Red Bull Flugtag USA!

Okay... this was about the coolest thing we have ever seen! The Red Bull Flugtag USA is a national event that hits four cities every year - this year Miami, Philadelphia, Long Beach and the Twin Cities! Teams launch themselves off a 30-foot platform into the water; in this case the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul.

We were able to watch from our boat, as the 35 teams defied gravity and sanity. Here, a B-25 replica achieves the world record for Flugtag (German for flying day) - over 200 feet! Most of the contraptions didn't do so well, or even look like flying machines at all. Teams are graded on distance, showmanship and creativity, and all of the teams do a skit to music on the platform before the launch... awesome!

To learn more, go to the Flugtag website, here.

Click on the video below to see the "Family Truckster" from the Family Vacation movie attempt to take flight!

Navy Seal Training!

Look carefully at the steely eyes... the supreme level of concentration... ...and yes - the fear! Here is a would-be Navy Seal in training on Briggs Lake, Minnesota, taking to the choppy waves on a windy day on a pair of skis.

This is courage... this - is Luke.


Up and away!

Wipeout!!!

Success!!!

Fight to the Finish!

Jack and Luke played in their final tournament this weekend. Jack's team finished 2nd overall, and Luke's team came in fourth. It was an awesome couple of days of baseball. Here are some final photos of the best that Woodbury has to offer!

Grapes Baseball!

Luke is in a big baseball tournament with his Woodbury Athletic Association Team, the Grapes! He has already been awesome as catcher - and his buddy Grayden has thrown some amazing pitches - as they took game one on their way to the championship... Go Grapes!

Regatta on the St. Croix

It was the last day of Sail Racing for Jack and Kanad... and their school - St. Croix Sailing Club - hosted the 2nd and final regatta of the season, on the river. Here, the boys lead the pack as they head for the leeward mark, spinnaker flying!

We all headed down to Afton on the boat afterwards for a beautiful dinner on the river!

234 Years!

Oh, what a night! Libby and I made it to Nancy's annual 4th of July bash on White Bear Lake, then boated over to the fireworks at 10:00 pm... it was a fantastic show!

View the Grand Finale here!

Oh Suzanna!

It was a special Independence Day for the Raymond family this year... they baptised Suzanna Jewel at St. Charles Catholic Church in St. Anthony! Libby was so proud to be the honorary God Mother, along with Christopher as the God Father. Mark hosted a super fun party at his place afterwards... thanks, Mark!

Jack on the High Seas!

Jack and his good friend Kanad headed out to their first sailing regatta of the season on Friday - all day on the metro area's largest lake, Lake Minnetonka!

The boys are part of the St. Croix Sailing program this year - and faced their former mates from the Lake Calhoun Club, as well as more than 30 420-class sloops from sailing clubs in the area.

The winds were heavy... sustained all day at 30 knots! That made for fast sailing but really rough waters by the end of the day. They raced in 5 races altogether - you can see the fatigue in their faces if you look carefully!

Luke came along on our own boat, and we chased them all over to get some good photos. He spent some time jumping off the dock at the Minnetonka Yacht Club's island facility with lots of other kids, and we toured some of the shoreline to see the mult-million dollar homes on this gorgeous lake.

Kanad's family came out on our boat too, during the windiest part of the day - and we ended up "rescuing" one of the regatta's chase boats that had broken down... we towed it all the way back to the island in some pretty heavy waves!

Great job, Jack and Kanad of Team St. Croix - the only crew from that club to last for the whole regatta in some really tough conditions!

Next week the club is host to all the clubs on the St. Croix River, not far from our house... stay tuned!

Chip's Company in the News

Minnesota Wire was recently featured on the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Business Section. The story covers our company's use of government R&D funding to help transform our product and capability base... Read the full story here.