Category Archives: See the Sights

See the Sights

“Someone told me it’s all happening at the zoo…”

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– Simon & Garfunkel, At the Zoo

On Saturday, I went to the Minnesota Zoo with some friends and their kids. Right away, I ran into Catherine of Yogurt & Granola – knitbloggers are everywhere!

Here are some of the better animal photos I got, starting with a very active red panda.

This tiger never got close enough for a really good picture, alas.

The zoo has lots of native Minnesota animals, such as coyotes.

That coyote was getting ready to pounce on another coyote – doesn’t he just look like he’s up to no good?!

I interrupted this otter in the midst of cleaning its tummy.

Not a lot of open water yet for the swans.

The bald eagle was definitely keeping its eye on everyone, possibly trying to decide who was a tasty morsel…

Back at home, the local wildlife looked unconcerned.

“I’m pretty sure I could take that eagle. Besides, I’m in my Box of Invincibility.” -Chaos

Randonymity, See the Sights

What Minnesotans do to stave off cabin fever

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We fish. You won’t find me out ice fishing in this lifetime, but I might be tempted to check out the Art Shanty Project sometime… ETA: Annie wrote about the Art Shanty Project a few days ago – and there’s even a Knitting Shanty!

We drink. If you’ve ever wanted to sit outside in a bar made from 12,000 pounds of ice, check out the Ice Chamber at the Chambers Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. I think I’d be huddled by the fire pit the whole time!

We fest. The St. Paul Winter Carnival is over for another year, but you can still check out the pictures and contemplate what the Hot Dish Tent was like.

We raise money. For a shockingly different fundraiser, you could participate in the Polar Bear Plunge and support the Special Olympics – yup, you do have to jump into an icy lake.

We cross-country ski.

We skijor.

We fly kites.

We ice skate – both indoors and out.

We read.

We knit.

We hibernate…

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

Knitting, Reading, See the Sights

In which I lunch, accompanied by a furry guitar

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Remember the snow I mentioned Friday? Here’s photographic proof of it. May was enthralled, but she didn’t bird chitter at it the way she did last fall.

“If these are birds, they’re probably stupid, because they’re crashing right into the ground. Who wants to catch stupid birds?” -Mayhem

Reading Update
Unplugged by Lois Greiman. I’m reading these in reverse order, which isn’t brightest thing to do. Looks like I enjoyed Unscrewed (set after Unplugged) ok, but thought it covered so much of the previous books that I wouldn’t really need to read them. That explains why I had such a sense of deja vu as I read this!
Size 14 Is Not Fat Either: A Heather Wells Mystery by Meg Cabot. Former teen idol Heather Wells just keeps stumbling into murders as she tries to create a new post-teen idol life for herself.
Sex, Lies and Vampires and Even Vampires Get the Blues by Katie MacAlister. These are a bit silly, but since I am a sucker for cheesy titles, I keep reading them. 🙂

Life Update
Alas, I’ve healed so well that I return to work full-time on Wednesday. Waaaaah! If any of you know a single, cute, wealthy guy who has a great sense of humor and likes cats, send him my way, hmm? Thanks in advance! 😉

On Friday, after the snow had stopped and melted, I met Valerie (visiting from Massachusetts), her friend blog-free Kelly (visiting from Iowa),

the mysterious Guinifer (local, but I hadn’t met her before),

and Deb (yay, Deb!)

at 318 for lunch and knitting.

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about knitting with Valerie, who you might know from Yarn4Socks, and Guinifer, who is a master yarn enabler (particularly sock yarn, but her reach is vast). However, I did manage to show up with a yarn that neither had heard of before – lovely sock yarn from Red Rocks Fiber Works (alas, nothing to their website yet), which was a convalescence gift from Michaele. I’m using the stitch pattern from the Los Monos Locos pattern, which I’ve knit before.

Besides the great company, conversation, and coffee, I really like 318’s decor. (Don’t look, Marina!)

“Why don’t Magical Flying Goldfish ever fall from the sky? Life sucks.” -Mayhem

Randonymity, See the Sights

Stoned on sunbeams

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Congratulations to Kellie, Lisa, and Kim, who were randomly selected in my contest! Thanks to everyone who left such, um, interesting advice for Chaos and Mayhem. I’ll be having words with a few of you, should the kitties take your advice! 😉

Apologies to those who got stuck with an earworm yesterday… Particular apologies to poor Sydney who read both post and comments and left with a mixture of “Wuthering Heights” and “Wimoweh” going through her head. I hope she’ll be ok… I did loop 10 or 15 minutes of “Wimoweh” (aka “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”), but I continue to be impervious to that particular earworm.

Thanks to the Knitty Professor for sending me a link to Monty Python’s Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights. It is well worth watching. Also, thanks to YouTube, not only can you see the video for the Kate Bush version of the song, you can also see the video for the Pat Benatar version!

Onward!

One thing I didn’t do much of at the cabin was knit, so really, I have no new knitting to show you. Shall we look at the lake and the leaves instead?

Ahhhh…

And I may not have had a chance to take a picture of the Yellow Brick Road in Grand Rapids (honoring Judy Garland), but I did get a few pictures of a wonderful coffeehouse. Great name, eh?

I totally wish this coffeehouse was just a few blocks away from me!

I had lunch there – they make a quiche with rice instead of “real” crust (so it’s gluten free!) – this was the first quiche I’ve eaten in many, many years.

