Fare the Well Winer!

Procrastination time!  I am having a hell of a time with my comprehensive accounting problem and I need to distract myself from it. So I figured I'd get a blog post done.  It is no longer winter, yet it has been lingering on here in Minnesota.  I love the snow, but let me tell you, I am not a fan of it this far into the spring.  I am a rain girl.  Weird I know!

But I figured I'd give it a bit of a homage or a goodbye if you will.  Snow!!!  I love the stuff, honestly I do.  I've been skiing literally my whole life.  My cross country skiing not as good as my downhill.  But I try.  I am sure I mentioned it previously.  The skiing is a lifelong love.  It will never go away, I hope.  I learned the sport in Michigan and have been lucky enough to get to ski in the western mountains, including a great spring skiing trip to New Mexico.  Exciting I know. 

The skiing is different in the Midwest.  For one thing the hills are a heck of a lot smaller! And it is a bit icier, not a lot of powder.  That's ok by me though, I grew up with it.  Honestly it was much harder for me to adjust to powder than I expected.  Kinda like moguls.  I know how to ski moguls, I just don't like it.  I feel like I don't have enough control.






So New Mexico, I went in the spring, I won the New Mexico fight! I didn't get sick!!!! Yay, I am not a New Mexico fan (for reasons I've previously mentioned).  But I put it aside for the joys of the snow!  We (my parents and I) had been up in the Colorado Mountains.  It was great fun!  Gorgeous weather! Gorgeous Mountains! Amazing skiing!  New Mexico was a different horse all together.  The weather was great, although much warmer.  This led to slicker skiing.  A bit more work and a lot more speed.  I have a need for speed, always have- always will.




Don't get me wrong as spoiled as I've gotten I still love Minnesota and Michigan skiing!  The problem is that the hills are so short in comparison and while you get a ton more runs in.  But they are short and quick!  Not always the most fun.  Oh and if you fall, the ice is a bit more painful!
 



I am not actually sure what this blog is about today.  It is kinda a rambling of my winter/skiing thoughts! Golly!

Come Hell or High Water!

View from Science Museum in St. Paul

So the Mississippi is rising!  Not that is anything new, but it is always an exciting, tense time along The River.  The Mississippi is amazing.  I don't know how to explain the hold it has.  It is fun to watch the cycles, how it lives and breathes.  The frozen winter fishermen, the eagles and ice chunks in the early spring, the flooding of spring and summer, the low water of the fall.  Never ending cycle.  Always fun to watch.

It was a wet summer, fall, and winter.  Needless to say this ended up with some massive flooding in the following spring.  Which came early (or so it seems).  But it is not fully here yet, there is still some possible snow a coming.  It kinda snuck up on me, the flooding did.  You expect the river to rise in the spring, you count on it, you comment and you move on.  But every 8 or so years you get a big one.  1993, 2001... and we've had some good ones for the last few summers.  This last set of pictures is crappy cell phone ones cause I hadn't planned on heading down to the river.

Riverside Park La Crosse Wi

The grade between La Crescent and La Crosse

 

Play Ball!

So I went to a baseball game... I know what your thinking, but Kate, you don't seem to really like baseball, it kinda bores you.  Well yes, that is true, baseball is far from my favorite sports, but I enjoy it sometimes.  But needless to say I went with my sister home opening weekend for the Twins against the Oakland A's.  Not a huge twins fan, but I have a soft spot for them (Kirby and all).

It was fun, but cold.  Not as first but as the evening wore on.  (April is a little too soon for outdoor baseball in Minnesota in my opinion)  It was a 1-0 game.  It seemed like all they ever did was catch pop flys in the out field or throw 'em out at first.  And there was that one Oakland A who kept stealing 2nd.  That didn't seem nice to me.





I had no idea who the players were, except Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau (I know this because he is the bestest friend of one of my absolute favorite hockey players Willie Mitchell)  So I just kinda went along with the crowd.  It was fun.

