My late June visit with Alex

Arriving at the end of June, then forgetting about it due to being distracted from other things going on like Camp NaNoWriMo and extreme stress causing me to lose interest in some things, Alex came to visit me to do a few fun things together.

There were several activities done, many of which I didn't record video for as I was more interested in stills. Getting pizza together was one case. Perhaps the activity with the greatest interest was Bonanzaville, which is arranged much like a small town only it's actually a museum. This is because it holds almost a half million artifacts ranging from farm equipment and arrow heads to electronics and stores. (Man do I wished I'd have recorded video of this!)

The next favorite was Thunder Road, a miniature theme park. Go karts, minigolf, and even the batting cage (my first time ever in a batting cage) were the main activities.

Bowling was included as well, but I had to mute the audio because the background music was rather loud and stood out too much. Plus, since the bowling was rather long, I decided on using a time lapse to mute the music. Alex got the highest score I ever saw someone doing. I'd be lucky if I broke 120 in bowling. 90 seems to be my average. Then again, when you rarely do it, it makes good sense.

From the visit, I also got to do something I haven't done in about 22 months - swimming. Detroit Lakes, in the area I was at, was more grade C.

Almost canceled due to the door being locked, I got to do something I haven't been able to for over almost 15 years - pinball. Yes, pinball. Real machines, real pinball, as opposed to digital pinball. I included 2 games. The outlanes and the "unsavable ball" are the 2 biggest issues.

Things not included in the video are that of a garden which was of poor quality due to heavy rains, a bike ride using a strange kind of bike through Lindenwood Park, and a few others.

Unfortunately, due to severe stress caused from severe financial issues, I wasn't able to feel excitement in anything and I also wasn't too happy either. However, this visit did make me a lot happier, it's just the immense stress I had at the time that later resulted in canceling my annual fireworks show.

On the last night of his stay, where I wouldn't wake up in time to see him again, I snuck out and put a thank you card on top of his belongings. He countered that with a card of his own.