Although I have no proof, this is how I suspect Mayhem spent her weekend while I was at the cabin, all “waaaaaah-ing” aside:

*sunbeam sunbeam sunbeam* -Mayhem

*sunbeam sunbeam sunbeam* -Mayhem

See the Sights

Words in the willow

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Do you think Chaos might’ve suspected something was up when I was packing?

“If I sit on her bag, she can’t pack and leave. Ha! I foiled her but good.” -Chaos

Poor Chaos.

While I was up north over the weekend, we went to Goods from the Woods in Grand Rapids.

It turned out to be a great place to find holiday presents for certain hard-to-shop-for family members. None of said presents will be pictured for obvious reasons, but here were a few things that intrigued and amused. (I did pick up one or two things for myself and I’ll post about them later in the week!)

See the Sights

Fair on a stick

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The main reason I went to the State Fair on Friday was not to search for gluten-free food and beer; however, I did have a pita-free gyro, strawberries with whipped cream, and two glasses of Redbridge gluten-free beer. The main reason was for Jeanne and I to take our UK visitors, Pao and MrsPao, to the most Minnesotan thing we could think of to do. They got right into the spirit of things.

Jeanne’s husband Michael came along, too, and was a good sport.

We saw many strange and amazing sights.

“I still can’t believe you didn’t bring me any deep-fried kitty food on a stick. Hmph.” -Mayhem

See the Sights

Another rainy Monday…

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Vacation Update
I have more vacation pictures! I know, I know, you thought we were all done with that. But when Deb mentioned that she was about to head out on vacation to the Black Hills, I remembered I still had a few left… These pictures are from my drive home on I-90 and are all “hold camera and click while continuing to watch the road” shots.

I’d forgotten that it was foggy when I started driving home.

Really, I have no idea what this was all about.

There were some dramatic clouds. Hmm, do you think that one in the center is The Grim?! Must not’ve been, since I made it home safely.

Not a lot of topography along I-90 in South Dakota, so it quickly became photo worthy. I couldn’t have centered that sign better if I’d been trying.

The sun eventually did come out, revealing yet more mysteries along the highway.

“You are growing sleepy. When you awake, you will remember nothing, except that you must never go on vacation and leave your kitties alone again.” -Chaos

See the Sights

One of my favorite places ever

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After I left the Brown Sheep outlet store, I headed north into the Black Hills. I love the Black Hills. Prior to 1991, I had never been there. But that summer, I worked for the Forest Service out of the Harney Ranger District in Hill City, South Dakota, marking timber and fighting forest fires. (Wow, the building I worked out of isn’t in use anymore and is now for sale!)

When I had time off, I explored. One of my very favorite hikes was through the miniscule Black Elk Wilderness up to Harney Peak. I have no idea how many times I hiked those trails that summer!

Ready to go? If you enlarge this picture and look at the skyline in the center, you’ll see a wee bump. That’s my destination.

I made sure to fill out my wilderness registration card, just in case!

Whew! Almost to the top, although I swear the last steps up are the hardest of all.

It might surprise you to learn that at 7247 feet (2207 meters) Harney Peak is the tallest point between the Pyrenees and the Rockies!

The views are best on a clear day, but they weren’t too shabby even on this cloudy one.

Unfortunately, the clouds really started to rush in then, so I booked on down the trail, lickity split! I got pretty wet that last mile or two – fortunately, I wasn’t wearing cotton, so I dried off very quickly once I got in the car and out of the rain. As I headed down to civilization, the storm got completely crazy and I pulled off to wait it out.

This is what a hailstorm looks like from inside my car:

“Whoa, Mom, that’s making me dizzy!” -Chaos

Contests, See the Sights

The Obviously Eternal Travelogue

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In the last installment of the eternal vacation, I was driving down from Estes Park to stay with Kristi and Drew in Ft. Collins for a few days. We had a great time! (Well, Kristi and I did; Drew carried on with his usual workaday schedule and joined us for tasty dinners out.)

Kristi and I hiked Coyote Ridge.

We got a tour of Interweave Press and met Sandi and Erin of Knitting Daily.

We went to the Swetsville Zoo.

We enjoyed many lovely coffee beverages and blogged on the street.

We visited bookstores and yarn stores.

And on Wednesday morning, I got back in my car and drove north and east into the wilds of Nebraska.

“Mom, the big kitty and I wish you would stop talking about that horrible time you call ‘vacation.'” -Mayhem

Contests, See the Sights

Oh yeah, I’m not finished with that vacation stuff, am I?

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Vacation, I forget what part it is
I abruptly left off my vacation narrative after some pictures of cute alpacas in the tents at the Estes Park Wool Market.

Well, ok, maybe one more picture from the animal tents. Tub o’ goat, anyone?

After we were all tuckered out from the wool market, we headed to a local landmark for a drink.

Everyone survived – woo-hoo! 😉 I didn’t realize that the hotel was founded by the inventor of this car:

After that drink, we all had dinner at Claire’s and then hung out at the cabin, knitting and chatting into the evening. Sunday morning, it was time to pack up and go our separate ways. (I can’t believe I didn’t get a single picture of the whole cabin crew! Ack.) I headed over to Kind Coffee

to caffeinate,

blog, and read. I highly recommend this coffee shop if you’re in Estes Park!

I wandered around Estes Park for a bit, then headed down the mountains to see Kristi.

“I obviously have time for a nap or three before Mom finishes her vacation narrative…. zzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos