Sudanese Lost Boy Finds Home in Minnesota

Lately, I've been on a young adult literature kick.

Years ago, when I taught 8th grade, I used to read a lot of YA books, but since leaving the classroom behind, I'd kind of forgotten about the genre. But not anymore. I'm back into young adult and children's literature with a vengeance.

A friend, a former teacher herself, recommended I read Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate.

I'm so happy I did. It's a gentle, touching novel about a young Sudanese boy who immigrates to America.

He arrives alone. His father and brother were killed in his country's brutal civil war and his mother is missing, unaccounted for. He is placed in Minnesota to live with an aunt and a cousin already here.

The story is told all in poems. The language is precise and poignant and sparse. It's just lovely. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I can't recommend this book enough. If you've got a young person in your life -- say middle school -- and you want to expose them to thoughtful prose and other cultures, this book is a winner.

Early October Snow

My backyard on October 12, 2010, taken at 1 pm. I'm not ready for this.

Visiting Alpacas in Minnesota

It was an easy drive into the countryside to hang out with an alpaca herd for the day.

We set off toward the small town of Hutchinson and an alpaca ranch just beyond its reach called The Abbey Alpacas.

I've been around alpacas before. I'd encountered them while traveling in both Bolivia and Peru. And I'd seen plenty of llamas and alpacas at the Minnesota State Fair.

But I'd never been to an alpaca farm so I was curious to see the set up.

The owner, Ruth Kinkade, opened the doors to her alpaca barn and freely welcomed visitors. She talked to anyone who cared to listen about the animals, their temperaments (they spit if you touch their face), their wool, mating techniques for achieving better wool, and how much it costs to buy an alpaca (thousands -- 3, 7 or even 18!).

We got to pet a couple and sink our fingers into their fuzzy hair. They'd been shaved last spring so their current wool wasn't too long. Still, it was soft and squishy to the touch.

Apparently there's a lot of money to be made in the alpaca industry. The wool can pull in a pretty penny.

Plus there's lots to be made from selling the animals to others looking to start or expand their herds. Alpacas can no longer be imported into the United States. If you want to start a herd, you have to get them from within the country.

Beauty Queens and Butter

One of my favorite parts of the Minnesota State Fair is stopping into the dairy building to see the butter heads.

Every year, about a dozen young ladies compete for the title of Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

The Minnesota Dairy Association crowns a winner at the start of the fair and for the next year, she acts a representative of the state's dairy industry.

All of the candidates get their likeness carved out of a block of butter. The butter heads are life size and each girl gets to take hers home and keep it!

Hotdish on a Stick @ MN State Fair

If you're from the Upper Midwest, you know what a hotdish is.

If you're not, then let me fill you in -- a hotdish is a casserole. Minnesotans love their hotdish. There's no better type of comfort food when the temperature hits negative numbers.

However, the hotdish on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair may be taking the hotdish love a bit too far.

This year, hubby and I decided to give it a go, and for all years yet to come, I think we will both pass on the hotdish on a stick.

Here's how it was made: meatball, tatter tot, meatball, tatter tot, meatball, tatter tot, meatball were stacked on a stick. Then the whole thing was dipped in a cornmeal batter. Then it was deep fried. And then it was served with a small side of cream of mushroom soup for dipping.

Anything On A Stick @ MN State Fair

It's time for the Minnesota State Fair!

If you live in the Twin Cities, you just can't escape the state fair. It's held in St. Paul and for two weeks it messes with traffic all throughout town.

Plus, every TV and radio station in town ditches its regular digs to broadcast live from the fair.

Rumor has it the Minnesota State Fair is the second-largest in the country -- after Texas.

The best thing about the Minnesota State Fair (do I have to pick one?) is that nearly all the food is served on a stick.

There is the pork chop on a stick, which is always a fine choice.

And this year there was something new -- bacon on a stick. The bacon slice was super thick so that it could fit on a stick. It looked like a heart attack and so we passed, but plenty of others were trying it out.

The best part about the bacon on a stick booth was a sign that was tacked up on the side. It read:

"Bacon is sex in a skillet. It's the ultimate aphrodisiac for all living things -- except pigs, of course."

Canoeing the Cannon River

The "stay-cation" is all the rage this year. With the struggling economy in mind, all the local press is pumping the idea of summer vacations that keep you close to home.

We did a mini stay-cation the other day, taking the day off and driving to Cannon Falls to go canoeing on the Cannon River.

We rented boats from the Cannon Falls Canoe and Bike Rental on the banks of the Cannon River just beyond the quaint downtown of Cannon Falls.

The canoes carried us 8 miles downstream and then we got picked up in a van and taken back to the starting point.

It was a beautiful day, not too hot, with a gentle breeze to keep us from sweating to death in the sun.

