Day 15:
There was the buzz of anticipation that accompanies the start of any journey. Even my kids were all business as I loaded the van, helping out by collecting the stuffed animals and random toys that had seemed to blow into every corner of the cabin. We were so efficient that we even managed to find an extra charger left by a previous visitor.
We got out at 8am as planned and headed into New London for one last trip to both the coffee and pastry shops. Karen maintains that we will arrive at our destination around 5pm. She might even be right this time as the stops we need to make will be partially balanced by the westward crossing of a timezone boundary. I've always thought timezones were a cool idea. Sorta like Superman flying around the globe backwards so he can travel back in time.
It was 93 degress when we drove through Rapid City. Temperatures in the 90s are highly correlated with me not liking a place. You should take this into account as you read any comments on South Dakota. While I felt compelled to see it because of it's place in Americana, the Wall Drug Store wasn't a big hit with me. It was hot, and after our last two weeks through more sparsely populatd areas, really crowded. It was also the my first glimpse into how South Dakota views the tourist trade.
The entire drive through South Dakota was like a big tourist trap. Billboard after billboard, mile after mile we were bombarded by adds for sites hundres of miles from the billboard trying to latch onto the tourist trade to Mount Rushmore. When we got to the Black Hills area, it only got worse. It seemed like every little resort and tourist destination had it's series of huge billboards in the last thousand feet approaching the actual site. The shops themselves had the normal smattering of local wares, but what really struck me were the number of trinkets that you could find in your local Sav-On but would never actualy buy. In some cases, they even bothered to stamp the name of the location on the item. I understand that some amount of this goes on at every tourist destination. How many of us really need a shot glass that says FDNY? But this was so over the top that I found it distasteful.
I was surprised to find that Rapid City very much resembled some of the towns around the Bay Area. There were malls, office complexes, familiar chain stores and restaurants and even tract housing. I hate to come off sounding like a California bigot, but we had not yet found anything like this except for the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
In a long driving day full of nothing, I leave you with the one good thing about the trip: the grass. It was very Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music: wave after wave, blowing in the strong wind making rippling patterns in the green sea. When I brought this up after our stop, all the drivers mentioned was the effort it took to keep the car on the road.
Highlights:
1. Waves in a blowing sea of grass, and the fact that I was not in the driver's seat as we went through these areas.
2. A heard of mountain goats crossing the road in front of us
Quirks:
1. I've come to realize that food just comes quickly in California. It seems that everywhere we go, it takes forever to get served.
2. The Corn Palace. It's claim to fame is it's large murals made of different colored corn.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Separate Ways
Day 14:
Today marks our last day at the lodge as well as our last day in Minnesota. The half of our party that joined us in Coeur D'Alene will be leaving us for Chicago, while we embark on our longest driving day: over 500 miles to the Black Hills of South Dakota. At least we get an hour back when we cross into Mountain Time.
With this being our last day, I had my heart set on getting up early in order to find some pictures to take then head into New London to wash the van and get an espresso. I had partial success on all three fronts. The pictures weren't what I had in mind when I started out, but I'm happy with them. The van was so dirty that it came off in sheets when I hit it with water. Sadly, the grime from the road work didn't come off the front and I'm still carrying bug carcasses from who-knows-where. It must have been too early for the local coffee klatch - the place was empty when I got there.
Around 11, we took a quick trip into Willmar, a short half-hour ride to the south. We stopped at a humongous steam train on the outskirts then headed into downtown to walk around. Once there, we parked on a sparsely filled street to take a walking tour of the small downtown. We passed by the old building where the kids' great-grandfather used to work, kitty-corner from a shop with a bunch of men out front in traditional Somali attire. It had been mentioned to us earlier that Willmar HS had gone to the state finals in track because of the Somali distance runners.
We spent quite a bit of time in a gift store filled with Swedish and Norwegian keepsakes. You could get any manner of gifts with national flags, colloquialisms ("uff da") and food. My favorite was a dog dish that said "wuff da" but I managed a little self-control and walked out of the store.
Afterwards, we walked by the house where great-grandma used to live. It's currently a non-descript two-unit apartment building, but the gentleman passing by made mention that it used to be a hospital. Apparently nobody got sick back then. Either that or they just went from healthy straight to the sizeable mortuary around the corner. Next was the site of grandma's former house. I have to use words like "site" and "former" because it's now a parking lot. Aside from the gift store, there wasn't much to see there. The town really begged for a 50's style diner and soda fountain but my mother-in-law assured me there was nothing that fit the bill. Too bad.
I'll be sad to leave Minnesota. Everything here has been great - the lodge, the weather, the people.
Highlights:
1. Another item checked off my list: I had a walleye sandwich.
2. I got to see an ice-fishing house. Pretty cool.
Quirks:
1. I pulled into a Caribou Coffee drive-through after lunch. When I ordered their small espresso, the girl made sure that I knew that I would be getting *just* espresso. I thanked her for her concern but assured her that I was a trained professional and that I *had* tried this at home.
