Day in the Life of an Idiot

 On Monday, we're leaving to head off to Connecticut to help Mason pack up his dorm room. I suspect most people's parents do both move-in and move-out, (which we did the first year) but since he stores all of his stuff in Middletown over the summer, we decided it was easiest just to fly him back in time to do his own moving in. 

One of the reasons we do it this way is because Shawn doesn't like to fly and Mason always swaps out books and such over the summer. So it seemed easiest to haul things home in the car. (We figure if he needs new things it's easier for us to ship them out or he can buy them in Middletown himself.)

The other reason we do this is because we then turn this May trip into a gigantic road trip/family vacation. In past years, we've spent time exploring the Pennsylvania Wilds hoping to spot an elk in the wild, checking out a very famous ground hog in Punxsutawney, and seeing the world's largest comic book collection in Indiana. This year, we're focusing the "slow" part of our trip in my home state of Wisconsin. I don't want to spoil for you the sights we're going to see, because I will hopefully be posting updates from the road, as I've done every year. If you want to see some of the things we've done, I think I've been really pretty good at using the "might be worth a detour" tag here on DW. Though "road trips" should get you all the road trips we've ever done, including our big one out to Yellowstone while Mason was still in high school. 

We're big fans of regional tourism. 

In fact, just today I booked Shawn and I a spot in September for the tea ceremony out at Como Park. I surprised Shawn with this booking, but told her that it was part of her continuing tea-themed birthday celebration. (Her birthday was in April.) It should be really fun, even though it is not private, per se, though the seating is limited. Instead, it's booked as a class, because the tea master will explain the whole event as we go through the steps. We're both really looking forward to it.

Also, last night, on a whim, we decided to have our dinner out of a food truck.


Image: Deep Roots food truck parked outside of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Shawn and I both got Polish sausages, some chips, and a root beer. We ended up in a Summit Hill neighborhood, watching a turkey eat cracked corn out of someone's bird feeder and drink water out of the bird bath. The weather (as you can see from the blue sky in the photo) has been stunning. So, it was spontaneous fun. 

 
Image: Armenian food: chicken kabob wrap and frozen mint lemonade.

I'm having a late start to my writing today anyway since I had an early morning doctor's appointment (just a regular check-in). So, I thought I might as well take a few minutes and write to y'all about the Armenian festival at St. Sahag Church that Shawn and I went to on Saturday afternoon. 

By chance, Shawn and I were reminiscing about this on the way to the clinic. (Miraculously, Shawn and I had appointments at approximately the same time.) It was a lot LIKE the open house at the Watershed District in that it had a very small town, friendly vibe, with one critical difference--a difference that made us enjoy the cultural festival a little bit less. 

To set the stage first, however. St. Sahag is a very unimposing orthodox church a half of block in from Marshall Avenue on Hewitt.  This means nothing to my non-Twin Cities readers, but so you can picture this church having one end of its block abutting a decently busy throughway that connects St. Paul to Minneapolis (Marshall becomes Lake Street on the other side of the river.) The cross street just gives Twin Cities people a sense of the nearby neighborhood, which is working class--with the general mix of houses found throughout St. Paul, hidden grand Victorians and post-WWII ranches and every style in-between all sharing the same block. 

When Shawn and I first pulled up, we weren't sure if things were underway, even though we arrived a full half hour after festivities were scheduled to begin. The outside, as I said, was somewhat unassuming. So, no big signs pointing us to food, though we could see a few tents set up in the back of a permanent playground where a group of men seemed to be grilling. We decided to tour the exterior, if nothing else. On the opposite side of the church from the grillers was a big open door to a church basement, from which wafted the most mouth-watering flavors!  

In we went!

Once inside, we were greeted by two people, a man and a woman, who asked us what kind of tickets we wanted. This was another ticket = food situation, only here you paid in advance of what you thought you might spend. They had menus (with prices) posted everywhere, but it was still kind of an overwhelming decision. Since I had it in cash, I decided to just go for $20 to see what that might get us. I was handed a punch card with twenty dots on it. 

