Pokémon
- Arrived at Crosby Lofts just before 9pm.
- Walked around Crosby and explored Lake and Company store that was open late.
- Jamie gets coffee at Mixed Company.
- Jamie working remote for the morning.
- Tammy goes on a run.
- Mazie goes on a run.
- Tammy and kids get donuts at Mac Daddy’s Donut Garage. Bring back for Jamie.
- Kids and Tammy go to beach at Serpent Lake to swim and read.
- Lunch at Drunken Noodle.
- Get rental bikes at Red Raven.
- Mountain bike the Gallooping Goose “easy” trail.
- Return bikes.
- Post-ride smoothies at Red Raven.
- Dinner at Hudson Smokehouse.
- Walked to High Wheel Confectionary and indulged in shopping and sugar.
- Walked around Crosby while Mazie was incapacitated due to sugar overload.
- Mazie and Tyler walk to playground to check it out.
- Tammy goes on a run.
- Jamie to Red Raven.
- Tammy joins at Red Raven.
- Mazie goes on a run.
- Tyler on raids for Pokémon GO Fest 2024 (Global).
- All meet at Crosby Farmers Market: scones, jams, maple syrup, cinnamon rolls, kombucha, homemade Nutella, chocolate dipped mangoes.
- Shopping in Crosby: Nord Hus, Smith + Trade, Crosby Pharmacy, Cuyuna Outfitters.
- Jamie and Tyler walk to lake while Mazie tries on lots of clothes at Cuyuna Outfitters.
- Lunch at Burritos California and beer at Cuyuna Brewing.
- Mazie and Tammy find treasures at Common Goods thrift store.
- Went to Pennington boat launch to go on water with kayaks from Cuyuna Outfitters. Mazie and Tammy on clear kayaks. Tyler on paddle board. Jamie on fishing kayak.
- Paddle from 3 to 7p, cover about 3 miles. Nice time. Lots of jumping in water.
- Dinner at Rafferty’s Pizza.
- Return trip to High Wheel Confectionary for ice cream!
- Tammy, Mazie, and Tyler walk back to Crosby Lofts.
- Mazie and Tyler hang at the playground
- Jamie drives the car back.
- Jame heads to Red Raven for morning blogging and coffee.
- Tammy and Mazie on a walk and meet Jamie at Red Raven.
- Brunch at Croft Pub & Grub.
- Head home.
- Pack up suitcases for journey home
- Breakfast at hotel
- Taxi to Florence Airport
- Tyler forgets Pokémon gifts in airport at another gate and runs back and is able to recover them right before we board. 😳
- KLM 1642 City Hopper flight to Amsterdam
- Flight delayed over 40 mins due to baggage loading issues. Anxious with an already short transfer to next flight.
- Another Amazing Race experience as we dashed from the Cityhopper late arrival to gate D47 with only 25 minutes to departure. Cleared passport control on super-fast-cut-in-front-of-everyone and were the last four welcomed onto the plane by the KLM gate agent waving us along! 🏃🏼♀️🏃🏼♂️🏃🏼♀️🏃🏼♂️
- Delta 165 to Minneapolis landed at 5p CT
- Lyft ride home
- Home Sweet Home!
At today’s Minnesota Card Show I built my Alakazam and Perrserker collections. Tyler loves collecting and it is a fun thing to do together.
When I played D&D I was always a Wizard hence the connection with Alakazam.
My lineage is very Nordic, hence Perrserker, a Viking Pokémon.
LEGO and Pokémon announced that they are launching a multi-year partnership in 2026. This is going to mint an incredible amount of revenue for both companies. 💰 Consider how many of these sets will be bought and never even opened for collectors. 😲
Tyler and I took another try at the Elite Pokémon Gacha Machine tonight. We took a first pull and got a 2022 #239 Japanese Cynthia’s Ambition PSA 10. We weren’t excited about that card and accepted the buyback making $3.55 USDC. Then we went again and got a 2006 #047 Deoxys Holo PSA 10! 🥳
Venusaur Holo
I had never heard of a Gacha before but I was intrigued when Collector Crypt sent an announcement about the Elite Pokémon Gacha Machine. I forwarded it to Tyler to investigate.
The gist is you pay a fixed amount and get a random card with a minimum value. Collector Crypt does this all on the Solana blockchain. We decided to give it a whirl and pulled a Venusaur Holo (1996) with a near-mint 8 PSA rating.
Tyler digs Collector Crypt because they have good Pokémon cards. I dig it for that and that it is a great use of NFT’s and smart contracts. The transaction for this Gacha machine is a complicated one with seventeen different steps.
We will likely “burn” the NFT and have Collector Crypt ship us the nearly 30 year old card.
Cuyuna Weekend 2024
We wrapped up a very fun weekend in Crosby exploring the Cuyuna area. Here is what the weekend covered.
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Switzerland & Italy Log - Day 17
Weather: Warm morning in Florence. Airports fine.
Jump to day 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 or Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.
We stopped in at SI Hobby in downtown Faribault for their grand opening today! Tyler got a few Pokémon card packs. We arrived about 10 minutes after they opened the doors and there was already a good crowd of people there. 👍
How is it possible that LEGO and Pokémon haven’t created a collection of kits? People would buy them like crazy, and both companies would make a bunch of revenue. 🤷🏼♂️💸