Snelling Lake with the Princess

It was 68 degrees on my car thermometer as I drove with the prairie princess for a walk in the big state park. Maybe the nicest day of the month and the last time we'll see temperatures over 68 until maybe March. We walked around Snelling Lake, the lake nearest the Fort Snelling State Park entrance that lies in the flight path for the Twin Cities Airport - the Lindbergh one. PP said that she liked to be on top of things so I took her picture on top of this boulder. We didn't know what sort of rock it is, but PP thought there might be a geologist or at least a faux geologist among the readers who could make the call. It looked like old lava to me.

The slide scanning continues. I'm up to 1977 and found some gems, some of which I'll save for other occasions. This was a Miller family reunion and features the remaining siblings of my dad.  From the left: John Miller, Betty Riehle, and Jane Brockett.  I think it was taken in White Bear Lake where Betty used to live.  John was the youngest and also best man at my parents' wedding in 1940.  Betty was the next to youngest and her kids still live in the St Paul area.  Jane, the fourth child, lived in Madison, Wisconsin, for much of her life, but retired to St Petersburg, Florida, where I last saw her.

More tennis tomorrow.  It may even be possible to play outside, but the weather is expected to start to head down towards the normal range later in the week, and I expect we'll continue to play in the bubble at Fort Snelling.

Sixty-four freaking degrees

This November is turning out to be one for the record books. My car thermometer registered 64 several times this afternoon, all the while the radio was broadcasting 62. I don't know which is right, but it doesn't really matter. About noon I decided that it was nice enough for a long walk in a state park. Afton State Park is not far away by auto, and it lies on the border of Wisconsin on the St Croix River. It also has the virtue of having a prairie restoration project. I though I could get the Prairie Princess to go along, but she had some work to do and begged off. Did I say it was a beautiful day?

This map has a "you are here" sticker, so it seemed like a good subject for a blog photo. I took the photo after more than half of my trek was completed. I spent an hour an a half strolling through the prairie and the forest at the edge of the river. November photos are relatively colorless, but it's November and it's what we have.

This gives a pretty good view of the Afton visitor center with a stretch of restored prairie in the foreground. It was a good day to be in the state park and there were some other walkers and a couple of runners that I encountered on the way.  They were all friendly and seemed to be enjoying an outstanding November day.

For part of the way the trail went through a red pine forest. I think red pines are what I knew as a child as Norway pines. At least that's what Grandpa Anderson told me they were.  This part of the park was part of a farm for about sixty years and was donated to the state in about 1985.  I guess it wasn't very good farm land.  Too hilly.

When I got home from trekking, I was so hungry that I made my newest coleslaw recipe, which I promise I'll post on the family cooking blog soon, and was convinced by the aforementioned princess to make a stir fry from our stash of leftover rice and various other veggie ingredients that we keep around for such hunger events. I guess I don't have a recipe for this one. It always depends on the type and amount of the various ingredients, but always includes some mild curry paste I discovered a while back, ginger, and some favorite stir fry sauce. And eggs.  She chopped.  I fried.

Tomorrow is expected to be another day of sixty-four freaking degrees.

Old and Wrinkled

PP carved a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Its days are numbered. The pumpkin has developed major league wrinkles. I took his picture before placing him gingerly in the garbage. His work here is done. Halloween is gone.

After watching the Vikings and Brett Favre work some uncommon magic this afternoon, I got myself ready for USTA tennis action at the University of Minnesota tennis center in Ridder Arena. I once again had to play the number one position against the best team of the opponents. We lost a couple of close sets 6-7, 4-6, but the two and three positions prevailed and the team as a whole remains undefeated. This is a photo of the court on which we played. It was taken before our match, and the mixed team on the far side were the team we played two weeks ago.  The U courts are nice, but the surface is a little slow and it often puts off my timing a bit.  No excuses, we could have won.

It was a nice day outside, too.  Our string of exceptional weather continues.  It hovered in the sixties in mid afternoon.

Unusually nice for November

Saturday is usually quite busy around here. Even as a retired guy the activities I participate in rely on the presence and influence of people who actually do productive work. I play early Saturday morning tennis at Wooddale. By early, I mean that we are on the court at 8:30 am. I'm not sure whose idea it was to start then, but the die seems to be cast. Jerry and I were partners today and we both started pretty slow. He was tired and me, well I'm a little bit older and hard to get started. We lost the first set 6-2 and then rallied to win the second 6-3. We played a partial third set, but the next occupants of the court wanted their time and we quit, essentially tied.

