Dragonboat Races at Lake Phalen

The schedules and weather have just never worked out to take Wynn to see the Dragonboat Festival in mid-July over at Lake Phalen in St. Paul - but this year we had just enough time and the weather was actually pretty nice.

Wynn's school participates in the event, so we wanted to see their team race.  As the Twin Cities becomes more Asian, the bigger businesses in town have started getting involved too - Wells Fargo, Target, Medtronic, and more, plus the universities.  A number of food trucks were there for the two-day event, and thousands of people.  We got to see a few of Wynn's friends and teachers, too!

That's Wynn's principal beating the drum to keep the team on rhythm.

And Yinghua would win two matches that day!

Art-a-Whirl 2014

Living inside the city allows us to participate in so many more activities - one of our new favorites happens each spring in Northeast Minneapolis - only a few blocks from Yinghua - Art-a-Whirl is the kickoff summertime festival & lasts 3 days. Hundreds of galleries in NE Mpls participate; there are several stages with live bands, pub crawls, food trucks - it gets really crowded despite taking place over several square miles!

There are several large buildings in NE Mpls that have been converted into studio space - the Northrup King Building is from the seed company of course - 4 stories tall and fully occupied. Awesome place to explore...