72 Hours in Minneapolis

My friend Chrissy is amazingly energetic, adventurous, and fun. She's also got a bit of a competitive side...which is why I really should of thought it through when I sent her a list of 21 possible ideas for our trip to Minnesota.  She took it as a challenge.  So, over the course of 3 days, we really got to know and love quite a bit of what Minneapolis has to offer. If you are headed that way, we highly recommend the following:

1. Relax on the patio of Tugg's Tavern at Saint Anthony Main enjoying a local brew and a stuffed burger while taking in the riverfront and skyline views.

2. Rent bikes from Tangletown Bike Shop and complete a 14 mile loop around Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun, and Lake of the Isles.

3. Stroll through a Japanese peace garden and the country's second oldest public rose garden.

stopping to smell the roses and count the sunny days

4. Enjoy lawn bowling on roof of Brit's Pub. (Well, we didn't actually bowl. But we enjoyed seeing others "roll the bowls.")

5. Dine at Monte Carlo under the festive patio lights.

6. Sit under the stars and watch a movie in Loring Park...such a cool concept to have a live band playing during the silent 1929 black and white film, Man with A Movie Camera. We lasted about 10 minutes.

7. Sip fancy schmancy cocktails at a "secret speakeasy" (well, it's on Trip Advisor, so not really) at Prohibition on the 27th floor of the W at Foshay.

8. Check out happy hour at a few local hot spots within walking distance of our hotel.

9. Travel via Minneapolis Skyway System--those handy enclosed pedestrian footbridges get lots of use in the winter, I'm sure!

10. Flagship Target Store...because who doesn't love a good trip to Target

11. Minneapolis Institute of Art...otherwise known as Mia. We loved seeing some favorite artists here.

12. Play mini-golf at the Walker art museum. This may be the first and last time I ever beat Chrissy in anything.

13. Contemplate modern art at the Walker. Some of the art took more contemplation than others. Like the drywall we thought was part of the construction, which was actually part of the exhibit.

14. Sculpture Garden (sorta) The famous garden is under construction and looks like it will be amazing when it reopens next year. In the meantime, we managed to peek through the construction to find the iconic spoon and cherry sculpture.

15. Minnehaha Falls...because I just couldn't wait to hike up and down another flight of steps as part of my knee surgery recovery plan.

16. Mill City Museum--we rode in a grain elevator to tour this old flour mill

17. Arch Bridge--bike, walk, or just enjoy the view

18. Betty Dangers Country Club...where you can eat dinner on a ferris wheel

19. South Pacific at the Guthrie Theater

20. Mall of America. I must confess that I wasn't initially excited about this one. I mean, we have Tyson's Corner...why would I want to shop at a mall on my vacation. Fast forward to 5 hours later and we were like Odysseus' men in the land of the Lotus Eaters. We shopped, we ate, we played with Legos, we even went to a theme park in the middle of the mall.

21. Dueling Pianos at The Shout House..and it was 90's night!

I'm so thankful to Chrissy for making this adventure with me to my 37th state. I'm recovering well from knee surgery but am still not 100% and she was a patient friend as I hobbled around. As much as we were able to enjoy in our jam-packed three days, we still couldn't see everything. People kept suggesting more places to see, to eat, to explore. And we returned home on the day the fair began, although locals insisted it would be worth it to postpone our flight and stay another day. Minneapolis, thank you for your friendly hospitality. I'll be back again someday, you betcha!

Hello, Hawaii

Hello Hawaii! Our hotel has beautiful birds to greet us.

It is hard to believe this trip even happened. Several years ago, I developed a fear of flying. It was easy to plan trips close by, or make excuses about the kids' schedules, until I realized I had not been on a plane in 3 years...not even to see my mom in Colorado. When Paul mentioned a dream of a family vacation to Ireland, I decided I needed to face my fear. With a lot of hand holding and a lot of Xanax, we flew to Shannon in 2011 for an amazing family vacation.

Morning view from our hotel--The Grand Hyatt in Poipu

I had just turned 40, so maybe I was feeling reflective, or having a mid-life crisis, bitten by the travel bug, or just inspired by my successful flight...but I set a goal that year: to travel to all 50 states before I turn 50. I believe my social worker friends refer to this as "exposure therapy." Afraid of flying? Book a flight. In the past 5 years I have been to several new states, bringing my lifelong total to 35.

