Bosca Dubh

Cast Up

Lobster trap lost at sea, Burnt Island, near Boothbay, Maine.

Summer Hat

Burnt Island, near Boothbay, Maine.

Burnt Island

Burnt Island, near Boothbay, Maine.

Burnt Island Light 2

Burnt Island, near Boothbay, Maine.

Burnt Island Light

Burnt Island, near Boothbay, Maine.

rescue boat 4

Burnt Island, near Boothbay, Maine

Now see these:

• Far West Portraits – 16 from DONC JE SUIS
• Venho from luotokuva
• i was sitting in mcsorley’s from your waitress
• Les Artisans du faubourg : exposition from pariscool

rescue boat 3

Burnt Island, near Boothbay, Maine

Now see these:

• assist from hanna birke
• Devoid from Feldauge
• Ramp from milou
• Two Chairs from 1965 monochrome

la liberté guidant le peuple

Bastille Day, Barbette, Minneapolis

observation deck: viewers

Foshay Tower

Now see these:

• spring. time from myphotosquare
• Not of This World from absolutelynothing
• sea and boat from Dreams of Light

Arndt gallery

The Tom Arndt Minneapolis Institute of Art exhibit.

This is a great exhibit, with lots of Arndt’s street photography and a little film that shows Arndt at work, both in the field and in the darkroom. A new book of his Minnesota photographs, Home: Tom Arndt’s Minnesota, with an introduction by Garrison Keillor, is out from the University of Minnesota Press.

Now see these:

• Porträtt from A’la Foto
• Fleur 131 Daisy from Image Coffee Grey
• Lobster Trap from FotoBlography
• Wallace River from Stranded in Kenmare

gallery shadows 3

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Now see these:

• Up and down from Feldauge
• Sand Patterns from milou
• The Piano Man from Urban Ghost

gallery heads

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Now see these:

• Suits from Aperture First
• Polli from Motmartre
• Black and White Flowers from Photine
• Hung on from photoskiasi

docent 2

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Now see these:

• Carnaval from donc je suis
• Discarded from Catherine Buca
• Kivasti on puu siellä from luotokuva
• blues man from your waitress
• Au comptoir de la Fourmi from ParisCool

docent

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Now see these:

• Old Books from Archerfoto
• The Great Escape from Elaine
• unknown people #17 from yiannis krikis

gaze

Minneapolis Institute of Art

trudge

Mississippi River Gorge, south of Lake Street.

Now see these:

• Woodland dawn from absolutely nothing
• into the land of snow from Peter Izarik
• Munich Subway I from phototraveler.de
• Playing With Fire from Bit’s Photography

shadow on the hill

Mississippi River Gorge, south of Lake Street, Minneapolis.

Now see these:

• cologne cathedral from dying light
• Pajama Man, Beijing from SteveBarru
• Chair city from The Maggot
• Parc de Pointe aux Trembles, rue Notre-Dame from une jour_une photographie
• La main sur l’épaule from Jean-Benoît Maréchal
• 5th Ave.tourists and a local… from imagediary

Buddhas in the Gallery

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Now see these:

• untitled from drawn in light
• Satyricon: 1925 from Shorpy
• Untitled from Mystery Me
• sarah and craig 1 from the narrative

goal

Longfellow Park, Minneapolis.

Now see these:

• Dry Stone Point of View from Black and White Dreaming
• 109 Earths from graciform
• Bearbeitet from visible-on

face off

Longfellow Park, Minneapolis.

Now see these:

• walking the new neighborhood in record london snowfall from Rion.nu
• Tall grass from Richard Vanek
• Abundant Cattails from erik.photoblog
• Ferme de Núpsstaður from François-Noël MASSON

snack shack

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Now see these:

• song from myphotosquare
• Winter Wonderland from absolutelynothing
• musée national d’art moderne – centre pompidou from Les Particules Etranges

Round many western islands have I been

Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

from On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer, John Keats

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Now see these:

• ight on the wall as i bounce off my failings with you once again from Hanna Birke
• Just reed from Feldauge
• Seven from milou
• Plaid geese on sooke harbour from Mad Media Studios
• new year’s lanterns from 1965 monochrome

furrows and grooves

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Now see these:

• Inauguration, Jake’s studio from fourteen places to eat
• Balance from bighappyfunhouse
• Rockland Breakwater in winter from Jim Dugan’s PhotoBlog
• ghosts from myphotosquare
• sometimes heart.. from dreams of light

Cowboy Karl (in color) 2

Now see these:

• deadhead from Electrolite
• Hopes from Aperture First
• Rotura from Viewhunter

Cowboy Karl (in color)

sand shark

Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Now see these:

• Horsell Common II and Bodmin from milou
• November II from Feldauge
• skull on the desk from 1965 Monochrome

beach food

Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Now see these:

• closed from bighappyfunhouse
• Things are Looking Up from Perspective Images
• Clouseau from Elaine
• Bye Japan from Richard Vanek

the beginning and the end of our dominion

Sand is the beginning and the end
of our dominion.

Shoreline by Mary Barnard

Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Now see these:

surf

Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

island

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Looking for a worthy cause to support? Take a look at this one at DonorsChoose.org: a junior high school teacher in Owatonna wants to introduce her students to poetry through verse novels. I’ve donated to the project, but it still needs some help to reach its goal. Lend a hand (and a few bucks) if you can!

And if this particular project doesn’t do it for you, browse through the other education projects at DonorsChoose.org; teachers ask, you choose, students learn.

Cowboy Karl 4

Lakeview Farm, Hugo, Minnesota.

Cowboy Karl 3

Lakeview Farm, Hugo, Minnesota.

Cowboy Karl 2

Lakeview Farm, Hugo, Minnesota.

Cowboy Karl

Lakeview Farm, Hugo, Minnesota.

Check out the From a Farther Room iGoogle Theme, featuring four black and white photographs from this photoblog: Lake Superior waves at Grand Marais, a Minneapolis leaf pile, a vintage Lake Street sign, and a South Minneapolis alley in the snow.

Now see these:

• untitled from Under the Amber Moon
• Spooky 2007 from Electrolite
• Before from Feldauge
• The house at Rhoscolyn from milou
• light source from hanna birke

tide

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Now see these:

• entrepreneur from bighappyfunhouse
• fall. here. there from myphotosquare
• Around town with a toy camera #10 from Still alive

water’s edge

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Now see these:

• untitled from Rebecca
• the raven from Electrolite
• sunflowers from dying light
• Autumn from Sopheava

shore shadows

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

beach run

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Now see these:

• Cobweb from Feldauge
• Claonaig from milou
• an array of pillars from BOXMAN fotologue

from the sea

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Now see these:

• Grenouille from Elaine
• rounding from pfnphoto
• Newdays from Really Japan

fishing lesson

On the big rock in the middle of North Pond, Locke Mills/Greenwood, Maine.

