Strawberry Fields and German food

We are slowly adjusting to the time change from Arizona to Minnesota.  Yesterday we woke up at 8:30 instead of 9:30.  Big change, I know.  Whenever I travel, I don't want to know what time it is back home, but somehow, my internal clock is very accurate and it takes a long time for me to get adjusted.  At least I seem like more of a partier going east.  Flying west, I'm ready for bed at 5.

This morning, we took a little trip to Addie's Acres Berry Farm close to Lake Bemidji.  As we turned off the paved road, we drove through a cavernous canopy of trees before seeing the berry farm.  Addie's Acres was a very quaint family-run farm where we walked up to a wood shack, told them we would like to pick two buckets and were led into the berry patch.

Each group starts at the top of a row of strawberry plants and works their way down, marking where they finish with a pink pennant.  Immediately, we started picking.  I would grab one off a vine and the fruit was so juicy that grabbing it too hard would be like popping a balloon.  Red strawberry juice ran down my fingers as I tried to gingerly pick each one.  Cam wouldn't pick any strawberries, but she was fine with eating them!

We joked that we should have weighed Cam before and after so that we could be honest with how many strawberries we picked. After ten minutes in the patch, Cam wanted "up" and I picked strawberries with a baby on my knee.

We left Addie's Acres with two large flats of strawberries, each one costing only nine dollars.  A sign in the parking lot read: "Thank you Berry Much."

This evening, we drove to a German restaurant in Aikley called "Brauhaus."  Kory had heard about Brauhaus on the radio and since Josh can't turn away German food and good beer, we drove 45 miles to Aikley.  Amazing food!  I haven't tasted anything like it since Germany.  I had Jagerschnitzel (breaded pork cutlet with gravy), Josh had Schweinehaxe (Pock hocks) and everyone had apfelknodel (apple dumpling) for dessert.  Cam had a hot dog and french fries and stole some ice cream from our apfelknodel.

I asked Nick to take the picture of Josh and I (above).  Nick thought it would be funny to take a picture of himself first.  Too bad for him (excellent for us), he didn't realize the camera was set to video (and upside down.)  Now the whole world can see what Nick sees everyday.  People laughing at him.  (I'm not mean, it's sisterly love).

The car ride home was long and filled with lots of songs for Cam  She tried to sing along and do the hand motions, but wanted constant entertainment.  Good thing she's so cute.

"Sing to me, Mommy!"