Visit to Minnesota and Iowa (November 14 - 18)

Here's a few notes on a short trip to the Midwest that Patricia and I took mid November, pretty much arranged at the last minute.

We flew into MSP airport on Friday, November 14; MBS was chauffeur to airport; light crowds at airports and car rental etc. (almost like there's a recession going on or something); had a bit of lunch; then drove up to the House house. We had a chance to see all the kitchen renovations there, it certainly turned out great. Chatted with Steve and Margaret awhile; Cecilia showed up from work; eventually we went out to dinner.

Ate at a local pizza place named Barley John's; very fine stuff ("Barley John's own extra hot chipotle paste, topped with seasoned grilled chicken, fresh tomatoes, cilantro, red onion and cheddar cheese. This is one hot pizza, there is no mild." They weren't kidding); plus they were doing their own beers; then drove into downtown Minneapolis and saw the new office location for Cecilia; walked through the public spaces in the new Guthrie center (basically right across the street); the Cue at Guthrie looked so inviting that we had a glass of wine and listened to the live jazz a bit; etc. So all this was quite fun, even though we almost froze every time we stepped out of the car, and had a bit of a misadventure trying to get out of the Guthrie parking lot (eventually rescued by the attendant). Too bad, we didn't get any photos of these adventures.

Cold and rainy evening; we drove down to Therese's condo; met her fiance, Mark Gaertner. Therese had a fine array of snacks and beverages and was kind enough to serve us even though we were really behind schedule. Very nice late-evening; pretty easy to see why she likes Mr. Gaertner. All this lasted until 1a or whatever, so it was a very full day.

Saturday morning - went for coffee (via the Clover) and pastry (via standby Bread and Chocolate) - delicious. Did a bit of grocery shopping, looked over potential wedding reception sites, had lunch at WA Frost. A very pretty autumn day - sunny, some leaves still on the trees, low sun angle; had kind of forgotten all this as I don't believe we've been in that part of the world in late November since 1985.

Then an easy road trip to Iowa. More gorgeous skies along the way; sunset was delightful, the sun pretty much just hung out there as we drove south and turned west. Got to St. Joe in time for pork patties, dessert, lots of conversation. Fun night.

Sunday: went to Mass at 8a. Long conversation with Mark Bormann family after; breakfast; Steve came over from Mason City; also Dolores, Art, Tom, Kieran from Storm Lake. We appreciated they made the trip on very short notice. Grandma made some kind of pork roast that eventually served us well for several meals. Got to hear some flute music; Euchre (rematch of Patricia/Tom v. Grandpa/Kieran); lots and lots of conversation about all sorts of things. Fun. Later looked over a bunch of EMG photos, talked, etc.

Monday: hung around the house in the morning; Patricia went to look over the house on the farm with Grandpa and Grandma (and ended up getting some very nice photos, three of which are included in this post); I made an attempt at some sort of exercise by walking briskly around the cemetery hill a half dozen times (which worked well except when walking into the wind, as temp and wind speed both were in the 20s). Patricia and I went over and played cards with Clarence and Caroline in the afternoon at their place (Grandma had card club); also had dinner over there and lots o' conversation, very fun per usual plus Clarence and I actually won a big majority of the games; back to St. Joe for more fine chatting etc.

Tuesday: enjoyed the morning around the house in St. Joe; eventually got organized and packed; Grandma had some nice souvenirs for me; we went to "Maggie B's" in Algona for lunch - they're serving good food there; plus quite a bit of theorizing with Sheys and Lickteigs; all this followed by an easy return trip to Phoenix. MB took us to the house; at this point we were hungry so had dinner at Richardson's. Which made it seem like a very extended evening, since it was dark even before we left the gate in Minneapolis.

Pinnacle Peak

There is a well known hiking trail in north Scottsdale that goes up Pinnacle Peak. During all these years we never tried it. Until last Friday (11/7). The trail goes about 1.75 mi in one direction, then you return the same route; overall elevation gain about 1300 feet. It's all very gentle and nice with great views all along the way.

We had wonderful weather; high in the upper 70s. The only thing about the hike is that it's a bit too antiseptic - you never reach a point where you're not looking out over fabulous North Scottsdale residences. But that's a minor complaint.

There is a tourist trap restaurant basically right at the bottom of the trail, named "Pinnacle Peak Patio." Basically they serve cowboy food to out of town folks. The place supposedly does a nice job with steaks and burgers, but is primarily known for a tradition - going on several decades now - of enforcing an informal dress code by cutting off ties worn by unsuspecting visitors, and hanging them (the ties, not the visitors) from the ceiling. This is a bit weird, actually. We had fun checking it out.

