Minnstf Picnic went great!

Yesterday we had the first Minnstf Picnic since The Before Times, and it was a great success!  35 people signed in, which qualifies as a Large Meeting in my estimation. 

Thanks so much to our indefatigable hostess, Linda L, who applied a great deal of imagination and effort to the project. Her most remarkable innovation was 21 pre-made bag lunches, EACH ONE HAND LABELED WITH ALL INGREDIENTS!  Yikes! There was a grill going and other people brought snacks so there was plenty to eat.  spiderplanet graciously lent two of her lovely drink carafes so there was ice water and lemonade as well as the ubiquitous pop. I am falling in love with those carafes and seriously thinking of buying a couple myself, as I have been unable to find any in the trash. 

We rented one of the more historically interesting (and expensive!) picnic shelters in the Minneapolis Parks system: the historic Beards Pleasance Pavilion (designed by the inimitable Harry Wilde Jones and built in 1904). It's a bit primitive by modern standards, but stately and sturdy and beautifully situated on the site to catch the lake breezes. Because of the cost we only rented it for a half day (4-10pm) but that turned out to be plenty of time. Linda brought a few lamps for the last hour of gaming, which was a good idea. However, the gamers were resistant to the idea that it was going to get dark and started their last game in a location that left them finishing up in what certainly looked like "dark" to me, so the lamps only got used during the packing up phase of the picnic. Still a nice idea, and one that extends the usefulness of the afternoon shift in the park rental calendar.

The only picture I remembered to take was this remarkably mediocre one of the gaming tables. It doesn't really catch the full ambiance of the picnic gathering, but does give you an idea what the shelter looks like.