It’s been an interesting, and busy summer

We’ve had an interesting month of July weather-wise, with plenty of thunderstorms to rattle us at night and a few extremely hot and muggy days. In other words, a typical Minnesota summer.

I’ve had a few chances to enjoy the summer weather. Last week I headed to Cedar Lake Farm Regional Park to cover the park’s annual Midsummer Festival. Park officials were pleased with the turnout and I got photos of families enjoying the kayaking and canoeing, archery and rock climbing, as well as the expanded beach at the park.

After getting my photos, I made sure and signed up for a spot on the Let’s Go Fishing pontoon boat, which was giving rides around the lake. There were just a few spots left on the final ride of the day at 4 p.m., so I headed home and brought Jenny back to the lake for the ride. It was a leisurely ride around a nearby lake that I had spent very little time on over the past few years. It was interesting seeing all the homes and cabins on the shore, the different types of boats on the lifts and remembering what the lake looked like 40 years ago, the last time I spent a significant amount of time on that lake. I know I touched on this topic a couple months ago when I covered the season opener of Let’s Go Fishing, but this latest cruise took us around the entire lake and was a real eye-opener.

* * * * * Sunday, we went to the Open House at US Bank Stadium. With the price of Vikings tickets, I’m not anticipating getting many opportunities to see the inside of this facility, but the price was right this past weekend (tickets were free).

First of all, the plaza and new park on the west side of the stadium really make for a festive atmosphere, where people can gather and celebrate prior to the game. I was lucky enough to find a parking spot literally across the street and three cars down from one of the stadium’s entrances… so close that we could see it from inside the stadium.

Once we went inside, people were herded to the right, and we went up three flights of escalators to the third level of the stadium. There was still one level of seating above us, but we got a great view of the field from the south side of the building. The natural lighting coming in through the glass gives the field a different look than what I remember from the old Metrodome.

From there, the tour brought us down to the lower bowl level, in the east end zone. We were able to walk down close to field level and get a good view of the field up close. The seats were comfortable… they were made of plastic, but weren’t the hard plastic that I remember from the Metrodome.

We saw one of the more impressive views while walking back up the stairs to the main level. There is a huge video screen directly behind the back row of seats that takes up a lot of space. I took a photo and couldn’t fit the entire screen on the camera. There is another screen on the west side of the field, so everyone gets a good view at one of the video boards no matter where they are seated at the stadium.

There were only a few concession stands open, near the end of the tour, and we didn’t stop and sample any of the foods offered, but news reports show an interesting list of menu items. Of course, when you’re in a stadium, you’re going to pay stadium prices… $9 for a beer, $6 for a hot dog. Those prices are high, but not unexpected. I t will be interesting to see how things shake out during the first few events at the stadium. The first event will be next week, with a soccer match between two European teams that is expected to draw a big crowd. There are also a couple of concerts scheduled and the Vikings will have their first home exhibition game in late August. If you’re looking for a more economical and less crowded event, the Minnesota State High School League will hold the final two rounds of the soccer and football playoffs at the stadium in November, and the video boards were also advertising for a Monster Truck event coming up in December, so the new stadium will no doubt see plenty of visitors during its debut season.

* * * * * The Dakota-Rice-Scott Baseball League playoffs are underway, with the first games played Tuesday night and another round scheduled for tonight (Thursday). It was another interesting regular season for the local teams, and one team garnered plenty of attention recently.

The Webster Sox broke a 51-game league losing streak two weeks ago with a 5-4 win over the New Prague Orioles. Marcus Pleiss drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to bring home Jake McDonald with the winning run. A video of the walk and celebration made the rounds on Twitter. The losing streak also drew the attention of Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse. His first reaction to Webster’s win was “Well, there goes next week’s column,” but the veteran scribe travelled to Webster last week for the Sox’ home game against St. Benedict and wrote an interesting piece on the team that appeared in the paper this past Monday.

Webster completed the regular season with a 1-22 record and is facing Montgomery in the first round of the playoffs. New Prague High School Activities Director Brad Skogerboe, who used to teach at Montgomery- Lonsdale, recalled playing for the Montgomery Mallards a few years back when the team had a successful season and was expecting to go far in the playoffs… with state tournament hopes. Instead, the Mallards were swept by Webster in the first round of the playoffs. The Sox are hoping for a repeat performance this year.

It’s always fun covering the teams in this league. Nine of the 13 teams in the league (Elko, New Market, Webster, Lonsdale, Veseli, New Prague, Union Hill, St. Benedict and St. Patrick) have at least one New Prague High School graduate on them, and that is one reason we work hard to give plenty of coverage to these teams. Four teams from the league will head to the State Class C tournament, which will be held in Hutchinson and Dassel starting in mid-August. We’ll continue to cover these teams through the rest of the season.

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