---

For a brief minute this week we saw the sun.  It seems like forever since we have had warm sunshine on our faces.  Hopefully this weekend will be warm enough and more importantly, dry enough, to get out and enjoy ourselves.  I hope you will please make time this weekend to come out to one of the many wonderful Memorial Day services taking place in Chisago County.  We have all of the services listed on page 11 along with a ton of great advertisers who proudly sponsor the page.  Is the weekend long? Yes, but that offers you a chance to pay homage to the men and women who have fought and served our wonderful country.  If you go, you will be in for a somber ceremony, but that is on purpose. These brave men and women deserve nothing but the utmost respect and Monday is our chance to show just that. I hope to see you there.

If you are looking for something fun and inexpensive to do over this weekend, we have something for you.  Grab your paddle and kayak and take part in the annual Memorial Day Paddle.  It is a chance to see our local lakes in a more serene way than using a motor.  

They have broken the paddle into three levels, the grand route, the scenic paddle and the easy paddle. The grand route covers six lakes with three portages. Paddlers will meet at 8:30 am at Ojiketa Regional Park. The scenic paddle covers two lakes with one stop.  Paddlers will meet at 9 am at Ki Chi Saga Park on Glader Avenue in Lindstrom.    The easy paddle lasts about an hour and will meet behind Pizza Pub at 10:30 am.  

Each route will pick up with other paddlers and eventually end up at Allemansratt Park for lunch.  Remember to bring water, sunscreen, bug spray and a life jacket.  Make sure to bring a picnic lunch for the park and a dessert to share with your fellow paddlers.  Should be a great day.

Wild Mountain is convinced warmer weather is here to stay. They are officially opening the water park Saturday.  That means your kids (or adults, I have been there many times) can begin having fun on the slides, the go-carts and the alpine slide.  I knew summer was getting close.

As a parent of a child who is going to a concert this weekend, you can imagine the lump in my throat when I saw the horrific images from Manchester. A bomb or bombs exploded at a concert that was filled with young adults and children.  I believe there are 22 confirmed dead.

What is this world coming to? How can the world change so much so fast?  I am middle aged, and I can’t ever remember anything like this from my youth, taking place.  The world has changed. Our present lives now include looking out for terrorism.

Sometimes when I gaze at my kids (usually on their phones) I think “What have I brought them into in this world?”  When we had kids, we envisioned the world such as it was in 1995. The world in no way resembles that today.

---