Month: October 2012

College Tours St. Olaf and U of Minn

We drove to St. Olaf on a Thursday, in a driving rain.  Cold (40F), windy.  Arrived for a visit, was greeted by our very own guide, had a great one on one tour of the entire campus.  After the tour, Madeline met with an admission officer one on one, and eventually we the parents joined.  We were very favorably impressed with all we saw.  The campus is a visual gem.

 

Click the thumbnail for more pictures.

Olie-011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove to MPLS at the end of the day, St. Louis Park to be specific.  Checked into our AirBnB quarters, owned by Rachael, or gracious host.

The next day we entered into an official U of Minnesota dog and pony show, with tour.  This time we shared our tour guide with a dozen other folks, most of them from Wisconsin.

Click the thumbnail below for pictures of the tour.  The weather was cold and blustery, the tour was long.  At least it was dry.  We were in and out of too many buildings to count.  It was hard to know how to dress.

Olie-012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mancation 5.0

Mancation 5.0

No drinking, no fighting, no hangovers.  Man, all we did was read. I got through two New Yorkers.

men-in-library

 

What is wrong with us?  Where did we lose our way?

Maybe it was the weather.  It rained Saturday and Sunday, we got a slow start. But we did eventually get out in it.  And after a long day on the lake, we did manage to survive, barely, what with three bedrooms, two baths, living room (with tv and cable, and our kick-butt traveling stereo), family room ( tv/cable) with a good pool table, pinball.  We did just get by.  (The two tv’s came in handy on Sunday with the St. Louis Cards  in the same time slot as Green Bay.  Five Packer fans, and Jeremy.  It would have been ugly.)

– – – – – – – – –

But let’s back up. The Friday trip up was smooth, warm, and sunny.  Stopped for a pedal at the Wausau Nordic Club area, called Nine Mile.  Huge place, lots of single track, much of it rocky.  One crash (it goes without saying who . . .).

Made it up to our cabin on Pickerel Lake, 8 miles due east of Minocqua on County J, before dark. Here’s the scene around the cabin:

(Note:  Click a thumbnail below to see an associated photo gallery, which will open in a different tab/window. Close that tab/window when finished to return control to this page.)

Cabin-001

 

 

 

 

 

Drove to Sister’s Saloon in St. Germaine for Fish Fry. Long wait, but worth it.  Pan fried Lake Perch – awesome. Some guy shouted at Jeremy at the bar for an hour straight while we waited.  All we could hear was his voice, and Jeremy laughing.

Paddled Pickerel on Saturday.  A river of sorts came out of it on the opposite side, which lead to some nice close-in paddling. Here’s a few shots of that paddle.

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, we paddled a northern section of the Wisconsin

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

 

 

 

And that was  it. Monday dawned bright and warm, and we had to pack up and go.  Thank you, Mother Nature!  Guy, Mike, and Doug, rode Raven again.  Tim and Jeremy cleaned the place and hauled everyone’s crap out, like two bitches.  Few pictures of this memorable day exist.