High School Football

Nothing like going to watch the youngsters toss the old pigskin around! Plymouth has 2 great high schools: Armstrong and Wayzata. Here are their schedules for the upcoming season.

Armstrong High School Football Schedule 2013

8/29 7pm @Maple Grove

9/6 7pm Blaine

9/13 5pm @Centennial

9/20 7pm @osseo

9/27 7pm Park Center

10/4 7pm @Elk River

10/11 7pm Totino Grace

10/25 7pm Playoffs

Wayzata High School Football Schedule 2013

8/29 7pm @Rosemont

9/6 8pm @Lakeville S.

9/12 7pm Anoka

9/27 6pm @Hopkins

10/4 7pm Edina

10/11 7pm @Eden Prairie

10/16 7pm Minnetonka

10/25 7pm Playoffs

Go for a Swim!

Calvin Wilks is ready for a swim at one of plymouth's beaches. You know you are too!

Summer is great here in Plymouth. One of the best ways to get out and enjoy it is swimming! Lifetime fitness has a great pool with big waterslides and an indoor pool too! But you do have to pay to use it 7.25 for adults and 3.50 for kids, that’s a special rate for Plymouth residents.  New Hope pool is also great with high dives and the classic outdoor pool vibe. However that pool closes on August 18.

The indoor pool at life time is sweet.

In my opinion swimming in one of Plymouths 8 lakes is way better anyways. It’s completely free of course and there are many well maintained beach areas.  The lakes are safe and clean, even though they’re real murky. 

The pavilion and beach at West Medicine Lake Park! A great place to swim, barbeque or pop wheelies on Radio Flyers

The best beach in Plymouth is West Medicine Lake Park. Its scenic and comfortable, the water stays shallow for quite a ways, there is a great playground, and a basketball court with a tall hoop and a short hoop so you can show off your best slam dunks. Another nice thing about this beach is it has an area where you can pull boats up and park them on the beach. You’ll always see plenty of fishermen at this park fishing both in the lake and on the little pond behind the park.

The Beach at West Medicine Lake Park, Nicest on the Lake.

Other good swimming areas:

French Park, good beach, but you have to park way up at the playground and ride a little shuttle train thing down to the beach, which is actually kind of fun.

East Medicine Lake Park: Nice but in a weird place by all these mechanical buildings, also windiest side of the lake.

Parkers Lake Park: This place is nice but last I saw it was completely underwater due to high water levels.  The Trick Water Ski Show by “Shockwaves” takes place at this park and its totally sweet.

Or Your Backyard:

Well there’s just a small sampling enjoy ‘em while you still can!

Storm Damage

This post isn't so much of a suggestion of something to do. Its more of an acknolegement that Plymouth weather is wild, and if you plan on spending any ammount of time in Plymouth: BE READY. If what I heard on the radio yesterday is accurate, the President delclared us a FEMA Disaster Zone due to our June storm. The following is a small documentation of what hit us last month.

...And this is why we had no power for days.

 This year we've seen it all, blizzards in late April, Tornados, Severe Thunderstorms, good times!

Part of the Plymouth lifestyle is dealing with severe weather. The people here are hearty and resilient though. Many were out of power for up to a week. But the really nice thing was the minute the storms were over I saw an outpouring of people out in the neighborhoods immediately helping out and pitching in to repair damage on their homes and their neighbor’s homes. It made me proud to be a Plymouth-ite.

French Park

French Park is Plymouth’s best Park. And it has Plymouth’s best playground. All you really need to know is they have the nets, aka the spider webs, aka the ropes, it’s fun for everyone. I included a few pictures to get you excited. But seriously not much has to be said, your right by a beach for swimming, there’s an indoor facility with taxidermied animals and ice cream treats and it’s the funnest playground equipment you’ve ever played on.  It’s the old kind of playground that’s not completely safe and made out of wood, therefore its more fun. So come play on it or bring your kids because they don’t make them like this anymore.

Part of it was under construction at this time, but as of last time I was there (5/8/15) all construction was complete.

Its free! and its located at: 12605 Rockford Rd  Plymouth, MN 55441
(763) 694-7750

Go There

Plymouth's Best Burger: Five Guys

When they finally shut down the old Blockbuster Video, I felt pretty sad, like a piece of my childhood had died, all the friday nights poring over all the VHS tapes and settling on raiders of the lost ark again. But then they put a Five Guys Burger Joint in where the Blockbuster store used to be and suddenly I wasn't too worried about all the videos I would not be renting anymore.

Five Guys is an excellent Burger and Fries fast food restaurant which originated in the Washington DC area. Since all my inlaws are from DC I'd known about Five Guys for several years, and I love it. There are tons of options for your burger, every kind of topping under the sun, but the menu is simple.

One thing thats funny at Five Guys is there are free peanuts all over the place, its pretty awesome, also they tell you exactly where their potatoes are coming from that day. (almost always Idaho). Every thing is super delicious and fresh. The standard burger comes with 2 beef patties, so you gotta specify if you only want one.