Today marks our last day at the lodge as well as our last day in Minnesota. The half of our party that joined us in Coeur D'Alene will be leaving us for Chicago, while we embark on our longest driving day: over 500 miles to the Black Hills of South Dakota. At least we get an hour back when we cross into Mountain Time.
With this being our last day, I had my heart set on getting up early in order to find some pictures to take then head into New London to wash the van and get an espresso. I had partial success on all three fronts. The pictures weren't what I had in mind when I started out, but I'm happy with them. The van was so dirty that it came off in sheets when I hit it with water. Sadly, the grime from the road work didn't come off the front and I'm still carrying bug carcasses from who-knows-where. It must have been too early for the local coffee klatch - the place was empty when I got there.
Around 11, we took a quick trip into Willmar, a short half-hour ride to the south. We stopped at a humongous steam train on the outskirts then headed into downtown to walk around. Once there, we parked on a sparsely filled street to take a walking tour of the small downtown. We passed by the old building where the kids' great-grandfather used to work, kitty-corner from a shop with a bunch of men out front in traditional Somali attire. It had been mentioned to us earlier that Willmar HS had gone to the state finals in track because of the Somali distance runners.
We spent quite a bit of time in a gift store filled with Swedish and Norwegian keepsakes. You could get any manner of gifts with national flags, colloquialisms ("uff da") and food. My favorite was a dog dish that said "wuff da" but I managed a little self-control and walked out of the store.
Afterwards, we walked by the house where great-grandma used to live. It's currently a non-descript two-unit apartment building, but the gentleman passing by made mention that it used to be a hospital. Apparently nobody got sick back then. Either that or they just went from healthy straight to the sizeable mortuary around the corner. Next was the site of grandma's former house. I have to use words like "site" and "former" because it's now a parking lot. Aside from the gift store, there wasn't much to see there. The town really begged for a 50's style diner and soda fountain but my mother-in-law assured me there was nothing that fit the bill. Too bad.
I'll be sad to leave Minnesota. Everything here has been great - the lodge, the weather, the people.
Highlights:
1. Another item checked off my list: I had a walleye sandwich.
2. I got to see an ice-fishing house. Pretty cool.
Quirks:
1. I pulled into a Caribou Coffee drive-through after lunch. When I ordered their small espresso, the girl made sure that I knew that I would be getting *just* espresso. I thanked her for her concern but assured her that I was a trained professional and that I *had* tried this at home.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Roundin' Third and Headed for Home is a Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
Day 13:
Today was a relatively simple day. A simple two hundred mile roound trip that we had just made the day before to take in a ballgame at the Metrodome between the Twins and the Blue Jays.
Watching a ballgame in the climate controlled Metrodome is very different from watching one back home. We didn't have to truck in the tradional hats and sunscreen or the blankets for after the sun went down. The goldilocks not-too-hot, not-too-sunny environment might not be traditional in a game replete with tradition but it was just fine with me. For balance, the food was a little more traditional that the Bay Area parks; there were no garlic fries or churros. There was just normal ballpark food: hot dogs, brats, barbeque and popcorn.
We came in during the top of the first, delaying our lunch in favor of getting the kids settled in the seats. We walked up the stairs to the second deck in this unfamiliar stadium only to be greeted by a kindly gentleman who asked us to wait in the tunnel until between batters. This courtesy is traditional at hockey games and I really appreciated it. As it turns out, we were released just in tiem to get to our seats (228, row 5) to see Frank Thomas hit his 500th career homerun! It took me several batters go get used to the scoreboard setup. When you've been going to the same ballparks all your life, you often take for granted the positioning of all the informational scoreboards. It's very disconcerting when you can't find things as simple as balls and strike count. Luckily, the ladies who sat in front of us were as friendly as most people I've met in Minnesota and helped out a lot. It turns out that one even had a grown son in my hometown!
We had more of my mother-in-law's friends over to visit in the evening. One of the things I've appreciated the most during this trip were the glimpses I got into the younger lives of persons who came to visit. I heard from these wonderful people, all approaching seventy, stories of de-tassling corn to make money and throwing apples at the grumpy old man whose name had long been forgotten and replaced by a nickname. They spoke of leaving on a train at the age of twenty for a place they'd never seen before with only eighty dollars and a trunk full of clothes; two friends crying on the train all the way to Montana. One told me of a car rolled over into a ditch days before she got her license and the subsequent cover-up by her boyfriend-now-husband of fifty-five years. Our parents often tell us stories like this but we do not hear them. OUR parents couldn't possibly be that interesting; the eventual retellings dulling any possible impact until all they elicit are knowing glances between the trapped listeners.
Highlights:
1. Getting out of the city center after the game was a breeze. I'd say it was easier than San Jose Arena, which I count as one of the best I've ever seen. To be fair, it was a day game that let out at 3:30.
