Category Archives: Travel

2024, Family, Food, Gatherings, Kids, Travel, Uncategorized

How Do You Know

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Husband and I don’t travel very much. Twice a year I have to go to a conference in various destinations in the US or Canada as part of my work on a regulatory board, and Husband sometimes goes along. If I didn’t have to attend the conferences we wouldn’t travel as much. We are just too busy with work, gardens, and family pets to leave home very often.

This week we are visiting our daughter in Tacoma, WA. It is so nice to travel without an agenda or meetings to attend.. Wednesday we drove to Gig Harbor to a wonderful bagel shop and cooking store that Daughter loves, and walked around in the marina. We also saw a very strange tree.

We then had a lovely evening with Daughter and two of her dear friends, a married couple, at a wonderful Italian restaurant. Of course, we had to have a sampling of Washington wines masterfully curated by the friend’s husband.

My Husband asked this morning “How do you know you are on vacation?” To him, it means that someone else is letting the dog out, or else he is by a large body of water. To me, it means that I have no access to work emails, and someone else does the driving. Daughter has curated our trip nicely, planning visits to lovely restaurants and time with her friends, along with some great sightseeing. Yesterday we drove north of Seattle, stopping off at the Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, then driving farther north and west to Anacortes, where where we got the ferry to Orcas Island and a B and B way in the middle of nowhere.

We were advised to travel there in the daylight, as the road there had so many switchbacks. It is a beautiful place. This is the view from the front room.

Today we go whale watching. By Saturday we will be back in Tacoma for more luncheons with Daughter’s friends, and an appointment at a candle making studio. Monday we go home.

How do you know that you are on vacation? What are the best and worst vacations you ever had?

2024, Travel, Uncategorized, work

Small Town Stuff

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We have a couple of new staff at work who are from larger metro areas and never lived in a rural or remote area before. They never realized how much they had to learn when they moved here.

One of our newbies, a social worker, came to the office quite upset last summer after seeing what she thought was a suicidal or intoxicated airplane pilot. She lives about 20 miles outside Dickinson in an even smaller community than ours, and while driving to work saw this little yellow airplane fly under and over power lines and dive close to the ground, then suddenly soar upwards. She wondered if she should phone the sheriff or the FAA. We had a lot of fun telling her about crop dusters. She also encounters coyotes in her backyard, a real shock.

Our new clinical director is surprised by the interconnectedness of us all. She was amazed to hear that one of our mental health skills trainers, a 40 year old mother of two, used to babysit for my kids when she was in high school, that her mother worked as a support staff at our agency for 30 years, and that her aunt is a social worker and one of our crisis staff. Then she learned that the parents of one of our staff were foster parents who adopted some of their foster children who I ultimately saw for therapy.

We tell our urban transplants that these new phenomena are just small town stuff, and we are so glad they are here and we will be happy to help them. It isn’t easy to go to an unfamiliar culture. I remember all the new things I had to learn when I moved to Canada, and I know that any of my rural coworkers would need to learn lots of new things if they moved to Minneapolis, or Seattle, or New York. Big town stuff is also tricky to navigate.

What would you educate newcomers about if they moved to your community? What would be harder for you to adjust to-rural or urban?

2024, education, Family, Farming Update, Travel, Weather

What Day is This?

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I have been completely discombobulated since returning home from Seattle. The weather did hamper our Sunday return flight and because I had purchased my plane ticket separate from Kelly and daughter, Delta automatically rebooked me on a redeye from Seattle to Minneapolis, while leaving those two on their own. Eventually they were able to get on the same flight. We left Seattle at 12:30 AM Monday, arriving at MSP about 5:30 AM and back to RST about noon Monday. We were all exhausted and needed naps.

But the extra day in Seattle allowed me to see the ‘gum wall’.

It’s… something.  It’s kinda gross. Glad I didn’t have to pay for that.

The dogs were mildly excited to see us. They had good sitters while we were gone, and those people said they did their best to turn the dog’s loyalty. I think a few more days they could have done it. I laughed that all the dog treats were gone. No wonder the dogs liked them best.

I attended that workshop called “Psychology of Stupidity”. It was presented by a group called ‘Risky Business Resources’. The room was full, standing room only in fact, which I thanked the crowd for being that interested in safety, and kudos to the presenter for his title. If he had called it ‘Analysis of theater Safety’, it wouldn’t have been so full.