On to Tombstone

 So of all the places I wanted to visit while I toured the southwest Tombstone was on at the top of the list.  I'm a history kinda girl and it is chalk full of it.  Sadly I got sick around that time.  Yeah it was stupid on my part, some super dehydration.  I was nauseous for most of the day.  Little queasy at tombstone (at first I attributed it to the negitive energy of Tombstone) but it only got worse as the day went on, actually that was the reason the trip was cut short. But that is neither here nor there at this point.





So Tina and I left Tuscon early in the day and headed south, on a path that would take us really close to the Mexican border. To another town that I wanted to see, but slept through (I did go back later with the parents though).  Arizona is kinda pretty.  They have mountains, cacti, and animals.  I enjoyed the drive.  We got to Tombstone early and natually found the museum.  It was the old courthouse. 






They had an overview of the OK Corral, and the Earp brothers.  I am not a huge fan of Wyatt Earp as he was kinda a jerk.  But Doc Holliday intrigues me.  Upstairs the courthouse was set up just as it was in the 1800's.  So it was kinda neat to see.  Outside you could go see Tombstone as it was... well kinda.  Part of the town is the tourist feature.  One street mainly done in dirt and all fixed up pretty. 





They have the OK Corral where they talk about the empty lot that the gunfight took place in.  They lay out the time line and the events leading up to it.  Pretty nifty actually.  Then you have old timey stores and business on both sides of the dusty old street.  Then you show up at Big Nose Kate's Saloon (assuming it was later named after her as a nod to Tombstone history).  Where you learn a little about Kate.  She was Doc's girlfriend (may or may not have been a prostitute- no one really knows), and he felt she was his intellectual equal.  She ran a boarding house, might have run a brothel, and often gets confused with Tombstones' Rowdy Kate.









At the far end of the street is the Birdcage Theater.  Legend has it that 26 people were killed there as it was the meanest, rowdiest places in Tombstone and there is still 120ish bullet holes in the joint.

My Old Faithful Moment

Old Faithful

Ok, so I felt that last one was a bit somber, or maybe too personal, I don't know.  It just didn't hate the tone that I like to maintain in this.  Maybe it was a wistfulness.  But lets move on to something I never thought I'd fall for.  Geysers.  Sure like everyone you see it and you go "oooh" "ahhh", but after awhile it is like ehh, whatever.  But then you see one you never seen before, or and old classic in a different light and all of a sudden you are "ohhing" and "ahhing" again.  It is a pretty neat cycle.

Great Fountain

Castle

Cliff

Old Faithful from Observation Point

So this totally happened to me.  I was all jaded on old Faithful, maybe it was more of an act than I let on.  Hell I don't even think I'd been in the Park for more than a season or two at that time but it is kinda a park thing, unless you are geyser gazer then you are like meh old faithful.  I'd seen it several times by then and honestly as far as geyser go it is average.  Everything about it is average, it is not oldest, newest, tallest, shortest, longest, quickest, most frequent, but it is the most known.  And it is centrally located and it does that every 90 minutes give or take 10 thing.  Which makes it popular.  So as I was saying I had my "oooh" "aaah" moment one night.  It was a full moon.  A big one that totes lit up the entire basin, and to see Old Faithful in the moonlight like that was breathtaking.

Old Faithful again

Old Faithful in Winter

Beehive (I think)

So there you have it my old faithful moment.  Don't get me wrong, I still don't go out of my way to see it when I am in the park, if you miss it you miss it... chances are it will erupt again sometime in the next two hours.  The winter eruptions are kinda the same way.  They are neat to see because of all the steam and the fact that they sometimes freeze before the geyser water hits the ground.  Hosting one morning, all you could see was steam after Old Faithful erupted- crazy!  I saw Grand Geyser a few times in the winter, talk about amazing.  Somethings never get old.

Exiled in Paradise

  I've had Yellowstone on my mind lately.  Probably because I am going to be in a different National Park for the summer months.  It is kinda a surreal feeling knowing that I might be over Yellowstone.  I have no desire to go back except maybe for a visit.  Sure I miss my Yellowstone peeps and I don't have the same circle of people here in Minnesota... (I am working on that slowly).  But sometimes you just have to move on.  So I figured with it on my mind, knowing how beautiful the spring in Yellowstone is, I'd give The Park some attention.




