Captain's Blog 8/8/08 with Guest Blog

Hi Aquatannial-ites (I kind of like the title now...it may stick)! I was going to wait until next week but Rob decided to fill in some gaps and I might as well do the same.

First, here's Rob's update from what he was up to last weekend and then stay tuned because we had a very interesting evening in New Brighton!

Now, Heeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeeeee's Rob!


I'm back. Sorry for not posting anything else during Aqua week like I said I would. Lindsey seemed to capture the essence of it perfectly, so I figured anything I added would just be static. Well, as Lindsey said yesterday, Aquatennial week is over and honestly, everything has returned pretty much to normal. Looks like my marriage survived. Ha Ha. Before I go any further, I need to thank my wife Amy for being the greatest wife a guy could ask for. As you all know, June and July were very hectic months for us, and I was not home much. When you do not have any children, and you are always together, when one of you is not around, it can get pretty lonely. And as Amy says about me, "Your are my child!" So, THANK YOU dear for being so supportive!

Ok, back to queen and princess world. Wednesday, July 30 it was off to Red Wing! I picked up the new princess, Jaclyn, around 3:15 and we hit the road to Red Wing. As this was my first event with Jaclyn, it was time to find out more about her. So we talked and talked. Ok honestly, I asked question after question. She must have felt like she was being interrogated. It wasn't that bad, but I needed to get to know her. Honestly guys...she's awesome! She has a quick wit about her, LOVES Minneapolis, loves fashion, loves shoes (she has hundreds), went to Spain with a suitcase weighing 35 lbs and came back with it weighing 58 lbs (all shoes). I discovered she is going to the Macy's fashion show, Glamorama (so's my wife and sister-in-law) I told her to watch out for those 2. We laughed a lot. We pulled into Mississippi Dunes around 4:30 (yes, i drove the speed limit), where we met up with Commodore Mary and Queen Tara. We sat with one of the candidates, Samantha Beng's family. They were very nice. Wonderful dinner and small program by the reigning royalty and the candidates. Not sure if you all know this, but Miss Red Wing, Keyana Silverburg, had just come off a week of being a candidate for Queen of the Lakes. so it was good to see her again.

Jaclyn and Miss Red Wing Keyana Silverburg

So it was off to the Coronation, and who should we run into at the coronation? One of my favorite festival representatives! Cambridge! For those of you who don't know, Cambridge has a pretty amazing program. Their coordinator Laurie Solle, is an amazing woman, she has been involved with the Cambridge program for over 20 years, and you can feel just how passionate she is about it from the moment you meet her. She always has a camera, and is always getting great pictures. One thing I discovered about her that day was that she takes pictures of everyone, and creates flash cards and quizzes her ambassadors with them. Wow, how cool! And, of course, when you see Laurie, you know the 3 Cambridge Ambassadors will be near! And there they were, Renita, Nicole and Hanna. How did I know they were there? They yelled my name! Gotta love it! After a round of hugs, and questions about the new Queen and Princesses, it was off to my seat.

Captain Rob, the Cambridge Ambassadors, Nicole, Renita, and Hanna,
Queen Tara, Princess Jaclyn, and Commodore Mary

Ahhh, the coronation, great production, lots of music by Madonna! Which worked for me. oh, by the way, guess what? I finally picked a winner! Leah Wipperling was crowned Miss Red WIng! We took a picture with the new royalty, but it was blurry...so no pic.

Then it was off to the Elks club, (boy it was getting late) where we made the round and said hi to everyone. and then off to home.

Now the drive back to Minneapolis, was a lot of fun, because, along with Jaclyn, I had Queen Tara in the car. It was her turn to get the Star Chamber treatment. The verdict? AWESOME!!

Saturday came up pretty quickly, and it was off to the Pine County Fair Parade. Now I don't know what was in the air on Saturday, but there had to be something. I also had issues finding where I needed to go! I swear Jaclyn and I went up and down the main street in Pine City 6 times. Anyways, we found where we needed to go for the reception and headed in. This was Jaclyn and my first event going solo, so there was a little nervousness. Not to worry though, we walked in, and went to work mingling. You should have seen Jaclyn work the room! We met everyone and chit chatted until it was time for the parade. Great parade too, everyone was waving and hollering. I love that.

Oh, i forgot to tell you, when we were in Red Wing, Laurie from Cambridge invited Jaclyn and I to dinner after the Pine County Fair Parade. We accepted Then it was off to dinner with the Cambridge Coordinators, Laurie and Lynette, and the ambassadors, Nicole, Renita and Hanna. We had a great time getting to know everyone even more. Lots of laughs. Again a big thank you to Laurie for inviting us!

Sunday it was off to Silver Lake for Pola Czesky Days with Queen Tara. We met at my place and we were off to Silver Lake, via Glencoe. Seriously, when are they going to open up Highway 7. I am sure I asked Tara a ton of questions about herself again. I wonder what my record for consecutive questions asked was this past week? We pulled into Silver Lake and found the Community Center no problem (must have just been the air on Saturday). What a wonderful town. They had big tents and a trailer set up by the community center. I mentioned to Tara that I smelled a street dance. (yup...it started at 4). We found a parking spot on the street and were walking up to the community center, when i laid my eyes on the biggest porta potty I have ever seen. RIght in the middle of the street. I kid you not! It was huge!!! I was so stunned I had to take a picture of it

Sorry, but i still can't believe it!

Anyways, we walked in and ran right into the reigning Pola-Czesky Queen, Sara Mickolichek.

