The Twins, a rain delay, and a tree

One week ago today our family went to a Twins game, something we've done before, but this trip was more adventurous.

Weather reports for the evening had been dicey all day, and as we left for the game, I took a picture of what looked to be an Armageddon cloud:

I've never seen a thunderhead building almost directly overhead. Amazing.

When we got to the game, it was sunny, kind of:


It started to sprinkle, so we went under the stands for cover, and we promptly got a rain delay, even though the rain swiftly stopped. Here's why the delay:

Soon after we returned to our seats these greenish clouds came up. And then this sign came up:

So down below we went again.

The clouds were so amazing it made the Star Tribune:

Photo by Kyndell Harkness of the Star Tribune. See the jumbotron on the left? On the far right , about eight rows down, that blob of white is my family. Here's a link to the weather story.

And did it rain:


I saw a little hail too. The boys were happy. The cap Rowan is wearing comes from ice cream:

Eventually (2 hours later) the grounds crew started squeegy-ing the water into the drains on the field (who knew?), so we headed back to our seats, only after we noticed this:

Yes, a rainbow.

We were treated to a stunning sunset when we got back to our seats.

The game was amazing, after an unfortunate 1st inning home run. Later, Jim Thome hit another home run!

It was late, though. The 5th inning happened at about 11 P.M., and the boys were fading fast, so we left. The rest of the game was quick, for they were finished by the time we got home, where unfortunately we found this (photo taken the next day):


My beloved pink crabapple tree split down the middle. I loved that tree. It was mature and stunning. Apparently our town only got about 7 minutes of violent wind, but it was enough to take down our tree, which we spent Saturday morning dismembering. How beautiful was the tree? See for yourself:

Ah, well.

We'll let the stump rot out this season, have it ground down before winter, and plant another one next spring.

At least the Twins won. Woot!