Since we've been so short on rain this summer, the water level was pretty low. We got stuck on the rocks a couple times and had to push to get free.

One of the best parts of the day was our bald eagle count -- we spotted three!

That brings my summer eagle count up to seven.

Bali Restaurant in Minneapolis

What a fantastic restaurant find!

The other night I had dinner with friends at a place called Bali in downtown Minneapolis. It serves Indonesian cuisine.

Everyone ordered something different and then we all sampled from all the plates. There was a chicken dish, a snapper dish that had great presentation and two different beef dishes, one called Daging Rendang, which the menu said is the country's most famous dish. Whether it is or isn't, it certainly tasted delicious.

We had appetizers, dessert and cocktails, too. It was a great summer evening in a funky new restaurant.

Taco in a Bag at Twine Ball Day

About a month ago, I wrote a post about the "limited food options" I faced while traveling in a small Mexican town.

Well, now it's time to poke fun at my own backyard.

While spending the day in Darwin, Minnesota for the small town's celebration of Twine Ball Day, once again my food options were limited.

True, hot dogs and hamburgers were firing on a grill under the Lions tent. But I'm not really a hot dog and hamburger fan.

So, after checking out all the food options in town (which didn't take long), I settled on what looked to be the most popular choice. Nearly every other person, it seemed, was walking around with a bag of Doritos and a fork. Hmmmm.

Turns out, they were eating "Taco in a Bag." Slit open a bag or Doritos, dump in a spoonful of ground beef (ugh), some shredded lettuce, some shredded cheese, chopped onions, some jalapenos and top it all off with some salsa. Yum.

It wasn't so bad. I was really hungry, though.

Twine Ball Museum, Darwin, Minnesota

The Twine Ball Museum in Darwin, Minnesota houses all sorts of memorabilia submitted by townsfolk. This was my favorite:

Twine Ball Day! Darwin, Minnesota

This was Jen's idea.

She owns a book called Oddball Minnesota and its full of interesting tidbits about where you can find goofy things like the state's biggest chicken and a two-story outhouse.

However, she didn't care about either one of these. She wanted to see the biggest ball of twine.

Yes, twine.

So she went. Last year she road tripped it to Darwin, Minnesota to see "The World's Biggest Ball of Twine Made by One Person."

When she got there, the place was a bit in disarray as the day before had been the small town's summer celebration: Twine Ball Day.

She had missed Twine Ball Day -- an entire day dedicated to the glorious ball of twine -- by just a few hours! She refused to miss the celebration this summer! And I was to be her lucky companion!

Twine Ball Day was a packed house! People had come from all over to see the parade, play in a volleyball tournament, tour the Twine Ball Museum, drink beer and watch a tractor pull.

It was a humid, sunny day and it felt good to be out of the city and participating in something that was designed for nothing other than a bit of fun and foolishness.

Sadly, though, while we could look at the biggest ball of twine -- which is 13 feet tall -- we couldn't touch it.

It's housed in a glass gazebo to keep curious hands, and volatile Minnesota weather, away from it. They don't want that twine ball to start rotting!

Minnesota or Cambodia?

After our visit to the Wat Munisota, I was so intrigued with the architecture of the temple that I dug up my pictures from Cambodia to compare the images.

What do you think...Minnesota or Cambodia?

A.


B.


C.


D.

Cambodian Temple in Minnesota

It was big news a couple summers back -- a Cambodian temple opened in Minnesota.

The newspaper was full of pictures from the temple-opening ceremony, and after looking the over, Hubby and I decided we needed to check the place out. The images looked so similar to things we had seen while traveling in Cambodia ourselves.

And then...well, time passed. Somehow we never found the time to drive out and visit it.

Well, we made the time. We took a mini road trip to visit the Wat Munisota, which is about an hour drive from our home and just south of the Twin Cities.

But once you make it all the way out there, you feel like you're in the country -- the country side and an actual other county.

Our map took us down a dirt road and passed several corn and soy bean fields to get there. The temple is seriously out in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by green.

As soon as we pulled into the temple entrance we were greeted by a bald-headed monk in saffron robes painting light posts.

We wondered at the name ... was "Wat Munisota" supposed to be "Wat Minnesota"?

The temple was open to the public and full of ornate gold-painted Buddhas, vases of flowers and strings of glimmering beads. The life of the Buddha was retold in colorful paintings all the way around the worship hall.

We weren't the only "tourists" there either. A few other city folk had made the drive as well--a couple moms trying to give their elementary kids a cultural experience.

Besides them, the one monk we saw out at the main entrance, and a couple of landscapers who were working on a retaining wall, the place was pretty quiet.

It was really neat to see, though, and we were glad we'd made the time to go and check it out.

