Filed under: Ely
Last weekend Aine’s Girls Scout troop slept with the wolves at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. First, they went camping and had a great time. I met up with them for the indoor camping.
The Wolf Center is a research and educational park for wolves. We spent the night, which meant several hikes and a night in the observation auditorium. It was very cool.
They did a really nice job with the hikes. We saw the Kawishiwi Waterfalls, found a geocache prize, learned about flora and fauna. We learned the difference between deciduous (leafy, shrubby, trees that shed leaves in the fall) and coniferous (more like pines) trees. We saw a beaver dam. We got to use our senses of smell and hearing to figure out our place in the woods.
Mostly we got to watch the wolves. You are behind glass the whole time but it’s kind of amazing to be up that close and just watch what they do for a day – and night. Without a doubt the highlight for me was the first time they all started howling. I was sure it was the girls at first – but it wasn’t. I got a quick video.
Wolves eat beavers and deer. We got to see some sides of both that we hadn’t seen before – like intestines. It is very cool to see them eat. You get used to it but not entirely desensitized to the gruesome nature of nature.
The girls were super tired but they rallied for wolf Jeopardy, a wolf movie (which included some wolf sex and violence – loved to watch the girls’ faces for that!) pizza and almost everyone was out for the count by 10:30. Some of us stayed up with the hope of seeing Northern Lights. No luck but we had fun trying.
The next day we drove back home – but not directly. We made a quick stop at the North American Bear Center – which is less than five miles away. We got a quick behind the scenes tour with the bears. They are big and seem so tame and at least in that setting seem so slow. Mostly they eat berries and leaves and ants. Unfortunately it really was a very quick trip – but worth it. Interesting to see the difference between the two animals. And to hear the stories of the bears – most of which are rescues with heartbreaking stories.
And on the way home? Cheeseburgers and malts at Gordy’s High Hat! Not to brag but Gordy himself took our order.
The best part of the trip was the girls (and their moms). Such a nice group of women. These kids have been in the troop for 8 years – since kindergarten. They are different kids with different interests but they all seem to genuinely like each other. They are kind, they are inclusive and they soak up info like sponges.
Filed under: St Paul
Yesterday we went to the Women’s March in St Paul. I marched with my mom, Aine and my friend Mary. I thought I’d be marching with 20,000 kindred spirits – turns out 100,000 people marched!
I was reminded that patience is a big part of demonstrating – just as patience is going to be a part of change we need and holding ground we can’t afford to lose.
We waited – in sloppy, slushy, slippery muck of the St Paul College backfield for more than an hour before we began marching. But we cheered, we read signs, someone handed out donuts, another had chocolate kisses. The crowd was predominately women but lots a colors, a few languages and all ages – from strollers to walkers.
It was a march of solidarity. An important reminder that we stand together against predatory people in power – if we don’t remind ourselves we run the risk that some may imitate predatory, bullying actions and other may be afraid.
The march was the first step to build a momentum to make sure everyone can survive and thrive – we need to be vigilant and act for what we believe is right. But it was a really powerful first step!
Filed under: St Paul
Little Mekong is an area in St Paul with lots of Hmong markets and Vietnamese restaurants. I think this is the third – maybe fourth year that they have had a night market in the area, which as the name would imply is a market that stays open at night. This year the market was open one weekend for Saturday and Sunday nights.
The food is great. There are plenty of choices. There are some break dancers, all sorts of singers, we even heard a Hmong comic. We also saw some guys doing a film that looked like some batman sort of thing. They had a mannequin dressed in all black and they asked everyone to just walk by without appearing to notice it.
I went to the Night Market both nights. On the way to the market on Sunday I was detoured. Folks have been demonstrated outside the governor’s mansion since the death of Philando Castile. We have been out of town most of that time but I have seen them as I’ve been driving. Tonight the road was blocked and several people were speaking so we stopped.
A friend of Philando Castile spoke. It was very touching to hear him. He told stories about Philando because as he said he was glad that more people got to know him – but sad for the reason. He mentioned a scholarship they were starting at Central High School to encourage more black men to go into teaching and into the schools. He noted that he himself had never had a black, male teacher. And how nice it would have made for him to see someone more like himself in a teaching position.
The speaker graciously thanked everyone for being there and supporting the effort. He said he didn’t see colors – and colors of people around the area were numerous – but that he just saw people.
Aine asked me why people were at the Governor’s mansion. I said that Governor Dayton had suggested/invited people to come there – rather than protest on highways. Then she asked what he could do to help the situation – to elevate the need to understand that Black Lives Matter.
As we talked we realized that it’s not for one person to take it on – that we all have to take it on to make changes.
Filed under: Minneapolis
Today we nailed out challenge for fun in the Cities it with Open Streets on East Lake Street. Open Streets is an effort to give the streets back to everyone not in a car – for a day. It happens in different parts of Minneapolis on different weekends. I’ve been to a few of them in the last year or two. But I have never been more impressed than I was on Lake Street today.
They closed at least 20 blocks of the street. There was music and tons of food and a lot of fun kid games. We walked about 6 miles. (Aine loves to walk huge amounts in the heat!)
I’m going on a limb to say Aine’s favorite activity was the musical chairs. Big game musical chairs. We didn’t win – but I have to say they did a great job getting us excited for it.
We also tried to pogo. Word to the wise – pencil skirts aren’t the best for a pogo stick. We shot an apple of each other’s heads with a bazooka squirt gun. A soaky fun thing on a hot, hot day. Watched a pie eating contest.
