In Motion II - June

In Motion

June

I was home from Monteagle for two days before setting off on my Up North trip, which clocked in at over 2,000 miles roundtrip. I drove from Memphis to Madison, Wisconsin, the first day, about 10 hours. I spent the night at a great hostel in downtown Madison. I walked down to Lake Menona at sunset and strolled around the many pubs and restaurants in the blocks adjacent to Capitol Square. I met a cool hosteller from Australia, Fiona, who shared the room with me. We had dinner at same time at the hostel’s kitchen and then sat around shooting the breeze while I drank a six pack of a yummy regionally local brew, New Glarus.

The next day, I set out for Duluth. I arrived in the late afternoon, checked into the hotel, and went to find Bob Dylan’s boyhood home. It was cool to see the home in which he lived until he was six. After my pilgrimage, I headed downtown to Fitger’s Brewery for dinner. I made my way along the Lakewalk, taking in the sights of downtown Duluth and the scenic shoreline of Lake Superior. Dinner was delicious; I had a salad where I got to try all the cool local goodies in one dish: smoked white fish, wild rice, and cranberry, with lettuce and stuff. They also had a great beer called Evil Rabbit, so named for tasting very tame at 9.2% ABV. After dinner, I poked around the gift shops, looking for some cool swag for Andrew’s birthday, upon which I would be up in Minnesota. Then I headed back to the hotel to turn in early for a good night’s rest.

On my second day in Duluth, I had the whole day wide open for exploring until the opening reception for the Society of Wetland Scientists conference, the real reason for me being in Duluth. I set off toward Two Harbors, a location suggested by someone who grew up in the area as a jumping off point for exploring the North Shore. I pulled up to the old lighthouse in Agate Bay and watched the intricate loading process of what looked like coal (but was actually taconite, an iron ore) being taken along this incredible system of conveyor belts. It was really interesting. Then I walked out onto the jetty in the bay. The winds were whipping up at about 20 mph and the temperature on land was about 50 degrees, so it was pretty intense out on the open water, June or not! I took some pictures and headed back to land to investigate the rocky shoreline. I spent hours walking and looking and scampering around on the rocks, taking in the tall conifers lining the shore into the distance and the giant slabs of ancient rocks being continually lapped at by the greatest of the Great Lakes’ waves. I didn’t pay to tour the lighthouse interior. I was interested in heading further north on Highway 61 to see more of the lake shore. I headed up to Split Rock Lighthouse without stopping, although I was driving pretty slow at some points as I admired the beautiful scenery. I stopped off at a scenic overlook for the lighthouse and enjoyed just hanging out here mostly alone and taking in the vastness of the lake and the picturesque lighthouse perched on a tall craggy cliff face. I didn’t have a clue how varied the geography would be along the North Shore. I made it as far north as Little Marias before turning back. I had to be back in Duluth in the evening for the reception and wanted to have time to stop at some of the shops I’d seen along the way up, still hunting for cool birthday gifts for Andrew. I had success in finding local food specialties for him: wild chokeberry jelly, wild rice, real maple syrup, cheese kurds, and beef sticks. It was fun poking around the little towns. I stopped in Beaver Bay for lunch. The menu said that the herring was caught fresh daily from the lake, so I tried the fish and chips. The fish was so tasty, I knew they weren’t lying about it being fresh that day. Still, I couldn’t resist asking the waitress after I’d paid up and was leaving (so she knew her tip didn’t depend on the answer and was more likely to be honest). She assured me that it was lake-caught daily. No surprise there! 

I made it back to the hotel in time to shower and change and to get right on time to the reception at the Great Lakes Aquarium. I’ve been to few opening receptions at different conferences, and this venue had some pros and cons. On the positive side, the exhibits were really cool, and the food was good. I killed some smoked white fish with cream cheese on crostini. And, I digress. The cons were the floorplan of the venue that made movement restrictive and amplified conversations so that the place was too loud for my overstimulation-prone brain. I tried to chill with some free booze, but we only got two drink tickets. So, I made greeted some familiar faces, chatted with a few new folks, drank my two beers and scarfed some crostinis and got out of there pretty quickly. I hung out on the Lakewalk by the aquarium and watched the Aerial Lift Bridge as the sun set. Then I went to the hotel and hit the hay.

The big item on my agenda the next day was to meet with the South Central Chapter board members in advance of our chapter meeting being held the following day. Due to several factors, the largest of which was federal budget cuts, it turned out that only three of the nine board members made it to the conference. The three of us had a brief meeting near the end of the day. I saw a few interesting talks before that. As our meeting wrapped up, a lady appeared with drink tickets and invited us to go to another reception, this one sponsored by the professional certification company. It was cool because I got to chat with another grad student from our chapter that I like a lot as well as meet some new folks. The lady that gave us the drink tickets also came around and gave a lot of straight-talking answers to questions that we grad students had on our minds. It was nice to hear from someone who hadn’t always taken the safe road in all her choices but had managed to be successful. After the reception, I ventured down to Park Point, the city park with a sandy beach on Lake Superior. It was 10pm, and the sun was just setting! It was crazy cold out there, and I put on every layer I had in the car, again, despite it being June. I enjoyed the sunset and the different view of Duluth’s home-covered hillsides sloping down to the lake’s edge. After a bit, the cold became too much, and I vowed to return better prepared for the arctic wind blowing hard off the water.