We discussed how people make decisions, and the factors that lead to people making mistakes. He had us play ‘rock paper scissors’ with our left hands, while thumb wrestling with our right. It can’t really be done. Some takeaways: Sleep debt and fatigue increase risk taking. Underestimating risk is a big one.

What stuck with me the most was discussing step ladders. We’ve all stood on that step second from the top. The one that says not to stand on. So why is that step even there?? Some ladder manufacturers have tried removing that step. People complained the ladders weren’t tall enough then. And there was nowhere to put the sticker saying not to use that step. It made the whole room laugh.

On the last day, I took part in a Kazoo parade.

It’s part of a fundraiser.

By Tuesday I was right back into things. A ceiling leak at one theater. Striking lights at another. Back to my set at the college.

I saw a killdeer! It’s nice they’ve returned.

I ordered some extra tough shoelaces off amazon. I got some that are fire and heat resistant. I could  see the need for that if I was a firefighter. But if I need shoelaces that are fire and heat resistant, I’m doing something wrong.

WHAT’S THE DUMBEST ATTRACTION YOU’VE SEEN?

2024, education, Family, Food, Kids, Technology, Travel

Where in the World is XDFBen?

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A rhetorical question really. The photos will give it away. But I hardly ever get to say this so couldn’t pass it up.

A college sponsored vacation? Well, sure! At least for me. Kelly and daughter are the bonus on the trip.

Thirty four years ago we came here on our honeymoon. A year ago when I knew this event would be here, I said we couldn’t pass it up. And now I keep asking, do you recognize anything? Nope. Even the famous places, I know we were there, but not much recollection. And that’s ok. The weather was beautiful Sunday – Tuesday.  Wednesday was cloudy and Thursday It rained in the evening.

One day we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Standing on the deck watching the water, it was just beautiful. I tried to get that to be an indelible memory. I made a comment to Kelly that I thought it was pretty cool go back to an island we had been at 34 years ago and she pointed out we were on Whidbey Island, not Bainbridge Island. Damn. I don’t know where I got Bainbridge from. Well, I’m a writer, time to change the narrative! From now on, we went to Bainbridge Island as part of our Honeymoon. Wasn’t much to see there, it’s 55 minutes between returning ferries, and we were back to the dock in time to catch the next one returning to the mainland.  We all enjoyed the boat ride.

Tuesday we rode the Ferris wheel, we went to the aquarium, and we visited three used bookstores. Everything’s expensive here, but some of the food has really been good.

We hit some of the other tourist attractions, and got to watch them toss some fish.

Wednesday was the first day of the USITT conference, the United States Institute of Theatre Technology, and I am now a certified MEWP operator. Mobile Elevated Work Platform. Scissor lift, genie lift, all those big bucket things you see at construction sites or theaters. It was a good class.

Thursday I attended a soldering workshop and wired up a little LED strip,

got my hearing tested for free, saw a famous Broadway lighting designer and listened to her speak: Dawn Chiang.

Friday was a class on organizing your shop, which I’m hoping will be useful for home, as well as a class titled “the psychology of stupidity”. I’ll fill you in on that next week.

The convention Center: Two buildings, 6 floors. Getting my steps in. Not to mention how far UP HILL it is from the wharf to downtown. We were never lost, but I went the wrong direction multiple times. 

We rode the light rail and monorail, we met some friends here and had supper at their house, I made a couple new friends, and more surprising was the fact we three survived all being in one hotel room together for a week!

The people watching has been great!

March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day. 3,21, because down syndrome comes from the fact those kids have three copies of the 21st chromosome as opposed to two. That’s why it’s also called trisomy 21. Daughter is a pretty interesting kid. Lots of people will smile at her and make conversation with her, she says hello to a lot of people, and animals just love her. She’s kind of fun to hang out with.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE CERTIFIED IN?

2024, Family, Travel, Weather

Where in the World is….YA?

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Second airport run of the week yesterday morning.  YA going to Cancun for a week-long program.  Besides her work clothes, she took plenty of other outfits as well saying “well, it is a WHOLE week”.  Two suitcases (one checked, one small for carry-on) along with her backpack. 

As is normal when one of us is traveling we keep each other up to date on the process.  Texts like “at the gate”, “on the plane”, “wings up”, “just landed” are the norm.  I’m not sure why we started doing this but we just keep on. 

