Canadian Rockies here we come!

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We are about to embark on the third and final College Graduation Trip!  Diplomas were handed out Memorial Day weekend and the new job begins July 9, so this is our son Erik’s final hurrah and our special time together before he heads out into the “real world.”

The destination is the Canadian Rockies, and the focus will be on hiking in the mountains.  Erik’s choice is one of those featured in National Geographic’s Drives of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Most Spectacular Trips.  That’s a pretty good recommendation, even if he didn’t know it when he made his selection.  After months of research, countless visits to TripAdvisor, and reading way too many reviews, we have all our reservations and are ready to depart on Saturday.  Here is the basic plan:

  • Arrive in Calgary and immediately head up the Icefields Parkway
  • 3 nights in Lake Louise, hiking in Banff National Park
  • 4 nights in Jasper, hiking in Jasper National Park, with a side-trip to Mt. Robson Provincial Park
  • 1 final night in Banff, then return home

The goal was to limit moving around and maximize time spent outdoors.  We also chose accommodations in simple cabins.  Erik would have preferred “back country” lodgings, which require hiking in to reach them.  That sounded like great fun, but the timing of our trip precluded such adventure, as they do not open until later in the season (something about snow conditions…).

If time, inclination and internet connections permit, I hope to blog along the way.  But there is also something to be said for unplugging.  If it comes to choosing between an evening bonfire and blogging, I  already know which will win.

Tour de Pepin

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“You cycled all the way around Lake Pepin?” was the astonished reaction. Yes, and we had a great time doing it!  The Tour de Pepin is just that – a 72 mile cycling tour (not race) around the famed widening in the Mississippi River that is known as Lake Pepin.  The ride provided prolific panoramic views of the lake, charming historic towns, impressive river bluffs, and beautiful spring flowers along the route.  In a word, scenic. And we had a gloriously sunny day on which to enjoy the whole experience.

Coming from a background of running marathons, I had to readjust my expectations in terms of event logistics for a cycling tour.  Rather than traveling on a closed course, we shared the local 2-lane highways circling the lake with car traffic.  However, my skepticism was quickly allayed, finding generous shoulders on nearly the whole route, which provided a comfortable margin for cyclists.  Instead of rushing through water stops for only enough time to sip without choking, we took advantage of the rest stops to dismount, wiggle any stiffness out of our bodies, refill our water bottles, grab a snack and chat with other cyclists.  Socializing was half the fun!  There were no mile markers to chart our progress, but the route was well signed and mileage was posted at each rest stop.  Besides, we had our Garmin GPS watches to tell us how far we’d come.  The one odd dissimilarity came at the end. While we didn’t expect roaring crowds or need a finisher’s medal, we did feel a sense of let-down finding only a few leftover refreshments on a small table dwarfed by the event awning – and not a single person.  Granted, we had been well supported along the way, but we were looking forward to that final opportunity to exchange experiences with other participants.  Perhaps such is the nature of tours, where the two-hour starting window narrows the flow of finishers down to a dribble.

The course had a reasonable number of hills on the Wisconsin side.  But there was a distinct stand-out.  Just one look at the elevations of the course makes it obvious…

Personally, I think this view overstates the case – yes, it was long and steep, but it was very doable, even for a new cyclist like myself.  But it does make for a dramatic story!  And best of all, the rest stop on the other side featured free ice cream cones, courtesy of Flat Pennies Ice Cream in Bay City.  That was the best ice cream we’ve ever tasted!

For cyclists wanting the scenery, but not the full distance, there are 32-mile and 50-mile routes available.  They also feature a ride on the Pearl of the Lake Paddlewheel boat across Lake Pepin back to the start.  And I’m sure it’s no coincidence that they don’t have to do that monster hill.  But they miss out on the ice cream.

Finding Inspiration

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I’ve been displaced this week.  Voluntarily.  I’ve been spending my days in the home of my daughter and her husband, taking care of their new baby and her older brother while my daughter returned to her 2nd grade classroom to complete the year with her students.  As a result, I was in a “foreign” environment, without access to my own familiar resources.  But what a benefit – I made some wonderful discoveries and came away with new sources of inspiration.

My first find was a book called Heroes for My Son by Brad Meltzer.  It was a small book, lying on the coffee table, almost disguised among the assortment of children’s books.  I picked it up and was immediately taken with the premise and content of the book.  It is a collection of 52 individuals, hand selected by Meltzer for their virtues and talents, as life examples for his son.  Its beauty is in its simplicity.  Each entry is comprised of a single black and white photo, and a few concise sentences that capture the qualities that define the individual.  And finally, a quote by or about the hero.  Many, not all, are famous, and each is selected for a character trait not a specific accomplishment.  It is a book to be savored, but I found myself wanting to read on to the next, and the next.  The inspiration it contained was heart-warming and lasting, as the stories were so memorable.

