Fun weekend in The Cities

The month of May began cold, windy, rainy and a bit of snow!  But it quickly turned the corner to a beautiful first weekend in the Northwoods.

We decided to spend the first weekend in May in St Paul Mn area.  Lots of festivals to attend and of course the Kentucky Derby party at sister Jenny's home.

On our way down to the cities we stopped a few times to hike and of course do some birding.

Spotted Sandpiper

Canada geese in Eagles nest, looks like it might not be a good idea but there was another eagle nest with the parents in it... so assuming this one was abandoned.

Osprey were in their nest too when not looking for food.

Lots and Lots of Red Winged Blackbirds

and of course beautiful spring flowers were everywhere the further south we went the more flowers we seen.

We arrived at the Festival of Nations around 4 pm.  There are a number of sections, the first section is Foods from around the globe.  Of course we had to eat a few things

From Nigeria we had Jolla rice, it had wonderful spices and a few veggies.  He tried to talk us into getting goat but we knew we would be eating other meats and did not want to mix..

Wonderful Spring rolls from Vietnam

A sweet desert from the Danish, very good, hazelnut cream inside of two Florentine cookies

Czeck & Slovak were next...

this was really good...

wonderful light desert from Hungry

The place was not too crowded when we first arrived but did fill up nicely just before we left.

One section was different vendors, another was cultural exhibits and of course the main stage where we seen a wonderful dance troupe from Taiwan.  The show lasted an hour but it seemed like minutes. They were phenomenal.  There are other small stages with great musical artists too.

We stayed in Eagan not too far from Jenny's home. Right across the parking lot of the hotel was a Whiskey Bar!  We did not indulge in whiskey but did have a drink.  It was a really cute small place with good Blues music.

Saturday morning we got up early to go to the Wildlife Refuge near the Mississippi Bottoms.

Pilated Woodpecker

Turkey showing his stuff

After a wonderful 3 hour walk around the refuge it was time to go to the West side for the Cinco De Mayo festival.  this place was really really crowded as we arrived just as the parade was ending.

bull riding.. No we did not try it.

Even the Winter Carnival royalty was in attendance including the Vulcans!

we had been dreaming of the roasted corn, which was from Florida..  it was sooo good.

the last item in the parade stayed around for dancing and a show.

they have a bike and car show too.  lots of money and time spent on tricking out their vehicles.

a few of the fun cars, most of them have hydraulics so they bounce around a bit.

time for a chelada..

and Mexican tamales.  We liked the Cuban tamales but prefer the Mexican much more.

pork tacos were fabulous too!

We arrive at Jennys around 3pm..  Great to see friends,

watch the Derby

betting

and waiting to see who won..  it was neither Eric nor I!  oh well..

We had a wonderful fun busy weekend. Ate too much but we expected that to happen.  It was great to see friends and family.

On Sunday we did make a few stops for hiking and birds.  we ended up getting 31 new month birds and 5 new year birds this weekend!