My North Shore Trip, August 26 - 30, 2005

Travel Log

How about I break this down by day, it was such a whirl-wind trip that this might make it easier to follow along...

~Friday
Right after work Bob and I hit the road! We quickly made it up to Two Harbors by 9:30 or so (after making a dinner stop at Culvers so I could spend $13 on fast food). Our lodging that night: The Voyageur (be sure to say it in a French accent). It was your typical highway motel, very JoyRide-esque.

~Saturday
We awoke in the morning to a sunlit, 20 foot tall, paper-mache looking man in the parking lot, I guess this was the Voyageur? We headed out for breakfast and ate at a cute local cafe, Vanilla Bean Cafe. After a moment of exploring the local cemetery, we were off to our first hike: Gooseberry Falls. Talk about mob, so many people were milling about the Falls, I was sure that I was going to see a 2 year old (or Bob) take a head dive off the cliff. We wandered off down some path and found it easy to lose the crowd then, most everyone just plays by the Falls.

After walking around at Gooseberry we had worked up an appetite and found the greatest lunch spot: Lemon Wolf Cafe in Beaver Bay. Even the bathrooms were decked out! It was totally the cliché looking MN cabin, but adorable, plus the food was actually good!! After refueling at lunch we were on our way to Grand Marais. However, we didn't make it far because we stumbled upon SugarLoaf Interpretive Trail. LOVE IT! The trail was densely wooded, with an inch of pine needles to soften your walk. Every few yards or so there was a numbered post, you would use that number to correspond to the number in your guide book (found at the entrance) and there would be a little history lesson about the site you were at, trust me, it was fun! Although there was a blind dog that followed us back to the car, it actually ran into a post, that stressed me out, I just wanted it to return to the center! We climbed back in the car and then it was onward to Grand Marais! I now believe it is time to introduce you to Five Mile Rock. Bob and I traveled this stretch of road more times than I would like to count and Five Mile Rock faithfully greeted us every time. I have no idea how that stupid rock got a name and why the city paid for a sign to alert us to the rock, but it was there. We stayed at The Outpost Motel for the night. It was the smallest motel room I had ever been in but it was very clean!

~Sunday
Mmmm...donuts....Mmm...World's Best Donut Shop... Ok, how could you go wrong with a bakery name of World's Best Donuts!? Needless to say Bob and I stopped for a donut, or two. It was a cute little shop, the place is plastered with pictures and notes from people who have traveled all over the world representing World's Best Donut Shop. Countless collages of people gleefully holding a mug that says 'World's Best Donut Shop' with the Eiffel Tower in the background or the Great Wall or Coliseum in Rome or, well you get the idea. After that filling and energy producing breakfast it was onto Devil's Kettle. The woods quickly enveloped us as we started the hike on the earth trodden trail. Several minutes later, after a continuous ascending climb, we came upon stairs, 171 stairs to be exact. Thankfully on this round they descended, but I was already dreading the fact I would have to climb them to complete this trail. But on with the hike for now, we stopped for a quick photo moment at the Upper Falls, but I could hear Devil's Kettle in the distance and was eager to see it. Devil's Kettle is a very mysterious water fall, just before the water crashes over the cliff into the river below, it separates so there are essentially two waterfalls. One waterfall powerfully empties into the peaceful river below, while the other waterfall, well it disappears into this cavern (aka: kettle). The thing is, no one knows where this waterfall eventually empties out! They have tried dyes and debris but they never see the dye or items again. Best guess is that there is a network of underground rivers that possibly travels all the way to Lake Superior, but it is quite the mystery, plus I think no one really wants to solve it, it would take away the magic of the place.

Hey we are in Disney World! Oh, no, wait it is Mt. Rose Trail. I don't know, there was something Disneyish about this trail. Maybe it was because it was fully paved or because we had an annoying family in front us that yelled the entire walk up. This was probably not my favorite trail. Although, the lookout on top of the "mountain" was quite the payout and on the walk up we learned about local trees, but I was hoping for more.

And now the story of my death....the Grand Portage Trail. Again, this trail started out fully paved, but Bob and I quickly spotted a trail that branched off and lead us down to the water, which we took advantage of. Here I paused for a left-over donut break and some pictures, then it was on to view the tallest waterfall in Minnesota. It was magnificent, but we were off, we spotted on the park map another hiking trail. Ok, so some advice, if you read a sign that says "use extreme caution, extreme hiking trail", you might want to start out with more than a donut in your stomach and a half a bottle of water. The trail was amazing; at times it was hard to know if we were even on the trail it was so back-woodsy. But I was slowly wasting away, the humidity, the intensity of the trail, I thought I was going to have to tell Bob to go without me and leave me to the bears. However, I survived and actually made it to one lookout view but then we had to head back.