2. No lines at the concession stands!
3. We dropped by Latte Da Espresso again. The "bikers" out front that I was trying not to look at turned out to be two of the people I met the previous visit. I got to introduce them to all the kids.
Quirks:
1. Twingo, or Twins Bingo. People bought (I presume) bingo cards with baseball scoring events in the squares. Anything you could put on a score sheet might appear on a Twingo card.
2. A lot more emphasis on saving money here. There seem to be Dollar Stores everywhere, and many of the independents are named something with "Sav", "Less", or "Valu" in their name.
Today was a relatively simple day. A simple two hundred mile roound trip that we had just made the day before to take in a ballgame at the Metrodome between the Twins and the Blue Jays.
Watching a ballgame in the climate controlled Metrodome is very different from watching one back home. We didn't have to truck in the tradional hats and sunscreen or the blankets for after the sun went down. The goldilocks not-too-hot, not-too-sunny environment might not be traditional in a game replete with tradition but it was just fine with me. For balance, the food was a little more traditional that the Bay Area parks; there were no garlic fries or churros. There was just normal ballpark food: hot dogs, brats, barbeque and popcorn.
We came in during the top of the first, delaying our lunch in favor of getting the kids settled in the seats. We walked up the stairs to the second deck in this unfamiliar stadium only to be greeted by a kindly gentleman who asked us to wait in the tunnel until between batters. This courtesy is traditional at hockey games and I really appreciated it. As it turns out, we were released just in tiem to get to our seats (228, row 5) to see Frank Thomas hit his 500th career homerun! It took me several batters go get used to the scoreboard setup. When you've been going to the same ballparks all your life, you often take for granted the positioning of all the informational scoreboards. It's very disconcerting when you can't find things as simple as balls and strike count. Luckily, the ladies who sat in front of us were as friendly as most people I've met in Minnesota and helped out a lot. It turns out that one even had a grown son in my hometown!
We had more of my mother-in-law's friends over to visit in the evening. One of the things I've appreciated the most during this trip were the glimpses I got into the younger lives of persons who came to visit. I heard from these wonderful people, all approaching seventy, stories of de-tassling corn to make money and throwing apples at the grumpy old man whose name had long been forgotten and replaced by a nickname. They spoke of leaving on a train at the age of twenty for a place they'd never seen before with only eighty dollars and a trunk full of clothes; two friends crying on the train all the way to Montana. One told me of a car rolled over into a ditch days before she got her license and the subsequent cover-up by her boyfriend-now-husband of fifty-five years. Our parents often tell us stories like this but we do not hear them. OUR parents couldn't possibly be that interesting; the eventual retellings dulling any possible impact until all they elicit are knowing glances between the trapped listeners.
Highlights:
1. Getting out of the city center after the game was a breeze. I'd say it was easier than San Jose Arena, which I count as one of the best I've ever seen. To be fair, it was a day game that let out at 3:30.
2. No lines at the concession stands!
3. We dropped by Latte Da Espresso again. The "bikers" out front that I was trying not to look at turned out to be two of the people I met the previous visit. I got to introduce them to all the kids.
Quirks:
1. Twingo, or Twins Bingo. People bought (I presume) bingo cards with baseball scoring events in the squares. Anything you could put on a score sheet might appear on a Twingo card.
2. A lot more emphasis on saving money here. There seem to be Dollar Stores everywhere, and many of the independents are named something with "Sav", "Less", or "Valu" in their name.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Nothing Ever Goes as Planned
Day 12:
This was the first time in some time that we had any time pressure. We had set times to both leave the lodge for the Mall of America (MOA) and to leave the mall for an evening engagement. I honestly don't miss the lack of scheduling.
The kids were very excited to get to the mall, so there were no issues with the usual suspects. The biggest wild card was T's sprained ankle and whether or not we'd have to wheel her around MOA in a shopping cart. She managed to limp quickly enough though, that she wasn't culled from the herd.
Looking back on the day, it's still not clear in my mind if the men or the women were more grounded about the whole MOA experience. I didn't think much of the girls' desire to shop at all the same shops that we had back home. But then again, the guys dropped a good chunk of change on a flight simulator and NASCAR simulator experience that were essentially big video games.
Going into the ACES flight simulator, I was really concerned about how my eight-year-old son K would do. He plays a game on the XBox called Heroes of the Pacific, and we would be flying the same selection of WWII planes. The trouble was that ACES had full stick/throttle/rudder controls and I wasn't sure how he would do without the familiar video game controller. He was certainly willing to give it a try.
The other three in the flight were my brother-in-laws, D & M, and myself. To make a long story short, K went from asking the tower for help with how to execute a turn to teaming up with M (a military historian AND a pilot in training) to put a 9-2 whuppin' on D and myself. As near as we can figure, he had four kills and M had five. No, we didn't go easy on him. And I'm actually very good at video games.
