It rained for most of the last week.  Serious, heavy, lightning soaked rain.  So when it woke up this morning all blue skied and warm, I called Josie's school and told the office she wouldn't be coming in.

"Oh, is she not feeling well?" the gal asked.

"She's fine.  I'm taking her on a field trip."

"Really?" pregnant pause. "I wish my Mom had done that with me."

"Mine did."

So Josie and I joined my Mom and a whole sew of truants and headed off for the Arboretum.  Katie and all her kids came and Mary Jeanne borrowed a few of her favorite babies and we hit the trees around 11:00. 

As any expedition of this nature, the first order of business was to make sure no one got lost.  Mom had her cell phone and Katie had hers, so we gave one to the Meg, Fin and Josie and told them to meet us back at the cafe for lunch a little after twelve. 

The second order of business was for Katie and Molly to get lost.

Eventually we took our parade off into the garden.  The flowers were spectacular, the fountains were delightful and the sky was a ridiculous shade of blue.  The only way to describe the color of a Minnesota October sky is "Fake blue".  

Just before we dove into the forest, we ran into an old friend who was painting outside.  He's got a show coming up in the spring that he seemed really excited about.  It was a perfect day for working outside.

The forest was gorgeous.  The trees are turning a little late this year, so there's still a lot of green and the reds, orange and golds really pop out at you.  The Arboretum is like being in an alternate universe where every place you turn offers another beautiful, hidden corner.  There are gardens within gardens and deep in the woods you can find coy ponds and perfect little arrangements of plantings, patios, benches and fountains.  About a mile into the woods we came upon the older kids that had abandoned us at the outset.  We saw  a flock of wild turkeys under a grove of trees.  The big kids took off again and we caught glimpses of them through the woods later.  Eventually we came all the way through the woods.  MJ had to take her little guys home for their naps and the rest of us went and had lunch.  Next time, no grill food.  It took too long.  By the time we were all done eating there wasn't enough time to go the opposite direction and take the walk through the bog.  We wandered around til we were out of time, then headed back to the real world.

Of course, my real world consists of driving Zack to work, taking our usual route around Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles, and I couldn't help but wonder why I ever bother to drive out to the arboretum on a gorgeous day.  I really believe that Mpls is the most beautiful city I'll ever see.  Of course, the arboretum is a wonderful change of pace.  I drive around the lakes so often that sometimes I forget to look at them.  A day like today makes everything look new again.  After the rain of the last few days, it seems like everyone was out.  The paths were packed with bikers, walkers and runners.  The lakes were covered with sailboats, trying to squeeze one more sail in before it's time to take up the buoys.  Lake Calhoun was covered with wind surfers.  There was enough of a wind to set them flying.  Later, when I went to pick him up after work, despite it being dark out there were still people everywhere.  Bikers had their lights on and there was even a sail boat on lake Harriet equipped with lights!

On a day like this, in a place like this, it's easy to believe that I've got it better than 99.9% of the people who have ever lived on earth.