Ann and Bob cross the border! We successfully made it to Canada! People, here is a tip, don't go to Thunder Bay. Ok, I am being mean, but just be prepared. It is not charming, it is dirty and industrial and gray. We spent a good part of the night driving around and looking at the city, it was like the residents had all given up. No one had a garden, no one had any bit of color on their house, it was just depressing. The only saving grace was the White Fox Inn. This is the hotel we stayed at, it is a diamond in the pile of coals. It was clean, it was cute, they had their own maintained trails on site! The only downside was the food, not good, not good at all. However, I wrapped myself in the hotel's plush bathrobe and nothing could get me down for the rest of the night.

~Monday
The wet and dreary morning began with a cheese tour, at Thunder Oak Cheese Farm. It was actually interesting and there was oodles of free samples to snack on. Bob and I both left with an armful of gouda cheese and then we were off to our next stop; the 600 foot long suspension bridge! Who knew that if you drove an hour out of Thunder Bay you would come upon sheer rock faced canyon walls that reached to the sky and lush canyon beds filled with trees and meandering rivers? Eagle Canyon Adventure is the place to go if you can. The sights are amazing and it was fun to walk across the suspension bridge.

Well our time with Canada quickly came to an end and we were back to Minnesota to stay at this Northern hide away, Naniboujou. Interesting place. Don't go there looking for a drink with dinner (manager's choice) or a television in your room (manager's choice). There is this eerie Christian vibe to this place, but it is still remarkable. The dining room ceiling and walls has this vibrant, Native American design that has not been retouched since the 1920s when the lodge opened. It was originally a private country club of sort, with members such as Babe Ruth and local wealthy folk. When the depression hit, the lodge couldn't survive and closed it doors. It opened a few years later as a public hotel for all to enjoy and has been going strong since. The food is wonderful and I would list it as a not to miss place if you are in the area.

~Tuesday
You think Bob and I would just head home after several days of hiking and activities... well, not us! I think, for the both of us, the North Shore had lost its charm and we were looking for some new scenery. That is how we ended up in the Iron Range, more specifically, Ely. For those that haven't been there, go. It is the most charming Northern city I have been in! It beats Two Harbors and Grand Marais, hands down. Oh and Hwy 1! Best highway ever! I only wish we had more than an hour to spend there. We stopped for a quick lunch at The Chocolate Moose (which I heard later is where all the "out of towners" eat at). We then got back in the car, longingly looking at the city that we wished we could explore and drove to the next town over, Soudan. On one of our hikes we saw a brochure for a mine tour, a mine tour where you get to travel 2,341 feet underground! That was the only hook we needed and how we ended up at Soudan Iron Mine. Bob and I donned our hard hats and entered a cage for the trip half a mile underground and where we learned all about the world of underground mining, from an actual old miner. Once underground we also traveled 3/4 of a mile in a tram to the last and deepest area mined, um, there were bats. It was a very interesting tour and I could tell our guide got a kick out of turning out all the lights when we were underground, it was a little unsettling. I plan on returning hopefully in the near future to check out the underground Physics department that the mine also has. However, we ran out of time on this trip and had to leave.......the road trip had come to an end.

pictures: Click Here!

~Posted by Ann (transferring travel logs to this site)

My Mexico Trip, October 14-17, 2005

Travel Log

Can we say train wreck? No, no, I joke, but there were some classic Ann and Rachel traveling event! For instance:

• Minneapolis security: Rachel gets scanned
• Cancun security: Rachel gets scanned (and only because she pressed the button and she lost)
• Cancun security (return): I get scanned

All I am saying is that every time I turned around it seemed like airport security was focused on taking us down. It must have been Rachel's middle eastern heritage (Lebanese), she is such the terrorist.

• Cancun airport: Girl heads off with my bag, thinking it was hers - don't be dumb, double check the tags when you pick up your suitcase - and I have to chase her down in the Cancun airport!
• Cavie was on my flight/transfer bus/resort. Not that I have anything against Cavie, it is just for once I would like to leave Richfield behind, I was going to another country for Pete's sake!
• Rachel discovers she does have a shrimp allergy.
• Beware of the bugs. I thought there was a small sparrow type bird flying towards me, turns out it was a moth. I then of course stopped saying "birdie" in a welcoming tone and instead ducked and screamed.