Now see these:

• Autumn Rocks from From 10 to 300 mm
• Cool Breeze, Montana 2008 from Ya Wesler
• One Hour Later from watchThisspace

landing party

Granddad and Margaret in the canoe, and Mom and Jack in the kayak, approach the big rock in the middle of North Pond, Locke Mills/Greenwood, Maine. They boys insisted on having their birthday lunch out on this hunk of granite–not a bad summertime adventure.

Now see these:

• Light rain from Vanilla Days
• The Drifter from Daily Practice
• handymania II from a picture a day keeps the doctor away
• Red balloon from Bouncing Light
• Simple Line from Xavier Rey

back to the rock

From the big rock in the middle of North Pond, Locke Mills/Greenwood, Maine.

Now see these:

• Cottonwood from Feldauge
• sakaba from 1965 monochrome
• nyc from Urban Ghost
• mother and her daughter go from BOXMAN fotologue

sliding past

From the big rock in the middle of North Pond, Locke Mills/Greenwood, Maine.

Now see these:

• politics from bighappyfunhouse
• NY is Alone from *.empty
• Instant Messenger: 1913 from Shorpy
• Peux tu m’entendre? from pictalogue
• goldgelb from OskarfotO
• Pieceofglass from Drawn in Light

landing the canoe

The big rock in the middle of North Pond, Locke Mills/Greenwood, Maine.

leap

The big rock in the middle of North Pond, Locke Mills/Greenwood, Maine.

Now see these:

• puddle jumper from urban views
• untitled from shallow grays
• Evening at Roger’s Barn from A Walk Through Durham Township
• Heijastus from luotokuva
• Un petit verre sur ?chasses rue de la Fontaine au Roi from Pariscool

Hilltop

Reid State Park, Georgetown, Maine.

Peabody River: Slide

Peabody River, New Hampshire.

Now see these:

• They Shall Remain Nameless from Shorpy
• Norwegian Wood from Framed and Shot
• Little Ballerinas from Daily Practice
• SmallAndRusty…ButStillWorking from Third Eye Expressions

end of the trail

The hiking trail at William O’Brien State Park ends at a little stream trickling out of the hills and into the St. Croix River; and so this particular trail of pictures will end as well. Tomorrow: a new river.

waiting for the shot

Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Now see these:

• Course en haut talons rue de Lappe from Paris Cool
• spring thaw from Under the Amber Moon
• fragments from bluechameleon

Buffet and Band, Part 2

More from the best block party ever (until next year).

Now see these:

• 386 from Edmund Leveckis
• santa monica from Electrolite
• untitled from rebecca
• Thamel Streetscene from photographic visions

Buffet, Bikes, and Band

I contend that, in a city of cool neighborhoods, my neighborhood–Longfellow, south of Lake Street and west of Hiawatha–is by far the coolest. And that in a neighborhood of cool blocks, mine is, again, the coolest by far. We’ve got a house band, a guy who makes the most amazing zesty pickles, and a growing herd of kids on bikes. So we look forward to National Night Out, when we have our block party and set up a buffet table in the street and raffle off inflatable swimming pools and generally have a blast. Bikes, buffets, and a band–what could possibly make for a better summer evening?

The other cool thing about our block party this year was that I got to try out my “newest” camera, a British-made Purma Special from around 1937. It takes 127 film, and packs 16 exposures onto a roll that would get you just 8 from the Kodak Autograph; thrifty! But cooler still, it has the most amazing shutter mechanism. There are three speeds–fast (1/450), regular (1/150), and slow (1/25)–that you utilize by turning the camera itself: left side up for slow, cenetered for regular, right side up for fast. There’s a weighted mechanism inside that uses gravity to open the shutter at the chosen speed. The only real drawback is the availability of 127 film: I ordered a couple rolls of Efke 100 from Freestyle, because it’s not sold in stores in my neighborhood (cool though it may be).

Seawall

Artists’ Point, Grand Marais, Minnesota, on the shores of Lake Superior.

Atlantean Shores

With favoring winds, o’er sunlit seas,
We sailed for the Hesperides,
The land where golden apples grow;
But that, ah! that was long ago.

How far, since then, the ocean streams
Have swept us from that land of dreams,
That land of fiction and of truth,
The lost Atlantis of our youth!

Whither, ah, whither? Are not these
The tempest-haunted Orcades,
Where sea-gulls scream, and breakers roar,
And wreck and sea-weed line the shore?

Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle!
Here in thy harbors for a while
We lower our sails; a while we rest
From the unending, endless quest.

Ultima Thule: Dedication to G. W. G. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Artists’ Point, Grand Marais, Minnesota, on the shores of Lake Superior.

unwinding by storm

Unraveling velvet, wave after wave, driven
by wind, unwinding by storm, by gravity thrown –
however, heaving to reach you, to find you, I’ve striven
undulant, erosive, blown —

Song of the Sea to the Shore by Robert Fanning

Artists’ Point, Grand Marais, Minnesota, on the shores of Lake Superior.

Tanker #2

Tanker

When we went to Fort Snelling on Father’s Day, we were met by World War II Jeeps and tanks instead of the early 19th century muskets and cannon the boys expected. They were a little disappointed, but I think they enjoyed a lesson in their great-granddad’s era (he served with Patton’s armored infantry, and helped burn down the first city I lived in when we moved to Germany). We learned a little about a scout tank from this gentleman, and asked lots of nerdy questions about the size of the crew, the top speed of the vehicle, and how the camouflage netting works.

Sad news today about Thomas Disch, one of the leading voices of the New Wave in science fiction who helped bring speculative stories out of the spaceship-and-laser-gun ghetto. According to most reports, he was a mean-spirited, kind-hearted, stingy, and generous man, much like the rest of us. Here’s a little sample of his early work, which draws a bit on his Minnesota roots.

closing the gap #2

The gap across the Mississippi River is closing, section by section.

Now see these:

• Rouge from duboaa.net
• Auringonlasku from luotokuva
• Changing Landscape from a thousand words
• ways II from pfnphoto.com

Foil Dinners

Scouting’s contributions to world cuisine are many: omelette-in-a-bag, Dutch oven dump cake, tin-can bread, and, of course, foil dinners: meat and veggies and flavoring (traditionally Lipton Onion Soup mix and/or Tabasco sauce) wrapped in foil and put on the coals. Our innovations for this particular meal were a cabbage leaf bed to help hold in the moisture, and pre-cooked meatballs to reduce the cooking time (Cub Scouts get hungry after a day of canoing and archery and compass work).