With the NASCAR sim, we brought in a few more of the group. G and her son K as well as D's sons E (the 14-year-old athlete) and J. Fresh off the ACES experience I wasn't expecting K to have a hard time, but he got pretty overwhelmed with scanning his ticket, starting his car, putting it in gear and finding the accelerator. It was pretty easy to forget that he was only eight when he was regularly showing up on my six and pouring lead through my cockpit. But this time, the new experience was too much and he ended up as my passenger for the second race. I'm happy to report that I regained some of my dignity here and got back into my video game stride. I'll leave the rest of the group to tell their own tales of woe and sorrow.
If you've ever done some kind of group activity like the two above, or if you're simply a guy, you'll agree that the debriefing over is as much fun as the actual event. We spent a lot of time poring over stat sheets, reviewing parts of the mission and quirks in the software, trying to get differing views of the same event, and talking about the most spectacular things you did after your plane lost it's wings and before you hit the ground.
After NASCAR, we had about an hour left to drop into Camp Snoopy, the amusement park at the center of the MOA. The rides were between carnival rides and Real Amusement Park (tm) rides, but hey, you're AT THE MALL and you get to ride a roller coaster. Whee!
To close the MOA section, I feel I need to comment on it's size. This thing is BIG. It's a big square built around Camp Snoopy (more on that later) with each side as long as a decent sized mall. Except that decent-sized malls are two stories tall and these are four. There are two Starbuck's and four Caribou Coffees in this place. In addition to the amusement park, it also has an aquarium. The Camp Snoopy area, a large terrarium is kept cool by huge vents stuck on the 24 tall structural supports for the ceiling.
Finally, a section on Karen, our GPS. I think she took revenge on us today for all those times we ignored her. Leaving the mall she gave us a series of five rapid-fire "in .3 miles, turn" directives that had us cutting people off to follow. .3 miles goes by very quickly when you're in rush hour traffic. A tip of my (virtual) hat to her, though. Her directions got us home twenty minutes (on top of two hours) faster than the route chosen by someone who grew up in the area.
Highlights:
1. Having it made clear who in my family gets to do a dogfight if a million bucks is riding on it
2. I had a coffee (that's espresso to you) after lunch. The local chain is Caribou Coffee, where you cannot get a single espresso but where the double costs $1.60.
3. Having dinner at a friend of my mother-in-law's. It was a beautiful place on a lake. There's that lake thing again - pretty common theme around here.
Quirks:
1. I've noticed a lot of VFW chapters here. I don't think I've even seen one in the Bay Area. Same, btw, goes for those self-service car washes.
2. The local police love their radar guns and they love laying in wait
3. They keep their cars longer around here. There's no lack of cars older than 10 years on the road.
New Things I've Learned:
1. Minnesota hasn't yet gotten to the point where they only do road work at night.
2. Don't upset your navigator. Even if she's the kind you leave in your glove box.
This was the first time in some time that we had any time pressure. We had set times to both leave the lodge for the Mall of America (MOA) and to leave the mall for an evening engagement. I honestly don't miss the lack of scheduling.
The kids were very excited to get to the mall, so there were no issues with the usual suspects. The biggest wild card was T's sprained ankle and whether or not we'd have to wheel her around MOA in a shopping cart. She managed to limp quickly enough though, that she wasn't culled from the herd.
Looking back on the day, it's still not clear in my mind if the men or the women were more grounded about the whole MOA experience. I didn't think much of the girls' desire to shop at all the same shops that we had back home. But then again, the guys dropped a good chunk of change on a flight simulator and NASCAR simulator experience that were essentially big video games.
Going into the ACES flight simulator, I was really concerned about how my eight-year-old son K would do. He plays a game on the XBox called Heroes of the Pacific, and we would be flying the same selection of WWII planes. The trouble was that ACES had full stick/throttle/rudder controls and I wasn't sure how he would do without the familiar video game controller. He was certainly willing to give it a try.
The other three in the flight were my brother-in-laws, D & M, and myself. To make a long story short, K went from asking the tower for help with how to execute a turn to teaming up with M (a military historian AND a pilot in training) to put a 9-2 whuppin' on D and myself. As near as we can figure, he had four kills and M had five. No, we didn't go easy on him. And I'm actually very good at video games.
With the NASCAR sim, we brought in a few more of the group. G and her son K as well as D's sons E (the 14-year-old athlete) and J. Fresh off the ACES experience I wasn't expecting K to have a hard time, but he got pretty overwhelmed with scanning his ticket, starting his car, putting it in gear and finding the accelerator. It was pretty easy to forget that he was only eight when he was regularly showing up on my six and pouring lead through my cockpit. But this time, the new experience was too much and he ended up as my passenger for the second race. I'm happy to report that I regained some of my dignity here and got back into my video game stride. I'll leave the rest of the group to tell their own tales of woe and sorrow.
