Filed under: SE Minnesota
We wound our way home slowly after our quick trip from Wabasha. Wabasha is where Grumpy Old Men is supposed to have been filmed. Turns out that more happened around Wabasha than in Wabasha – but there are still fun Grumpy Old Men stuff. I got a few pictures.
We also stopped by Read’s Landing on the way home, which is a fun place to see eagles. They aren’t as up close as in Wabasha, in that we didn’t have binoculars, nor were there eagle handlers bring them to us. But it was cool. It’s always fun to see an eagle in the wild.
We had lunch at the St James Hotel in Red Wing.
The girls and Patrick are off this week for Spring Break so we’re taking a mini-vacation in Wabasha, Minnesota. There are two big draws in Wabasha. First Grumpy Old Men was supposedly filmed here. Turned out that not a lot was filmed here, but that was OK. (Part of Grumpy Old Men was filmed at the Half Tim Rec in St Paul, where I worked for years so I felt like I had that covered anyways.) The second and more important draw is the National Eagle Center.
Wabasha is less than two hours away from St Paul. On the way here, we drove through Wisconsin – and Pepin, the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We had a nice lunch in Wabasha, we wanted to be quick because we knew the eagle feeding was happening in about 40 minutes.
The National Eagle Center was great! We met one of the founders through a connection Patrick had. She told us that. Wabasha has always been a place to see eagles – especially in March. The eagles hang out here because there’s a lot of open water because of nearby Lake Pepin – the lake pours into the Mississippi, the river gets wider – but it quickly narrows so the water trying to get into the narrowed river keeps open water on the wider part of the river. About 10 years ago they decided to build the center.
Five eagles reside at the center. Each has been injured in some way. Most were nurtured back to health by the Raptor Center but were not well enough to be released to the wild. Lily and Aine got pictures taken with Angela the Eagle. Then (because we knew the founder) we got a great picture with the whole family and the eagle with wings spread. So that was cool.
We got to watch them feed an eagle. That was gross but cool. The eagle got to choose between rabbit meat and rat. She went for rabbit meet. I think the rat would have been grosser to see. The rabbit looked like raw meat; the rat was recognizable as a rat. Lily and Patrick got to hold a falcon, wearing the falconer’s glove.
Last, but not least, there are telescopes and binoculars all around the place so that you can look up and down the river for the eagles. They said there were about 30 eagles around. Of course with my untrained eyes I saw more like a dozen, but it was still fun. What’s kind of amazing is that with the binoculars, you really could scan through the trees and see a lot.
I heard that Read’s Landing is another great place to see eagles. The plan is to stop there tomorrow on the way home.
Filed under: St Paul
For those who don’t know, I am a big Deadliest Catch fan. It started when we lived in Ireland. I don’t love Irish TV. (Those who have seen Killinaskully will understand.) And mostly Patrick’s mom had programs that she watched, which was fine. But on rare occasion, I got control and would always watch Deadliest Catch – the show about the crab fisherman off the coast of Alaska.
It is the best. They fish in all weather. Often you see that their shift starts by chopping a foot of ice off all of the equipment on the boat. Then they scoop up the big crab traps from the ocean. The traps are huge – big enough to trap hundreds of crab (on a good day). Can you imagine working with soaking wet everything in the dead of the winter? The mortality rate is frightening.
One of my favorite episodes is when the Time Bandit (a boat) sees a fisherman from another boat go overboard. Somehow they manage to get close enough to pull him from the freezing water and save his life. But you could see that the outcome is not always so happy with that sort of situation.
So you may wonder why I’m bring all of this up – well I met the Captain of the Time Bandit at The Liffey. We were out with friends celebrating Kathleen’s new job. We had a nice dinner and then moved over to the Liffey for a few drinks. I saw the guy right away but didn’t place him. Really I just figured I knew him from Billy.
Eventually I looked closer and mentioned that I thought he looked like the guy from Deadliest Catch. Well someone else at the table knew he was in town for the car show. Then I realized he was wearing a Time Bandit hat. So I went up and said hello. He could not have been nicer. It was Jonathan Hillstrand – the Captain of the boat who saved the guy who fell overboard.
I barely said hello with the camera when he was ready to pose and came over to talk to the whole table. I think he liked the idea of a table of folks from Ireland and Scotland – and that was our company that night. He was telling us about his friend and fellow fisherman who had recently died. But he also shared some salmon that his brother had smoked. He was great. Luckily for him I wasn’t able to corner him with all of my super geeky fishing questions. (Note: fishing is like cooking for me – purely a spectator sport.)