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

A larger reproduction of an original broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence, as displayed at the Minnesota History Center as part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration.

Now see these:

• Recreation from bighappyfunhouse
• Summer Camp Awaits from Treeswing
• meet me there at midnight from dying light

We hold these truths to be self-evident

An original broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence, as displayed at the Minnesota History Center as part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration.

Now see these:

• untitled from STRAYDOG
• Wall of Books from Black and White Dreaming
• Spice from Wood | Stone
• Woman with umbrella in snow from graciform
• 379 from Edmund Leveckis

through weary wanderings toss’d

Restore me safe, through weary wanderings toss’d,
To my dear country’s ever-pleasing coast,
As while the spirit in this bosom glows,
To thee, my goddess, I address my vows

The Odyssey (trans. Alexander Pope)

Now see these:

• Time’s Hands from urban ghost
• spurn point II from milou
• Kiss from Feldauge
• hidden wagen from 1965 monochrome

gunfighter #3

At the Grand Canyon Railway’s Wild West show.

on the set

At the Grand Canyon Railway’s Wild West show.

standoff

The marshall and a bandit face each other at the Grand Canyon Railway’s Wild West show.

flying west

You can tell which direction you’re flying by checking your fellow-passengers’ headgear . . .

tube

Snow-tubing at Winter Camp.

The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.

staging area

Snow-tubing at Winter Camp.

The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.

Now see these:

• untitled from in absentia
• Touch of red from Sopheava de Lumiere
• Spring Hill, Between Rainstorms from A Walk Through Durham Township
• untitled from echo

downhill speed

Snow-tubing at Winter Camp.

The 2008 Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s Internet answer to the O. Henry Prize and suchlike, is open for nominations. Look at the rules, check out the previous years’ winners, and find something good to nominate; nominations close March 31.

Now see these:

• Driver from Perspective Images
• Stars from Elaine
• Destination Far from Richard Vanek

liftoff

Launching the hot air balloons at Winter Camp.

Now see these:

• Parapluies de Paname from Elaine
• Fisherman Fisherman from the Hmmm.

balloon construction

Building a hot air balloon at Winter Camp.

Bank 2

Bank Restaurant, in the former U.S. Bank lobby.

waiting

Midtown Station, Minneapolis Light Rail.

Now see these:

• untitled from in absentia
• Loppet from Wood | Stone

follow the leader

I’ve been a sort of snowshoe evangelist for the past several winters, and especially this incredibly snowy one (we got more snow on Christmas than we have any year since 1950!). Of all the winter sports, this is the one that requires the least skill and the least investment: if you can walk, you can snowshoe, and a pair of shoes that set you back less than $100 (far cheaper than most skates, skis, and snowboards) will take you into wintry places you’d never get to by yourself. And you can do it pretty much anyplace with good snow cover: around the block, through the park, across the yard. Our favorite spot is the oak savanna preserve on West River Parkway, a few blocks from home.

Sledding, I suppose, is a cheaper winter sport–a decent saucer sled shouldn’t cost more than $10, and you can get a few runs out of a piece of cardboard before it disintegrates–but you need a hill to do it. And hills are sometimes hard to come by here on the plains.

Snowy days a downhill adventure

The day after Christmas, the boys and I headed out about 10:00 AM for a sledding hill near Minnehaha Creek. We were surprised and delighted to find that we had the hill to ourselves: no dodging people who insist on climbing up the middle of the slope, no waiting in line for the big icy bump, nothing but fresh powder all the way to the bottom.

About a half hour into our sledding, a white truck pulled up and two cameramen from KARE-11 News (they have snazzy blue ski jackets) arrived and started filming the boys in flight. The boys were unphased by the cameras; if anything, they seemed a little annoyed–they were like a couple of surfers looking for the big wave, and didn’t have time to be pestered.

Other sledders arrived, and a few hammed it up for the cameras, but we continued in our serious sledding. We finally broke for lunch at about noon (and scheduled the TiVo to record all the KARE-11 news shows). Our piece played at 4:00 PM (opposite Oprah) and at 5:00 AM; but you can see it here: we benefited from good editing (I especially like the “whoosh” of Peter’s sled going over the jump).

trudge

snow run

shade

University Club, St. Paul.

skirl

With a keening swirl of sound (great pipes really are an outdoor toy . . .), the Brian Boru Pipe Band marches in to start the Failte Minnesota Green Tie event. (Low light, slow film, and a cúpla piontaí Guinness conspired to add some blur to this picture . . .)

big fur hat

Drum major Ed McCormick of the Brian Boru Pipe Band confers with piper Dan Sexton prior to the march that opened the Failte Minnesota Green Tie event.

themselves

Ultan Duggan (Mendota Heights councilman among other things) and Bill Watkins (author of “Celtic Childhood” and “Scotland is Not for the Squeamish”, frequently found at Merlin’s Rest) at the Failte Minnesota Green Tie Gala. Below is a rough cut of a little movie I put together for the event, to try to open some hearts and wallets for the proposed Irish Cultural Center. (The pictures aren’t mine; Dan Sexton bought them from a stock photography company–nice stuff, though not quite my style.)

At La Sirena Gorda

The Midtown Market, housed in the old Sears building on Lake Street, may be the best place in town for a family lunch. There’s a whole collection of fabulous food stands, serving everything from Mexican to Italian to West Indian to Middle Eastern chow–no fussing, no negotiating, just head to the stand that has what you want.

Me, I’m torn between the torta Cubana at Manny’s and the seafood at La Sirena Gorda (”The Fat Mermaid”). Here we see the queue at La Sirena–the seafood molé was more than worth the wait.

Granddad and Boys and Train

With Granddad at the top of Mount Washington.

climbing

Cog Railway up Mount Washington.

brake gal

Here’s our guide and brakeman on the Mount Washington cog railway ride. On the way up, the brakeman (or brake gal in our case) doesn’t have much to do; gravity keeps the car from moving very fast, with the tons of steel and coal pushing behind it. But on the way down, she didn’t have much time for chatter; she was constantly at the two big wheels that controlled the braking system to check our descent. The trip down was a lot faster than the trip up . . .

One bit of Mount Washington lore that she didn’t tell us (and that I don’t recall seeing in the museum at the base of the mountain) was the 1967 train crash that killed eight passengers and injured seventy. There’s only one line up and down, so there are a series of complex switches that allow one train to sit on a siding while another train passes; apparently a switch was set improperly, causing the descending engine to derail and sending the passenger car hurtling down the track (the engine itself being the most effective brake).