The following day’s big agenda item was the chapter business meeting at the end of the day. I started out by going to the awards luncheon, one of the events where they feed you. I couldn’t find any familiar faces and was invited to sit with some ladies. They all turned out to be national board members, so this was a very interesting group to talk with. We actually spent a good bit of time talking about the lingering wage gap and glass ceilings for women in the sciences, despite this being 2013. From there, I went to a couple of talks and perused the posters before the meeting. Then I settled in to take notes during the business meeting. We talked about how the conference would be in Portland next year, which is totally rad. We also discussed our plans for making a bid for the conference to come to Memphis in 2015. After about an hour, all my serious obligations for the conference were wrapped up. A student social was being held nearby after the chapter meetings were over, so I went to see what kind of fun I could get into in that scene. I started out with my pretty tame crowd of grownups in the chapter. Later, I gravitated over to a table with a bunch of grad students I didn’t know. I’d had a couple of beers by then, so I just introduced myself and butted in on the conversations. Soon we were all yucking it up like we’d known each other forever. The bar where the social was held closed at 10pm, which was crazy. It wasn’t even dark yet. So, after Grandma’s closed, a contingent of hardcore merrymakers headed to another bar nearby called Angie’s Cantina, I believe. I ordered a peach margarita in the next size up from a small. It arrived and looked like a small kiddy pool on a glass stem. I gave it my best effort, but I had to abandon it before too long so that I had an hour or so to sober up and drive back to the hotel. Then I crashed out and slept like a log!

The talks I was interested in at the last day of the conference were being held in the afternoon, so I went an hour up the road to a place I’d heard of: the Sax Zim Bog Birding Area. I’m not much of a birder, but I’m crazy about wetlands and had never seen a peat bog before. So I drove around the Minnesota tiny roads so rural that none were paved, few had gravel, and most were packed mud. I didn’t see a lot of birds, but I loved the peatlands. The landscape was amazing, and I was thrilled to have experienced it. After the talks were over, I set out to see more Bob Dylan landmarks and check out the Leif Eriksson Park to see the replica Viking ship. The park was pretty, but the Viking ship was not really on display, being covered in opaque plastic. The only Dylan thing I saw that evening was a sign for Bob Dylan Way. The next day, I stopped by the Duluth Armory to see the cool silhouette paintings on the exterior of famous musicians that had played there back in the day. I also visited Fitger’s again and found their “Dylan museum display” which consisted of a closet-sized glass cabinet with some old pictures, concert announcement flyers, and other memorabilia. My final time in Duluth included visiting Park Pointe one more time and hanging out at the Aerial Lift Bridge to see an incoming 700+ foot long laker coming into port. It was in the 40’s (in June, people!) and windy on the shore of Lake Superior, but I enjoyed seeing the huge ship up close and the deliberate, coordinated steps that are required by such an event. Finally, I was satisfied that I had extracted as much fun as could from Duluth and hit the road.

I arrived in Minneapolis in the early evening. I found my hostel without any difficulty and was quite amazed to discover that it was in a Victorian mansion. Also, the hostel was directly across the street from the Minnesota Institute of Arts, a fantastic free museum with an outstanding collection. I saw as much as I could between my arrival in the city and the museum’s closing and made a vow to return the next day. I hung out in the hostel that evening and chatted with a few other travelers. This hostel was a bit more Spartan that some of the others in which I’ve stayed, but the bed was comfortable and the location was amazing. The next day, I headed out to the grocery store and got a little lost enabling me to see some of the more diverse neighborhoods in the city. I got groceries, went back to the hostel, ate some lunch, and went back to the art museum again until it closed. I still only saw about half of the collection. That evening, I met up with Ian and Martha; Ian’s a childhood friend of Andrew’s and all around cool guy and Martha is his darling Minnesotan girlfriend. We had a few cocktails with our meal and had a great time chatting and getting to know each other better. I invited them to come with me to explore the Walker Sculpture Park in the dark, and Martha took me up on it. We met over there and had a nice time walking around and talking. But, for a sculpture park that prominently advertises that it’s open until midnight, I was rather disappointed that only one of the parks 40 or so pieces was illuminated. In terms of art viewing, it was a bust. But I had fun hanging out with Martha. She’d worked that day, and she and Ian live about 40 minutes from the city, so I figured that they’d be ready to call it a night. I was pleasantly surprised when Martha was down for joining me for drinks at the Nomad Pub where we could see 3 bands for $5. We got there too late for the first two bands but were right on time to catch the entire Prozac Rat set. Those guys were a lot of fun: a metal operatic hybrid that I really enjoyed. After the show, I headed back to the hostel and crashed out. On my way out of town the next morning, I stopped back by the sculpture garden to see what they had. I was pleased that I did. The garden was really nice and had a couple of extremely cool pieces. Then I hopped on the road toward the campground in Missouri where I was spending my last night on the road.

I took a wrong turn when approaching the campground and wound up in downtown Lagrange, Missouri. The Mississippi River was flooding, and the water was up to the Post Office’s foundation, the city park was underwater, and people were boating where cars would usually drive. I snapped a few pictures and continued to the campsite. I had reserved many weeks in advance and had saved for myself the best site in the park. I quickly set up camp and kicked back to take in the nature experience. After a lovely sunset, some dinner, and some relaxing, I snuggled up in my sleeping bag for my last night on the road of my great trip Up North.

June included other fun times, like Phil and Friends at the Brookhaven with my boo, Father’s Day brunch with Kate and José and the kids at Sweetgrass, shaking it down to George Porter, Jr. at the Levitt Shell, and a week of relaxation in Gulf Shores at the Little Red House on Little Lagoon with Andrew and the dogs. 

June included some not-so-fun times too, like Grandma Marie’s death and attending her funeral in New York, although seeing so much family was truly wonderful. In the middle of Grandma’s wake, I had to step out and tell Jerry that Madison couldn’t go on vacation with us because she hadn’t finished summer school in time, which was a pretty low point. My first manuscript I submitted was rejected. Blah. Back to the good stuff.