Kansas Day

January 29 is Kansas Day! This is the day that Kansas became a state, back in 1861. While not a native Kansan, in the few years I have lived here I have gained an appreciation for the wide-open spaces of the state. Kansas is not only home to many cheesy attractions like the world's largest ball of twine, and the world's largest hand-dug well, but also has lots of neat Oregon Trail sites, the northern most pueblo, one of the only remaining native prairies, some pretty amazing sunflower fields come August, Jayhawk basketball, and the geographic center of the U.S. So, perhaps it's not going to be the number one tourist destination of 2007, but it's interesting if you allow it to be. You can sing the state song "Home on the Range" while checking out these photos from past road trips around the state.




































Supposedly this canyon used to be used as a hideout for wild-west types like Wild Bill Hickok
















The Garden of Eden in Lucas, an homage to populist politics of the early 20th century, and grass-roots art.




















Monument Rocks, which rise out of the flat land, formed by the ancient sea that used to cover the midwest.


Mushroom Rocks

Ski trip 1

In early January we headed up to the North Shore of Lake Superior to go skiing and snowshoeing (see the second post for more on the lack of snowshoeing). We stayed at Lutsen, which is great because of the ski-in/ski-out rooms. The first photo is the view from our balcony, ski trail in the foreground, Lake Superior in the distance. The rest of the photos are a sampling of our three days of skiing, we took a good deal of photos, many of which show one of us as a little blur against the snow, so I opted out of posting those here.

Ski trip 2

After three days of skiing, we had planned on going snowshoeing, but as the temperatures were really warm and there was not much snow (thanks global warming) we took a hike instead. We drove up the Gunflint Trail to Gunflint Lake, which was not even frozen enough to go out on, a first in memory for the locals we talked to! We were fortunate to see a group of deer while we hiked, and a wolf from the car. In the photo of the two of us the lake is visible in the background, and Canada is on the other side.

On our way back from the hike we stopped at Cascade State Park and walked up the trails to see a very nice partially frozen waterfall along the Cascade River.

In recent years it has become a tradition for us to stop at Betty's Pies in Two Harbors on our way home from the Notrh Shore. Not only is the veggieburger amazing, but the pie is delicious too.

St. Louis 1

In the begining of November we took a short weekend trip to St. Louis to celebrate my birthday. While recently rated the most dangerous city in the U.S. (no small feat I'm sure) St. Louis is about 3.5 hours drive from here, and we had only driven through on our way elsewhere (I went when I was a kid).
Our first destination was the Gateway Arch, a 690 foot arch of stainless steel built in the 1960s to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase and the Westward expansion of the U.S. We were not able to get tickets for that evening to go to the top, though, so we just walked around the park and along the Mississippi River for a little while before heading over to our hotel in the downtown loft district.
We had a great dinner (and sake flight!) at an Asian fusion restaurant, Red Moon. I realize it's hilarious to take photos of your food at a nice restaurant, but for a few months now, I've been into documenting meals while traveling. I suppose I could have stranger habits!















The view from our room, toward the arch.

On Sunday morning, we walked over to the arch with a brief coffee stop along the way. To me, the most surprising thing about the arch was the super strict security measures they had in place at the enterance. It was worse than most airport security, they almost made the children behind us cry! Once we were through that though, we waited for our ticket time to ascend to the top in a circular five foot pod with five other people (not sure about the numerology there). This is quite the experience! The four minute ride to the top is cramped, but the view towards Illinois and over the city of St. Louis is quite nice, and it's a neat experience to look down and see the majority of the structure that you are in.

St. Louis 2

We continued our Sunday at the Anheuser-Busch brewery, where we learned that half of the beer drank in the U.S. is A-B, for a total of 1,200 bottles every minute! Although we are not A-B drinkers (it's microbrew at our house), the facility was really interesting, we saw the famous clydesdale horses, and of course we enjoyed our free sample beers and pretzels at the end of the tour.


























After all that big corporate culture, we headed to Shafly's, a local St. Louis microbrewery for a tasty lunch and some different beer! Our last stop was at the St. Louis Art Museum, complete with statue of St. Louis himself out front.

Fall Break

So, I have some catch-up blogging to do. This post is really about our mid-October Fall Break. KU gives us a four day weekend in mid-semester, which turns out to be a good time for a four day weekend, as the leaves are usually changing, but the weather in Kansas is still pleasant. Joe took some time off of work, and we had planned on taking a four day camping trip, but alas, the weather was not with us. So, we instead took a one night camping trip at nearby Clinton Lake State Park, and spent some serious time in the kitchen, making butternut squash ravioli and homemade pasta, as well as pumpkin pie. It was quite the fall feast. In a way it was a nice harvest celebration, as we were using the last of the local organic veggies from our farmer co-op, Rolling Prairie. For those of you not in the know, a farmer co-op is like a vegetable subscription service. We give a downpayment in early Spring, and commit to getting veggies from a group of 8 farmers all season long, which is about half of the year in our climate. Every week we pick up 6-8 servings of seasonal local veggies and pay our fee at the begining of each month. So, we had some pumpkins and squash to use, and the sage in our backyard garden was also in need of use. Anyway, it was fantastic weekend of cooking, camping, hiking, and relaxing. :)

Pets

Ok, so it's not travel related, but I just felt like posting some silly photos of my pets, just because.

Colorado

A little over two weeks ago we headed out West for the Labor Day weekend, driving across the sunflower fields of Kansas to our neighboring state of Colorado. Joe and I found a nice site up in the San Isabel National Forest near the Collegiate Peaks. The great thing about National Forest camping is that it is often free and dispersed-style, essentially meaning you drive along a dirt back-road and camp at a nice spot, though there are no amenities like tables or outhouses, and you have to know where to go either from experience or on the advice of a local. Because of the rugged nature of it, not very many people do it, which is great for us! Our site was a good twenty minute walk from any other people, and had wonderful mountain views. We spent the weekend hiking in the mountains with our dog Montana, and relaxing under the clear skies at our camp. :)