It’s the brakeman’s task to inspect the switches after they’re set to avoid another tragedy; and for forty years they’ve done a fine job, though I’m sure there’s a fair amount of pressure on the brakeman’s mind during the inspection.

fueling up

We rode the cog railroad up Mount Washington on our summer trip, our first actual steam-engine ride. Up to now, all of our trains have been diesels or electrics; the cog railroad engine burns a ton of sooty coal and boils a thousand gallons of water on its way up the highest mountain in New England (and not nearly so much on the way down, with gravity helping out).

Sunken Garden

The Sunken Garden, featuring “Play Days” by Harriet Frishmuth at the Como Conservatory, St. Paul.

My latest publication is on-line: Among the Moabites at Cherry Bleeds

Now see these:

• Wyre Wrecks #1 from id7
• Dusk Games from Thinking-Picture
• mountain and clouds from BOXMAN
• strawhat woman from 1965 monochrome

Play Days

“Play Days” by Harriet Frishmuth at the Como Conservatory, St. Paul.

Now see these:

• No smoke without from b.r.f.u.k
• Minimem from Elaine
• untitled (endless city seas of light, shadow, and texture) from Rion.nu

lily ponds – reflection

At the Como Conservatory, St. Paul.

My latest publication is on-line: Among the Moabites at Cherry Bleeds

Now see these:

• 359 from Edmund Leveckis
• solitude from clik & clak
• New York, New York, USA from lifevicarious

lily ponds

I might as well get into the game that Daily Koss, Maud Newton, Edward Champion, and most recently Andrew Sullivan started: here’s a link to a posting at another project of mine, DailyDickinson.com, that flooded my poor little Emily Dickinson blog with twice the traffic that this site ever sees and about a hundred times the traffic drawn by the Belle of Amherst. It’s not really much of a posting–just a response to a review in Scientific American that did a name-check of Miss Dickinson as a good example of morbid shyness that might today be medicated–but the magic of the internet and links from the tops in the blogosphere certainly drove the traffic.

Most of the people who visited during the course of the frenzy will not, of course, ever come back. Though DailyDickinson does have a small (as in “can be counted easily without taking off socks”) and international (U.S., U.K., Japan, and Korea show up often in the logs) readership, it’s sort of a niche market and not intended to be especially large. Each day there’s a Dickinson poem illustrated by a photograph, and when something Dickinsonian shows up in the news or appears on my Internet radar, there will be a comment or two. It was really an excuse to write a “Google gadget” to display an RSS feed in a tabbed interface–complete geekery.

Still, to be tapped by some of the big names on the ‘net (the Daily Koss link was actually a week earlier than the paroxetine post, as a resource for an ongoing series of “Literature for Kossacks”) is kind of a thrill; at the very least, it makes looking at the referrer logs more fun than usual.

North Pond: Abandoned

Contrary to appearances, Granddad is actually bringing his kayak toward the boy on the rock; his kayak was missing a critical component: without a keel, it was very good at going in circles, somewhat OK at going backwards, and not very effective at all in going forward.

Now see these:

• Casco Bay by Doug Sharp
• once, we had jazz from Vu
• untitled (Gent, Belgium) from timescapes
• Girl in the Cafe from *.empty

North Pond: Overboard

Now see these:

• Just a nice boat from Jim Dugan’s PhotoBlog
• Campfire from phonos.cz
• Silos from Pixel Perfect
• wash on wire from Europe in Black and White

North Pond: Kelly

Now see these:

• clean from bighappyfunhouse
• Life Goes on in Tehran – September (scroooooool to the right; there’s a lot to see . . .)
• L’esprit du mâle from chambrenoir

North Pond: Swimmers 2

Hurrah! One of my favorite photoblogs, incidence, is back with new content from Togo. I can only imagine the logistical hurdles that had to be leaped to get these wonderful black and white images to the world (though we’re given a hint that falciparum malaria was involved . . . ick . . .).

Take special note of this ancestor hut, wooden pirogue, and portrait at Wonougba; but they’re all great, and the site is worth frequent visits.

North Pond: Swimmers

Happy travels, Madeleine L’Engle. What precocious child of the ’60s and ’70s wasn’t shaped by your wonder-filled adventures? I still sometimes think of tesseracts and moebius strips while I’m falling asleep.

• “It matters cosmically” (Poetry Foundation blog “Harriet”)
• Madeleine L’Engle, Children’s Writer, Is Dead
• Writer Madeleine L’Engle, 88; Author of ‘A Wrinkle in Time
• Madeleine L’Engle at Home

North Pond: On the rock

Prints of this and other North Pond photographs are available for sale.

Updated October 15, 2007: Named a Moody Monday favorite for the Solitary theme.

Tree Fort: Building the Wall

A few more tree fort shots ahead . . .

One of our last minute design decisions was the climbing wall. The guys weren’t sure at first that they wanted one–it’s pretty high–but after a trip up the little climbing walls at the Children’s Museum of Maine they decided to give it a shot. Granddad built the (in)famous confidence course at a Wisconsin college as part of a leadership program, so he’s the guy to get for adding climbing walls and ropes and such to a tree fort.

Tree Fort: Planning Session

Granddad discusses the plans for the tree fort, while Jack and Peter think deeply about the next steps. For all his apparent organizational skills, Granddad is an improvisational builder–plans changed midstream several times, but somehow it all came together. When working with a virtuoso, it’s best to give him space to think out loud, ask as few questions as possible, and do exactly as you’re told…

If you’re casting about for something to do on Sunday, August 19th, have I got the event for you: my friend Arthur Ruckle has organized a benefit concert for Cate Cooper, who is in Arizona to have a pontine vascular malformation repaired. It will be held at Merlin’s Rest, the best pub on Lake Street, starting at 4 PM. For more details, download this PDF version of the Friends of Cate’s Brain flyer. And heck, while you’re at it, post it around your favorite coffee shops and tattoo parlors to help bring in a few more fans of music and brains.

Tree Fort: Measure Twice

Peter helps Granddad mark a board for cutting during the tree fort construction project. I have to admit that I never liked working on Granddad’s building projects when he was just a Dad; I was always given onerous jobs like holding boards for cutting and lugging hardware around, when what I really wanted to do on Sunday morning was read a book. Jack and Peter, though, absolutely love that kind of thing, and I had a pretty good time with it, too. The carpentry gene seems to have skipped a generation.