Rob, Sara and Tara (Notice the little black dress on Tara)

She joined us a Aquatennial as a Midwest Queen. So we chatted about her experience at Aquatennial and how much fun she had. It is so wonderful meeting these young women right after they have attended Aquatennial, you can just sense what a great time they had, without them saying anything. I mentioned above to notice the Little Black Dress on Tara. If you were at Meet the Candidates during Aquatennial week, you know what I am talking about. Tara was dressed in a little black Dress and her speech was about Audrey Hepburn and the dress. But the real cool thing, is that after the Aqua Coronation and we took the new royalty back to the hotel, Chirstine Scherping (she does all the shopping for the royalty) had bought Tara the dress you see above. How ironic! Anyways, we had a wonderful lunch and a short program. Then it was off to the parade, where we met up with our driver Bob. Another great parade. tons of smiles and waves. We walked around the park afterwards, and then it was off to coronation. Again, it was a great coronation. Now those of you who have seen me speak at coronations know I like to go off of a script. Well, this time I had everything ready, but i free-styled it! Yay! But, enough about me. Tara knocked it out of the park! She was awesome, she had them laughing and cheering! I think she was born with a microphone in her hand!

Us with the new Pola-Czesky Royalty

On our way out we ran in to the new Hutchinson royalty, and chatted with them for a bit. Then it was time to head home. That's all I have for now, but I have to tell you, it was a great first week with the new Queen and Princess. Until next time

Thanks Rob!

Now, here's a quick update on what's happened since...Princess Jaclyn and I were off to New Brighton on Thursday night for the Stockyard Days Parade. Kind of a country theme so lots of cowboy hats, boots and country music. Except for us, of course, because we don't dress up like that in parades. You'll always see Aquatennial wearing the same uniform. Kind of our trademark.

Princess Jaclyn Auger and Me

Now, Thursday night is typically golf night for Captain Rob and I...at least it was up until this year! Rob was off golfing so I borrowed Amy, his wife, to drive us in the parade. Actually, I shouldn't say borrowed because I really appreciate her help. She is a great friend and I'm glad she came with. We always have fun and this was no exception!

Amy feeling the Cowboy Spirit!

We arrived early like we always do so we have time to walk the parade lineup and see old friends, meet new ones and basically, mingle. We were also joined by our brand new Aquatennial Senior Ambassadors Dave, Don, Gwendolyn and Lynn. It was nice to finally see them and get to know them.

Senior Queen Lyn Henderson and Senior Princess Gwendolyn Jefferson

First stop, find Cambridge.

Now, I've told you about them before (and Rob just did) so you know all about them and, of course, Laurie. They were wearing black cowboy hats, black western vests and black boots. They were all very cute, as always. Every time we run into them, they're so excited to see us. And the feeling is mutual. When we went by them later in the parade all three yelled "we love you Lindsey!" which would embarrass me under normal circumstances....but after this year, what the hell. Go with it.

This is what we'd look like if you were the backseat of a convertible

We also saw our friends from the Winter Carnival. Well, most of them. We went back to where they were lined up and it was like a West Wind reunion or something. And that means LOTS of guys with guns. My ears are still ringing.

Here comes trouble....from L-R, Brooke, Erin, Natalie, Erin and Nicole
The Winter Carnival Struts its stuff!

Princess Jaclyn got to shoot one of them, thanks to former West Wind Roger who basically finds anyone he can with a crown and lets them shoot the gun and take a photo. I have a feeling it is so he ends up in every single slide show and every single coronation in the state. And it works. Good for him (Roger and wife Joni Kruse, by the way, are on the Anoka Board and they do a ton of great work for that community as well as many around the state....they are really a lot of fun and we're looking forward to Halloween!).

It was the first time I've been around a lot of the Winter Carnival crew in a while...my appearances have been to the west so much this summer and they stick to the east and north much of the time. It was great to see them again. The four Wind Princesses are all really fun and they all looked terrific decked out in the old-west style dresses!

Bryan Johnson of the Winter Carnival Guards...I think I was first

We visited with other royalty including Columbia Heights, St. Paul Park and Oak Grove. Fun to see them...again, we haven't run into them much this summer so it's always good to meet new people. We did see the Anoka Royal Ambassadors as we were heading down the parade route....didn't get a chance to talk to them though which bums me out. Like Cambridge, we get to see them a lot and they have become terrific friends of ours.

Jaclyn and I with Oak Grove and Columbia Heights

Now, the parade in New Brighton is a good one...lots of people (including my Mom's cousin Jeff who had NO idea I was doing this....I think I spooked him) and a great turnout on a beautiful night. There was one stretch of the parade though, that I thought was interesting. We went by a large group of people and I commented to Jaclyn and Amy that it looked like a tailgate party. They were having a LOT of fun.

After the parade, we stopped on the side of the street to take off our car signs and get set to head back downtown to get some food and drop Jaclyn off on campus. Before that, we wanted to say goodbye to the senior ambassadors so Jaclyn and I walked over to their car. Trouble.

They had somehow managed to drain the battery. They couldn't get the top of the convertible up and the car wouldn't even turn over. Do you know how hard it is to find jumper cables on a parade route? Didn't think so. Well, it's hard.

Senior Vice-Commodore Don Lucas with a dead battery and
Me looking under a hood...that's never a good thing

Finally, the folks from Lino Lakes came through and they had some. We pulled our convertible up to theirs and after a couple of minutes, got their car going. Another adventure along the parade route.

Success! Just another day at the office!

So, that was it....off we went, half starving, to get food and take Jaclyn home. Another day, another parade!

Talk to you after we hit Winsted on Sunday and then Cokato on Tuesday.

Lindsey Peterson
2008 Aquatennial Captain