Exploring the Wonders of Minnesota
In our final post about our Minnesota adventures, we look back at one of the best experiences we had in the state: canoeing the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Boundary Waters is a large stretch of land stretching across much of northern Minnesota and it is a complete wilderness. It is over a million …
Continue reading “Northern Beauty: Canoeing the Boundary Waters”
As we leave Minnesota, I wanted to look back on the two of the best and most quintessentially Minnesotan places we visited. The State Fair, the North Shore and The Defeat of Jesse James Days were all great in their own right, but our trip “Up North” was perhaps the best of all. It started …
Continue reading “The Gem of Minnesota: Voyageurs National Park”
“So that’s the boat?” “Yeah, we get on board and then they take us on a three-hour boat tour of the Apostle Islands.” “A three-hour tour? Seriously?” “Yeah, the captain said they have had no complaints. He sounded trustworthy. Name of G-something.” **glaring** “At least the boat isn’t called the Minnow?” – We depart Minnesota …
Continue reading “A Three-Hour Tour: Sightseeing in the Porkies and the Apostle Islands”
Our exploration of the North Shore of Lake Superior could easily be six posts, but Katie and I have a limited time left in the state, so here are our adventures in one, long blog entry. – We depart Minnesota at the end of July, so we went on a trip earlier this month to …
Continue reading “Lighthouses, Waterfalls and Fur Traders: The North Shore”
A few week ago, we travelled to Michigan and met up with my family who came from New York State. We wanted to see one another but not be vectors of any virus, so we quarantined before and afterwards. In Michigan we mainly stayed at a vacation home that my dad found. Our week was …
Continue reading “A Beach Holiday: Lake Michigan with my Family”
In northern Minnesota on the banks of Lake Superior lies Duluth. To get there you take I-35 north until the highway ends. In between the Iron Range of mountains and the windswept Lake Superior, it is a gateway to the wilderness that attracts adventurers in the summer and becomes a frozen shell of itself in …
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”
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”
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”
Adventures in Gopherland