The funny aside – TMZ, the trashy entertainment news people were there too. I was very careful not to pick my nose or dribble, just in case they got a shot.
Filed under: Minneapolis
Rock the Cradle is a family event sponsored by The Current the non-classical music station of Minnesota Public Radio. It’s a free event held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Children’s Theatre. Apparently this is the sixth annual Rock the Cradle. We went a few years ago and thought it would be worth another chance. Aine invited a friend and Kate got dragged. It’s definitely an event for the under-tens. The good news today is that the event apparently come rain, shine or snow – because it started snowing at about 10:00 and hasn’t stopped.
We first stopped at the kids’ disco. There were live bands intermingled with DJ music. We caught Koo Koo Kango Roo and Bazillions. The younger girls enjoyed both. I think they particularly enjoyed when the parachute hit the dance floor. There were yummy, free treats in the disco and tattoos. The girls got several.
Next we roamed the halls of the MIA. The younger girls were super excited to see works that they have learned about at school, where they take part in Art Adventure. Art Adventure is a fun program; parents volunteer to introduce kids to art using work from the MIA. They were excited to see Shiva Nataraja and a Tzedakah box. Kate went to the MIA with school just last week so she was able to find the art quickly. I was impressed.
It’s really a nice mix of music and art. They have tons of free things for the kids, and who wouldn’t love that. But I was impressed that what seemed to be the most fun for them was dancing and seeing the art they have learned about it school.
Filed under: St Paul
Last night Aine hit the stage of the O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St Catherine’s University. It was her Irish dancing debut. Aine started taking Irish dance lessons in the fall. It’s been quite a production. I’ve learned that Irish dance is about half dance and half glitz. We may be stronger with dance.
Aine was very excited and not at all nervous about dancing in front of hundreds of people. She did a great job. We opted out of the wig, which meant I had to curl her hair. We made Kate’s day by buying a curling iron. Then everyone was very impressed to see that I knew how it worked.
Luckily I was there is capture the rehearsal earlier in the day. We were in the nose bleed section for the real show. I posted both views below.
Filed under: St Paul
This week was the first and thrid grade music concert at school. You have to get there pretty early to get good seats. We weren’t early. Usually I can sneak in a decent video by standing near the door, but this time the doors were closed – so if you want to get a taste of Aine maybe you can play the video for the sounds and look at thre picture.
The fun part about a first grade concert is that you could see Aine’s head bop during half of the songs. Buffalo Gals seemed to be a particular favorite. We don’t get a lot of head bops with the pre-teen sisters.
Filed under: St Paul
Over the weekend we saw an historic battle between King Boreas, cool ruler of the winter and Vulcanus Rex, bawdy bringer of spring. This is a battle that has been going on for 125 years.
It started with a parade of floats and cars, clowns and marching bands, even a boat driving down the street. We saw a girl being bounced up into the air. We saw hot air balloons that had lost their balloons but still fired up the sky. (Which by the way is a welcome blast of heat for all around.)
The kids watched the parade because many of the parading folks were handing out goodies. Aine got a great haul, which is what persuaded her older sisters to join her. The parade folks are smart to recognize that if you’re going to host a parade in potentially sub-zero temperatures, a few incentives are key.
Lily got caught by a Vulcan. The Vulcans are a kinder, gentler lot now then even just a few years ago. They bypassed the shier girls and went straight for the only sister who wanted a big V pained on her cheek.
The parade wound its way around to Rice Park. We wound with it and managed to score easy viewing from a bench with a mid-park angle. The battle takes place on the steps of the library. First you can see the majestic white presence of Boreas. Then you see the Vulcans and their torches getting closer.
The battle has a sort of sports announcers calling out the strategies and plays for both sides. The best part was the woman who decided she was going to bring Aine up to speed with what was happening. She gave us a great history, despite Lily and Kate’s helpful questions such as – why would they kill someone just to bring on spring?
In the end, even from a distance you can see the rush of red overtake the library steps as Boreas is overthrown, which is supposed to mean spring is on its way. And it looked hopeful. We’ve been above freezing since Saturday night – but rumor is we’re looking at -11 for tomorrow. Maybe there was a secret coup last night.
Filed under: St Paul
Over the weekend, I went with my mom to see Celtic Fire, a concert of the Twin Cities Women’s Choir, the HiBs and various other Irish musicians. I found out about the concert because I was asked to do a story about it for the Twin Cities Daily Planet. In fact I got a little sneak preview of the concert for the article…
They played a wide range of songs – from Danny Boy to something written by our friend Jode Dowling. I’m a little spoiled with the Irish music, as I knew most of the musicians and I’ve seen them many times before. But it was fun to see them in a new setting and to see them play in front of an audience that isn’t accustomed to the bodhran or uilleann pipes.