If you've ever done some kind of group activity like the two above, or if you're simply a guy, you'll agree that the debriefing over
After NASCAR, we had about an hour left to drop into Camp Snoopy, the amusement park at the center of the MOA. The rides were between carnival rides and Real Amusement Park (tm) rides, but hey, you're AT THE MALL and you get to ride a roller coaster. Whee!
To close the MOA section, I feel I need to comment on it's size. This thing is BIG. It's a big square built around Camp Snoopy (more on that later) with each side as long as a decent sized mall. Except that decent-sized malls are two stories tall and these are four. There are two Starbuck's and four Caribou Coffees in this place. In addition to the amusement park, it also has an aquarium. The Camp Snoopy area, a large terrarium is kept cool by huge vents stuck on the 24 tall structural supports for the ceiling.
Finally, a section on Karen, our GPS. I think she took revenge on us today for all those times we ignored her. Leaving the mall she gave us a series of five rapid-fire "in .3 miles, turn
Highlights:
1. Having it made clear who in my family gets to do a dogfight if a million bucks is riding on it
2. I had a coffee (that's espresso to you) after lunch. The local chain is Caribou Coffee, where you cannot get a single espresso but where the double costs $1.60.
3. Having dinner at a friend of my mother-in-law's. It was a beautiful place on a lake. There's that lake thing again - pretty common theme around here.
Quirks:
1. I've noticed a lot of VFW chapters here. I don't think I've even seen one in the Bay Area. Same, btw, goes for those self-service car washes.
2. The local police love their radar guns and they love laying in wait
3. They keep their cars longer around here. There's no lack of cars older than 10 years on the road.
New Things I've Learned:
1. Minnesota hasn't yet gotten to the point where they only do road work at night.
2. Don't upset your navigator. Even if she's the kind you leave in your glove box.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
My Little Town
Day 11:
Karen pointed out a local coffee joint called Latte da Espresso so I decided to join my mother- and sister-in-law for the the four mile drive into town. New London is a small town about three streets wide and two streets deep with one of every shop you would need in a town: Auto Parts (I needed new wiper blades), Grocery Store (ATM, Coke Zero, Power Ball Lottery Ticket), car wash (the front of the van is pretty disgusting) and bank. We drove in to pick up pastries for breakfast but we managed to find excuses to hit all the aforementioned shops.
My big surprise was at Latte Da Espresso. First, you have to understand coffee in Minnesota. They drink it all day long and serve it much weaker than I'm used to. It's definitely stronger than tea, but not by a lot. The first thing I do when I walk in is scan the counter for an espresso machine. The fact that "espresso" was in the name of the establishment really made this unnecessary, but I'd wrongly assumed that any place with Coffee in the name served espresso. Who knew what else I would be wrong about? I spied the machine just as I got to the counter. Whew. The first thing the checker does when I ordered my coffee (that's how the Italians who taught refer to what we call espresso) was look up the price! My heart sank. After paying my .48 (forty eight cents!), collecting my coffee and searching for additives, one of the eight people sitting at the group of pushed-together tables invited me to sit and chat. I was there for some time while the others got the pastries. Everyone was so friendly and I had a WONDERFUL time! Add on top of that the fact that the espresso was REALLY GOOD! I may make this a habit while I'm here.
Lunch was more local flavor. I have a feeling that much of the stay in Minnesota will be this way. We went to another small town in the area called Sunburg to hit the local creamery for a Scandinavian dish called klub. It's a boiled potato dumpling filled with ham and served with a good helping of melted butter. If that's not enough, they also toss a few strips of bacon onto the your plate and serve it all with a desert called rommegrot, a custard with cinnamon sprinkled on top. I was skeptical going in, but I really enjoyed them both.
In the afternoon we went swimming at the lake in Sibley State Park which was right around the corner.
Highlights
1. More cool local eateries. I need some marks in the "plus" column after the Cottonwood Restaurant.
2. Another thing checked off my list: I bought a Power Ball Lottery ticket.
Quirks:
1. A bumper sticker at the Creamery: "Lutefisk is Legal in Sunburg, Minnesota"
2. An actual spinning barber pole in Sunburg next to the Norwegian Kultur Hus.
3. I can't seem to take a good picture in Minnesota. I just don't know how to shoot green-on-green.
New Things I've Learned:
1. People around here have winter and summer homes. Not just vacation homes - actual summer homes on the lake from which they commute to work.
2. The difference between feed corn (no rows between), sweet corn (the kind we eat), and seed corn.
3. Teenagers still make money picking strawberries. My mother-in-law used to make money de-tassling corn and thinks that kids still do.
4. There are these little zig-zag strips on the edge of roof lines. These are for melting ice/snow in the winter so you "don't create an ice dam"
Karen pointed out a local coffee joint called Latte da Espresso so I decided to join my mother- and sister-in-law for the the four mile drive into town. New London is a small town about three streets wide and two streets deep with one of every shop you would need in a town: Auto Parts (I needed new wiper blades), Grocery Store (ATM, Coke Zero, Power Ball Lottery Ticket), car wash (the front of the van is pretty disgusting) and bank. We drove in to pick up pastries for breakfast but we managed to find excuses to hit all the aforementioned shops.
