On a Stiiick, Day Four

I was 90% sure I was going to use that extra ticket today, and then last night I found out Jeni and Colin were in town and were going to the Fair today, so that sealed the deal.

We began with a malt



and the Princess Kay butter sculptures in the Dairy Building (surprisingly - something I hadn't done in my previous three trips).



From there we were all over the place, but it was fun to introduce them to parts of the Fair they had never explored, like the Wildlife Walk in the DNR building





and the newspaper museum in Heritage Square (no pics of that, sorry).

We took the Sky Ride, and Colin told us a story about when he was 7 and had gone to the Fair with his mom and his two younger brothers. They got on the Sky Ride but it got stuck and they ended up suspended in the air in this small little gondola for 3 hours!!! He was like, "I think they must have added these mesh screens later, because I distinctly remember dropping pennies and suckers and stuff out the window."

We also discovered while waiting in line for the Sky Ride that Colin grew up down the street from my great-grandma, once again proving it's a small, small Lutheran world. That kind of stuff just fascinates me - how many times might he and I have crossed paths as kids - and then as young adults we even went to the same college and seminary, but he was just enough younger than me that we had no overlap either place - so we didn't really know each other or become friends until we were somewhat older young adults. Crazy.

But I digress. . .it was an awesome last day at my happy place, made even happier by the chance to catch up with these good friends. I think we're all thinking a Ciccone-Grangaard Fair Day needs to become a tradition. :)

This closing picture is for Eileen, who - tragically - did not make it to MN for the Fair this year. She put in a request that someone eat some mini-donuts for her. We were more than happy to oblige.



So long, my happy place, and thanks for another great year! I'll see you again next August!

On a Stiiick, Day Three

Today was my third day at the Happiest Place on Earth - this time again with Maminka, family friend Sharon, my Aunt Terri, my cousin Liz, her boyfriend Trav, and their little guy Jayden.

We did crepes for breakfast this morning - I opted for banana and nutella. . .hmmm, nutella.



As soon as we finished Jayden wanted to go on the Giant Slide - good man! I've been waiting all week for someone to go on that with me.

We finally got to the lower end of grounds - the DNR building (this was also a hoot with Jayden, especially seeing how many animals we could spot and identify in the wildlife wing), the Miracle of Birth center and the regular barns, and Heritage Square.



Speaking of barns, I am always way more amused by this than I should be, but why are the two options for keeping sheep's wool clean between making them members of the klan



or enrolling them in a jazzercise class?



We went back over a lot of other territory we covered on Tuesday as well, but I never catch everything in those buildings the first time through, so that was good. Indiana Jayden bought a cool lasso to go with his fedora (the hat was at home)



We tried two new (to us) Fair foods today: deep fried pickles [NOT my idea; conclusion: meh, no desire to ever eat it again], and the deep fried apple pie with cinnamon ice cream [looks and tastes better than it sounds - basically like an apple pie turnover, this one WAS my idea; conclusion: muy yum (you know it's got to be good if it's palindromically yummy!), now on the list of things that must be had at the fair every year]. Plus, their booth has awesome signage:





Alas, all too soon it was once again time to leave. I do have a spare ticket in my hot little hands, but I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to use it before it all disappears for another year.



Incidentally, this pouty face is remarkably similar to the one the bambino gives me on the very rare occasions that I don't let her play with my camera:

On a Stiiick, Day Two

Second Day at the Fair was Thursday afternoon into evening with Dad. Brenda was supposed to join us but she had a sore ankle and didn't think she could handle all that walking. So it was just pop and I.

We started by taking a picture with all my boyfriends. :)


Then we did a lot of walking around outside and people watching while Dad smoked a cigar and checked out the man-toys on Machinery Hill.

We did take the Sky Ride and got the cow car!


Unbelievably, this was Dad's first ever trip on this thing. He doesn't like heights, and even though we were enclosed it was still a little too high for his comfort, so it was probably also his last trip on the sky ride. :)





We ended with the Midway, which looked especially pretty during the "magic hour."








Also, in some live Twins blogging: Twins are full of illness and injury again and playing a very thin bench, Duensing gives up a grand slam in the bottom of the first, goes out with a strained oblique in the second, despite all of this Twins miraculously manage to tie things up, 6-6, by the top of the fourth, and then Gardy puts Dumatrait in? Followed by Mijares?

Is their death wish as strong and unavoidable as a tractor beam on the Death Star? Are they writing the book for a new musical, "How to Utterly Fail at Baseball While Really Really Trying"? Will this abysmal season ever end?

On a Stiiiick, Day One

We walked in through the main gate this morning, I took in a deep breath, smiled, and breathed out "Hello my happy place, it's good to see you again." Maminka just laughed and shook her head.

Today was our old St. Mark group day - PL and Dave, Don and Anita, Maminka and myself.

We began with the breakfast of champions: a pronto pup. I'm actually kind of embarrassed about that, but I overslept and was running a little late, and consequently hadn't eaten anything before I left to meet up with Mom, Don, and Anita at the park and ride. So I was really really hungry by the time we got to the Fair, and Don was hungry too, and he loves pronto pups, and. . .well. . .I too ate a deep fried batter-dipped hot dog for breakfast, I admit it.