It was fun to see the choir too, which is something new for me. There were about 100 singers. They all sing for the love of it, they aren’t paid for their singing with the group. It was fun to see the families and friends in the audience play and to see every musicians personal style from the outfit she wore to the way she sang. Some kind of bobbed their heads, some were very still but they all seemed to enjoy themselves.
The concert was at the Central Presbyterian Church. I wrote about that church before – it was the place we took refuge during the RNC protests. It’s kind of a neat place.
Filed under: St Paul
Today was our second day of Winter Carnival activities. Last night we took a quick, chilly look at the ice sculptures. Today we headed to the State Fairgrounds to see the snow sculptures. It was about 20 degrees and very sunny. A perfect day!
I have never been to the State Fairgrounds for the Winter Carnival. I believe that the State Fair is actually in Falcon Heights and the Winter Carnival is definitely a St Paul event. But I got over my St Paul bias and we had a great time. Parking at the Fair is very easy, which can be very important on the colder days and isn’t necessarily true for any of the downtown St Paul events. The snow sculptures were very fun. It’s kind of amazing what the sculptors can do with snow. Although we’ve had plenty of snow for practicing this year.
Along with the sculptures, there was a “find the medallion” game for kids. (Aine found 4 medallions, scoring her a toy car.) There was a hot air balloon, grounded. I suspect it was going up at some point but it was fun to see it up close. Kate was sure it would explode; Aine wanted to take a turn going up. There was also a snow maze; unfortunately we couldn’t check it out. Apparently someone has slipped an injured himself pretty seriously and so they were keeping folks out. Even after the injured party was taken out on a stretcher, the maze was closed as they tried to sand down the pathway. We didn’t mind too much as we heard rumor of a big event at 2:47.
Flashback to earlier in the week and Lily told me that some kid in her class said there was a flash mob planned for the Winter Carnival. A flash mob happens when a group of people meet in a public place to do something unusual. We love flash mobs! Fast forward to this morning when I noticed a post on the Winter Carnival Facebook page saying there would be a flash mob at 2:47 today in Rice Park. So after the snow sculptures we booked to Rice Park.
We got to Rice Park in time to get mini donuts and hang out to wait for the flash mob. The funny thing was that while I think flash mobs are meant to be secret – although in a funny we’re-super-friendly-in-Minnesota way, this felt like the worst kept secret ever. Many of us were hanging by the stage waiting – some for a signal and many of us with cameras. But it was still super fun when it happened – and I got it on video. (Not great, video but it was tough to try to take it all in.) The music started, the dancing followed. One fun part – the music quit working – but the flash mob carried on. In fact, that was maybe the best part!
Filed under: St Paul
The 125th Winter Carnival, dubbed the Coolest Celebration on Earth, started on Thursday. For our friends from outside St Paul, the winter carnival always takes place over 10 days starting at the end of January. There are a few highlights, such as the Treasure Medallion. The carnival people hide a medallion and send out two clues a day until someone finds it. Some years we’ve looked for the medallion – this year we didn’t, which is OK because the medallion was found today in Battle Creek Regional Park, which is no where near our neck of the woods so we would have never found it anyways.
There’s also a big mythology around the carnival. You can find the whole story on Wikipedia – but here’s my foggy version that has allowed me to fake it through most conversations over the years. Boreas, King of the Winds, loves and reigns over winter. Vulcanus Rex, the god of Fire, is the sworn enemy of Boreas and strives to bring on the spring. The Winter Carnival brings about the final hurrah for the Boreas folks and on the final day the Vulcans storm the ice castle and spring prevails. In the mix there’s always a bawdy Klondike Kate who sings – and the Vulcan Krewe rides around in a red bus and draws big V’s on the faces of the women in the crowd.
Every year we try to make it to at least one Winter Carnival event. Tonight we headed down to see some of the ice sculptures. Sometimes 23 degrees seems warm; tonight it didn’t. But the ice sculptures are always fun to see and I was a little bit afraid that maybe this would be the warmest day to see them. So after I had a daylong board meeting and the girls had swim practice we bundled up and headed to Rice Park to see the ice sculptures – they aren’t all done yet but we saw a bunch. If the weather is nice, maybe we’ll head out tomorrow too and can watch some of the sculptures in process or we’ll trek to the State Fairgrounds to see the snow sculpture.
10 Questions About... 