It was pretty chilly when I dropped her off at the airport so her first text from Cancun was a bit of a lemon-juice-in-a-papercut when she landed and texted me this photo

Then about an hour or so later, I got the photo in the header.  Sigh.  She had told me she thought she was staying downtown, but I actually recognized the view from her window… it’s on Coral Beach in the hotel zone….a pretty swanky place that I have visited a couple of times.

I’m still glad I’m retired and not doing the kind of travel I used to do, but it did give me a little pang of jealousy when I looked at the photo.  Who would have thought we’d have this turnaround in our lives, where now she travels to glorious places and I stay home with the dog and cat?  Maybe all this texting when we travel isn’t the best idea?

Tell me about a view you’ll never forget!

2024, Automotive, Music, Travel

Volare

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Yesterday morning I drove my next-door neighbors to the airport for a spring break trip to California.  When we were about half way to the airport, the youngest daughter (she’s five) wailed that she hadn’t downloaded any music to her pad.  The older daughter started to chime in as well.  Dad quickly let them know that he had downloaded good playlists to their pads. 

I wouldn’t even have known what most of the previous paragraph meant when I was the girls’ ages.  Both their Mom and Dad are music teachers, so I suppose it’s not too surprising that everybody has to have a playlist for a 4-hour flight.  When they get back, maybe I’ll ask the girls about what Dad had downloaded for them.

I like music but I can’t call myself an aficionada – I rarely know the names of songs and even if I recognize the music, I’m usually stumped about the composer.  Or the band.   So while I know that my phone could play music if I wanted, I don’t have anything set up and I don’t have any ear buds or headphones.  When I’m on the plane, it’s either sleeping or reading for me.   In fact, I almost always take too much reading material on the plane – except for the one time I had a big hard cover from the library in my carry on bag (All the Light You Cannot See) and I plowed through the entire book in between London and Minneapolis!  Luckily by the time I finished the book, we were just about to land so I wasn’t tortured by too much “non-reading” time.

How do you keep yourself entertained when you fly/drive/train/covered wagon?

2024, Family, Travel

Where Are Your People From

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Husband has decided that it is very important that the next time we travel overseas, we should go to Emden, in northwest Germany to see where my father’s people come from, and then go to Debden, UK to see the village where my dad was stationed during the Second World War. He also wants to go to Edinburgh and other parts of the Scottish lowlands to see where his mother’s people come from. He has no dates chosen for when we will do this, just some time after we move back to Minnesota when I retire.

When we visited my maternal grandfather’s village south of Bremen several years ago I felt a real connection because I still have family who live there. My father’s people left Ostfriesland in the 1850’s, and any connections there are long lost. Still, I think it will be pretty interesting, although it is my understanding that the people who live in Ostfriesland are frequently the butt of jokes in Germany and are stereotyped as backward and somewhat hapless. It will be fun to see for myself. All I know about the place is that it is low, flat, there is water everywhere, and the inhabitants drink more tea per capita than in any other country.

Where do your people come from? Where would you like to travel next, time, money, and health permitting?

2024, Mysteries, Nature, Travel

Getting From Here to There

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It’s never a great sign when they close the plane doors, the walkway pulls back and then the plane just sits.  When I was headed to St. Louis it was pretty cold here.  Pilot came online to let us know that we had to get in line for de-icing.  I’m still not sure why we sat for an additional 45 minutes before we headed over to de-icing.  Then after de-icing, we also waited another 15 minutes before heading to the runway for take off. 

Not the end of the world… it was a direct flight so no anxiety about missing a connection and I had a good book.

On my return trip it was really cold and a lot of flights out of St. Louis were cancelled.  I’d checked all the flights to Minneapolis (my direct flight and all the connectors) and while most of the connectors were cancelled, my flight was still showing on time.  The plane wasn’t towed to the gate on time then a water hose was frozen.  They made us de-plane at that point for about an hour.  Then they put up back but we still sat.  Apparently hose was in running order but the computer had to be alerted that the maintenance was finished.  Then it turned out the plane had been put “out of service” and only somebody in Houston could correct that.   When we were finally all unlocked the pilot came online again to tell us that unfortunately due to the extremely cold weather, the drinks pod had sat outside too long and all the various pops and juices were frozen; they’d made the executive decision to forego beverage service so we wouldn’t have to delay longer.