Resort:

I have zero complaints and would highly recommend the Barceló to everyone. Rachel and I were actually lucky enough to get a room with a view of the ocean (you would be surprised how hard this can be, the hotels are designed so not many rooms face the ocean, because if all the rooms were lined up with the beach, well come hurricane time all the windows would be blown out). We had a free mini-bar that was filled everyday by the mini-bar fairy; beer, candy, pop, water, everything you want on a trip! The first day we realized the sink was leaking when we stepped in the bathroom and nearly drowned. I was slightly worried that we would have to put up with that the whole trip, but they fixed it the same day we complained about it.

Food:

GREAT! The two main questions I heard when I got back were: how was the food and did you buy vanilla (the seasoned Mexico travelers always asked me that). The hotel had a choice between the ocean-side snack bars, the buffet or the sit down fancy like restaurant. The snack bars were probably my favorite, they had pizzas, fruit and the best guacamole I have ever had (go figure, I guess I was in Mexico). The buffets were probably on par with OCB, not stellar, but tons of variety and something to suit every appetite. The food was really fresh and every time we walked into the buffet restaurant we were greeted and offered a drink (champagne, margarita, etc). We were able to make reservations for one night at the fancy restaurant (no shorts, sandals allowed), the atmosphere was lovely, a ton of waiters were there to fill up your drinks when they got half empty (best Sangrias ever!). This restaurant was actually really lacking in the vegetarian department, the only time I ever had a problem on the trip! They had egg dishes for me to eat, eggs are not my favorite, but I believe Rachel's meal was excellent.

Activities/Entertainment:

The resort had an abundance of free activities, we partook in a couple. Snorkeling was by far the highlight of the trip for me (Rachel may have a differing opinion on that). After spending a moment being beat and battered against the rocky shore, I made it past the breaking waves and into this incredible underground city. I had the best time letting the current move me around while I peeked into this undersea life. There were tropical fish of all sizes and shapes, some would swim right up to me, others would sneak a look at me from under a coral cliff and some would take off so fast I couldn't see anything but a silvery tail in the distance. Patches of the coral were so vibrant, pink fans would wave at me from afar, almost beckoning me out further. Stark white cactus-shaped, bonsai-sized trees lined the dark rocks. Dirty white mounds of sponge in the shape of brains were scattered around, it lead me to imagine that just maybe this underground paradise did have an intelligence of some sort that guided them all.

Other resort amenities

• Mini-golf: Free! We went after dark one day and it was actually a little spooky. The course is set up in a jungle. Very wooded (bugs can be bad) and dark if one of the lights on the course were to be out. Fun time though.
• Arts and crafts: Well, it wasn’t free, but still, arts and crafts! I love arts and crafts! We purchased the items we wanted to paint and then sat down and tried to keep the paints inside the lines, I have more respect for kindergarteners now. Once we were done we were told we could pick up our items the next day, they glaze them for us and add a black border around the designs that cover any mistakes!
• Nightly Entertainment: Wow. Now this was a train wreck. Granted the entertainment was free, so I wasn't expecting much and well, this was not a Vegas show. Oh, this singer must have thought he was Michael Jackson and not just impersonating him. Granted this guy could moonwalk, but who can't? Just walk backwards without picking up your feet, I never really understood why that was so cool. I can't even explain why this was bad, maybe the Day-Glo outfits for Thriller had something to do with it. However, I did find it surprisingly hard to pull myself away.
• Pools: The pools were huge, not crowded and wonderfully clean. Most resorts are now using this new kind of filtration where chlorine is not needed. Some form of soft salt is used instead that is just as effective as chlorine at killing the bacteria but it does not leave you all smelly, that was pleasant. The pool bars were great, it is so relaxing to wander around the pool and sip a margarita.
• Beach: The definition of paradise. There were lounging chairs all along the shore and 95% of them were unused. The palm trees were scattered along at perfect locations so you could easily pick between a shaded chair or a sun soaked location.

Excursions:

CHICKEN PIZZA! Er, I mean, Chichen Itza ! This was a very long day, but so worth it. It started at 8 am with Rachel and me waiting at the front lobby for the tour bus. I won't get into it, but it might be possible that the bus and everyone on it was waiting for Rachel and me. We were standing exactly where we were told we should the day before, but well, thank god for the Mexican that looked like Ryan Paetznick (my landlord)! He steered us in the right direction. So we boarded the bus and seven hours later we arrive at the ancient Mayan city! Thankfully, it was not a solid seven hours of driving. There were many stops along the way. We stopped at a Mayan market, aka, a tourist trap. Eee gad, the stress! As soon as you walk in the workers surround you. They try to find something that interests you, something you linger on and then watch out, they will not let it go. I managed to bargain for a necklace here so I felt pretty proud, it is not a place you can browse at. Next stop was a cenote (a natural well). This was magical. We descended this enclosed, stone staircase and emerged on a landing, how do I even describe what I saw....breath taking. Long vines trailed down into this sun-sparkling pool of water. From overhead, small waterfalls splashed into the pool below. The water was cool, but very refreshing. We only had 30 minutes to spend at this place so it was in and out. Wonderful stop. Back on the bus and on the way to lunch. It was buffet style and decent enough, but, ugh, I was ready to move on and see the main purpose for this excursion! We finally arrived! Once there we broke off into two groups; the Spanish group and the English group and off we went. Our guide was Mayan so I think she offered a very interesting perspective on the happenings of this ancient city. It was just fascinating and we did not have nearly enough time. All the buildings and structures are amazing, but the main temple is what it is all about. Built perfectly in lined with the sun, 91 steps grace each side of the structure leading to a main room on top (add it up: 91*4 + 1= 365). It is a wondrous thing that something like that could be built so many years ago. During the excavation they discovered that the main temple had a smaller one inside of it; that is what I climbed. There was just a small hallway carved out that could be used to climb to the top. The stairs were steep, the heat was oppressive, the lighting was dim but when you reached the top, incredible. There were two remaining statues from the time, untouched by looters. There was a man carved out of stone, with his hands open as if as an offering and behind him was a jaguar statue, painted a vivid red, with green spots and jade eyes. Neat.

pictures: Click Here!

~Posted by Ann (transferring my travel logs to this blog)

Oh, Minnesota

Is this because we consume the most or because we recycle the best?

Recycling Fun Fact:
The Metrodome recycles more beverage containers than any other stadium in the country. Last year, they recycled 44.2 tons of brown plastic beer bottles and plastic cups.
Information provided by: www.StarTribune.com

No reservations

Craftsman
address: 4300 E Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55406
website: www.craftsmanrestaurant.com

I ate here in the summer of 2007, on the patio, on a beautiful, warm night. My experience then was wonderful - I even found the chipmunk that was running in-between people's feet charming. However, my return to this restaurant was not as stellar. It was a Saturday evening, there were 7 of us and we had not made a reservation. I had no idea what a mistake that would be. We were shamed by the wait staff about not making reservations and after that they grudgingly pushed 4 tables together. We were told over and over again about how on a Saturday night you must make a reservation. Odd though, several tables around us remained open and after some people in our party were no shows, they never reclaimed the extra table that we didn't need.

Another downside to not making reservations was that bartender had to serve us. She had to cover our table and serve drinks to the entire restaurant at the same time. I think that was making everyone crabby. I don't really enjoy eating and having this tension around me. And our experience did not grow brighter as the evening went on. Someone in our party ordered a hamburger - well done. GASP! I know. But you know what? This what not her first time eating out and that is how she preferred her burgers. Well, she had to argue with the server/bartender regarding that choice. I am sorry to say that I can't think of a reason to return to this restaurant.

Melting Pot
address: 80 S 9th St, Minneapolis, MN 55402
website: www.meltingpot.com

Not again! It was a Tuesday night, after happy hour had ended, my friends and I showed up for a little melty, ooey-gooey goodness. After standing at the entrance for 3 minutes without an acknowledgement, we were finally greeted by, "Do you have a reservation?". Um, no. No we didn't. Again I was shamed into not calling and setting up reservation. We told if we could wait for 5 minutes they could get a table set up for us in the bar - as long as we were ok only doing cheese fondue and small apps. Turns out that is all we were there for so that worked. Now, to be fair on the walk to the bar you don't go through the dining room, but as I craned my neck all I saw were open booths. Odd. We walked into the bar --- not a single person in there. The MO was the same at this restaurant, no reservation means the bartender serves you. Turns out this bartender was very attentive. He had nothing to do but serve our table. No drink orders were coming in either, which makes me wonder how full the dining room really was.

The hostess station and setup might need some work, but the food doesn't! There is just nothing better than covering a carrot in melted cheese or dipping a strawberry in melted chocolate. And the best part about eating fondue out? No clean up! If I remember right, the dining room has warming stations built into the table. In the bar they don't have that, but thankfully the pots of melted cheese and chocolate stayed warm enough to keep everything liquid. The other thing about eating in the dining room, if memory serves, the level of noise is overwhelming. Eating in an empty bar meant we could actually hear each other! So once seated and I got some food in me, this turned out to be a much better experience then how it started.