Photos top to bottom:

1. Patricia with "Pinnacle Peak" in background

2. Typical view from the trail

3. Typical view on the trail

4. Me admiring spiffy steers atop tourist trap

5. Some of the ties

The other song from the fall concert

Here is Hanson's "Song of Democracy." Based on a Walt Whitman poem (printed below) (I think this was from his well-known Leaves of Grass, 1900).

We (ASU Choral Union) performed this on October 24, 2008 along with the Battle Hymn of the Republic (concert described here).

An old man’s thought of School;
An old man, gathering youthful memories and blooms, that youth itself cannot.

Now only do I know you!
O fair auroral skies! O morning dew upon the grass!

And these I see—these sparkling eyes,
These stores of mystic meaning—these young lives,
Building, equipping, like a fleet of ships—immortal ships!
Soon to sail out over the measureless seas,
On the Soul’s voyage.

Only a lot of boys and girls?
Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?
Only a Public School?

Ah more—infinitely more;
(As George Fox rais’d his warning cry, “Is it this pile of brick and
 mortar—these dead floors, windows, rails—you call the church?
Why this is not the church at all—the Church is living, ever living Souls.”)

And you, America,
Cast you the real reckoning for your present?
The lights and shadows of your future—good or evil?
To girlhood, boyhood look—the Teacher and the School.

Happy Halloween

Top - Nicole, Kerry and Chris in the "Native American" outfits that they were stuck with pretty much every year. This was taken in 1986. CPG tried to add a little variety by blending a Bugs Bunny mask.

Middle - Paul, Patrick and Kerry sort out the loot in 1991. All seem quite pleased with the haul. This probably involved a trading session.

Bottom - Patrick and Kerry work on cleaning out a pumpkin in 1992. Patrick seems to enjoy this even more than admiring the loot in 1991. Click to enlarge and you can see the tracing of the jack-0-lantern's face, plus a ghostly image of a young-ish pooch through the glass door . . .

Choral Union concert (10/24/08)

ASU Choral Union performed with the ASU orchestra at Gammage on Friday, October 24. This primarily was an orchestra concert. We did two songs: "The Song of Democracy" (Howard Hanson setting of a Walt Whitman poem), and Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

The entire theme of the concert was American and/or patriotic music. I was a bit of a skeptic as to the program, but was wrong again (as happens regularly on programming matters).

I think the inexhaustible, interminable braying by the media and the candidates during this presidential campaign - compounded by the economic goings-on - contributed to the success of the program. Folks seem to recognize that democracy is inherently messy; that insiders and the wealthy can buy their way to favors; that decision making is fragmented; but that no matter what it ultimately remains the best form of government (or maybe it's more accurate to say that all the other forms are much worse). It was a pleasant respite to listen to patriotic music, something of a feeling like performances in the 19th century bandstand in the town square.

The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" has to be at the very top of the list of this type of music. The tune is effective. The lyrics reflect the abolitionist movement and the Civil War, but have aged remarkably well. As I understand it, the abolitionist movement had a heavily religious strain - looking at slavery as a national sin for which a great sacrifice - war deaths, as it turned out - had to be paid in atonement (resonating with the Christian notion of Christ dying to atone for sin). (I hadn't realized how much Lincoln hit on this very theme in his second inaugural address; tried to catch some of this sentiment in a photo posted here.)

Whether or not folks would think of it in those terms these days, it makes the lyrics pretty powerful . . . "as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free . . . " Biblical phraseology such as "grapes of wrath," "terrible swift sword;" "I have seen him the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps" (the lyrics were written after a visit to a Union camp).

Anyway, click the photo above to enlarge Julia Ward Howe's original wording. The story of her writing the verses is here; she supposedly woke up in the middle of the night with the words in near-final form, and hurriedly jotted them down before they disappeared . . . she was paid five bucks for the song.

I can report that singing this arrangement was a great pleasure. It was nice that the crowd rose to its feet after that song, and again at the conclusion of the concert. Something fun with the arrangement was that the verse starting "in the beauty of the lilies" - which is a fine verse, by the way - was set a capella for four-part men's voices, with the baritone section (including Chris, Paul, me) having a melody line for once. Here is the performance:



By the way, the "Song of Democracy" also was pretty effective - based on a Walt Whitman poem focused on public education and its foundational relationship to effective democracy.

So that was all very nice. Thanks to Patricia for doing the video on this one. Now, back to ignoring the media cynics.

We had our house painted

It has always been white. Now it is more of a brownish color. We like the change.

Here are a few photos. (The new palo verde trees out front seem to like their spots.) (Note my new office window on bottom photo, upstairs on left side.) (You can also see the new living room window (squared off (and double-pane).)

Whistler-Vancouver (2 of 2)

A few notes on the balance of our trip.

Part one was a visit to Whistler, BC, summarized here.

