Traveling Fool

Well, not every mountain, exactly, but I do like to climb things, mainly stairs. In lieu of any great adventure any time soon, here are some things I've climbed: Most recently, today in fact, I climbed the 35 flights of the AT&T Building in downtown Minneapolis, and treated myself to a caramel-pecan roll. Rock on: This past June, I climbed up the 387 steps of Notre Dame, the only way to see the chimeras:  I also walked down the 300 steps of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona; you have to take an elevator up.  I walked partially up Arthur's seat in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2006, I climbed the first two level of the Eiffel tower, over 600 steps...because I was cheap and didn't want to wait in the queue. It seemed like a great idea at the time. Looking down during the climb to the top of St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. I didn't want to pay the 4 Euros at the time to take an elevator.  ...

SPAM Museum , Austin, MN For anyone who knows me, they are probably trying to figure out why I went to a museum that celebrates pork (I have not intentionally eaten pork in 30 years). I was actually wondering that same thing as my partner in crime, TB2, and I drove down I-35 to Austin, Minnesota, in the most obnoxious rain. I don't know, it was something to do, and the original plan included a stop at Bennigan's down in Clear Lake, Iowa. It was about an hour's drive from our meeting place in Northfield, and then a bit of navigating in downtown Austin (originally, we wound up at the SPAM factory, which might have put me over the edge). We strolled over and walked into the free museum where we were warmly welcomed by two women at the reception desk. The museum is full of SPAM and Hormel family history and it's self guided, although there are tours available. There are plenty of hands on exhibits, things for kids to try and climb on. There are exhibits featur...

PT-17, 1941 Sometimes I say to myself "I want to do something different", and then I think of what that means. In this case, it meant getting up in the air, but I wasn't sure if that was skydiving, hot air balloon, oh wait, how about a World War II biplane. Sometimes random searching on the internet can yield great surprises, and that's how I came across Jeff Peterson and Twin City Barnstormers down in the Northfield area. I made my way down to Stanton Airfield which was used during WWII to train pilots for the war, it's on the National Register of Historic Places as a matter of fact, and it operates as a private airfield. When I booked my flight, I chose between flying over the town of Northfield or Cannon Falls and Lake Byllesby and the Sogn Valley. I picked Cannon Falls. You can also do add-ons: different flight patterns, or landings for a little more adventure, or you can pick a more acrobatic afternoon (like flying upside down). Not today, although ...

Blueberry Basil Lemonade The last deep fried pickle, modeled by TB2 It's not the longest tradition going, but for me and my friend, TB2, going to the Minnesota State Fair for a few hours, eating deep fried pickles and trying a few random foods, AND visiting the baby piglets, is our tradition. This is the first (and last) time that we'll go on the opening day (more on that in a bit). I long resisted, and resented, going to the Great Minnesota Get Together because of: the people, the heat, the price, the people, etc., but TB2 and I have a method, she tolerates me when I'm a raving bitch, and navigates and I go with her to the Grandstand AND the baby barn where we can look at piglets; we share some foods, others we tackle on our own, and we only go for a few hours. It's a wonderful thing. The night we went was perfect weather-wise, almost autumnal; we discovered some new things, including food and also that if you want to see a lot of piglets and other baby animal...

The Aoife Scott Band, 2017 It was our second year at the Irish Fair, and this time my friend and I went Saturday and Sunday; Saturday was a beautiful warm, sunny day. A grand day for listening to The Aoife (ay-fuh) Scott Band. Aoife is a member of one of the first families of Irish music, the Black Family (her mother is Frances Black; Mary Black, her aunt, and Roisin O, her cousin), but she totally stands on her own. She is relatively new, at least as far as recordings, having one album ("Carry the Day") under her belt, but she engaged the audience right from the beginning, and it seemed there was quite a good crowd at the main stage. There were covers, but also original tunes, and she told the stories behind their inspiration or creation. Her band was fabulous, including a guitarist (her 'fella'), a fiddler/bouzouki player, bodrhan/flute player (the bodrhan is a hand held Irish drum), who also wowed us with some crazy leg Irish dancing at the end of the set. ...