Suburban Decay IV

Farmhouse in disrepair. Quiet. Lonely near Lone Oak Road.

Don't mess with them!

These mixed martial arts athletes demonstrated their skills at the Health & Wellness event during the July 4th Funfest. Their Ambition Training Academy offers various forms of martial arts and also strength training.

Backyard organics

We're lucky to have a raspberry patch in our backyard. Yummy on ice cream!

India beauty

Our Indian friends, Hari and Hima from Hyderabad, hosted a huge party at their house to celebrate a special Hindu festival, "Guru Poornima," or "Full Moon Night festival." These beautiful women graciously posed for me in front of Hima and Hari's house in their colorful sarees.

A little bit country...

Marv Gohman, violinist and mandolin player, jammed with the Hitchville Band at last Wednesday's Market Fest held weekly at the Eagan Rotary Bandshell. Fun live music!

How 'bout a night swim?

Cascade Bay Water Park, located next to Eagan City Hall, is one of the largest outdoor parks in the upper Midwest. Night swims until 10 pm are only held on the Saturdays in July. Next Saturday, July 30 is the last night swim for the season until next summer. Don't miss your chance! (These photos taken at 9 pm)

The "Lazy River" circles around a large area next to the swimming pools. The white slide and green slide start from the tall platform far right in the third photo. Blue, yellow and orange slides shoot out of the blue pirate ship!

Doors of Monday #1

This house was adorned with a flag before the July 4 holiday. See other "Monday Doorways" meme participants here.

Bon voyage, Robson!

After a great year as our Eagan Rotary Club exchange student from Brazil, Robson Garcia, gave his year wrap-up presentation, thanked our club and said good-bye at our weekly, Wednesday lunch meeting. Rotarian Michael Proebstle and his sons, Robson's first host family, wore their Brazil soccer jerseys. (wife Cathy was at work)

Good luck, Robson!

Import from Indonesia

"Sumunar," an Indonesian gamelan ensemble, played tuned bronze gongs, metallophones and drums while "Kechak," Balinese dance and drama, enchanted the Family Fun Tuesday audience at Caponi Art Park. They will give a bigger performance tomorrow, Sunday, July 24 at 6:30 pm in the "Theater in the Woods" at Caponi Art Park.

They had the Blues...

"Big Walter Smith & The Groove Merchants" played Blues music at Market Fest last week. Kids later twirled hula hoops and air jammed on play guitars in front of the stage to the music. For their website, click here.

Eagan dog series #29

Lisa was out walking her German Shepherd, "Katie", and her Jack Russell / Patterdale Terrier mix, "Snickers", around the ECC trails. They walk many of the parks all year long.

The farmer's house

This farmhouse goes with yesterday's red barn. I can imagine sitting on the front porch with a tall lemonade...

Seeing it in summer...

This barn on Dodd Road north of Lone Oak Road posted last winter. It has a beautiful farmhouse; come back tomorrow to see it. See other "Barn Charm" barns here.

Keeping the faith...

Rev. Fr. Marc Boulos leads the St. Elizabeth Orthodox Church at 2020 Silver Bell Road, Suite 5, just off Highway 13. The congregation of currently 30 families started in 2003 and already has a fully-paid-for parcel of land with a completed architectural drawing. They hope and pray to build their own church building in 3 years. As is common for orthodox priests in America, Fr. Boulos works full-time in the private sector as an IT manager, in addition to shepherding his flock. Chanting, singing, incense and gospel preaching anchor their worship; I attended their Saturday evening vespers service. See their website here.

A suspended bridge....

... Minnesota is coming out of a budgetary shutdown! Eagan is getting a new bridge over highway 35E called the "Duckwood Drive Overpass" which will connect Duckwood Drive to Federal Drive. It will lessen the traffic of the Pilot Knob and Yankee Doodle Roads intersection. "Ribbon cutting" will hopefully be by November 15. See other "Sunday Bridges" meme participants here.