We saw some gorgeous Aztec dancers, some breakdancing and a band that was new to me called Tabah. I just thought the Open Streets people did a great job bringing back every fun thing from being a kid with blocks and blocks of blocks of easy distractions.
Filed under: Minneapolis
The older girls have gone to Ireland leaving me and Aine with the challenge of having even more fun in the Cities. The extra challenge on Friday was the insane heat. Luckily Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes and we have a friend with a boat – so we went swimming off the boat.
I love swimming. Swimming in a lake is a little different for me. First I’m a baby because I always think it’s going to be too cold. I must admit it wasn’t. The water actually felt pretty good.
BUT it turns out lakes have fish – tons of them. And you’d think they’d like to swim away from people. Not true. The swim toward you. Aine loved it – spent half her time trying to catch a fish. Luckily she was not successful or we may have been looking for a new receipt for fish stew!
Filed under: Minneapolis
Got any plans for your summer? We plan to get out to see the street art in the Twin Cities – one street or neighborhood at a time. I’m a fan of street art; I’ve been lucky enough to see Banksy in New York, murals in Belfast and Blu in Berlin. This summer, I’ll be staying home but I figured there must be some sights to see in my home town too with. So my plan for the summer is long walks with a camera.
We started with Lake Street – from the Lake Street Bridge to Lake Calhoun. We started there because my favorite street art is hidden under the Lake Street Bridge on the St Paul side. It honors a soldier; I remember when it went up two years ago around Memorial weekend. My hope this summer it to find more hidden gems like it. (If you know of any art I should check out please let me know atreacy@treacyinfo.com.)
Under the Lake Street Bridge
The street art in Lake Street is primarily paintings and murals. Some are clearly commercial, some are community-focused and a few might have been unsanctioned. Heading from St Paul, the art starts rolling with the Longfellow Artists in Lake Street (LoLA). They are sponsoring lots of opportunities for artists, such as the utility boxes along Lake Street. (The Minneapolis Public Arts Administration issues permits and supports “wrapped and painted utility boxes” around the city. )
Lake Street Utility Box: Gordon Coons
As we strolled down the avenue we found that street art increases as languages in the shop windows increase. There were a lot of scenes celebrating different ethnicities Mexican, Native American, African and Scandinavian. Some of these seemed commercial; some seemed like community projects. We saw quite a few between the train station on Minnehaha until S 1st Avenue.
Lake Street near 15th
There were some store fronts that seemed to sponsor or promote street art such as Urban Ventures, Safari Restaurant and the former Resource Center of the Americas.
Urban Ventures
There were also a lot of art that was clever or good or otherwise struck us. We were surprised at the dearth of street art on Lake Street in Uptown. Perhaps that’s because for this trip we stayed on Lake Street. We learned that sometimes the most interesting work happens off the main drag; we’re hoping to get to more of that later.
Lyndale and Lake
Originally I thought we might spend a day or two traipsing the city to uncover gems but we’ve learned you’ve really got to be walking to get the flavor of a community and it’s going to take all summer to get a decent start. If you see us out in your street, please tell us the story of your local art. (Or feel free to post a comment.)
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- Under the Lake Street Bridge
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- Lake Street Utility Box: Mary Ila Funtemann
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- Lake Street Utility Box: Gordon Coons
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- By Deals & Discounts on Lake Street
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- By Deals & Discounts on Lake Street
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- The Hub on Lake & Minnhaha
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- Mosaic Cafe
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- Under the Train Station at Lake Street
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- Across from the Lake St Cemetery: “FInd the gold bugs”
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- Los Gallos on Lake Street
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- Lake Srteet and 28th
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- Lake Street & 17th
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- Ingebretson’s on Lake Street
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- Lake Street near 15th
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- Lake and 15th
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- Heart of the Beast
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- Lake near 13th
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Jungle Theater
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- Fujiya
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- Urban Ventures
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- Safari Restaurant
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- Ultimo mandatory de neustro venerable senor cuauhtemoc
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- Don’s Towing
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- Urban Ventures
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- Urban Ventures
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- Urban Ventures
Filed under: St Paul
It was roughly 400 degrees below zero during the St Paul Winter Carnival – so I’m super proud that we made it to see the snow and ice sculptures. The Twin Cities Daily Planet was kind enough to post our review of the sculptures – but I had a few more photos to share…
Filed under: Minnesota
Well I think at least two of us were surprised but turns out the girls all wanted to go to Nelson’s Farm to see the pumpkins, the kittens, the go carts and the trebuchet. We ate lunch at our usual place in Waverly. We stopped to see the largest ball of twine in Darwin.
Filed under: Minnesota
Being in town opened us up to attend more events that we usually miss – one example is the Dinner on the Farm. Great chefs come in to cook local food in farm settings. We go to these events when they are near town in the off season. This year we were able to attend a few on actual farms. When on the farms the events are very family-friendly. Usually they include access to beer and wine and some music. In town the events are a little more grown up – no kids, more beer and wine, occasional costumes.
Last summer I spent more time in St Paul than I have in years. I enjoyed being too hot for a change. (Dublin is nice – but it’s not hot!) We did get out to see a lot of shows and festivals. Aine and I started writing music reviews in earnest, in fact maybe I’ll just start linking to the reviews we write here to keep track of our in-town activities a little more. For now I just thought I’d share a few pictures. You’ll notice that the youngest kid appears more often than her teenage sisters – especially when we are close to home. That’s because I think they would rather be seen in last year’s fashion than with their mom!
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