If you’re casting about for something to do on Sunday, August 19th, have I got the event for you: my friend Arthur Ruckle has organized a benefit concert for Cate Cooper, who is in Arizona to have a pontine vascular malformation repaired. It will be held at Merlin’s Rest, the best pub on Lake Street, starting at 4 PM. For more details, download this PDF version of the Friends of Cate’s Brain flyer. And heck, while you’re at it, post it around your favorite coffee shops and tattoo parlors to help bring in a few more fans of music and brains.

Tree Fort: Bolt

Granddad sizes up a bolt for the tree fort while Jack sizes up Granddad.

If you’re casting about for something to do on Sunday, August 19th, have I got the event for you: my friend Arthur Ruckle has organized a benefit concert for Cate Cooper, who is in Arizona to have a pontine vascular malformation repaired. It will be held at Merlin’s Rest, the best pub on Lake Street, starting at 4 PM. For more details, download this PDF version of the Friends of Cate’s Brain flyer. And heck, while you’re at it, post it around your favorite coffee shops and tattoo parlors to help bring in a few more fans of music and brains.

Tree Fort: Hammering

Granddad pounds in one of the bolts that connects the tree fort to the tree.

If you’re casting about for something to do on Sunday, August 19th, have I got the event for you: my friend Arthur Ruckle (yes, this guy) has organized a benefit concert for Cate Cooper, who is in Arizona to have a pontine vascular malformation repaired. It will be held at Merlin’s Rest, the best pub on Lake Street, starting at 4 PM. For more details, download this PDF version of the Friends of Cate’s Brain flyer. And heck, while you’re at it, post it around your favorite coffee shops and tattoo parlors to help bring in a few more fans of music and brains.

pick

I’m on autopilot for the next 3 days, while we make our summer trip to Maine. We’ll be swimming in our favorite streams, steaming up Mount Washington, and dipping our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.

And so I’ll be featuring pictures from the other coast for the week–this one from the line to get into the opening session of JavaOne.

I feel almost bad about posting this one, of a fellow geek in a compromising position. And it was entirely unintentional–I liked the way his profile and his newspaper framed the big multimedia monitors in the lounge area, and it was just bad luck that his finger ended up where it did. And don’t think I didn’t try with the magic of PhotoShop to move that finger a bit. I’m just not as good with PhotoShop as I am with XML.

And really, it’s a pretty good picture (if one sets aside the unfortunate finger): I like the tone, the shallow DOF, the blurs in the distance. If only he hadn’t felt that itch just then . . .

(I trust that true Java geeks don’t actually venture into this part of the Internet, where old cameras and odd stories abound, and he’ll never actually be identified . . .)

baile

Dancing to Charanga Tropical at the Nine Nights of Music series at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.

Shameless self promotion:

Charanga Tropical

More Charanga Tropical at the Nine Nights of Music series at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.

Shameless self promotion:

Charanga Tropical

More Charanga Tropical at the Nine Nights of Music series at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. Tonight the featured act will be the Bruce Henry Band funk and soul review; be there or be square!

Now see these:

• simplicity from bighappyfunhouse
• she’s going the distance from Puja Parakh
• saying your plans out loud is a good way to hear god laugh from A Softer World

Shameless self promotion:

Charanga Tropical

Charanga Tropical opened up the Nine Nights of Music series at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul; the threat of rain chased the show indoors, but it was still a great time. I’m hoping the weather will hold for this Tuesday’s show. If you’re in the Twin Cities on a summer Tuesday, there’s no better spot than the History Center plaza for some free tunes.

Shameless self promotion:

Engineer

The engineer of the Steamboat Minnehaha, explaining to Peter how the big steam engine works.

listen

On Father’s Day, we sailed on the Steamboat Minnehaha, a restored ferry that used to carry people from the streetcars in Excelsior to the amusement park on Big Island. Without a doubt, the coolest thing about this trip, at least for the engineering nerds in my care, was listening to the engine through a stethoscope. The engineer showed us how he uses the stethoscope to diagnose issues with the engine, and let Jack and Peter listen as he opened and closed various valves.

school’s out

For the last week, the boys have been singing Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”; I’m assuming they learned it from some of the older kids at Minneapolis Kids. They’re not quite clear on the words, but insert “stinky” whenever they’re stumped.

They like school, though, so they make a lot of exceptions when pushed on the song–the song is about the OTHER teachers, not Mrs. Kujat, or Mrs. Marshall, or Ann at Minneapolis Kids, or …

Pictured are the boys with their grandmother at the “Goodies with Grandparents” morning at school this spring.

calm

This poor picture tried to be too much; that’s Alcatraz in the background, and the v-shaped thing in front of the boat is the swimmer from a couple days back. The Yashica, wonderful though it is, is a rangefinder best for close-in portraits and hip shots of street action, not so much a camera for many layers of detail.

Still, I like the blue tones all the same.

waiting for the 1814

I suppose it’s a terribly touristy thing to be fascinated by the antique streetcars still in service on San Francisco’s F line. But there’s an undeniable magic about them, especially the Peter Witt trams that originally ran on the streets of Milan (and which still have Italian signage in them).

St. Paul and Minneapolis were great streetcar towns in their time, their time being from 1875, when the first horse-drawn line was established on Washington Avenue downtown, to 1954, when Fred Ossanna and associates finished the pillage of the system begun by Charles Green and the last line was paved over for buses. Indeed, the rush to replace the streetcars was so hasty that the streetcar tracks are often just inches below the surface: Lake Street is in a state of excavation these days, and the old metal tracks are in plain site for the first time in 50 years.

The Minnesota Streetcar Museum operates several cars on the Como-Harriet and Excelsior lines, and we’ve ridden them all. On Father’s Day, I’m planning to have the boys take me on the streetcar ferry on Lake Minnetonka (they’re young enough to take suggestions for this outing, and I have no problem taking advantage of their train obsessions to cover for my own…).

