Blogs from Minnesota, United States, North America - page 49

Welcome to "planning and preparation" update number two.... Classes are officially over at MSU. Thesis turned in, and Steph's graduation garb is pressed and ready to go. Three workdays left on the calendar. For most, this would be a time to cut loose and celebrate! For us, it is time to get down to business. We have until May 13th to finish purchasing, rationing, and packaging our expedition food, gathering the necessary gear for our trip, to say goodbye to our friends, and pack up and move out of our apartment. We're surprised that no one has started a pool on how many hours of sleep we'll be getting this week! Since our last update, we have had many exciting developments: We recently made a trip to the St. Peter Co-Op to make some enormous bulk ... read more

Greetings, and welcome to the madness that is expedition planning! This trip has been two long years in the making, but with a mere 47 days until we launch our kayaks in Skagway, Alaska, we are coming down to the proverbial wire with working out all of the ever-so-complicated logistics of making this trip happen. Our apartment has been a bit of a mess these days (for those of you who have visited recently, you can insert your own description). Since January we have had three food dehydrators running nonstop, heating our house and drying everything from indian curry to spaghetti sauce to blueberries to beef jerkey. We will be bringing over 600 lbs. of rations, divided into 3-week caches, so we truly are faced with the challenge of drying, vaccum-bagging, measuring, repackaging, and dividing mostly ... read more

Well here I am sitting in my room after four months at home, finishing up last minute stuff before I get on a plane for Tokyo in 12 hours or so. I'm not really that nervous--I'm just thinking a lot about getting back into the swing of things with school and getting along with everyone in Japan. It's weird, but I've wanted to go to Japan since I was about 6 or so. In elementary school I would always sneak around the foreign countries section (acually, just about a dozen picture books) and look at the Japan book. That and the book that taught you how to build paper airplanes. Anyway, it's been a fun last few months. I look forward to sharing some really odd things with everyone when I get back.... read more

Well, well, well... So I had my one and only journey to Minnesota today. It was really an in and out job. (Not that kind of in and out) The teacher in Arlington was a Mozart fanatic and LOVED our show. The kids in Gaylord, however, were way more enthusiastic. We drove for 6 1/2 hours through the pouring down rain to get to Racine Wisconsin, our next stop. Then off to Milwaukee tomorrow, and a weekend in Chicago! Post Script: I think i'm going to go back to Cali with a Midwestern accent. A cajun californian who sounds like she's from wisconsin....too much! same ol'.......luffing all of you... read more

So, my friend Audra and I decided to quickly escape to the city of Duluth in Minnesota. No, it doesn't sound very interesting but then again, we are fans of the quirky. Recently on our travels we found the Stump Fence Capitol of the World. Who would know that over turned tree stumps could cause such a commotion. Anyway, it was the last day before we headed back to school and I had been wanting to show her this city for while. (I had been there before for work.) One of the first places we stopped was an Irish pub but since it was about 10:30AM there on a Sunday we felt a wee bit shameful and couldn't bring ourselves to belly up to the bar. So we continued a walk down one of the main ... read more