Next was music.  Thumbing through the iPod connected to the music system, I selected the album Just Relax: Mexico by Lifescapes.  The music was calming yet with nice variety, unlike some of the other more boisterous selections on the device, and made for good listening.  It turns out that Lifescapes is a series of music CDs developed for Target Corporation, which in all honesty was a bit of a turn-off for me.  But reading more, I discovered that it started with a small group of musicians from the Twin Cities area, who “came together with one mission in mind… to create a fresh and authentic music collection tuned to everyday life.”  Where the inspiration comes in is their message that followed: “Think of your life as a film where you’re the lead character in your movie. Every day you live your life in big and small ways, through seasons of change, through good times and hard times, through passing moments and memories that’ll last forever.”  I scoured the website, trying to discern just who those original artists were, and which were the initial CDs, but they left no clues.  Still, I’m interested enough to check out other titles and artists in the series.

Not bad for a week spent largely in the absence of other adults!

Running Grandma

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Two years ago, I ran Grandma’s IMG_5966Marathon as a grandma for the first time.  I proudly emblazoned the fact on my running top, and enjoyed the resulting cheers along the way.  It was a great – no grand – variation on a race that was otherwise an annual affair for me.  And stopping to kiss the baby at mile 21 just before Lemon Drop Hill was definitely a timely energy boost.

Yesterday I was a running Grandma as well, only this time it was behind my second grandchild.  I wasn’t chasing her, I was pushing.  What a great invention these running IMG_7953strollers are!  They glide with ease, turn on a dime (not always where I intend, however), and absorb all the curbs and bumps I might find along the way.  Best of all, they turn drivers into the most polite and accommodating citizens I’ve ever seen. Perhaps it was the wiry but distinctly gray haired runner piloting the stroller that compelled them to stop and grant me priority to proceed at every intersection.  I was fortunate that at two months, the baby wasn’t much of a payload and we managed a good pace.  But I still managed to convince myself that I was getting more workout per mile.

This grandma has plenty of good reasons to keep on running.  And maybe one day it will be with those grandchildren at my side!

New Twist on an Old Game

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I come from a family of game players. Our specialty is word games. When my husband and I were first dating, I finally talked him into playing Scrabble with me. At first, I trounced him regularly. Then the tables began to turn. He played with strategy! High scoring words were no longer enough to ensure my victory – he began to block my moves. Deliberately! He could turn a Scrabble board into an unplayable assortment of letters in just a few moves. It became a whole new game. Literally. But that wasn’t a bad thing, and it made for a much more genial relationship by balancing out the scores.

This weekend, we had two 10-hour car trips to attend our youngest son’s college graduation. We carpooled with our daughter, her husband and their new baby to and from the festivities. To pass the time, I reached back to a favorite word game that was well suited to car trips in my youth – Jotto. A quick search on the internet quickly refreshed my memory of the rules. It is normally played with two players. Each person thinks up a 5-letter word. The players proceed to ask each other 5 letter words, and the number of correct letters from the secret word is revealed. By repeatedly asking words to rule letters in and out, one can eventually guess the other player’s word. It particularly appeals to my mathematical and analytical mind, as well as word knowledge. But we had three players, so we dreamed up a new approach – round robin Jotto. Player A tries to guess Player B’s word, Player B guesses Player C’s word, and C tries to guess A’s. Surprisingly, it worked out quite well! And suddenly, our game for 2 was expandable to any number of players. Once a player was out (when their word was guessed correctly), it was possible for them to review other players’ answers to try and guess their word as well.

It was good to revert back to pre-technology times and while away the hours with a mere pen and paper. Try it sometime!

Gardening Surprises

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Gardening is not my thing. I like perennials that come up and grow reliably. Annuals are almost always impatiens, prized for their constant and brilliant color throughout the summer with no effort on my part.

The whole idea behind the landscaping for our new home was to be natural and maintenance free. We have “highway mix” grasses that are not meant to be mowed, which give way to woods around three sides of the house. We strayed a bit when it came to the front approach, however, where friends with marvelous gardening skills designed and planted perennials and bushes to line the walkway.

I have to admit to gathering interest in the various plantings, and recently had an uncharacteristic surge of industrious gardening activity. Seeking to fill in the barren wall alongside the garage, and spying an expanding patch of Lilies of the Valley in our woods, I decided to try my hand at transplanting. Getting up close and personal with the plants, I discovered hidden treasure. Trillium! I surprised myself by coming up with the name, but a Google search and Wikipedia confirmed my identification. Something in my memory registered “do not pick” and I thought I had found a rare flower. Although my research revealed that they are protected in a number of states, the reason is that picking the blossoms inflicts lasting damage on the plants, and it takes years for them to recover. Regardless, I delicately avoided disturbing my new find, and plundered my lilies from a safe distance.