But wouldn’t it be lovely to ride a working streetcar line to work? There’s occasional noise about returning the streetcars to service; like Stanley Gordon West, I’m waiting patiently until they bring the streetcars back.

dawn swimmer

An intrepid swimmer prepares to crawl the bay in the early hours of the day.

how to build a tower #5

A few weeks ago, we went to an All About Family event near the Washburn Water Tower, where we learned a little bit about the history of the tower and worked on a Lego model. Here’s a series of shots documenting this effort (marking time while I print and scan two rolls from San Francisco): here Brian, the organization’s founder and leader, puts one of the “guys” on the tower.

how to build a tower #4

A few weeks ago, we went to an All About Family event near the Washburn Water Tower, where we learned a little bit about the history of the tower and worked on a Lego model. Here’s a series of shots documenting this effort (marking time while I print and scan two rolls from San Francisco): here the tower begins to take shape.

how to build a tower #2

A few weeks ago, we went to an All About Family event near the Washburn Water Tower, where we learned a little bit about the history of the tower and worked on a Lego model. Here’s a series of shots documenting this effort (marking time while I print and scan two rolls from San Francisco): in this one, one of the visiting architects (alas, I missed his name) selects from the tower’s raw material.

how to build a tower #1

A few weeks ago, we went to an All About Family event near the Washburn Water Tower, where we learned a little bit about the history of the tower and worked on a Lego model. Here’s a series of shots documenting this effort (marking time while I print and scan two rolls from San Francisco): in this one, one of the visiting architects (alas, I missed his name) helps with the landscaping that will become the tower’s hill.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

A happy Mother’s Day to all!

Pictured above is my wife, Kelly, mother of the inimitable (thank goodness…) Jack and Peter, at the St. Patrick’s Day pre-opening of Merlin’s Rest. She’s wearing a shirt from the lamented (lamentable?) Irish Well, emblazoned with the long Welsh place name “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch” (ask Mr. Dingley to tell his joke about the train to said spot, but set aside plenty of time).

Wild Bill

Bill Watkins: gadabout, raconteur, boulevardier, as spotted at Merlin’s Rest.

I’m back from San Francisco with two rolls of black and white film and a roll of color slides to process; quite a town, San Francisco.

bar

The bar at Merlin’s Rest.

I’m on auto-pilot this week–putatitvely attending the Sun JavaOne conference in San Francisco, or so my employer thinks, when in fact I’m drawn more to City Lights Books and Chinatown than discussions of Service Oriented Architecture and .NET interoperability. Between sessions, I hope to at least catch some of the classic sights, like this bridge and chain from Craig Ferroggiaro.

quizmaster

John Dingley, one of the proprieters of Merlin’s Rest, leans in close to deliver a quiz question.

I’m on auto-pilot this week–putatitvely attending the Sun JavaOne conference in San Francisco, or so my employer thinks, when in fact I’m drawn more to City Lights Books and Chinatown than discussions of Service Oriented Architecture and .NET interoperability. Between sessions, I hope to take in sights like this Chinatown shot from James Patrick Griffin.

Lucy 2

And here’s Lucy again at Merlin’s Rest’s Sunday pub quiz. She gets two pictures, whereas poor Ludwig gets only one, because even Ludwig will have to admit that she’s the prettier.

I’m on auto-pilot this week–putatitvely attending the Sun JavaOne conference in San Francisco, or so my employer thinks, when in fact I’m drawn more to City Lights Books and Chinatown than discussions of Service Oriented Architecture and .NET interoperability. You know, City Lights, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s bookstore that brought out Ginsberg’s “Howl” and remains a mecca for people who love books. You can see a great picture of it here from James Patrick Griffin.

Lucy

And here’s Lucy at Merlin’s Rest’s Sunday pub quiz.

I’m on auto-pilot this week–putatitvely attending the Sun JavaOne conference in San Francisco, or so my employer thinks, when in fact I’m drawn more to City Lights Books and Chinatown than discussions of Service Oriented Architecture and .NET interoperability. Between sessions, I hope to see things like those captured in this collection of Polaroids from CURSIVE BUILDINGS.

Ludwig

Here’s Ludwig of the Fat Chance Jug Band, just before the mighty Monotremes took first place in the first Merlin’s Rest Sunday pub quiz.

I’m on auto-pilot this week–putatitvely attending the Sun JavaOne conference in San Francisco, or so my employer thinks, when in fact I’m drawn more to City Lights Books and Chinatown than discussions of Service Oriented Architecture and .NET interoperability. Between sessions, I hope to see things like the squeezebox girl as found by “your waitress”.

tubes

The predicted snowy armageddon was slightly less than apocalyptic–Friday’s predicted snow turned out to be mostly sleet, and it took a while for things to turn over to the white stuff on Saturday. But it was still a good sledding opportunity.

No pictures yet of our recent blanket of snow, though–no time to play with chemicals after spending the day at Auntie Betsy’s house, sledding, playing hide & seek, and discovering the wonders of Dance Dance Revolution. So instead here’s a rather more bare picture from a January snow tube trip we took with the boys’ Minneapolis Kids gang. It was more mud tubing than snow tubing, but no one complained.

Three selections for today:

• Minus the people 2 from Graciform
• Latte (Cherry Bomb) from MAKING HAPPY
• 1er arrondissement – Concert de sacqueboute sous le pont Royal from pariscool

sledders redux

We’re anticipating a winter storm this weekend–5-9 inches or so, according to the National Weather Service, but the local news outlets are pounding the drums for 12-18 inches of snow, the biggest in many, many years. In any case, we’re looking forward to testing the new sled from Auntie Kathleen and taking Granddad (visiting from western Maine–I think we can blame him for drawing the blizzard down on us) to our favorite hills.

sledders

Ceoltóirí tri

Three cullings for today:

• Bridges in B&W from WetGecko
• Skin from Blot Of Light
• untitled04 from BlackthornCreative’s Photoblog

taibhse

“Taibhse” (pronounced, at least in my odd St. Paul Irish idiolect, “TEV-sheh”) is Irish for “ghost”. That wisp of white in the foreground is the young lady from the rince (”dance”–I’d pronounce it RINN-keh) picture in action; the low light and 100 speed Acros film turned her into a phantom. And the musical notes lurking in the background are from the traditional jig “The Mist in the Meadow”.

In verifying the spelling for “taibhse”, I ran across a nice little Irish idiom, “taibhse gan tairbhe”, which the Irish Dictionary On-Line renders as “white elephant”. But “gan tairbhe” is “without avail”, so a “taibhse gan tairbhe” is a “ghost to no avail”, a pointless phantom, rattling his chains in the corner while no one pays him any mind. Which reminds me of a story I wrote, published in the fall 2005 Duck & Herring Co. Pocket Field Guide, now sold out; so perhaps if I find a suitable “taibhse gan tairbhe” picture to pair it with, I’ll post the tale here for the few of you who don’t own their own copy of this wonderful little magazine. (And you should follow that link above and buy a copy or two of the field guides that are currently available–you won’t be disappointed, it’s a quirky little gem unlike any other, and it has a handy hole in the corner just right for hanging on the nail in your outhouse.)

So ends today’s lesson.

