Troy Lightfield

The Blue Door Pub  is in St. Paul, MN, on Selby Avenue and is honestly one of our favorite place go for a burger. It’s a pretty small place and you’re almost always guaranteed a wait, but well worth it.  When I say small, I mean small, their bar maybe seats 5-6 people max and there probably aren’t more than 10 tables in the place. But that is definitely part of the attraction. It’s not your run of the mill restaurant where you get lost just trying to get back from the bathroom.

The Blue Door Pub offers their own version of a Juicy Blucy, a hamburger filled with all sorts of cheesy goodness! They always have a good selection to choose from and plenty of other items on the menu if you’re not into hamburgers. If you do decide to make it to The Blue Door I STRONGLY suggest you give their beer-battered green beans a try! By far the best I have ever had. And why not take something very health and dip it in beer batter?! You’re just asking for all kinds of de-lic-ousness.

The Blue Door, Great Neighborhood Pub!

The Blue Door also keeps a nice selection of beers on tap and you can almost bet one will be a selection from local brewer Surly (also a fan).  All in all, one of the better dining experiences as long as your looking to get back to the basics of having a nice cold pint of beer, a great atmosphere, and a wonderful burger and you’re in St. Paul, stop in! Tell them Troy sent ya and you will most definitely be greeted with a confused yet polite, “WHO?!”.

Popularity: 73% [?]

Sakatah Lake State Park is located just about 1 hour south of the Twin Cities, far enough out to not hear the sound of traffic but close enough so come back the same day if you just weren’t cut out to be an outdoors man!

Sakatah Lake State Park has 62 camp sites, 14 with electric, 2 group camps which accommodate 50 people, 5 bike in sites and one camper cabin. There are showers and restrooms throughout the camp loops and I would consider them pretty good for a campsite. The showering and restroom facilities seemed to be fairly updated and were kept clean and free of any major smells.

The campsites are ok, at first we weren’t real sure where we were going to set up our tents. There weren’t any sand tent spots that we noticed and certainly wasn’t one at our spot. But, once we cleared a few twigs we found room to set up our two tents on fairly level ground.

Sakatah Lake State Park sits along side Sakatah Lake (obvious!?) but the shore line is fairly rocky and full of trees. So not much place to walk the shoreline. There is a fishing pier and public boat access both close to the camp sites. Not that we caught any but there is suppose to be walleye, large mouth and white bass, northern pike, and panfish in the lake.

The park rangers were polite and friendly but maybe a little overbearing.  Seemed to drive through a lot and didn’t take much for them to stop and talk or let you know the rules. We weren’t breaking any mind you but they were really worried about the large log that was half burned sitting in our site (there when we got there). We were using it to tie of the dogs to but were asked to throw it back to nature once and the second time the ranger stopped he just politely offered to take it.

Sakataha Singing Hills State Trail runs through Sakataha Lake Park and runs 39 miles from Fairbault to Mankato. The trail is paved and offers a beautiful trek through the park and hardwoods.

Other things to note about the park: firewood available $4, ice available (not sure price), canoes for rent, closes town is Waterville for grocery or dining and there is also a gift shop in the office of the park. Park entrance is located on State Highway 60, 14 miles east of Faribault, or one mile east of State Highways 13 and 60 in Waterville.

Popularity: 83% [?]

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Popularity: 65% [?]

Sarah, Waylon and I took a trip across sunny South Dakota over memorial weekend. This would be Sarah’s maiden voyage across the great state! Nine hours in a car, one way, with Troy. Yes, those of you that know me understand the ride this can be.  It went well though and no one got hurt.
Once there, Sarah got to see the craft shop, also known as mom and dad’s house. My mom loves her crafts!

We also visited my grandparents and unfortunately it was in the hospital where my grandpa was with an infection in his arm.  But least we got to visit them for a while.

We also went out prarie dog hunting one day with my brother, mom and dad. I think this was Sarah’s sole reason for wanting to go! We had a great time and Sarah got to see some of my aunt and uncles ranch and all it’s beauty. Hope we get back soon, I do miss good ole South Dakota.

Popularity: 71% [?]

In the middle of May we took our first camping trip of the year. It feel below 40 degrees and was rainy bu we managed and had a great time.  We got checked in Friday afternoon, got camp set up and then headed to Austin, MN for Sarah’s sisters graduation.  Returning to our camp around 11PM we were in no mood to do much but find out way to our sleeping bags. Morning came and we almost didn’t want to leave the tents because of the temperature! After getting a fire going and the camp stove fired up we started to thaw out.

The rest of the weekend was spent hiking, exploring, searching for morel mushrooms, eating, a little fishing and of course making and eating plenty of smores.  We headed out Sunday and it wasn’t 5 minutes into the trip back and kids and dogs were sound to sleep. Check out our camping photo gallery.

Read our review of  Sakatah Lake State Park if your thinking about speading a weekend there.

Popularity: 86% [?]