We’ll see if the lillies take root and multiply. But even if not, I’ve been rewarded for my efforts. And just maybe I will buy those wild flower seeds I’ve been thinking of introducing In front of the large rocks outside our dining room windows.

 

Wedding Ice Cream

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I love ice cream.  Fortunately, I married someone who feels the same way.  We share mugs of ice cream late in the evening, and it’s amazing what we can cram into those vessels.

Yesterday was our 29th wedding anniversary.  We had a picnic, went for a walk, and – of course – completed the evening with a trip to our favorite ice cream shop.

It was a fitting celebration, as we did the same thing 29 years ago.  In between the wedding ceremony and the reception, we made a slight detour – to the Dairy Queen.  It was the old style DQ, where we ordered from the window outside.  The servers were so surprised and enamored with the situation that our ice cream cones were on the house!  We arrived at the reception with our treats, linked arms and licked our cones.

Our daughter was married a few years ago.  Guess where the stretch limo carrying the entire wedding party stopped en route to the reception?  DQ.  It must run in the family.

Minneapolis – Most Bikeable City

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As part of the commentary on yesterday’s National Bike to Work Day, I heard a report on NPR announcing that Minneapolis came out #1 in a new ranking of the Most Bikeable Cities.  Curious to learn more, I went on to find out about the method behind the scoring process.  I discovered that it was developed by Walk Score, which describes itself as “the only site that makes it easy for apartment renters and homebuyers to find neighborhoods where they can drive less and live more.”  They launched Bike Score just this week, and currently report details on on the top 10 most bikeable cities in the US, and the 10 largest cities in Canada.  The primary factors in computing the score are the availability of bike infrastructure (lanes and trails), the hilliness of the area, amenities and road connectivity, and the number of bike commuters, then weighted by population density.

As it happened, I had planned a bike route through the Minneapolis area this morning to meet a friend for coffee at the Depot Coffeehouse in Hopkins.  That location is a magnet for cyclists, as it is situated at the juncture of three urban bike trails.  So I decided to do a bit of exploring myself on my return route.  I had never cycled into Minneapolis proper on the Cedar Lake Commuter Trail, and I was amazed at the extensive trail system with numerous spurs into local neighborhoods and how it drew me right across town in the safety of a secluded bike lane.  First I found myself cycling right alongside the base of Target Field, under the superstructure of the stands. Continuing along, I made it all the way to the Mississippi River – back to my old stomping grounds from my lunch-time running days.  From there, access to the West River Parkway and miles of additional bike trails beckoned.  What a delightful surprise – I can’t wait to plan another ride there and beyond.

My limited experiment quickly confirmed the results of the Bike Score, and gave me pride in this metro area for developing such bike-friendly routes.  Bike Score deliberately publishes its criteria, to encourage other cities to invest in these elements to make their environment more attractive to cyclists.  I’m all for it!  I hope other cities in the Northland are checking it out.

What’s your idea of Camping?

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To my mom, it was “a picnic with tents.”  She was not a fan, but being a good sport she was willing to go along with it.  When my high school friend and I planned a camping trip with our two families, however, she landed in the hospital with a mastectomy instead.  We told her that was going a bit too far to get out of camping.

To my kids, it was “taking a break from the cabin.”  Kind of embarrassing really.  When we bought our cabin, I was thrilled but mourned the inevitable loss of camping trips.  So my husband fulfilled his promise of keeping it alive by taking the family camping just 10 miles away from the cabin.  Walking through the campground, we felt a bit sheepish when our kids proudly announced to other rustic campers, “we’re here from our cabin!”

On a real family camping trip in the Black Hills, it was “more toast please, Mom.”  A rainy morning meant the cooks got wet, but a roomy old canvas tent allowed the kids to play and have breakfast in the dry interior.  It didn’t curb their appetites any, as their hunger for toast seemed insatiable.

On a Boundary Waters canoe trip with friends, it meant sharing dreams.  We were land-bound by thunderstorms and tent-bound by the rain.  Much of the day was spent reading and snoozing, until a voice emanated from the other tent.  “Here’s an assignment for you.  Name 10 vacations you would like to take.”  We whiled away much of the afternoon exchanging fantasies of adventures and destinations.  We’ve even done some of them since.

To my friend, Mary, the mere thought was horrifying.  “What, no hairdryers or make-up?”  The idea of going without for days on end was unfathomable.  But we love her anyway.

Camping seems to mean something different with each outing.  No matter what the circumstances are, it promises plenty of memories.  And with the passage of time, they almost always become good memories.