Arrived in New Orleans!

It sure has been a stressful couple of days, but everything is great now. We came into town on Friday having not seen our apartment yet...and then found ourselves moving into a dirty crap hole in the middle of an incredible neighborhood full of amazing neighbors. Yet, after the stress of hating the place and wondering what we were going to do because we didn't want to move in, everything worked out perfectly. The people living right next door to us are moving out, so we're moving right next door in September. The place that we will be moving into is gorgeous and we can't wait to move in and spend the next two years making it our home. Also, all of the neighbors have been so wonderful and friendly. Lindsey and I can't get over how lucky we were to find such an amazing place to live.


We stopped in Chicago to see Mat and Karen, it was a lot of fun to see them but I wish we had more time to spend in the windy city. We ate some Chicago pizza and had a great time going out for one night before we hit the road the next morning.


Well, it wasn't super fun driving the stupid truck down with the car hooked to the back. In this scenario, I almost got us stuck in a Taco Bell, but I went over the curb and smashed my way through the drive-thru. I also went through a few red lights in the city of New Orleans, almost hit a truck in the city, and hit countless curbs. Lindsey managed to nail some curbs and cruised down the rumble strip.


Truck driver Binzer


Baldwin the map reader.

This one is for Becky.

Our new home state!

This was a house right on the Bayou off I10, it was crazy to see the landscape change so quickly right after we crossed in Louisiana.


Here's our new home! We are currently living in the crappy pink one, but will be moving into the blue one in a month. We can't wait to move and start unpacking. There's still no power in the pink house we're in right now so we're spending a lot of time at our friend Emily's place about ten minutes away from ours. We've have a great time the past two days. We've eaten some incredible food, seen some music, and it's hot as hell. We're both really excited to start exploring the city over the course of our next two years here.

Last Days in Minnesota

We're about to start our drive down to our new home in New Orleans tomorrow (which we haven't seen yet). We're all packed up and really excited to start, especially because we'll be stopping in Chicago along the way to see our friends Mat and Karen. Then, next week we're flying to New York to hang with the Central New York crew before we start life in N'awlins'. So, here are some pics of our last week in Minnesota.

Joey in a bucket: Pike River Bathtub

First family picture with everybody in it!

Family fire tower trip

Lindz and Becky on a stroll through the woods to the fire tower.

Lindz and I on the fire tower outside of Soudan, in Northern, MN

Joey and Derek in Canal Park

Shelley, Joey, and Derek looking at a pier.

Derek threw a suprise party for Shelley's B-day and it was super fun, these all are of Shelley's work buddies.

I finally got to see them, the Finnish reggae band Conga Se Menne! They were playing at Ely's Blueberry Festival.

Here's the Aysta clan enjoying the rocking Finnish reggae.

Well, we're off tomorrow on another one of our adventures. Thanks so much to everybody for helping us pack and making Minnesota such a great home for the past year or so. We'll miss you Minnesota!!

Summertime Fun

The photos are all out of order and it keeps underlining! I'm not very skilled at this!!! binzerAuntie Susie, thanks for the solar shower you got me years ago!!!
Brian got McNasty on his portage-the Burmese skirt is soaked with mud and the bugs loved it!
After portaging....the bugs were horrific in the swamp!
Brian learns to portage the canoe.....



Honeymoon shot.....
Only the best of the best can teach Bri how to portage....No, no Binzer is spelt with one "i"
I even taught him to portage vertically.
Blue herons nesting behind the cabin!!!!

This is a portage-notice on the right...if you keep going straight in the canoe-it's over and into a massive waterfall!



This was a portage that Brian had to walk through with the canoe on his head-not pretty!!!!




We are now officially jobless. Here's Bri and his co-workers when they were out on a project up North, GPSing manhole covers and water shut off valves. I believe several people referred to them as "The Ghost Busters." We'll miss you Duluth!
Every year, the Burgess family reunites in Tower for the Tower 4th of July parade. This year, we showed Brian what the 4th is all about!