We were able to get a decent amount of food for twenty dollars. We bought the chicken kabob wrap and lemonade pictured above, as well as a couple of baked goods options from the upstairs, where the grandmas all had their cookies and cakes and such like on display. 

But here's where I think the major difference was. 

I think if Shawn and I were food tourists, we would have preferred the Armenian festival over the Watershed open house. If we'd had an unlimited budget, I'm sure we could have spent several hours (and an easy hundred bucks, if not more,) trying All The Things and having an amazing time doing it. The Armenians seemed aware of this. All of the entertainment was scheduled in the dining hall/church basement, on a little stage. So, ideally, one could find a spot at one of the tables to sit, watch the dancing or listen to the music and the other programming, while getting up every so often to refresh the lemonade or to try out some of the other foods on offer. 

As it was, we had a limited budget. So, when we filled up our punch card, we went home.  We went home happy? But it wasn't like the Watershed place where we could continue to explore all the FREE activities for as long as we wanted without feeling like we were occupying a table that should go to a paying customer, as it were. The Armenians had a bazaar, but, for us, that could only be window shopping at best, which is fine and FUN? But, again, we kind of hurried through that so that people who were going to spend money had the opportunity to do so.

And the festival was a fundraiser. Like, I do NOT begrudge them that.

Shawn and I were just trying to parse what it was about the comparably dorkier Watershed Open House that we liked so much more. I mean, obviously, we're dorks and government agency wonks, but, beyond that, this is what we could determine. One thing I learned from a year or so as a movie reviewer for the local queer newspaper is that things are automatically more enjoyable when they are FREE. I had to watch my tendency to say "it was fun!" about movies like Matthew Broderick's Godzilla (universally panned by everyone in the movie reviewing industry, EXCEPT my reivew in focusPOINT.* Oops. That's my contribution to cinematic criticism, everyone! Whee. )

At any rate, we still had a great time and I was happy to know that my guess as to what Armenian food might be like was pretty much on the money.



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*doesn't link to my actual review, though depending on how many papers have been digitized, perhaps one could find it. (Ah, in my ancient CV, I discovered this citation: Lyda Morehouse.  “The Lizard King: ‘Godzilla,’”  focusPOINT 5 49: 206 (May 20 – May 1998): 13.)  It was even published on PAGE THIRTEEN. Yeah.... bad luck for me. I don't know how many more reviews I did for them after that, but it wasn't a whole lot.

 I love my friends, I really do. But, apparently, when I explain this project to people I am not terribly clear that what I am looking for in a State Park for Mason and I is not the roads that take a person TO a State Park, but the roads INSIDE the State Park. So, today when I was chatting with my Friday Zoom friends and one of them mentioned Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, my brain went "Ooooo.". Thanks to some of the other recommendations I've gotten and the fact that I've never been there before, I thought: GREAT! That's where we'll go today.  


Image: hidden fall in the park.

Don't get me wrong. It's an incredible park.

It's just that when Mason and I switched seats at the entrance? We drove about a half a block straight into the parking lot. There are no other roads. Technically we could have driven around the campgrounds, but it's also a very small loop. 

Mason, being an amazingly good sport, rolled with this and went on hike with me.

The park is a tough one because it's being heavily impacted by climate change, but we still had a lovely walk and even encountered a bird-shaped friend!  Calling all birders!  Squint at the picture below and you'll see a bird in this road. A plover of some kind perhaps? Google (and the list that the DNR has of possible options at this State Park) makes me think American Woodcock or Wilson's Snipe is actual the better guess. But, my bird fu is very, very low. So, if you know with more certanity, please let me know!


Image: trail bird

Despite driving an hour to drive for one second, we had a great time. Mason and I even made a stop on the way back to St. Paul at a Dairy Queen and had a little ice cream treat. A good day, just not one for Mason getting much driving in.