The weather was clear and cool, but was warming up and the wind was beginning to blow a little. After some lunch (three bean salad) I went to Como Park to enjoy the afternoon. I think I've photographed everything of interest on the lake circumnavigation, but I took one more shot, partly to demonstrate the weather and partly to have a photo to post here. There were also some ducks and geese hanging around the water's edge - mallards and teal - plus some Canada geese, the scourge of golf courses and other manicured lawns. There were also an unusual number of walkers by the lake, enjoying one of the last nice days before the winter chill sets in.

Unky Herb and the Prairie Princess were around some in the afternoon. We rustled up some tasty vittles for dinner - my new favorite, chicken Marsala and Santini's version of oven baked yams from the Experimental Cooking Blog.  I may yet post the chicken Marsala recipe.

The slide scanning project continued.  I'm up to the spring of 1977.  This box of slides contains photos taken on a vacation to the Yucatan in Mexico.  I'm only scanning about 12 slides from each box at the moment, but it's still a pretty big task.  It's fun and oddly sentimental.  I find it hard to believe that I was once this young.  I chose this photo to represent the trip, partly because it's at the Mayan ruins at Uxmal and partly because it's one of the last photos that I've found wherein I'm sans mustache.  I almost don't recognize this guy.

I don't have that hat or that shirt any more.  Or the gold ring on my left hand.  Changes happen.

Pike Island, where the rivers merge

I hadn't been to Pike Island since the fall flood. Since I had a tennis off day and since it was 45 degrees and sunny, I decided to have a walk in the woods.  Pike Island is the woods, too, and there is a herd of white tailed deer that overpopulate the area and it's always nice to catch a glimpse of one of them bouncing through the underbrush.  The map below places Pike Island between St Paul and Minneapolis, just where it actually is, and at the confluence of the Minnesota (to the south) and Mississippi Rivers.  It's part of Fort Snelling State Park, and, I think, run by the DNR.

There are several benches by the Mississippi with a clear view of the running water and whatever flotsam and jetsam are floating by. I stopped here for a photo and a short sit down. It was a brisk day, not windy on the island, a fine day for glimpsing deer. I actually encountered an antlered buck on my journey, but he was far enough off and moving fast enough that I was unable to get a satisfactory photo of his magnificence. There will be other days.  And other bucks.

As you can see there was standing water in places on the island. The trees seem acclimated to sitting in water for long periods of time and still are able to thrive. There was soil and other debris deposited on the ground, left over from the flood waters, and they gave some areas a definite drab appearance.

There were a few other hikers taking in the natural settings - maybe five or six of them. I went by the flood pole, too. It is marked for the high water marks in each of the major floods since white folks have been living in the area, back to the early 1800's. The top mark is 1965, followed by 1952 a couple of feet lower. Someone, a volunteer or a DNR person has marked this year's flood (2010) above the 1952 mark and about half way up to 1965. The water has come down a long way since then, probably due to one of the driest Octobers on record in these parts.

It was an educational walkabout, and it made me hungry for three bean salad, my own favorite recipe. I came home and whipped up a batch for enjoyment the next few days.

Moss acquired by the Titans

PP and Unky Herb were around today. UH was playing hooky from work, because of some sudden stomach disorder brought on by the raw eggs in the tiramisu that he made last night. It's a surprise treat for Ying, and it's also the first time he's ever made it. He's repeating the process tonight, now that he has a feel for the process. We had an afternoon walk, over to Linwood, down St Clair Avenue and up the 100 step stairs, then home past Norm Coleman's house. After we made it home and because the youngsters were feeling their oats, I got them to pose for a blog picture. They were having a good time. PP is exhibiting one of her poses from her days as a figure skater.  UH is goofing.

There was Wooddale tennis tonight with the hardcore girls and Jerry. Again this week, I came out on the short end - losing the first set and being forced to quit in the second set tie breaker when we were up 5-4.  We ran out of time.  It was close, but we were unable to claim the cigar. I'm blaming the tennis shoes again.  To ease my frustrations after the tennis, I stopped at Yang's Chinese Restaurant for some of their tasty vittles.  Chicken and veggies in a brown sauce.