So go try one you wont regret it, perfect for a saturday lunch.

 4105 Vinewood Ln N - Where Blockbuster once was, right next to Target.

It's the best burger in town!! (till we get our In-n-Out burger, but that just wouldn't fly, would it Eric Fernelious of Simi Valley, California?)

Summer Time Activities for Kids in and around Plymouth 2013

Here are some Cool Community events that can be fun for the whole family, many are free! The list is created by Minnesota ECFE


June
13 - 16 - Brooklyn Park Tater Daze, Noble Sports Park 4701 Oak Grove Pkwy
14 - 15 - Missoula Children's Theater - Plymouth Creek Center
15 - 16 - Art in the Park 10am til 5pm Basset Creek Park, Crystal
15, 29 - Little Splashers Pool Time 10:30am - 12:30pm Crystal Cove Pool $3
17 - Three Rivers Naturalist 6:45pm Snakes and Turtles, Hilde Small Stage
21 - Water Day, 12:30-2:15 Sheid Park
27 - 29 - Earle Brown Days, Centennial Park, Brooklyn Center
28 - Happy Birthday America Parade, 10am Plymouth Hilde Center
28 - Annette Fragele, Magician, 11am Hilde Center, Plymouth

July
2 - Music in Plymouth - 5pm Hilde Amphitheater
9 - Kid Power with Rachael 7pm Music with live animals, Parkers Lake
11-14 - Whiz Bang Days Robbinsdale
12 - Water Day 12:30- 2:15 Scheid Park
12, 13 - Prairie Fire Theater (12th at 7pm, 13th at 2pm) Robin Hood
13, 20 - Little Splashers Pool Time 10:30am - 12:30pm Crystal Cove Pool $3
15 - Ice Cream Social 7pm Brookview Park
17 - Water Ski Show, 7pm Parkers Lake
18, 25 - New Hope Summer Theater, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 8pm, NH City Center
19-21 - Duk Duk Daze New Hope
23 - Brooklyn Center Puppet Playhouse, 7pm Centennial Park
24 - Concert, "the Zinghoppers"  11am Parkers Lake
25 - 28 - Crystal Frolics
26 - Penny Carnival, 10:30am- 12:30pm  Brookview Park
27 - Splash Bash 11:15am-12:45pm Crystal Cove Pool $4

August
1 - Pet and Wheel Parade, 6:15pm Robbinsdale
2 - Wet and Wild Fun Day, 12:30-3pm Lions Valley Place Park, Crystal $4
3, 10 - Little Splashers Pool Time, 10:30am - 12:30pm Crystal Cove Pool $3
4 - Concert, "Miss Catherine", 11am Parkers Lake
5 - Zoo Mobile, 6:45pm Cool Animals of the North, Hilde Small Stage.
7 - Picnic and Music 11:15am-12pm Brookview Park
7 - Water Ski Show 7pm Parkers Lake
10 - Antique Car Run 2pm Crystal Community Center

Have a great day in Plymouth!

Go to Music in Plymouth

This years Music in Plymouth is  Tuesday, July 1, 2014. BE THERE!

When your talking about your "MUST-DO" things to be done in Plymouth, #1 on the list has got to be Music in Plymouth. If the state fair is the Great-Minnesota-Get-Together, this is the Great-Northwest-Suburbs-Get-Together. Its an all-day outdoor event at the Hilde Amphitheater focused on live music. There are performances from several musicians all day. Its all a big build up to when the sun goes down, and the Minnesota Orchestra plays the classics and the crowd goes wild, and of course the fireworks show.  They always finish the night with a righteous fireworks show and I'm proud to be an american is usually pumping in the background and the crowd goes wild when Lee Greewood sings the line: "From the Lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennesee."

I've been going to this event since I was a youngster, and it has remained largely unchanged. You gotta get there early if you want good seats. The adults hold down the blankets and lawn chairs to save good seats, while the middle school and high school kids hang out back by the Port-a-Pot's mixing and mingling and trying to figure out who they're going to cuddle up with during the fireworks show, and the young kids go down in front to dance to the music. A Few nice changes have occured though, such as the addition of a nice fountain and steps in the back of the audience area, and the chopping down of that huge tree in the middle of the grass which was doing some serious fire work viewing blockage.

The sea of people staking their claims at the Hilde Amphiteater for Music in Plymouth.

A sweet Fireworks show caps off the night at Music in Plymouth

The only 3 things that can make music in plymouth a little tough are high heat, mosquitos and parking.  So be sure to bring a cooler of beverages on ice and bugspray.  But if you dont its really no big deal because odds are if you forgot someone else will get you covered. But as far as parking goes, I've ridden a scooter and bikes before and that worked awesome to weave through traffic.

Soaking it up

Well, Music in Plymouth only occurs once a year on the week of the Fourth of July so put it on your calander and don't miss it!