Sorry to have “dropped off the face of the earth” here.  We went on vacation and I had hoped to blog from my Nook.  It didn’t work out.  Chet and I spent a few days together up on the North Shore of Minnesota/Lake Superior.  We did some hiking, bird watching (very few to be seen) and spent a day up in Canada.  We checked out some fun new restaurants and enjoyed some beautiful scenery and time away together.  Then we were joined by our close friends (and frequent travel buddies!) and spent more time visiting state parks, hiking, canoeing in the Boundary Water Canoe Area (yes, I tipped the canoe and we took a little unexpected dip in some pristine Canadian waters!) , riding ATVs, and just generally enjoying some down time from our very busy lives!  We spent our last day/night in Duluth and toured the Glensheen Estate and stayed in a very cool hotel with a view of the aerial lift bridge.  It’s pretty spectacular all lit up at night!  As always, communication is something on my mind, even on vacation.  The day we rode ATVs (my first time!) we stopped for a short break along the trail and got off and stretched our legs.  Chet was taking a couple of photographs and I asked him to take one of me on the machine.  I just wanted him to snap a shot when I was back on so I’d have a pic of that!  He said ok, but I thought it was odd that he didn’t take one right away.  I figured he’d just do it later.  When we finished riding I specifically asked him to take the picture again since he still hadn’t done it.  Didn’t think anymore about it until the next morning.  We were having coffee on the deck and he was telling me about how he had been working at taking photos of me along the trail but it was pretty difficult to ride and snap photos at the same time.  Chet was behind me in the line of ATVs so he was taking pics of me riding from the back.  I had no idea this was going on!  I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to see those 🙂 Turns out that when I asked him to take a picture of me on the machine, he thought I wanted “action” shots of me riding the thing!  Once we figured out what had happened, he told me that if there’s ever a time that I ask him to do something and then think he behaves in a way that is “odd” or “unexpected” that should be a good clue that there might be some miscommunication going on and we should clarify.  I agreed.  That is a good rule of thumb.  I also added one of my own…..if there’s ever I time that he thinks that I asked him to photograph me from the backside, that should be a good clue that there might be some miscommunication going on and we should clarify!  With the exception of a possible before and after weight loss photo, there is NEVER going to be a time that I will ASK him to photograph me from that view!!!!!  LOL