I thought about saving Hawaii for #50, but with two kids in high school, scheduling family travel isn't going to get any easier. Since Paul and I will be married 20 years this fall, we decided to schedule an anniversary trip/family vacation extravaganza!



On our way to Waimea Canyon

Once we decided on the state, the next big decision we had to make was, which island? We finally chose Kauai, also known as the Garden Isle, because it was a little less commercial than some of the larger islands. It was a fantastic trip, making it hard to narrow down the 250 pictures and countless memories to one blog post, but here goes:

Waimea Canyon
We drove along an 18 mile winding road to stop at several overlooks. Otherwise known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, this was a gorgeous introduction to Hawaii's scenery.





Na Pali Coast
In order to appreciate the vast beauty of the cliffs on the Western side of Kauai, we took a boat ride. The kids loved spotting sea turtles and dolphins, Paul loved the waves, and Allison loved getting off the boat. Just kidding, I did OK. Our boat captain was a native of Kauai and I loved all the stories he told, as well as the breathtaking views.

The Luau
Yes, it is a bit of an overpriced, touristy thing to do, but how could we come to Hawaii and not do the luau? The music, stories, and dancing were top notch and the food was all delicious...well, except the poi. I could have done without the poi. Next time, I'll skip the poi and go back to Jo Jo's for second helpings of shave ice.

Golf and Gardens
One day we split up and the boys played golf while the girls toured the Allerton Garden. If you ever go, ask for Juan to be your tour guide. We loved his mix of storytelling, history, and knowledge. The boys loved their day as well and Jack shot his first Eagle on the Poipu Golf Course.

See any dinosaur eggs, Katherine? Jurassic Park was filmed here.

 



Sacred Falls
The only way to get to this waterfall is by kayaking down the Wailua River and hiking through a muddy, rainforest-like terrain. And so we did.

 

Christmas Card, Check

Our hotel offered a complimentary photo shoot with a professional photographer. So, as an added bonus, I ordered a few pictures of our family. Beautiful souvenirs of an incredible trip with my family. And you'll be seeing this picture again in December!

 

Does grilled cheese = better sex?

The other day my friend Christie invited me to a party because her husband wrote a book. I thought, "Yay, I love parties!" I did not think, "Oh, I should go read the book." Because Christie's husband is a PhD in econometrics. He is an expert in the use and interpretation of data and he wrote a book about just that...data.

So, yeah. Not very high on my reading list. Only then I started to feel guilty. There's no way Christie would know I was at her party for the cosmos and the conversations with no intention of reading the book but I'm such a rule follower that I just couldn't do it. I bought the book. I figured I'd skim through it enough to throw out a few strategically placed comments showing I was a book supporter and not just there for the free food.

I had no idea I would actually LOVE the book. I would never have predicted that reading about data would be so enjoyable, informative, and laugh out loud funny! I read it cover to cover last week, as my family can attest, because I kept talking about it at every family dinner. In every chapter, I made connections--to the examples, the stories, the information.  I think people are constantly trying to make sense of data--they want to draw conclusions that connect with their own individual stories.

As a teacher, I made connections from the book to my own career. In one chapter, the book talks about the importance of looking at data in context. Based on the example in the book, I gave three groups of fifth graders the following made-up information: The first group was only told that a fire department's average response time was 5 minutes in April. The second group was told the response times for all 12 months. The third group was told the response time for other county's departments. They quickly realized that it was easier to interpret the data when they had more information. We then compared this to reading unfamiliar words in context--they loved the activity! And did you know the process of making statistical conclusions about the data is called drawing an inference? Fifth graders make inferential conclusions about their reading as well.

EVERYDATA is full of hundreds of interesting examples, everything from what caused the Challenger explosion to answering the question, "Do people who eat grilled cheese sandwiches really have better sex?" It explains the concepts of applied statistics in an easy to read manner that will leave you confident in your ability to discern between correlation and causation.

Last night at the party I confessed to John (one of the authors) that I began reading the book with low expectations, but ended up loving it. I mentioned that I thought my dad would love the book and that it would make a great Father's Day gift and John agreed. So, John, now I can officially say,

"100% of dads surveyed think EVERYDATA would make a great Father's Day gift."