We drove down to Vancouver from Whistler on Monday 9/22, after hiking in the snow. Returned via the only route (Sea to Sky Highway, great views, e.g. top photo). Quite a bit warmer as we progressed. Checked into the Pacific Palisades Hotel (same place as we had stayed in 2002; beautiful views out over English Bay (second photo). We were there until returning to Phoenix on Thursday, September 25.

I think we will return regularly to this area, for reasons mentioned in prior post.

We also considered a day trip to Victoria - which is an entirely separate adventure - but decided to wait with this until we can spend at least one overnight on that island.

Here in Vancouver, we devoted lots of time to walking the city, eating and drinking. (Those activities are completely complementary: it takes lots of walking to build up the appetite for large lunch and dinner everyday. I can't believe how much ground we covered, PJ is a great sport for this kind of thing.

Highlights were:

1. Chambar (awesome Belgian restaurant from our last evening in town. Six entrees and 39 Belgian beers (including Chimay Blue). Huge crowd on a rainy Wednesday night. Fun seating right inside the door.

2. Banana Leaf (Malaysian; I had some kind of beef dish prepared in a curry/coconut milk preparation; Okanagan Spring pale ale)

3. Kirin (highly recommended Chinese food and it was great despite a cold, corporate-style room. PJ's kung pao scallops ruled)

4. Raincity Grill (emphasis on local ingredients, beers, wines; right by English Bay; right across the street from Banana Leaf)

5. Steamworks (we had a fun time walking to, around and through Gastown - touristy but nice; shops; the steam clock (per photo)) - this restaurant was a converted something or other old building with great views out over the water, microbrewery in the basement, interesting seating nooks upstairs, etc

Also rented bicycles (with helmets, mandated by local law) and toured the sea wall around Stanley Park; delightful weather that day, great views throughout (bottom two photos).

Whistler-Vancouver (1 of 2)

In 2008, we pretty much have not reached our goal to be less busy. In fact, it's been a pretty consistently too-hectic year. Anyway, we did manage to get away for a few days. After having enjoyed a visit to Whistler and Vancouver (British Columbia) in 2002, we decided to try it again.

BC is just right for our preferred travel - not too hectic or crowded; outdoor access; interesting food and hotels. In fact, it's pretty much ideal. This applies to both Whistler and Vancouver, though in very different ways.

Whistler was unknown to us back in 2002. It's a ski village just north of Vancouver. accessed via something named the "Sea to Sky Highway." Gorgeous area; the village itself is entirely an artificial construct built around skiing, with increasing summer activities. Nothing wrong with that, it's a great setting. Things are a bit in flux as they prepare (with Vancouver) to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. (This affected the road more than anything else we encountered. But the sea-to-sky is a rare road where delays are enjoyable.)

We traveled on Saturday, September 20 (ride to airport courtesy of MB). Due to making arrangements late, we had to connect through Denver. So a good chunk of the day was devoted to travel. On Sunday, we had planned to take the ski gondola up the mountain and do some hiking. But we decided to wait until Monday as the forecast was better. Turns out forecasts are just that. Anyway, Sunday ended up being a fun day - we walked the village (various areas), watched some NFL, found a restaurant (Ric's Mix) we liked (usual criteria: great patio, interesting food, nice beer and wine list (featuring local), and not a ripoff), etc. Shopped a bit in the various stores. Pretty much a perfect day of hanging around.

I include two photos above showing views from our room. It was entertaining watching the bikers ride down the course (click on photos to enlarge) - there were lots of them in town. The hotels are delightful properties, beautifully designed; you feel like you are in Europe or whatever.

On Monday we decided to take the gondola up the mountain notwithstanding snow showers and temps below freezing. Fortunately we had enough layers where comfort wasn't a big issue. Except when the wind was strong. It was quite an experience hiking from 6000 to 7000 feet in intermittent snow storms. Much colder and snowier at the top. Which is where the "Harmony Hut Tea House" is located - sounded like a great resting place, except it was closed for the season. Note the clocks showing time at previous Winter Olympics venues.

Back down for lunch followed by a drive to Vancouver.

Which I'll discuss a bit in the next post.

Visit to DC (2 of 2)

So here are some notes on the last two days of our DC trip . . .

Saturday, August 16

Kerry and Luis had the idea of going on a tour of Virginia wineries - which was a good idea, a bit of a change of pace from the DC mainstream tourist adventures. Our group met Ricky and Natasha at the Rossello house, and started out on the "Grape Adventure" van.

I'm pretty sure that the drivers for these tours aren't supposed to be drinking, but we were wondering about that. About 20 minutes into our trip there was an unannounced u-turn; sure enough, about 20 minutes later we were driving past the street where we had started. At which point the tour folks 'fessed up to a "minor problem." Oh well, it was only 40 minutes or so out of our lives.