Spanish influence

Guitarist Michael Hauser and dancer Deborah Elias showcased Flamenco dance and music from Espana for a crowd of 350 children, parents, daycare kids, etc. The "Theater in the Woods" at Caponi Art Park holds weekly performances on Tuesday mornings at 10 am.
Next week: Indonesian Gamelan & Kechak

Music, art & puppets 4 kids

The Okee Dokee Brothers, Justin and Joe, played and sang kid friendly music from the Eagan Rotary Band Shell. Kids danced and wiggled to the banjo and guitar tunes.

The Eagan Art House volunteers helped kids create their own picture frames and other art.

The Puppet Wagon characters perform daily in several local parks on a regular weekly schedule. On Kids' Day, they entertained young and old at Market Fest.

Eagan rotarian series #22

Tom Hedges, standing far left among his city department heads at Sky Hill Park, has led Eagan as its city administrator since 1976. Back then, Eagan had some gravel roads and 16,000 residents but today Eagan has 65,000 people. When Tom started this job, he oversaw 35 employees and today 240 full-time employees and 550 seasonal workers make us his team. Tom joined Eagan Rotary in 1987 as a charter member and 3 of his department heads also belong to Eagan Rotary. Eagan will certainly miss Tom at the helm when he retires in the next couple of years!
(Pictured left to right: Tom Hedges, Mike Scott, Gene Van Overbeke, Jon Hohenstein, Dianne Miller, Julie Johnson, Tom Garrison and Tom Colbert - Jim McDonald was missing in action)

Almost Aussies

The Minnesota Freeze men's Australian football team played the Kansas City Power team on the Eagan Community Center fields on Saturday afternoon. I heard some Aussie accents sprinkled in among the Minnesotan English majority. To learn more about the game rules and history, click here.

At their peak

The Stella de oro daylilies are blooming all over town! The huge Loan Oak tree, the symbol of Eagan, stands just 50 feet to the left of this sign.

Bathtime for doggies

Argosy University Veterinary Technology students held their 5th annual "Dog Wash" behind their school on a sunny Saturday. Chili, a 9 year old Collie mix, had a $10 wash in the purple pool while Casey, a 3 year old Husky/Great Pyrenees mix, got a $10 scrub in the yellow pool. For $30, a identification micro-chip could also have been installed.

Argosy University, in Eagan since 2003, offers bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees to its 2,000 students. Argosy has 19 locations in 13 states but only one in Minnesota in Eagan.

French treats & blogger talk

City Daily Photo bloggers Rob, North Metro Daily, and Kate, St. Paul Daily, came down to Eagan on Friday morning to meet me at "Pardon My French" Cafe' for blog chat and yummy pastries. Were your ears ringing?

Grilled din-din

Our friends, Jason, Erika and their son Matthew, invited us over for salmon, hamburgers, vegetable medley, cherries, chips, "cowboy caviar," ice cream and chocolate almonds. Ah, summer!

Business lunch

Michelle and her boss, Eric, lunched with me at Jake's Grille. They gave me an update on Blue Cross/Blue Shield Medicare supplement insurance products and Medicare changes and issues. The lunch was a nice "thank you" for my Medicare insurance sales.

Country trio

Sisters Torie and Lauren sang while Rich sang and played his guitar. The "Redpath" group of the Twin Cities entertained the crowd last week at Market Fest on a gorgeous summer evening. My toes were tapping to the acoustic, country music!

Fantastic farm fresh food

Cousins Jenny and Alex sell vegetables at the wooden produce stand at the corner of Cliff Road and Nicols Road. Their family has 17 vegetable stands around the Twin Cities, a family business for almost 100 years!

The Grand Finale

Eagan blew off one of the largest fireworks shows in the state of Minnesota! They were a magnificent ending to the July 4th Funfest weekend celebration!

Parade princesses

Northeast Minneapolis princesses rode and waved in Eagan's 4th of July Funfest parade. "Eagan royalty," marching bands, church groups, politicians, fitness studios and more paraded down Yankee Doodle Road. Happy 4th of July - America's 235th birthday!

Fox 9 news anchor, Rob Olson, rode in style as Grand Marshal.

All July 4th parades have fire trucks - we saw at least 6 of them!

The Lions and Lionesses of Eagan have purple power!

Carnival Eyes

The ferris wheel and several other rides and games welcome Eagan's July 4th Funfest visitors on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

If you're hungry for a snack, how about a treat from Nicole's?