My big surprise was at Latte Da Espresso. First, you have to understand coffee in Minnesota. They drink it all day long and serve it much weaker than I'm used to. It's definitely stronger than tea, but not by a lot. The first thing I do when I walk in is scan the counter for an espresso machine. The fact that "espresso" was in the name of the establishment really made this unnecessary, but I'd wrongly assumed that any place with Coffee in the name served espresso. Who knew what else I would be wrong about? I spied the machine just as I got to the counter. Whew. The first thing the checker does when I ordered my coffee (that's how the Italians who taught refer to what we call espresso) was look up the price! My heart sank. After paying my .48 (forty eight cents!), collecting my coffee and searching for additives, one of the eight people sitting at the group of pushed-together tables invited me to sit and chat. I was there for some time while the others got the pastries. Everyone was so friendly and I had a WONDERFUL time! Add on top of that the fact that the espresso was REALLY GOOD! I may make this a habit while I'm here.
Lunch was more local flavor. I have a feeling that much of the stay in Minnesota will be this way. We went to another small town in the area called Sunburg to hit the local creamery for a Scandinavian dish called klub. It's a boiled potato dumpling filled with ham and served with a good helping of melted butter. If that's not enough, they also toss a few strips of bacon onto the your plate and serve it all with a desert called rommegrot, a custard with cinnamon sprinkled on top. I was skeptical going in, but I really enjoyed them both.
In the afternoon we went swimming at the lake in Sibley State Park which was right around the corner.
Highlights
1. More cool local eateries. I need some marks in the "plus" column after the Cottonwood Restaurant.
2. Another thing checked off my list: I bought a Power Ball Lottery ticket.
Quirks:
1. A bumper sticker at the Creamery: "Lutefisk is Legal in Sunburg, Minnesota"
2. An actual spinning barber pole in Sunburg next to the Norwegian Kultur Hus.
3. I can't seem to take a good picture in Minnesota. I just don't know how to shoot green-on-green.
New Things I've Learned:
1. People around here have winter and summer homes. Not just vacation homes - actual summer homes on the lake from which they commute to work.
2. The difference between feed corn (no rows between), sweet corn (the kind we eat), and seed corn.
3. Teenagers still make money picking strawberries. My mother-in-law used to make money de-tassling corn and thinks that kids still do.
4. There are these little zig-zag strips on the edge of roof lines. These are for melting ice/snow in the winter so you "don't create an ice dam"
Long Long Way From Home
Day 10:
Day Ten finds us at Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior. This will be as far as we get away from home. It was a long day's drive so we didn't do much more than set up camp, take a short hike to the falls and then break camp. As we were setting up camp, the twenty-somethings in the next site came over to see if their music was too loud. The proper response would have been to tell them that it was okay as long as they switched to Pink Floyd at the 10pm quiet time, but all I could get out was "no, you're fine."
In the morning, we decided we'd hit the road early to try to find a local diner for breakfast. We broke camp about 9am and headed toward Duluth to start looking. After being disappointed that we flew by Betty's Pies (I had eyed this as a possible place to eat on the way in) we settled on a place called Judy's Cafe in a one-street town called Two Harbors.
Judy's wasn't that small, but we took up about half of the place after seating two adult tables and a kids table. The fare was solid diner breakfast food: eggs, toast, sausages. It was what I expected from a small town diner. At 9:30, the farmers had long gone and the remaining patrons were retirees and a table of table of seven widows near the front window and who were debriefing about the weekend. The waitress who served us had that very charming Minnesota accent.
The breakfast was a good eggs/sausage/hotcakes one, only I substituted the cakes for some local delicacy: caramel rolls topped with pecans. The sausage patties got my vote for top item and the kids all finished their meals - a good sign of good eats.
The one thing we wanted to do on the way to Duluth was to take a picture of the kids with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox. We knew that it was near the lake, but took some pretty bad guesses as to where this might be located. Who'd have thought it would be a place called the Paul Bunyan Amusement Park? "Amusement Park" was a very generous given what this phrase implies in most of the country. In addition to the required pictures, we also took a short walk up the lakefront to a park where they were holding a Swedish festival. The Norwegian part of the contingent (most of it) was very big on visiting and it had everything you'd think it would from traditional dress to walleye.
The final stop was at the Maritime Center on Lake Superior. I know it has a real name, but I'm too lazy to look it up now. It was really hot, really humid and we were just killing time until lunch. From there, we had a nice view of the lift bridge and a short walk to the old lighthouse.
The kids have been traveling in the big RV with their cousins. Although I miss having them in the car to show them things as they go by, I will happily have the spend all this time with their cousins. This is the kind of thing that I did with my cousins and I think of them to this day as extra brothers and sisters. Thanks for asking, Emory. Everyone's having a wonderful time, even with the bugs and the dirt and all the making and breaking of camp.
