The past few years, the wife and I have tried to take little fall trips somewhere. We try to time it so that we can take in the beauty of the leaves turning different colors. I'm not sure why we do that since we live in the woods and have all the color that one could hope for right here in our back yard. I think we just look for an excuse to make a trip.
For me, it is the opportunity to vacation away from that pesky cat or a better definition would be to say the wife's cat. Just before we take off, we make sure this cat has plenty to eat and drink while we are gone. (
Easy on that food. That cat food you're chowing on has to last you through the next four days. You might want to pace yourself like eating just so much each day. Also you have to realize that what goes in must come out and no one is going to be around to clean out your litter box during this trip of ours. Can you picture this? Are you even paying attention?)
Of all our fall trips, we seem to favor the north shore drive of Lake Superior in Minnesota as being the best. It's a little over five hours away. Last year we went up towards the end of September and everything was still green. We were too early. This year we made reservations for the second weekend in October thinking that would be the optimum time to see the color. Well as you can see from the picture at the right we missed the colors this year. We were too late. I guess we should have come up the last weekend of Sept. Oh well, we still like the water views.
We spent most of the trip staying at Grand Marais, MN which is about 50 miles south of the Canadian Border and along the shores of Lake Superior. There are a lot of sites to see and interesting shops to look into. The picture to the left is one taken by the North House Folk School. It is a neat little place that is actually a school. It is where they conduct several craft type courses throughout the year. Example: Weaving with birch bark, pine needle basketry, building your own boats, wood turning of bowls, deer processing and bread making. I found myself hooked on the shop building and the things that were going on in there. I'm not sure I was suppose to be wondering around like I was, but it was kind of neat to see all the things that were being made. You can check out their web site to see all that they do and the courses they offer.
www.northhouse.org
This student was busy building a boat for himself and seemed to be doing quite well. (
At least until I showed up and had to ask 20 some questions as to what he was doing.) This school is 452 miles away from my shop door. That is too far away.
I'm thinking that I may have to convert "DAG's Wood Shop" into a company so that I can have the company send me to this Folk School to received some additional training. That way I can write off all the expenses as a business trip. (
Notice - no litter boxes anywhere in this shop. Nice.)
Well, the whole trip was not just dedicated to touring shops, chewing down some smoked fish, driving by the water, or skipping rocks across Lake Superior. We did spend some time hiking back in the woods on some of the State Park trails that Minnesota has to offer. We found some neat water falls and believe it or not there were some colorful leaves in spots. (
That hiking is quite a workout. If you look close, you will notice that I must of dropped 3 pounds.)
Now that I'm back home I'm continuing to work on moving the shop from the garage to the basement and - oh yeah - cleaning out that litter box. Maybe next week I will have another project to show you. Maybe a boat!!!
(Dream on.)
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