Beach Bash

So today I was itching to get out of the office and enjoy the few days we call warm in Minnesota, while still working. Solution: I went to the Aquatennial's Beach Bash.

First of all, I HAVE to explain the Aquatennial. It is a Minneapolis festival to celebrate the "10 best days of summer."

How do they know it will be the "10 best days of summer" you ask? Who knows, because they plan it in January when it is freezing cold? My guess is at that point, any day of summer looks good to them.

Anyhoo, this was the last of the Aquatennial. They have all kinds of fun things, but my favorite was the milk carton boat races... And yes, they are exactly as they sound. All the boats are primarily made up of milk cartons. It is pretty entertaining. One boat that was winning a race I was shooting fell apart as they gained the lead. Bad for them, but definitely entertaining for everyone else.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. You can see a whole slideshow on WCCO.com (you know, that place I work:).

Enjoy the beginning of a normal person's week (aka not Maria's, who happens to get the lovely schedule of Saturday through Wednesday. The best part is my week is nearly half over).


Ten-year-old Lily Mactaggart cheers her minnow on in a minnow race. Turns out she did something right because her minnow won first place and she won a lovely (drumroll please)....... coloring book. Go Lily!



Joe Felmlee, left and Christian Nagel try to save face as their boat crumbles beneath them. They had a solid 1st-place lead up to that point, but quickly lost it.



Derek Krona, 9, searched in the 1,000,000 pennies at the "Penny Frenzy" for one with the year he was born to win a prize. It was nuts in there.
P.S. This happens to be my favorite from the event:).



This is just adorable. Two-year-old Rachel Leo was snacking on cantaloupe to keep cool, but she tried to put too many in at once. She didn't seem to mind.



All photographs copyright Maria Neels 2005