So far, the cold 8 months of the year we call Winter has been very unusual.  We didn’t get our first hard freeze until October.  We didn’t see any snow until December.  I’m not sure the temperature has dropped below zero yet.

Last year at this time, we’d had snow for almost 2 months and it was two feet deep.  One end of our alley was snowed in until mid-April, and it was really cold.

The other day, we found out that my brother and sister-in-law are in town, so we went out to dinner at Ngon Vietnamese Bistro, which was fantastic.  Two things to try when you go there:  Braised Pork Belly appetizer and Ribeye Pho.  Both were really good.

My sister-in-law, Marit, is a photographer (http://www.maritclphotography.com) and she offered to do a photo shoot with Liz and me.  We went down by the Mississippi River at Harriet Island in Saint Paul.

Maybe I’ll add some pictures from that photo shoot later on.  We’ll see…

We walked along the riverfront and were struck by how smooth the river was.  It was like glass. I’ve never seen it like this before.  It’s notable that there was no snow, the river wasn’t iced over (anymore), and it wasn’t blisteringly cold.

Here’s a video of what we saw down by the river:

If you want to check out Marit’s photos, visit her website — http://www.maritclphotography.com or follow her on Twitter @MaritCLphoto.