Five cullings for today:

• me and my dad from catherine buca photography
• Stranded from serial photographer
• under an umbrella at the park from twenty-five.net
• Ei Talvikunnossapitoa from luotokuva
• Bittersweet Nightshade from MAKING HAPPY

Ceoltóirí do

Six cullings for today:

• Blue stone from milou
• untitled from Mad Media Studios
• Ya llegó from fijaciones.org
• couple in the night from BOXMAN fotologue
• 5 Express Train ~ 6:25pm from Express Train
• Adventure from bighappyfunhouse

Ceoltóirí

Four cullings for today:

• a little keeper from PHOTOMO
• Sands End from Jon Swainson
• rome: city of textures from rion.nu
• Posted from A Walk Through Durham Township

negotiations

Still at Martin McHugh’s ceili: in the center is John Dingley, currently of the Dubliner’s Sunday night pub quiz (things have moved from the Lake Street Garage); to his right is Lee, Mr. Dingley’s partner in crime, who may soon be opening a pub somewhere in the Twin Cities (all very hush-hush); and to his left is my wife, Kelly, who used to work for Mr. Dingley at the Irish Well, trying to get her old job back at the new pub (she was the sort of bartender to whom you would not want to tell all your troubles, but she could pour the perfect pint of Guinness).

Two cullings for today:

• herbsttag from Aktuelle Kamera
• Opening from Deceptive Media

rince

There was, of course, plenty of dancing at Martin McHugh’s ceili.

Two cullings for today:

• Mod transfer – Chinatown, NYC from the streets are alive
• Flooding, with dog from MUTE

craic mór

Tara Hill and company at Martin McHugh’s ceili, January 13, at the Eagle’s Club in Minneapolis

Tara Hill

Tara Hill (sans Martin McHugh) warming up before the Failte Minnesota Green Tie Event.

Martin’s ceili was last night at the Eagle’s Club in Minneapolis; the house was packed beyond packed, and it was a great opportunity to see people from the various Irish circles (music, language, theater) around the Twin Cities. I half expected the ghost of Sean T. Kelly to wander in and circulate among the throng, seeking and disseminating news the way he did for so many years on the pub circuit. Ceol, caint, agus craic, as they might say out west.

Five cullings for today:

• self from catherine buca photography
• Järviruoko from luotokuva
• peace pinned from your waitress
• 7ème arrondissement – La sieste du bouquiniste from ParisCool
• Fungi from Making Happy (as much for the story as for the picture…)

His Honor

St. Paul’s Mayor Chris Coleman (no, not that Mayor Coleman) at the Failte Minnesota Green Tie Dinner.

Though I live across the river and have my own mayor, who has some trouble matching his socks but is otherwise … well, a mayor … I like St. Paul’s leader. Who wouldn’t admire a mayor who turned on the snow making machines during our freakish warm spell around Christmastime, just to ensure that the wee’uns could go sledding? (Though it was actually a tad warm for sledding that night–a small lake of slushy water formed at the bottom of the hill, and on my last run down I hit it, backwards, and have never been quite so miserably soaked.)

Three cullings for today:

• Space from Jon Swainson
• january 10, 2007 from a visual notebook
• The Birthday Girl from A Walk Through Durham Township

Martin

Martin McHugh and the Tara Hill ceilidh band perform at the Failte Minnesota Green Tie Dinner.

When John Dingley still ran the (in)famous Irish Well, I went every Sunday night to marvel at Martin’s playing. He would sit down early in the evening with a cup of coffee and his squeeze box and start off a set of jigs and reels and slides. Over the course of the night other players would wander in for the seisiun (including, of course, Tom Dahill), and they’d join in, play along, wander off, but through it all, at the solid center, there was Martin, until he shut the place down at closing time. We’ve got a solid Irish music scene in the Twin Cities, and that’s largely because of Martin, who has been a mentor and an inspiration for decades.

If you’re in Minneapolis this Saturday, be sure to stop at the Eagle’s Club, 2507 25th Street East, for the ceili dance & celebration honoring the contributions of musician Martin McHugh. There’s no telling who might show up — Martin’s music has stretched half way around the world, and there’s no shortage of people who have been touched by his gifts.

Three cullings for today:

• winter color from Life is too short
• White coffee from Mystery Me
• Wanting to be a real princess from HELLO

cláirseach

Students from the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul perform at the recent Failte Minnesota Green Tie Dinner, a fund raiser to establish an Irish cultural center in the Twin Cities. (It’s a little surprising that St. Paul, with as long an Irish-American history as any Midwestern city, has no such place; Savannah, GA, and Portland, ME, do.)

Three cullings for today:

• Inline from MikesRightBrain
• Do you miss summer? from The streets are alive
• 163 from echo

Jolly Old Elf

Three cullings for today:

• Shooting cards from chemical
• Matter of Time from imitationeye
• We Are Dancing a Black Waltz from OpticDistraction

St. Nick

Our St. Nick tour also includes a visit to Mother Earth Gardens, where we can take care of a visit with the Jolly Old Elf and buy a Christmas tree in one outing (plus catch a movie across the street at the Riverview Theater and get a hot chocolate at the Riverview Cafe; it’s a perfect little intersection of urban goodness). The boys haven’t caught on that the Choo Choo Bob’s Santa had a real beard and that Mother Earth’s had a fake beard and an Irish accent; next year we may have to be more careful to maintain the verisimilitude.

Two cullings for today:

• untitled from Mareen Fischinger
• misty morning, fewston from Absolutely Nothing

All I want for Christmas

At the risk of getting even more traffic from people looking for farther christmas (sic) and choo choo bobs, here are some Father Christmas pictures from Choo Choo Bob’s Train Store.

Three cullings for today:

• Untitled from E Y E S P E A K
• Firestarters from moodaholic
• Untitled from t a r a v i l l e

The secret source

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of Humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.

Mark Twain, Following the Equator

More free advertising for Common Good Books.

I’m not sure I subscribe to Mr. Twain’s theology — I should hope that there is indeed humor in heaven, with good-natured pranks played by all.

Sudbury Canada

Bethel, Maine, was founded in 1768 as “Sudbury Canada“, by settlers from Sudbury, Massachussetts, in commemoration of an invasion of Canada in 1690, during one of the French and Indian Wars. Every year there’s a “Sudbury Canada Days” encampment in Bethel, with the usual crowd of folks who like to dress up in funny clothes and sleep in tents. We caught them just as they were preparing to strike camp for the year and go back to the early 21st century.

morris dance

We spotted these morris dancers at Prospect Park this summer, when the Witch’s Hat water tower is open to the public once a year. I’m not sure what morris dancers have to do with water towers, but they were a diverting distraction while we waited in the line to get to the top of the tower on the highest natural spot in Minneapolis.

surf

At Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The boys weren’t thrilled about the over-all wetness of the ocean; they much preferred playing in the sand.

silhouette

Taken under the pier at Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Long Ride Home

Another from our Chicago trip — Mom and Peter resting on the ride back to the hotel after a day at the aquarium and museums.