~posted by Ann

I have been tinkering with some of the numbers being published regarding campaign donations. I read about Obama having a very large percentage of "small amount" donors (47% of his 2007 money from donations of $1,000 or less, and 33% from $200 or less) and also that both he and Hilary eclipsed Bush's record-setting year in 2000 when he raised 96 million (they were both around 99 million). This is especially impressive due to the fact that the Democratic candidate is not even decided yet, and traditionally the majority of campaign money does not show up until AFTER the parties decide on their candidate. For TWO potential candidates of the SAME PARTY to surpass the previous donation record held by an actual nominee is astounding.

So I started wondering about the total number of people donating, but due to privacy laws and whatnot, campaigns are not required to report donor names if the donation is under a certain amount. This means you have to roughly back into the numbers based on percents and totals currently published, with a dash of creative license to determine your average variable(s). According to Obama's site, their claim is that almost 500,000 people have donated, which is an absurd amount based on previous election estimates.

I began to wonder if that's even possible, so I have tried to validate it using the matrix below. For the most part I have used percentages published by the CFI (specifically, "less than $200", "$1,000 or more", and "$2,300 or more"). As you can see I've taken some liberties in giving Obama slightly smaller averages and a 50-dollar bracket as a sub-section of the "less than 200 dollar" bracket. As pure scientific methodology that would be considered a reach, but from a practical standpoint I think it's a very valid amount. In doing so, my math comes extremely close to that 500,000 number. Freakish.

Clinton $98.7MM in 2007$ 175 avg (14%) = 78,960 donors$ 600 avg (11%) = 18,095 donors$1200 avg (25%) = 20,562 donors$2500 avg (75%) = 29,610 donors APPROX TOTAL = 147,227 donors

Obama $99.6MM in 2007$ 50 avg (16%) = 318,720 donors (holy shit!)
$ 150 avg (16%) = 106,240 donors$ 500 avg (15%) = 29,880 donors$1100 avg (21%) = 19,014 donors$2300 avg (33%) = 14,290 donors APPROX. TOTAL = 488,144 donors

* As an aside, it should be noted that Hilary's numbers alone are very impressive in their own right; enough to beat any other candidate in any previous year. *

If you were to back into numbers that are published by the CFI from Bush's record-setting year (only two brackets are available: over/under $1,000) depending on how generous you are to his average brackets, he probably had somewhere between 70,000 and 150,000 donors (and remember, that was a RECORD amount).

For Obama to have close to 500,000 in the year BEFORE the election when he's not even the candidate yet is completely unprecedented by any math, and by a huge margin. Two more points that should be taken into account: 1, Obama's 32-million dollar JANUARY suggests that his momentum and support are still growing and his overall public financing will likely shatter any previous election of all parties COMBINED, and 2, this astronomically historic show of support from "average" people is coming FROM A BROKEN ECONOMY. Somehow people who can't afford to are still giving anyway, and with a level of urgency that this country has probably never seen before (except maybe from hippies - but they didn't have any money).

Gigi's Cafe

Gigi's Cafe
Address: 822 West 36th Street in Minneapolis, MN
Website: http://gigisuptown.com/

Pizza night! We stumbled in there from the cold to discover it was Pizza Night! That means you get a 12" pizza (meat or veggie) with a bottle of wine (pick from a selection of 4) for $20!! Excellent deal! I got a side salad to go with my pizza. The dressing tasted like pure olive oil to me, but luckily the greens were so fresh and tasty, I found I didn't even need dressing. There was a little confusion with the pizza also, we thought we picked the toppings from the long list of veggies on the specials menu, but it turns out you don't customize the veggie (or meat), you get everything that is listed. The pizza was piled with a bit too many mushrooms for me, but I managed. The crust was wonderful, had that homemade quality to it.

Once we finished the pizza we discovered we still had half a bottle of wine left. So we decided that to hang onto our table we had to get a dessert. Right? You just have to get a dessert in situations like that. It was agreed upon that the brownie would do. Yummy! Maybe a little dry, but I found it wasn't hard to eat.

I have also visited this joint for brunch and that was lovely. Just be prepared, this place can really fill up quick.

And take heed: After you finished off that bottle of wine and quickly left your table so the next person could sit down, did you discover you might have left something behind? Well check out the Lost and Found link online, you might be reunited there!

~posted by Ann

Recycling Fun Fact #3

Running shoes reuse:
Wore out those running shoes? Or do you want to replace your old, out-of-style running shoes, because you are really going to try running this year? Check out these sites:

www.oneworldrunning.com They distribute gently used running shoes to athletes in Africa and Latin America
www.nikereuseashoe.com They convert shoes that are beyond salvage into athletic flooring