Just don't ask me about my sample size.

Facebook's Timeline of the Blizzard

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for you to get your news from Facebook. But, truth be told, you can learn a lot about the world and our reactions to it from scrolling through the posts of your friends. Take this weekend's blizzard, for instance. I'm no meteorologist, but I could accurately track the storm from the trends in my FB feed. Do any of these sound familiar...

Thursday: The Preparations
Lots of pictures of empty grocery aisles so apparently people bought tons of bread. I don't know who, because when these same people post pictures of their fully stocked refrigerators, they are lined with beer.

(Since we were hosting several teenagers, I did NOT want a fridge full of alcohol, so we stocked up on a weekend's supply of Ramen noodles instead.  I didn't post that though. Eating Ramen noodles just didn't seem as fun as drinking beer.)

Friday: And Snow It Begins
Friday marks the beginning. Lots of pictures of the first few flakes, with clever hashtags like #snObama2016 and #snOMG. Also, lots of pictures of patio furniture. I've noticed a lot of my friends have some very nice sets. I'm hoping they all invite me over this summer to hang out on their patios.

Saturday: Pet Problems
We wake up to about 18 inches of the fluffy white stuff and the fluffy furry ones in our house remind us of reality. After some people make a large dent in the beer stocked fridge on Friday night, it wasn't on the agenda to wake up early to dig "Pee Paths" for our pets. And it keeps snowing! It buries our beloved patio furniture, our cars, our pee paths.

Time to dig a pee path.

Dude, where's my car?

Hmmm, do you mind if I don't pee today?

Sunday: Get Busy
It finally stops snowing and the sun comes out. Now we can shovel it. And shovel it. And shovel it. Apparently, we have enough energy after shoveling to also go sledding, eat a lot, and, relax by the fire. I've noticed, from admiring pictures of feet by the fire, that a lot of my friends with cute patio furniture also have very cute socks. Also, we are not too tired from shoveling to complain about Tom Brady.

Monday: Cabin Fever
In the land of social media, we have short attention spans. We're done with this blizzard. We've downloaded all our snowy pictures and we're tired of putting wet mittens in the drier. Today's feed is all about getting out...maybe shopping for some more cute socks....and placing bets on when we'll return back to school. For that news, I'm sure I'll hear about it first on Facebook!

 



Happy New Year!

For those keeping track, we may be the only family that didn't see the new Star Wars movie over the break. Despite that, it was an amazing two weeks, during which I did do ALL 16 things on my Christmas wish list, including an 11th hour game of Sorry with my family (Katherine won.)


pool sharks

 

Here are some other pictures from break...


My niece Danielle and Sean



hanging out with Aunt Sarah

great book!

Hey, teenagers! Pretend like you like each other and smile for the camera.

Wonder exhibit at Renwick Gallery...along with all the other tourists that weren't watching Star Wars

The bug room both fascinated and creeped me out.

Christmas Fun with Pop Pop and Gramy Carolyn

Tatum's stuffed animal now has the stuffing on the outside.



baking birthday bread

Happy New Year!

All I Want for Christmas

Our tree isn't up yet. My cards aren't mailed and my presents aren't wrapped.  But when I sit down this weekend to update my "to do" list, I find my mind wandering to two weeks from now--December 18, to be exact. The beginning of my two glorious weeks of Winter Break. It's not just that I won't be working--it's the brief reprieve for my whole family. No tests to study for, no homework to navigate, no after school activities to coordinate.

In addition to the visions of sugar plums dancing in my head (Kidding, why would I waste my holiday calories on a plum?) I have visions of our wonderful 16 days off and quality time spent with family and friends.


So here's my Christmas Wish List:

1. read a good book
2. game night
3. visit with friends
4. date with my handsome husband
5. stretch my muscles at yoga
6. watch a movie
7. explore a museum
8. ice skate
9. prepare a new recipe
10. score bargains shopping with the girls
11. shop the farmer's market
12. long winter hike with the dog
13. enjoy a play
14. try a new restaurant
15. finish 2015 photo book
16. celebrate Christmas with family

I confess, I'm not dreaming of a White Christmas. I'd rather save the storm for January when we can turn off the alarm, sleep in, and enjoy our snow day. This Christmas, I'm dreaming of time, and how I want to spend it with the people I love.