Highlights:
1. Fireflies! I've never seen one in my life.
2. Checked something off my list: I ate at Taco John's, the Midwest equivalent of Taco Bell. The Bell has better Tacos but TJ's serves a squished tater tot contrivance that was pretty good.
3. My first caramel/pecan roll. I highly recommend these.
4. The lodge where we'll be spending the next four nights is awesome! (http://www.grandcottages.com/lodge.htm)
Quirks:
1. They're serious about their recycling here. I only had garbage to throw away but when I got there I was confronted with different bins for aluminum, metal, plastic, green glass, clear glass and brown glass.
2. There was a woman in her sixties working at Taco John's. I don't think we see this very much in the Bay Area.
3. Saw my first carts/corner stands selling walleye and cheese curds. It was 10am, unfortunately, and I wasn't in the mood to eat.
Day Ten finds us at Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior. This will be as far as we get away from home. It was a long day's drive so we didn't do much more than set up camp, take a short hike to the falls and then break camp. As we were setting up camp, the twenty-somethings in the next site came over to see if their music was too loud. The proper response would have been to tell them that it was okay as long as they switched to Pink Floyd at the 10pm quiet time, but all I could get out was "no, you're fine."
In the morning, we decided we'd hit the road early to try to find a local diner for breakfast. We broke camp about 9am and headed toward Duluth to start looking. After being disappointed that we flew by Betty's Pies (I had eyed this as a possible place to eat on the way in) we settled on a place called Judy's Cafe in a one-street town called Two Harbors.
Judy's wasn't that small, but we took up about half of the place after seating two adult tables and a kids table. The fare was solid diner breakfast food: eggs, toast, sausages. It was what I expected from a small town diner. At 9:30, the farmers had long gone and the remaining patrons were retirees and a table of table of seven widows near the front window and who were debriefing about the weekend. The waitress who served us had that very charming Minnesota accent.
The breakfast was a good eggs/sausage/hotcakes one, only I substituted the cakes for some local delicacy: caramel rolls topped with pecans. The sausage patties got my vote for top item and the kids all finished their meals - a good sign of good eats.
The one thing we wanted to do on the way to Duluth was to take a picture of the kids with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox. We knew that it was near the lake, but took some pretty bad guesses as to where this might be located. Who'd have thought it would be a place called the Paul Bunyan Amusement Park? "Amusement Park" was a very generous given what this phrase implies in most of the country. In addition to the required pictures, we also took a short walk up the lakefront to a park where they were holding a Swedish festival. The Norwegian part of the contingent (most of it) was very big on visiting and it had everything you'd think it would from traditional dress to walleye.
The final stop was at the Maritime Center on Lake Superior. I know it has a real name, but I'm too lazy to look it up now. It was really hot, really humid and we were just killing time until lunch. From there, we had a nice view of the lift bridge and a short walk to the old lighthouse.
The kids have been traveling in the big RV with their cousins. Although I miss having them in the car to show them things as they go by, I will happily have the spend all this time with their cousins. This is the kind of thing that I did with my cousins and I think of them to this day as extra brothers and sisters. Thanks for asking, Emory. Everyone's having a wonderful time, even with the bugs and the dirt and all the making and breaking of camp.
Highlights:
1. Fireflies! I've never seen one in my life.
2. Checked something off my list: I ate at Taco John's, the Midwest equivalent of Taco Bell. The Bell has better Tacos but TJ's serves a squished tater tot contrivance that was pretty good.
3. My first caramel/pecan roll. I highly recommend these.
4. The lodge where we'll be spending the next four nights is awesome! (http://www.grandcottages.com/lodge.htm)
Quirks:
1. They're serious about their recycling here. I only had garbage to throw away but when I got there I was confronted with different bins for aluminum, metal, plastic, green glass, clear glass and brown glass.
2. There was a woman in her sixties working at Taco John's. I don't think we see this very much in the Bay Area.
3. Saw my first carts/corner stands selling walleye and cheese curds. It was 10am, unfortunately, and I wasn't in the mood to eat.
Monday, June 25, 2007
She's in Love with the Sound of the Summer Storm
Day 9:
Here's a general comparison of the last three states we've visited:
Montana: more open plains, public land. More cattle.
North Dakota: More green low crops (soybeans?), vast expanses of rich green carpet. Picket lines of trees in the distance and perpendicular to the freeway.
Minnesota: Lots more trees and right up to the freeway.
Our campground at Devil's Lake was a windy place. The nearest beach was on the leeward side of the lake and we were treated to wind-whipped (25 mph?) waves and water warm enough for swimming in at 9pm. As I was teaching the kids the finer points of catching waves (For you who haven't done it, btw, the key is to catch the wave near the forward trough as it's starting to break) it struck me as odd to be doing so this far away from the Pacific. Still, with my son not swimming well enough to try this in the ocean, I happily took what I could get.