Cowboy Up at the Hamel Rodeo

One of the things I like about living in the Twin Cities is that you can quickly get outside of the city and find yourself in the county.

This means it's pretty easy to take a one-day road trip and in that small amount of time, feel like you've really gotten away from your city stress.

For example, a friend and I hit up the Hamel Rodeo. It was a 20 minute drive to get to the rodeo grounds, and once we were there, we weren't in the city any more. We were surrounded by cowboy hats, cowboy boots and Budweiser.

The rodeo started at 7:30 pm and didn't finish until 10 o'clock.

Cowboys rode bucking broncos and topped the night off with the grand finale -- bucking bulls.

Cowgirls competed in barrel racing, a touring family of cowboys wowed us with fancy rope tricks and then more cowboys participated in calf-roping events.

The Hamel Rodeo claims it is the largest rodeo in the state of Minnesota, which I find amazing considering it's so close to Minneapolis.

By far, the best thing we took from the night was a line uttered by the announcer, who yelled while pumping the crowd at the start:

"Let's cowboy up and getter done!"

Walleye Fishing on Leech Lake

Last month, Hubby and I took a road trip up to Walker, Minnesota with the intention of going fishing.

The city of Walker sits on Leech Lake, a massive lake in northern Minnesota. The fishing here was supposed to be amazing. Our goal was to catch walleye.

Hubby likes to fish and as a Minnesota girl, I grew up fishing. I even know how to fillet a fish!

It's been years, though, since I've either fished or filleted a fish. And truthfully, I'm not so sure I could stomach cleaning a fish anymore.

So. Did we go fishing? Did we catch anything? Did I reconnect with my fishing roots enough to warrant the purchase of this pink "Mrs. Walleye" fishing pole?

You'll have to read my story on GoNomad to find out. Here it is:

Finding My Inner Fisherwoman

Or read my blog posts from our trip there:

Leech Lake Blog Posts

My Very First Lady Slipper

Even though I was born and raised in Minnesota, I'd never ever seen the state flower, a lady slipper, in person.

I'd only seen pictures or sketches of it in text books or on postcards.

Well, after my road trip to northern Minnesota, to the Walker-Leech Lake area, I can now say I've seen not one, not two, not three, but many many lady slippers growing in the wild.

Northern Minnesota Eagle Count

During our time in northern Minnesota around the Leech Lake area, we've spied four bald eagles:

Two sitting in tree tops.

One flying over the lake. We watched it swoop down and carry off a fish without even getting its feathers wet.

And this one, which was chillin' on the side of a road dining on some road kill.

Paul Bunyan in Akeley, Minnesota

Self portraits don't always line up exactly as they should. This one is no exception.

I didn't erase it, though, as I find it quite funny. And yes, the Paul Bunyan statue looming above us really is that big.

And that scary. Boy is he ugly!

Paul Bunyan, if you're not familiar with the character, is a legendary (and mythological) lumberjack.

We found this Paul Bunyan in Akeley, Minnesota, which is just down the road from Walker, where we've been staying during our north woods vacation.

According to the local signs, Akeley is where Paul Bunyan was born. There's even a Paul Bunyan museum here. Sadly, it was closed on our trek through town. Darn it!

This is just one of several Paul Bunyan statues in this neck of the woods.

It never would have occurred to me to write a story about Paul Bunyan, but now that I'm up here, surrounded by the man, I'm trying to figure out the perfect angle.

Walking Across the Mississippi River

The scenery in Minnesota's Itasca State Park is amazing.

Even though it's June, the air temp was chilly up here in northern Minnesota. That didn't keep the crowds (including us) from coming to visit this famous state park, though.

There are 150 lakes inside its borders, not to mention the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

That's right. In case you forgot, or just never knew, the Mighty Mississippi starts in Minnesota and that me walking across it's very very beginning!

Rising Moon Over Leech Lake

We road tripped it up to Walker, Minnesota, about a three-and-a-half hour drive from the Twin Cities.

We settled into our room in the main lodge at Haiwatha Beach Resort.

Our second story room looks directly over Steamboat Bay on Leech Lake and after dinner, Hubby and I were completely happy to relax with some books and the view.

Bring the 2016 Olympics to Ely, Minnesota!

Ely, Minnesota has applied to host the summer Olympics in 2016.

The town's Olympic committee announced its plans two days ago, on April 1, 2009.

When asked how Ely compares with Madrid, another city that is also in the running for the 2016 summer Olympics, an Ely committee spokesperson said:

"Do you know how much it costs to fly to Madrid? A lot more than it costs to drive to Ely."

Take a gander at their press conference below:



April Fool's Day joke or no -- it's quite a brilliant marketing scheme for the city.

Besides, they're actually gaining support, so who knows?

You can join the Ely 2016 Facebook page.

Or you can visit the Ely 2016 web site.