So, many of you may recognize our two friends from the wedding...Three weeks ago, our wonderful friend, Amanda, who sang at the wedding, surprised us, saying she was driving up from Chicago to visit. We came home from work, and received a message, "I'm coming up! I'll be there by 8!" We were pretty pumped to see Amanda before she embarks on an adventure in teaching in Burma this year. When she arrived, she asked Brian to help pull out her suitcase from the trunk...and who should pop out, but Chris Cimino from the trunk, Brian's good buddy from high school in New York (who played guitar to Oh Happy Day at the wedding.) Cimino had a layover in Chicago for a short two days and he hooked up with Amanda, whom he met at the wedding and they together drove up 8 hours to surprise us for two nights of fun! We were pumped to be able to see Mr. Cimino before he leaves to teach this year in Japan!

SAUNA TIME!
The Burgess boat kicked the Cebelinski's boats' butt at the Floatilla on July 4th! (For those of you who don't know, it's the largest water ballon, water fight on Lake Vermillion!)
We went on our honeymoon, and I was able to stop by and visit my wilderness camp I worked at for two summers. We stayed a night in a cabin..of course, no electricity and my old bunk, and we met the new staff. It was so nice to be up there after 5 years of hiatus!


It's almost time for the Binzer and I to jump in our Penske ( Uhaul ) truck and head down to New Orleans. We're moving next week on Wednesday...and still don't have a place yet! So, this week is all about packing and also looking for a place. We're not in freakout mode yet, but it could be here on Friday. We also just bought tickets to fly to New York to see my family! We'll be flying out of New Orleans on August 5th and then return to our new home in time for me to start my job in the middle of August.

So, we've got a lot of pictures from this summer; The 4th, our Honeymoon canoe trip, hanging out at the cabin, and such. Enjoy!

We took a side trip to see pictographs-this is of two men and a war canoe-they think it was from a massacre 500 years ago.

Binzer B-day!

We had a nice little weekend going up to the cabin and taking binzer out to dinner (her favorite place on earth...Sir G's) for her birthday. Happy 26th hon!


I'm already corrupting Joey. We stopped and put some spinning rims on the Expedition shortly after this shot.


The best place on earth!!...but you're only allowed to order one thing or you're forever labeled as 'the different one'.

Joey was more looking at the fire than helping with the candles. Happy B-Day...to you!

Fishing on Memorial Day

This past Memorial Day weekend we went up to Lindsey parent's cabin on the lake and did some fishing. While we were supposed to start reeling in walleyes before the line hit the water according to Paul (that didn't happen unfortunately), Lindsey did manage to catch a 26 1/2 inch walleye and a Northern Pike a few inches smaller. She caught them right off the end of the dock, it was pretty impressive.

I managed to catch at least 4 crayfish, 1 foot long perch, and a smaller walleye. I thought Lindsey's fish was going to eat mine.

Oh, and Minnesotan fish don't like bread as much as New York fish apparently do.

Also, if you didn't know yet, Lindsey and I will be moving to New Orleans in about two months! It sure is coming up quick. We'll both be going back to school, myself for a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning and Lindsey for the same in Social Work. We're both really excited and can't wait to explore a new place. This sure has been one crazy year though, China to Minnesota, and now off to New Orleans.

Paul! Look Out! I'm still playing with our new camera, and this snake was sure fun to take some close up pictures of when he was squirming around near the lake.

Damn! That's a big fish. The ones I caught were about as big as it's head.

Joey telling some raunchy jokes.

Joey and Auntie Binzer.

Our Wedding!

It's official, we're the worst bloggers of all time and we're also married now! It's taken us a month to get pictures of our own wedding on the site. Well, here they are finally! The wedding was on April 26th and it was just spectacular. We had such a great time hanging out at the lodge and seeing everybody that made it. I can't believe it snowed, but even that helped to make the weekend even more memorable. Thanks to all who made it.

If you didn't see the 'official' pictures yet, you can look at our photographers website and go through most of the ones he took. You have to register, but it takes about three seconds. Well, I can't find the link...but I'll try to get it on here soon.