Crucial Skills

Our neighbor Karl attempts to pass on an important skill to Peter during a recent breakfast at the Copper Dome Restaurant.

Farmer’s Market – Pepper Plants

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Farmer’s Market – Arms Full

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Farmer’s Market – Dad and Peter and Jack

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hanging the feeder

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On the Beach – Fresh Cut Fries

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On the Beach – Fried Dough

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pool

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The Map

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Banned Books Week

As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.

John Milton, Areopagitica

The ALA’s annual Banned Books Week commences today. 2005’s list of books challenged in public libraries and schools contains many of the old stand-bys for raising hackles–”The Catcher in the Rye”, “The Chocolate War”, “Forever”–for the usual old stand-by reasons–sex, language, “anti-family content” (whatever that is, it’s what got the “Captain Underpants” series in trouble…). And books aren’t just challenged with polite written requests to have a book removed; folks continue to set fire to books, as if destroying the physical manifestation of an idea could destroy the idea itself.

Much as I love books, though, I’m confident that the ideas they carry are stronger than their pages. Books are powerful things, and readers are tough, toughened by facing challenging ideas head-on rather than tossing the uncomfortable and the intemperate into bonfires.

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.

John Milton, Areopagitica

Chalk Dragon

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Yellow Goose

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:)

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The Train Home

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M.N.G.R.R.

Of all the many antique trains we’ve ridden, the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland is probably #2 on the list. It runs along Casco Bay from the old dockside warehouse district to the remains of a railroad bridge that burned in the 1970s. The engines and cars are collected from narrow gauge railroads around the country, with the core from Massachussetts and Maine, and are in great condition. The tracks are just two feet wide, and the cars are cutely miniaturized; Maine had an extensive network of narrow gauge trains to support the timber industry–it was much easier to get these little trains into the woods for hauling out lumber than would full-sized trains.

Our train rides to date, in order, are:

1. The Conway Scenic Railroad in North Conway, NH: wonderful scenery and big open cars, not to mention a beautiful station and a nifty model train display.
2. Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland, ME
3. The Excelsior Streetcar Line in Excelsior, MN: a reminder of the days when Excelsior was a summer resort, with a museum dedicated to the old amusement park and a streetcar ferry ride across Lake Minnetonka
4. The Como-Harriet Streetcar Line in Minneapolis, MN: a trolley (we call them “Toby Trains”, after the tram in Thomas the Tank Engine) ride from Lake Harriet to Lake Calhoun; the cars have great reproductions of period advertisements
5. The Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN: the “Day Out with Thomas” ride was a somewhat disappointing, and rather brief, haul along an industrial waterfront. But I suspect this would shoot to the top of the list if we’d taken the North Shore Scenic Railroad up to Two Harbors; that’s on my list for an Autumn excursion.
6. The Minnesota Zephyr “Polar Express” ride, Stillwater, MN: I’m sure that it was because of the “Polar Express” tie-in, which is probably the Zephyr’s money-maker with the tots, but it was a short and uncomfortable ride made worse by the fact that the promised vegetarian lunch was a “misunderstanding”. It’s probably a very nice ride when it’s the full dinner cruise, though I’m in no great rush to spend $71 a seat to find out.

Sadly, none of the trains we’ve taken has been a “steamie”, though all of them feature steam engines in their advertising (sneaky…). I hear there’s a steam engine in Osceola, WI, near one of our favorite camping spots, so that’s another one that might make it to the top of the list. Oh, and next year we’re thinking of the Mount Washington Cog Railway on our visit to Granddad: about as spendy as the Zephyr, but a guaranteed good time.

Yup, I’m about as much of a train geek as my little boys; the apples landed awfully close to the tree…

five years old…

It’s hard to believe that the two little things we brought home one day in August 2001 have grown into big five-year-old boys who go off to school in less than two weeks. They’re certainly not babies anymore.

Here they indulge in one of their favorite obsessions–trains!–at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland.

We’ll be indulging in more obsessions during the three-week-long non-stop fete that is their birthday: a trip to the state fair, a cookout with their Minnesota grandmother (after a week of cookouts with their Maine grandfather), and a Choo Choo Bob’s party. Oh, to be a spoiled five-year-old again…

on the beach

Here’s Jack at Old Orchard Beach, a Maine getaway for about a hundred years. It’s got a pier, an amusement park, french fries with vinegar (the Canadian contingency here outnumbers the U.S., and you’re as likely to hear French as English on the beach), and of course the waves. Jack wasn’t really thrilled by the waves–they were a bit, well, wet–but the sand was a hit.

twins’ loop

Each trail back behind Granddad’s house is carefully named and marked with a sign–here Jack and Peter observe the intersection of the Twins’ Loop with Mi-Ke Drive (no, I’m not amused by the name of “my” path…) with Great-Granddad.

I’m on auto-pilot from August 12 to August 21, displaying some of last year’s vacation pictures, while we head back to Maine to hang out with Granddad in the woods. If I don’t get back to you, it’s probably because a moose has made off with Granddad’s Mac.

catch and release

Jack and Peter watch Great-Granddad releasing a squirrel–what is it about men of a certain age and squirrel traps?

I’m on auto-pilot from August 12 to August 21, displaying some of last year’s vacation pictures, while we head back to Maine to hang out with Granddad in the woods. If I don’t get back to you, it’s probably because the squirrels are holding my family hostage.

squirrel

Peter and Great-Grammie’s squirrel.

I’m on auto-pilot from August 12 to August 21, displaying some of last year’s vacation pictures, while we head back to Maine to hang out with Granddad in the woods. If I don’t get back to you, it’s probably because the plastic squirrels have come to life and are waiting on the porch for breakfast.

Jack and Peter

Jack and Peter at Granddad’s house.

I’m on auto-pilot from August 12 to August 21, displaying some of last year’s vacation pictures, while we head back to Maine to hang out with Granddad in the woods. If I don’t get back to you, it’s probably because we’ve taken to the woods.

ship’s wheel

Jack spins the pirate ship’s wheel at the Children’s Museum in Portland, Maine.

I’m on auto-pilot from August 12 to August 21, displaying some of last year’s vacation pictures, while we head back to Maine to hang out with Granddad in the woods. If I don’t get back to you, it’s probably because we’re on some maritime excursion.