 
Image: Brat and German potato salad

German-Americans sure know how to party. I say this having grown up in LaCrosse, Wisconsin which hosts a gigantic Oktoberfest every year. Turns out, this is true on a smaller scale, too. 

On Sunday, when the weather was nearly ideal here in St. Paul (72 F / 22C), Shawn and I decided to check out the Deutsch Tage / German Days festival being put on by the Germanic American Institute, a building on Summit Avenue that we drive by nearly every day on the way to Shawn's work at the History Center. 

It was amazing.

Now, keep in mind that I am easily amused, so... if you decide to book ahead for next year, this might not impress you as much as it did Shawn and I. Both of us, at heart, are small town girls. So a big band tent and a bunch of metal folding chairs and tables on a large lawn screams PARTY TIME to the two of us. 


Image: I mean... wild times, am I right?

I was most interested in the food; Shawn was most interested in getting a peek inside the Germanic American Institute's building. We started off with Shawn's goal. After walking around the exterior of the festival--food trucks parked on Summit, a couple of informational/arts booths (ranging from local jewelry artists, German hats, and random things like All Energy Solar,) the beer garden in the back parking lot with more food stalls and a whole lot of German beers on offer, and some German language booths/booksellers--we ventured indoors. They were giving an official tour on Sunday at 1 pm, but the building was open for exploration to the public. It's a nifty old building--



Image: yoinked from the internet, but this is what it looks like on the exterior.

The ground floor had two big halls, one of which they had filled with desserts made by the ladies of the Institute. Since we had not yet had lunch, we didn't stop to sample them. However, Shawn picked up some literature and discovered that they are doing dessert and coffee EVERY SATURDAY for the public. We have this set of errands we religiously do every Saturday (which, for reasons of being silly we always try to make alliterative.) At their basic they are cardboard (a stop at the Waste Management site in order to drop off the larger cardboard that we tend to accumulate that doesn't fit in our bin), coffee (self-evident), and car (a stop at Mr. Car Wash to buff up the Camry.) We are now thinking about how to include dessert. Perhaps we will do the thing where we change all the "c"s to "k's and call it Klatsch, Kardbord, Koffee, and Kar. I dunno, maybe too many "K"s for comfort.... or should I say "komfort."


Image: small sample of the deserts on offer

We then wandered the second floor which housed their library and game room, as well as a few other meeting rooms. The third floor is where they had a model train exhibit set up and a craft/makers' space for kids. I took a video of the model train set-up because, of course, they had it themed as an idyllic German town. I was particularly amused by the tiny cow miniatures. There was also a basement ratskeller (basically a basement tavern). 

It was fun to just wander around and peek in places. Shawn had heard that the building had once been a nunnery? I have not done any research to confirm, but you could see it. There were a lot of small rooms to fit a little community of people. 

Back outside, I finally got my brat.  There were a couple of options for brats. The line by the "brathaus" which was run by the Germanic American Institute themselves had a super long line, so I opted for the food truck, which specialized in Austrian bratwurst (pictured above.) I got the potato salad as well, though I later also stood in line to get a potato pancake (basically latkes?)  I had to stand in the beer/schnapps queue in order to get sodas for Shawn and I and I happened to be directly behind a youngish man who was test tasting the schnapps. At one point his eyes bugged out and I said, "Yeah, that stuff will kill ya." And he turned to me and said, "OMG. YES." 

So, I mean I suspect that a lot of the fun that was had was alcohol fueled (much as it is in LaCrosse.) However, we sat on the grass, ate our food, and watched people who had come dressed up to polka, waltz, and do a fun little conga line.

Several hours well spent, IMHO.

How about you? Do anything fun this weekend?

 
Image: A red backpack with Minnesota State Park badges and pins on it.

