pirate shirt.

On the way back to the hotel, we went along the northern road to the ferry.  We got to ride the ferry back, which was pretty cool.  We got back to the hotel and got ready to head out the next morning.

We woke up and decided to go sit at the public beach before we left for Austin. We spent an hour or so there so Becca could get her sun. It was pretty relaxing, even if it was chilly and the sun was still hidden by clouds.

On the drive to Austin, we decided to take a road less traveled. It took us a bit longer, but we ended up seeing a mill that we stopped at. I don’t remember exactly when it was built, but I think it was around 1850. Now it is a historical site and we explored the grounds, but we couldn’t actually go inside any of the buildings.

There were lots of farms and cattle and trees. It was crazy all of the oak trees down there.

We arrived in Austin only to find that the center of town is not actually down-town. We made our way there and found a hotel to check out. Becca went in to the Driskill, but they didn’t have room. It was probably way expensive though too. We ended up staying at one near by that was normally $500 a night, but we got it for much cheaper than that. Presumably because it was a weeknight. The best thing about it was that it was two blocks away from the downtown clubs. They (whoever they are!) say that Austin is the other Nashville and they are kidding. Every block had multiple clubs with live music. We ate at one place and then just wandered around until some music caught us in it’s weave.

We got back to the hotel fairly early and decided to look on the computer for a place to go the next day. Lake Travis is within a 30 minute drive from down-town, so we looked for some parks and beaches there. We found one. It’s called Hippie Hollow. I would not suggest looking it up because it turns out that it is a nude beach. One of the only ones in the USA evidently.

We decided that since we were there, we would see what all of the fuss is about it. The reviews said that it was the best beach on Travis. We disagree. Luckily there were only a few people there and the “beach” is really just large rocks that are on the shore. There were a couple of naked old men walking around, so we left.

The lady at the booth told us about Hamilton’s Pool Preserve. We went there after we stopped at the boat landing area to see some of the big boats there. It was the warmest of the whole trip, somewhere around 89º. Who would have thought that it would be almost 90º in February? Becca loved it!

Hamilton’s pool was originally an underground river that collapsed in on itself. Now there is a 45 foot waterfall, which was just a trickle when we saw it, and a swimming area. The trail down there forks and a nice walk that leads out to here. You can see the open scrub area to the east of the big rock in the river. That is really a small stream that leads from the pool. You can follow it on the map and see the overhead view of the pool too. It was a nice hike and it was not too populated. The water was pretty cold otherwise we would have probably jumped in there.

That last evening we went to the HEB, like Cub here, and bought some groceries to use for the next couple days. I am not a seafood eater, but Becca was shocked to see Snow Crab for $4.99 a pound. She got a pound and ate it for dinner that night. I wasn’t feeling super well, so I settled for a TV dinner style turkey and gravy. It actually wasn’t too bad though, but Becca was beside herself in luxurious taste sensations. It was quite funny.

We moseyed on back to Austin and stayed another night, woke up and packed to spend our last night in Texas closer to the airport. We drove up to Dallas, actually it was Irving, and found a nice little place to stay. It wasn’t as nice as Austin, which was the nicest of all though…

We slept in a little bit in Dallas and checked out. We had a couple hours to kill before we had to be to the airport, so we went looking for something to do. There was a movie theater near us, but it wasn’t open. We ended up going to a strip mall and Becca went shopping again while I got lost in Barnes and Noble.

We got a couple of books, got hungry, and went back out to the car. While trying to find a place to eat, we stopped at this little Italian place called Michaels. It was okay, but Becca said the spaghetti was not even close to her dad’s. I had a little taste and I can heartily agree.

After lunch we went back to the car and reclined in the seats and read our books for about an hour. Then we left for the airport. We dropped of the car and found out that we had driven 1081 miles in basically 5 days. It didn’t seem like it though.

We got to the counter and saw that our plane had been delayed. Two hours! We sat and watched people and planes. Becca played solitaire on the laptop and we took turns walking around while the other stayed with our carry-on. Finally we were able to get onto the plane and take off.

The cold wasn’t actually that cold to me. Overnight in Dallas a front came in and the temperature there dropped down to the 40s, so it wasn’t a big decrease to get to 15º that it was here. Anyway, it was a nice flight home and Michael came to get us. Our bag was the first off of the belt so we didn’t have to wait too long before we walked into our house, looking forward to our own bed.

We will put the pictures up as soon as we upload them.

Well, another Berg house party is wrapped up.  We had over 30 people come to our house this past Sunday.  Almost all of them are fellow Eaglebrookers, while the others were friends of Lenora’s. We had a great time with everyone!

The party was one of the best that we have had. Especially after seeing the underdog Giants squeeze out the win.  We had plenty of sugar and tons of food especially chips and Becca made some awesome chili.

All-in-all, it was a great day.  Becca will upload some pictures when she gets them off the camera.

Jonn had his birthday party the weekend before his actual birthday.  It was a great time spent at the Country Inn and Suites in Vadnais Heights.  We swam, went down the water slide, had a pool party style dinner and spent a night away from home. That night we also celebrated Solomon birthday who turned 4 on the 25 of January. On then Saturday we celebrated Grandma Berg’s birthday.  Happy birthday to all of you January babies!

I think we have some pictures from the party, but if not, Miranda has some that she may share.

Update later but we put the Christmas 2007 Pictures from December 25th up.

We made it up here safe last night.

It started raining near Staples on Hiway 10 and then by Wadena it was snowing. It snowed the rest of the 34 miles to Park Rapids and the next 8 to Osage. It made us thankful for having the truck. Thanks Cathy and Mike!

We are now going to My sister and her husband’s place to go sledding.

Tonight after I pick up Becca from work we are heading to the great white north of Osage, near Park Rapids and Detroit Lakes, to stay with my parents for a couple days.  We will be celebrating the Berg Christmas on Sunday before we come back down to the cities.  Becca has to work a half-day on Monday so we can’t stay the originally planned 4 days.

That means that we will be down here for both, the Fruci  Christmas and the Collova Christmas.  I don’t know that I have ever had 3 Christmas celebrations in one year!  It will be fun!

Until next time,

Jonn