Then we walked to the other end of the fairgrounds and ate the true breakfast of champions, the grilled porkchop on a stick:



Seriously, we discovered this completely by accident a few years ago, but if you start your Fair day with all that protein, you don't hit the wall in the middle of the afternoon or suddenly sugar crash in the early evening. I highly recommend it.

Then we made our way over to the horticulture building to meet up with Linda and Dave. Of course, as long as we were there, we had to get a dish of honey sunflower ice cream.



We covered quite a bit of ground today but there is still a lot left to do and see - never made it anywhere close to the DNR building, the Midway, the barns, or Heritage Square. Good thing I'm going back a couple more times!

A couple highlights from what we did see today:

The coolest thing I saw in the Creative Arts building was this huge tinker toy display that looked like the Midway



Look at the detail, I love these Tilt-a-Whirl cars!



The best thing I saw in the Art Show was this painting



It's a still life of a bowl of potatoes on top of a newspaper opinion page, the headline of which is about Minnesota's poor, and the picture in the paper



is Van Gogh's "The Potato Eaters." I believe the title of this painting in the show was "Vincent" - I found it very clever - poignant and political at the same time.


Finally, this picture is for Adri



because she is currently sitting in Dresden impaling homemade pickles so she can pretend she is eating them here with us instead. You should know we ate not merely one but TWO of these ginormous pickles in your honor today, and we missed you and Burki something fierce.

Oh No He Di'int!

Andy recently took our winter vs. summer debate to the blogosphere and managed to knock both winter and the Great Lakes as he did it.

As I sweat just sitting here in the 80 degrees Fahrenheit with 87% humidity that is still going on at midnight (which, sadly, does feel *slightly* better than the 84 degrees Fahrenheit with 90% humidity that was midnight around this time last week), I feel the need to defend winter's honor.

So let me tell you a bit about why winter is the far superior season:

+there are no bugs

+there are no ticks

+there is no outdoor mold or pollen

+dry cold winter air is crisp and refreshing and easy to breathe. humid hot summer air is suffocating

+water freezes over and snow covers the ground, making everything traversable with the right equipment

+you CAN still grow food in winter in these things called greenhouses, and when the things are done growing, mother nature provides you a free all-natural icebox so that the things you have grown don't spoil. In summer you've got to eat fast or do things that generate even more heat in order to preserve your food

+if you are cold you can always pile on another layer of clothes or blankets, put another log on the fire, or move around. conversely, in the summer you can be sitting absolutely still in front of a fan in your birthday suit, and still be uncomfortably hot with not much more you can do to make the situation better (outside of immersing yourself in cold water or searching out someplace with air conditioning)

+a worst-case scenario in winter is hypothermia, where you feel cold but then you feel warm and just fall asleep. a worst-case scenario in summer is heat exhaustion/dehydration, which involves a lot of headaches, cramping, and puking, among other things. I will take my chances with hypothermia over heat exhaustion any day of the week

+the sun still shines in the winter, so you can soak up plenty of vitamin D during all the good times and social events like going skiing, sledding, or ice skating with your friends

I could keep going, but I don't think that's necessary.
Clearly, I win this argument. :)

I will concede Andy three points. Summer is good for the long days, for swimming uppadalake, and (naturally) for baseball. These are the three things that make summer bearable to me. That, and knowing that the State Fair comes at the end of it. But that's really about it.

I will also concede that much of my defense of winter is particular to Upper Midwestern winter, not Mid-Atlantic winter, so he lacks the life experience to truly understand what I'm saying. Just like I'm pretty sure he doesn't understand the whole "the Great Lakes are like oceans" thing because his main experience of the Great Lakes is Lake Michigan as seen from downtown Chicago.

Having been to the oceans (Atlantic and Pacific, not to mention the Baltic Sea) and to the Great Lakes, I maintain the Great Lakes are like the ocean, only better because they are freshwater.

And having lived through several summers and winters in both the Mid-Atlantic and the Upper Midwest, I maintain that winter is the superior season, hands down, both places.

That's my side of this debate, and I'm sticking to it! :)

30 Days

. . .until the happiest place on earth once again magically appears just north of the Midway.

SO. STINKIN. EXCITED.

Catrina's Best of the Midwest Tour Part 3

I kept intending, but never finished narrating Adri a Burki's great American adventure, so this post is long, and LONG overdue. But to wrap it up:

Let's see, we left off in Chicago. After a full day of touring the Windy City, we departed the next morning heading north. We passed through Milwaukee, where we toured the Pabst Mansion (the mansion was cool; our tour guide was awful) and ate at this amazing Polish restaurant called Polonez. This place would be worth a trip to Milwaukee in itself. I recommend the Special Polish Plate and dare you to find room for it all!