The evening was a grand adventure! There must be something about Saturdays that make them memorable. Amidst the clear blue sky and the humidity the weather radio squawked a tornado warning. After a little frantic map searching, we found that we were in one of the affected counties. The two trailers raised their aerials to pick up the local TV news. We were at the south west edge of the watch, but it was enough to make a few worried and everyone prepared. Even though nobody over twelve really thought that we'd see a tornado, I made sure that all the bags were in the car and we would be ready to go at a moment's notice. At around 11:30 we were treated to lightning on the horizon all around us. My previous experience with lightning storms had been to view them from a distance. When I stepped out of the tent to view the festivities from the grassy hill next to the tent, I was catching flashes in a 180 degree arc. They were all around us!
When we had enough of the bugs, we headed back into the tent. I had a hard time going to sleep because I couldn't get out of the habit of counting until the thunder to measure the distance every time I saw a flash.
Later in the night, I woke to the sound of rain hitting the tent. This was our first real rain storm. Because I had the clothes in the van already, I was willing to just ride this one out and I'm happy to report that the tent did just fine.
Highlights:
1. A spectacular lightning storm
2. Swimming in a lake at 9:30pm.
3. A warm wind making for a very pleasant evening. I wish I could find such a place without mosquitoes.
4. Bemidji, Minnesota seemed a lot more like home. Even though it was wooded and sparse, there were strip malls, minivans, fast food and billboards about healthcare plans. It was the first time since Portland that I've felt this way.
5. I've lost track of the number of mosquito bites on my arms and legs. No, this isn't really a high;light but I don't know where else to put it.
6. The van will hit 100,000 miles today, somewhere near Duluth, Minnesota.
Quirks:
1. I haven't seen drive-up coffee places in ND and MN as I did earlier in the trip.
2. Nothing is open on Sunday? A comment over the walkie talkie was that the entire town had died of plague.
3. Karen tried to lead us into a lake today. Both of the other GPS units in the caravan agreed. I take back my earlier comment about the machines becoming self aware; I think I've upset them.
Here's a general comparison of the last three states we've visited:
Montana: more open plains, public land. More cattle.
North Dakota: More green low crops (soybeans?), vast expanses of rich green carpet. Picket lines of trees in the distance and perpendicular to the freeway.
Minnesota: Lots more trees and right up to the freeway.
Our campground at Devil's Lake was a windy place. The nearest beach was on the leeward side of the lake and we were treated to wind-whipped (25 mph?) waves and water warm enough for swimming in at 9pm. As I was teaching the kids the finer points of catching waves (For you who haven't done it, btw, the key is to catch the wave near the forward trough as it's starting to break) it struck me as odd to be doing so this far away from the Pacific. Still, with my son not swimming well enough to try this in the ocean, I happily took what I could get.
The evening was a grand adventure! There must be something about Saturdays that make them memorable. Amidst the clear blue sky and the humidity the weather radio squawked a tornado warning. After a little frantic map searching, we found that we were in one of the affected counties. The two trailers raised their aerials to pick up the local TV news. We were at the south west edge of the watch, but it was enough to make a few worried and everyone prepared. Even though nobody over twelve really thought that we'd see a tornado, I made sure that all the bags were in the car and we would be ready to go at a moment's notice. At around 11:30 we were treated to lightning on the horizon all around us. My previous experience with lightning storms had been to view them from a distance. When I stepped out of the tent to view the festivities from the grassy hill next to the tent, I was catching flashes in a 180 degree arc. They were all around us!
When we had enough of the bugs, we headed back into the tent. I had a hard time going to sleep because I couldn't get out of the habit of counting until the thunder to measure the distance every time I saw a flash.
Later in the night, I woke to the sound of rain hitting the tent. This was our first real rain storm. Because I had the clothes in the van already, I was willing to just ride this one out and I'm happy to report that the tent did just fine.
Highlights:
1. A spectacular lightning storm
2. Swimming in a lake at 9:30pm.
3. A warm wind making for a very pleasant evening. I wish I could find such a place without mosquitoes.
4. Bemidji, Minnesota seemed a lot more like home. Even though it was wooded and sparse, there were strip malls, minivans, fast food and billboards about healthcare plans. It was the first time since Portland that I've felt this way.
5. I've lost track of the number of mosquito bites on my arms and legs. No, this isn't really a high;light but I don't know where else to put it.
6. The van will hit 100,000 miles today, somewhere near Duluth, Minnesota.
Quirks:
1. I haven't seen drive-up coffee places in ND and MN as I did earlier in the trip.
2. Nothing is open on Sunday? A comment over the walkie talkie was that the entire town had died of plague.
3. Karen tried to lead us into a lake today. Both of the other GPS units in the caravan agreed. I take back my earlier comment about the machines becoming self aware; I think I've upset them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)