Normally, on Fridays I have a Zoom with some of my writer friends. But, with Mason home for the summer, we're really trying to get as much practice driving in as humanly possible... while also making it fun.  As I've said before, my clever plan is to combine the driving with one of our favorite things: State Parks. Today, we're planning on making a longer return trip to yesterday's driving foray, Afton State Park. Afton is one of the closest State Parks to my house (Fort Snelling State Park being the closest, being only just by the airport.) The driving isn't terribly exciting at Afton, although with winding hills, Mason got in a lot of practice regulating his speed through turns and inclinations. We also *ahem* got in some very tiny practice getting one's wheel up out of the ditch when we semi-failed a y-turn on a narrow backroad. All important stuff, mind you!

Today, we're hoping to make more of a day out of it, stopping to do a little hiking and check out the park more thoroughly. 

I also wrote down a list of some of the other nearby (nearby meaning within 2 hours of us) parks:

• Banning State Park, a place we've hiked at least one, but long ago,
• Charles A Lindberg State Park, a place I have never been,
• Crow Wing Sate Park, another new one, and just at the very edge of 2 hours to get there,
• Father Hennepin State Park, a big giant question mark of a park,
• Frontenac State Park, which Shawn and I checked out during fall colors... last year? Year Before? But which might make for good driving practice now,
• Interstate State Park, which, I have, and there isn't--at least on the Minnesota side--much actual driving to be done there
• Lake Maria State Park, which I have never been to,
• Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, another one that is just under 2 hours, but which I've never explored,
• Nerstand Big Woods State Park, another complete unknown,
• Saint Croix State Park, which we've walked, but never driven,
• Wild River State Park, which we recently drove, but could return to to hike, and
• William O'Brien State Park, which I also have never fully explored.

So, this could easily keep us busy if we try to hit a new State Park every Friday. I think it would be especially fun to see just how many of these would CAN see, but, looking at the maps some of them would really not net us a whole lot of actual driving experience. We'll see what Mason thinks. My other thought is that, as he advances in his ability, we could always head to one of these more remote ones and try driving on county highways.  We'll see. He might also get bored of this exercise way faster than I will. Plus, in the next week or so, he's going to have a friend  (Mason's very best friend, actually,) in town, with whom he will then go visit in their hometown. So, maybe I will end up exploring some of these places entirely on my own.

Any of you local folks who spend a lot of time in State Parks who have advice or recommendations about good places either for me or for me and Mason, please drop in a comment!

In addition to continuing to try to fill-in my passport book, I've also started collecting either buttons or patches from the State Parks we visit to add to my hiking backpack. This is the one pictured above. It was Mason's old kindergarten backpack, so it is actually very child-sized small, but it fits a couple of emergency medical kits, sun screen, bug spray, a flashlight, umbrella, State Park guidebook, Kleenex (and a plastic baggies), a bear whistle, and other such sundries. (You might be laughing at the bear whistle, but I wore it religiously up at Bearskin Lodge, so it stays in the pack.)

This weekend Shawn and I are hoping to go to Deutsche Tage at the Germanic American Institute this weekend, here in Saint Paul, because: why NOT? It also looks as though rummage and estate sale season is in full-swing, so perhaps we will also check out some of those. We also have to do some boring mundane things like buy new shoes, but, honestly, I kind of enjoy that kind of shopping with Shawn. 

Anything fun planned for your weekend??

Mason and I have been playing tourist in our hometown. With what remains of the summer, I'm hoping to take him to a lot of the free/cheap things to do. But, yesterday we decided to try out the food trucks that congregate around Mears Park in downtown St. Paul. There were a number of choices: Asian Invasion, Gogi Bros., Twisted Fork, and Tiki Tim's.

We checked out all our options, considered prices (we only had a little over $6 each to spend), and finally settled on Asian Invasion. Mason had the pork dumplings and I had the Vietnamese pulled pork sandwich:







Mason's big plan for this outing was to sit on a park bench, eat fun food, and read. So I brought along the book I've been re-reading (Sujata Massey's FLOATING GIRL) and we ate, read, and were harassed by aggressive birds.



Mears Park is beautiful. It's tiny--really no more than your average city block--but it has a man-made stream and waterfalls.