After lunch and a brief search for a decent photo-op of the skyline, we continued north to Door County, where we checked in to the Bay Shore Inn, which was a really nice place to stay - it was like having our own little apartment. I think normally you can't rent units there for only 1 night, but either because it was end of season, or maybe because they were having a low volume summer, they were willing to take our business, brief as our stay would be.

We spent the next day exploring Door County, in particular, Peninsula State Park, which was awesome. We rented bicycles and did the 10 mile touring loop


then drove back in to cover other parts of the park we hadn't reached by bike.



After much exploring, we began the long drive across Wisconsin, arriving back in Flaketown late that evening.

The next day we ventured forth with my mom, and met Linda and Dave at the happiest place on earth, the Minnesota State Fair!




We spent a very full day looking at exhibits and eating plenty of food on a stick, and then Adri and Burkhard went home with Linda and Dave, to explore southwestern MN for the weekend. I wasn't with them for this part, but in addition to much puttering around the lake on the pontoon, they also toured the Schell Brewery (I hear generous, buzz-inducing samples are available at the end of the tour) and visited New Ulm, "the most German town in Minnesota" (A and B's conclusion: not really echt Deutsch). While they were away, I went to a movie and dinner with some seminary friends, and went to see my cousin Liz's new place in Osceola.

Monday we all met back up for day two at the happiest place on earth. :) Burkhard was a real trooper, I don't think the State Fair was really his thing at all, but he was very gracious and patient with those of us who are Fair fanatics!

Incidentally, kudos to the young adults group from the St. Paul Cathedral for their brilliant "Theology on a Stick" programming, t-shirts and posters that we kept seeing all over the place.

Tuesday was a Twin Cities day - spent part of it at the Science Museum, a late lunch at D'Amico's, a little walk around Lake Harriet, a visit with some old friends from St. Mark, and a night-time stop at the Stone Arch Bridge, which was not as pretty as we were hoping (the bridge lights need to be bright for the pedestrian traffic, but then they were too bright for a decent picture).



Wednesday we drove north to Duluth, with the requisite stop at Tobies on the way. We toured the S.S. William A. Irvin, which I hadn't been on since an elementary school field trip in the late 80s. I think I got more out of the tour this time than I did when I was 10! :) Then it was further up the North Shore to Split Rock Lighthouse, one of my favorite places on the planet.



Incidentally, the movie about the history of the lighthouse: really cheesy. A, B, and I all agreed, that's 30 minutes of our lives we're never gonna get back - just spend more time exploring the place itself.

After the lighthouse, we went further up the shore to Gooseberry Falls State Park, another favorite that I hadn't been to in several years. Adri's foot was hurting her, so she stayed low-key around the lower falls, but Burkhard and I made a nice little hike out to the Fifth Falls.



Soon it was time to head home. We stopped and had dinner at Grandma's, a Duluth institution and sponsor of the city's annual springtime marathon (sooo much food - my entree could have easily served 3 people), then drove back to Flake and crashed after a very full day.

Thursday we took it easy, slept in, then went to the MOA for some shopping, and out for dinner at a Mexican place.

And that was pretty much it. Friday I had to head back to PA, so Adri, Burki, and Maminka brought me to the airport. Then I think they did a little more shopping, driving around, and packing, before departing for Germany on Saturday. Their visit was full, rich, and too short, as always. But, next time they come, I think we might try a road trip out West!

The Great Minnesota Get-Together

(Sky Ride and Space Tower)

Pictures from the happiest place on earth (is it horribly Minnesotan of me that my happy place only exists for 12 days out of the year? Somehow I sense Garrison Keillor could make a monologue out of that. . .). In total, I made it to the Fair three different days while I was home. In addition to my normal haunts, two definite highlights of this year were the special programs regarding the Minnesota Sesquicentennial, and the free Brandi Carlile concert at the Leinie stage (she played at least half an hour's worth of encores!).


(The Midway at Night)

Definite lament: the Disneyfication of the International Bazaar. The old bazaar felt like an actual open-air market in another country - crowded lanes, crowded stalls, tamped dirt walkways, etc. The new one is more user-friendly in that it's bigger overall, has wider lanes that are paved with concrete, and a roof over the center. But it's sterile, like an Epcot version of an international bazaar. And, much like the rehab on the food building a few years ago, this too drove out a lot of the smaller vendors (gone were the Vietnamese egg roll people, and also the Hawaiian ice folks, and where there used to be 4-5 different Hmong groups selling needlework, now there is only one).


(The Search for the Great Pumpkin continues. . .)

A wide variety of food, both on and off a stick, was consumed. And yes, I tried the pig lickers (chocolate-covered bacon), but only because the friends I was with wanted to get them, so they bought and we all ate a piece. It's not the worst thing I've ever eaten (the lefse dog last year was definitely a poorer choice), but I have no desire to ever eat it again.


(Princess Kay butter sculptures)

Hopefully next year Adri and Burki will be with us for the Fair! Adri was thoroughly indoctrinated into Fair culture during her visit six years ago, but we still have to introduce her new hubby to the time-honored traditions and bizarre rituals of the Great MN Get-Together!


(Brandi Carlile at the Leinie Bandshell)