So as I mentioned I spent the majority of my Yellowstone life at Lake, but I did one summer in exile (as I sometimes grudgingly refer to it) at Old Faithful.  I had to work at Old Faithful, I needed to put the demons of my previous summer to rest.  My previous summer was very odd, it was both wonderful and horrible.  I was supposed to be back at lake, but I honestly couldn't do it, I was filled with dread just thinking of it.  I had managed the year before, and that summer would have been going back as a cook (which is always a little strange).  I pre-seasoned at the Old Faithful Lodge and I honestly really liked it.  And they needed cafe cooks, and I didn't want to go to lake, so I burned a bridge and stayed.  And thus became an exile (self imposed, but still exiled)




I had an awesome roommate, Amanda, she was the EDR cook and a loud Texan.  And she put up with me for several months, it was tense at times, but that friendship is pretty damn strong still.  We did a lot together, I dragged her many places.  I spent a lot of time with another friend (at the time anyways) we both were in "exile".  We'd visit lake a lot, having many friends there.  I was up at lake every weekend.  It was, if you will, a great place to visit.  The nice thing was, you knew everyone and everything, but were completely removed from the drama... and if there is one thing lake knows it is drama!


But anyways, I loved my Old Faithful Exile Summer.  It was funny seeing how it changed over the season.  Having wintered there, it was covered in snow.  Then the pre-season it wasn't.  It was a little disorenting, but you firgue it out.  The funny thing was, you still kinda think that your Snow Lodge people are there, but the summer crew is so different that it kinda shocks you.  But you get used to it, you get used to the crowds, you the noise, the sulfer, and you learn tricks.  And you find yourself waiting hours for a geyser.  You almost become an old faithful person, but deep down you still belong to lake.  And it was that exile that led me back to lake for the last summer.




This post wasn't as fun as I was hoping--- but I guess it had to be written.  So I promise the next one will have more pictures and a good chance for some geyser action!  Hmm boy!

House on the Rock

So I went to the House on the Rock today in Wisconsin.  Honestly I am not sure how I felt about it.  Part of it was really cool and amazing artwork, woodwork, and design.  Then there was the creepy (really the only word I can think of that fits) parts.  The collections, the mechanical musical things.  And then there was the carousel and whale.  I really don't know about it, cause they both fit the dichotomy of the house.

It is overwhelming.  The sheer size alone, and then add the thousands of items, the long twisting pathways and it is almost inconceivable to soak it all in. There are parts that you could stay in for hours and not see everything, and parts that you want to run through and just glance at everything.

The house was apparently but to stick it to Frank Lloyd Wright.  It is in a Japanese style.  The pathways twist and turn though the house.  It is actually very amazing.  The infinity room sticks out over the rocks and bluff face.  The sides were all windows and it got narrower and narrower until it came to a spot where you could look down.  I am not sure what held it up, cause it sure don't look like anything is.  And every gust of wind could be felt.  But the view was amazing!




The pathways continued winding and we entered the collection's part of the house... It was more museum than house, but I am sure it is technically a house... There was the street of yesteryear, which ended with a big ole calliope.  This was kinda cool, the street was filled with shops and and toys, Faberge eggs (apparently there is real and fake stuff all mixed together).  A bunch of mechanical musical things, and those old timey/carnival games.



 
Then went entered the sea room, this had a ridiculously large and I mean room sized whale fighting an octopus.  Yeah, I was confused too...

Then we went to another room with cars, trains, some sign in German telling the idiots not to touch but look at the pretty lights.  And of course a little cafe.  Continuing on, we saw a bunch of doll houses and and dolls, and then there was the carosul, the largest apparently, and there is not one horse on it.  Then we entered what I believe was supposed to be a giant still.  Once again, I am not really sure why.  There was a mini world tour, a doll carousel, and a really creepy circus section.


 









So yeah, not sure how I felt about it, but I honestly can't say I am planning on going back anytime soon.