Exploring the Wonders of Minnesota
It turns out there are Swedish centers of culture other than IKEA stores and ABBA reunion tours. Scandinavian culture has been an important theme for us recently, with us writing about our Norwegian feast at the St. Olaf Christmas Festival and our Finnish food with friends in St. Paul. Before Minnesota, I knew very little …
Continue reading “A Scandinavian Celebration: The American Swedish Institute”
Showing off your area to friends from out of town is fun, even when it involves eating pickled herring. As I mentioned last week, we had several visitors over last October to whom we showed the city. A week after my parents visited, we were joined by our good friends Jameson and Christine. We wanted …
Christmas is a wonderful time full of a flurry of activities and quite a few flurries of snow. We celebrated Christmas in Minnesota in several uniquely Minnesotan ways and those are recounted here. St. Olaf Christmas Festival: St. Olaf College, where I have taught for the past year, is a small, academically exceptional school in …
Continue reading “Wind Chill, Lutefisk and the St. Olaf Choir: A Minnesota Christmas”
This is Halloween, this is Halloween. Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween Town is real … and it is in suburban Minneapolis. Anoka, a community near Coon Rapids north of the city, calls itself the Halloween Capital of the World. For one month of the year, the town is transformed. Over those 31 days, there are …
Continue reading “The Halloween Capital of the World: Attending the Anoka Halloween Parade”
It is strange and exciting to show off where you live to visitors when you are living in a new area because, after all, you are still basically a visitor yourself. We know that this will soon be true of us as we move later this summer, but for now we finally feel at home …
One of the goals of our Adventures in Gopherland was see as much natural wonder in Minnesota as possible, particularly visiting National and State Park sites. Much of the year in Minnesota, however, is unfavorable for such excursions due to the climate. Before the summer turned to autumn last year, then, we attempted to visit …
Continue reading “Pickerel Lake, Try 1: Hiking the Mississippi National River and Recreational Area”
I am Greek. I wasn’t born in Greece, nor was my mother nor my grandparents, but I am proudly Greek American by my heritage. Whenever we are in a new area, then, we seek out the inevitable Greek Festival hosted by the local Greek Orthodox church. The festivals are a staple of many Greek American …
Continue reading “I’m Greek, dat’s fer shore: The Minnesota Greek Festival”
We now live in a world without sports, where instead of basketball or hockey games, ESPN has been forced to air old college football games. The opening day of baseball came and went with no one throwing out the first pitch. I miss sports, even though I am well aware that people are wisely not …
Continue reading “It’s a Wonderful Day for Baseball: Watching the Minnesota Twins”
This weekend the world has opened up enough where we live for us to go paddling for the first time this calendar year. As we prepare for this, my mind wanders back to last summer and our first times paddling the waters of Minnesota. Our very first trip was with Katie’s parents (see this post), …
Continue reading “Three for One: Exploring the Chain of Lakes”
Long time ago, in an era that is slowly fading from memory into legend, people used to congregate together in groups without the fear of widespread infection. Weird, I know. If we turn our attention back a year to last summer, we were initially acquainted to Minnesota through one of these mass gatherings: The Minnesota …
Continue reading “Deep-Fried Hot Dish on a Stick: The Minnesota State Fair”
Adventures in Gopherland