There were audible groans heard throughout the plane at that point.  Me?  I laughed out loud. 

What do you consider a necessity when you travel?

2024, Family, Food, Gatherings, holidays, Travel

Macaroni Conundrum

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The last time I was with my whole family for the holidays was 1978.  Some years they gather without me, some years they don’t gather at all.  So when I announced that I was visiting Nonny two weeks ago, they decided that January Christmas festivities would be a grand gesture.  By the time I got the first text the week before my trip – the plans were so far down the road there was no turning back.

It was a potluck at Nonny’s little condo (truly the best choice considering the options) and all the obligatory dishes had been claimed.  My baby sister had three things on her list and since I knew she would be starting a new second job that week, I volunteered to do the macaroni and cheese.  She immediately sent me a recipe that is apparently my nephew’s favorite. 

Now I’ve made many a dish of mac & cheese over the years, using many different recipes, but looking at this one made me put my head in my hands.  It was two fully-typed pages and included four kinds of cheese, two kinds of pasta, garlic, green onion and quite a few spices.  In addition to the fact that Nonny has next to nothing in the way of kitchen utensils or baking dishes, I wasn’t even sure if she had the spices.  (I mentioned this last week when I was thinking of taking the spices in a bag in my luggage.)  I confirmed my suspicions – no big pot for pasta, no casserole dish to bake or serve it in, no grater for the four kinds of cheese.  In a funny turn of events, she DID have all the spices.  We could purchase an aluminum casserole, a grater and all the ingredients, but unless we also sprang for a big pot, I’d have to make two batches to have enough for everybody.  Not to mention the cost.

That’s when I remembered that YA had purchased macaroni and cheese from Costco for our Thanksgiving gathering and it had been pretty good.  I know there is a Costco about 5 minutes from Nonny’s place so the day before the party, we headed over there and picked up a pan of the stuff.  I doctored it up with some garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.  Via text that morning YA kept asking me if I had told my sister I was buying instead of making the mac & cheese.  I know my audience.  If I had fessed up that I was going to get it from Costco, my sister would have thrown up her hands in exasperation and said “Fine… I’ll just do it.”   One of my mottos has always been “it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission” so that’s the route I decided to take.

Turns out my sister didn’t care at all…. but my nephew did.  He kind of made a big deal about the fact that I should have let them know so HE could have made it. Of course, when we were divvying up the leftovers, I noticed that he heaped quite a bit into their Tupperware!  But I was happy to have not gone to too much trouble and Nonny was happy to not have more utensils in her teeny weeny kitchen.  And truth be told, the macaroni and cheese was really good.

I expect it will have to be another gathering for us to buy it again – it’s way too much for two folks, even folks who like macaroni and cheese as much as YA and I do.  But now I aware it’s there, you never know!

Do you have a favorite pasta dish?  (Either made or bought…)

2024, animals, holidays, Mysteries, Travel

Risky Business

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A 22-year old from Taiwan was apprehended at the Bangkok airport before Christmas after he was found to be carrying two Asian small-clawed otters and a prairie dog.  The man has the critters in socks, taped inside his boxer shorts; security officers were suspicious of the big bulge below the man’s waistband.

If I were a man, I’m not sure I’d put anything with claws and teeth (much less three of them) in my shorts.

I noticed this because I was just thinking about taking a small bag of spices with me to St. Louis last week.  I needed to recreate my sister’s mac and cheese recipe while I was at Nonny’s and was pretty sure that Nonny might not have all these spices.  I didn’t want to buy whole jars of them in St. Louis.  Putting spices in a ziplock made me think about another time I had spices in my suitcase.

About twenty years ago, my bag was the very last one to arrive on the luggage belt after I had come home from Thailand.  The sniffer dog did not alert on my bag but the fact that I had stood there so long waiting brought me to the attention of the sniffer dog’s handler.  Of course this was the one time I ever had something a little suspicious in my bag.  I had purchased some spices at a road-side stand while in Thailand… just baggies of powder with no labels.  Luckily none of them were white and one of them was filled with whole nutmegs, so it was easily explainable.  I was very glad I had the nutmegs and had not purchased anything even remotely white!           

Have you ever transported something you probably shouldn’t have?