There have been photos of Paris popping up on some of the other family blogs, to show that they had been there lately, I guess. I was there, too, and took this photo on a Paris street of some random Americans ambling down the street. I know they are Americans because they were my traveling companions, and an entertaining group besides.

Notice the tatoo on the calf of the guy wearing shorts.  American??

Nineteen seventy-four

I'm still scanning old slides. These two are from 1974 in Minneapolis. They should both be recognizable to some of the readers of the blog, and I'll send them via email to requestors. In 1974 Andy Miller graduated from high school. This is Mark Miller a while before the festivities began, as I remember it. It was a time of long hair and hippy attire, which somewhat explains his appearance. He was 17 at the time.

And the graduate, Andy, standing proudly in the late afternoon sun.

So much for history and scanned slides. I played tennis again today at Fort Snelling after three consecutive days off. It was nice to be back on the courts and I appreciated the chance to smack some forehands again.

The election has brought another round of ballot recounts in the North Star state. The distance between the two top vote getters in the race for guv is less than one half of one percent at the moment and that triggers an automatic recount. Mark Dayton leads, but the forces surrounding Tom Emmer vow to fight on. It reminds me of two years ago when it took 8 months to elect Al Franken to the Senate. PP's choice in the election, Ken Pentel, managed to gather 6,172 votes for governor, in fifth place, with .03% of the total vote.

An interesting sidelight to the election is that Jim Oberstar, a 36 year veteran of the House of Representatives, lost his re-election bid. He served the eighth district of Minnesota - including Duluth and the Iron Range. He has been a strong advocate of biking and bike trails nation-wide. He is well known in Washington D.C. as a biking enthusiast who rides more than 2500 miles a year. Not a bad total for a guy with a job, but a bit shy of Mr. Moohoo's annual output.

I only voted once

I went to the polling place this morning with PP and UH. We meant to do our civic duty, to cast a single ballot and await the results. The Voter Fraud patrol was out, making sure that the law was obeyed. I managed to get a photo of their movable sign, parked a legal distance from the voting cathedral, the Linwood Park Recreation Center. We managed to vote and get home unmolested... and unarrested.

Upper Lake in Crosby Farm was picturesque when I visited yesterday. The lake was calm and the reflection from the dock made a fetching photo. The autumn has its own understated beauty.

I'll be watching the election results as the evening goes on. I don't think my votes will make much difference, but I have a rooting interest. PP is off to help her gubernatorial candidate, Ken Pentel, make it through the night. That party, too, has election night aspirations.

The election madness is nearly gone for another couple of years. A good thing.

Public Transportation

Theme day has to be respected to some extent. The theme for November first is public transportation. The paddle wheelers on the Mississippi at Harriet Island may or may not be publicly owned, but they are available for hire and run in the summer time at least once a day.

The Metro in Paris certainly qualifies as public transportation. The sign above the entrance to the underground station may not be sufficient for purists, but I'm going with these two photos. The Metro sign photo was taken in May, the paddle wheeler a few weeks ago while there were still leaves on the trees.

It seemed like a busy day today, and I'm feeling some fatigue. Mostly, I raked leaves in the yard, bagged them and toted them to the leaf recycle center on Pleasant Avenue. Later, because it was such a nice day, I had a walk at Crosby Farm. There is still some standing water near Upper LAke from the fall flood that came down the Mississippi earlier this fall. It takes a long time for that much water to disappear.

Election tomorrow. The last of the irritating political attack ads should be off the air by the end of tonight. There oughtta be a law against that stuff.

Halloween

There were Halloween parties all over last night. PP dressed up as a pirate and went off to celebrate. She had a parrot and a jug of rum - very much like a pirate. The parrot was not a real parrot, not even an ex-parrot.

And then today before the Vikings football game, I went for a walk on a very nice, but crisp day. There were several cyclists on the street, and as I got close to the House of Hope on Summit Avenue, I encountered a familiar face on a bike, dressed for the weather, putting in some miles on a late October Day. We chatted a while and he continued on his way down Summit Avenue. It seems odd that we haven't crossed paths earlier this summer when he has biked in the area, but it is a pretty big town.

Election day on Tuesday. Vote early and often.