Anyway, we visited three wineries. Some of us were probably more interested in touring, others in tasting, still others in collecting souvenir wine glasses - but everyone had a fun time. The first winery (Pearmund Cellars, website here) featured a pretty knowledgeable taste-master (I think I made up that term); the setting was nice but not quite as nice as what was to come; our crew manages to make all sorts of funny comments throughout the tasting (at least we think they're funny).

The second winery (Three Fox Vineyards (website here) had a great setting; dicey taste-master; but a very fun place. This is where we had lunch. Our supposedly sober tour leaders had kept the food on ice; a good idea which would have been even better if they had kept the food separated from the melting ice. So the sandwiches, brownies, etc. were served in a kind of melted ice broth (or water), you might say. We were pretty hungry, but even so . . . at least we were distracted by entertainments such as Patrick and Ricky rolling down the hill.

Onto winery #3 (Barrel Oak Winery, website here). The taste-master here (photo below) may have had aspirations about running a classroom or boot camp or something, because he was firmly under the illusion that we were supposed to pay attention to his every word. Thankfully he couldn't enforce that standard, or we would have had several folks in permanent detention. Nice wines, nice outdoor seating area, nice views; a good way to finish the tour.

Then back to the Rossello's; picked up groceries and Patricia (with assist from Natasha) put together a v. good dinner for everyone. (And she thought she was on vacation.) A very fun evening.

After which - despite the lateness of the hour - Kerry and Luis were kind enough to take a group of us on the night walk of the monuments. We dropped off Patricia and Nicole and the rest of us drove down to the Capitol mall area (Chris, Kerry, Luis, Patrick, Paul Jr., Nedda, me). I haven't been around DC all that much, but this is my favorite thing. Here's what we saw:

1. Lincoln Memorial - this is not beatable. The setting on the end of the mall is superb. Whatever feeling the architect was trying to inspire as everyone walks toward the memorial and up all those stairs - it works. How awesome was Lincoln? And how about standing in there and reading the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, chiseled into the walls? Also something to stand at top and look out over the Mall.

2. Korean War memorial - probably my favorite of all; there is something about these ghostly (at least for nighttime visitors) figures that appear to come up out of a small stand of trees, moving out on some thankless patrol in a forgotten war (or whatever they're doing). This can get your imagination going.

3. World War II memorial - first time I had seen this, and it is quite impressive. But I would like to go back and see it again, I didn't really connect with this as much the first time around. For one thing, it seems like they tried to cover all the bases (50 states, territories, women in service, theaters, all service branches, etc.) - which I suppose was necessary given the scope of the war, but the memorial seemed to lack some of the punch of the others.

4. Vietnam War memorial - did I mention there was a bright full moon? This made the memorial look quite a bit different to me than it looked at night in 2003. I hadn't noticed how it lines up with the Washington Monument. Whoever designed this was beyond successful.

This adventure took awhile, we got back by 1:30a or so. I was grateful folks were interested in going. The monuments are wonderful, as was the company.

Forgot to mention, the weather was ridiculously nice throughout our visit. I think of August in DC as difficult-to-bear heat and humidity, which I guess does happen quite often. But not to us.

Sunday, August 17

End o' trip, so we checked out of the hotel. Kerry took Patricia and me with Chris, Paul and Nedda on a tour of the West Wing of the White House. One of her former bosses was our tour guide. I had kind of low expectations for this as it had the feel of a stock DC experience, but that was wrong. I very much enjoyed it. The tour guide was knowledgeable and nice. Just getting through security was kind of entertaining. I liked gawking at the Oval Office, one of the large conference rooms (where supposedly they do important stuff), the Cabinet room, all the 18th and 19th century American artwork hanging around, and of course a bunch of Bush photos (including current stuff from Beijing Olympics). Took photos in the Rose Garden and the press area. Nice experience.

Then we met the rest of the group down on the Potomac waterfront for lunch; the place was named Sequoia. It ended up being kind of comical. It was a large factory-type restaurant with a view, so expectations as to food were very low to start with. But still not met. All of the salads featured bugs. The manager's solution - in a situation where our diners pretty clearly were so done with eating salad - was to assure us that the lettuce was being washed twice, and replacement salads would be right out. That led to a short discussion, and the salads were swapped for mega-sodium soup of some kind. After that came steaks (ordered medium rare but served well done) with a side of potato buds (but those didn't have a chance against the garlic flavoring). After that, a dessert that Sara Lee would be ashamed to sell (or maybe does).

Anyway, it was nice to see the area and it was a good idea to go there given the limited amount of time remaining before our flight. And the experience actually underscored how great all the arrangements had been every step of the way on this trip.

Thereafter got organized, made our way to Baltimore airport, enjoyed smooth flight back to Phoenix.

Everyone was convinced that they had a great time throughout the trip. I certainly did. And I'm increasingly confident that Kerry does have a real job out there.