— 29 Comments

A Hike up to Iceland’s Newest Volcano: Fagradalsfjall

On July 29, our family of four took our first trip out of the country since before the pandemic to the magical, surreal landscape of Iceland. I had first visited Iceland back in 2008 with my father and was spellbound by her unearthly beauty and astonishing mystique. While I had wanted to return to this phenomenal country and explore it more, the idea quite frankly did not pop back into my head until late in the Spring when our family had all been fully vaccinated and heard the news that Iceland with its small population of roughly 368,792 hearty souls was welcoming back vaccinated tourists. As someone who follows travel news closely, Iceland’s clever tourism pitch got my attention.

Icelandair has long had direct flights from Minneapolis to Keflavík, and to meet the increase in demand, Delta Airlines also launched a non-stop flight from my home town airport as well. The flight to Iceland from Minneapolis is roughly six hours. The only downfall is that the flight is too short to really get any sleep and the time change is a difficult five hours ahead meaning jet lag was going to be an issue that first day. The good news is we would have nine full days to adjust.

The route from Minneapolis to Iceland takes you directly over Greenland. The view was jaw-dropping!

CULTURE Family Travel Iceland TRAVEL TRAVEL BY REGION
George Floyd Murals on Hennepin Ave South Minneapolis
— 7 Comments

Minneapolis: As the world watches, we wait

It is hard to believe that it has almost been a year since that fateful late spring day in May on the corner of Cup Foods, roughly three miles away from my house. For the past eleven months, like most Minneapolitans we have struggled to understand the trauma that has happened in our beloved city. And now here we are once again, with our stores boarded up, police and National Guard patrolling our city, awaiting in anxiety over what the verdict will be. While we pray for justice and peace, we wonder what will become of our city. Minneapolis is not a bad place. Yes, it has many problems but so does so many other places around the world. Racism exists everywhere and always has. Dismantling such a powerful system will take generations and generations of hard, relentless work. While I have so many opinions about what is going on and wish I felt that I could share them,  I also have hope. Hope in our children who understand a lot more than I ever did at that age. So, as we await the verdict we will pray for a better future for all.

While many of these incredibly powerful murals have disappeared, their messages still remain strong.

George Floyd Mural at Cub Foods (38th and Chicago in Minneapolis).

George Floyd Mural at Cup Foods (38th and Chicago in Minneapolis).

George Floyd Murals on Hennepin Ave South Minneapolis

CULTURE
— 10 Comments

One Year In: Life in a Pandemic

Last week marks one year since I penned my fateful post Life in the Midst of a Pandemic, as the first case of COVID-19 came to my home state of Minnesota, and life as we had known it was gone. The pandemic had officially arrived and the world had come to a roaring, startling stop as country after country, state after state, and store after store shut down and such simple commodities as toilet paper, hand wipes and bleach became rare commodities worthy of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. From home office-ing in your yoga pants to home schooling at the dining room table to do-it-yourself haircuts, Netflix binges, new found hobbies and Zoom call and Zoom call and Zoom call, slowly we molded into the bland, isolation and routine of a lonely, colorless pandemic life.

While I’ve picked up my pen many times throughout the past year, trying to capture everything that I’ve felt over this rollercoaster of a crazy ride, the moment I tried to put ink to paper I stopped, paralyzed by an overwhelming weight of inertia and ennui. My thoughts unclear, my feelings murky, and at times simply lost. How do I want to remember this past year and look back? So much has been lost and there has been so much pain.

Then you throw in the violent death of George Floyd roughly two miles from my home, riots, protests, and one of the most divisive elections in U.S. history, and my once talkative soul has been left utterly speechless. Too much to process, too much to try to understand and too much pain. It certainly has been one hell of a year! But without wanting to dwell and get too depressing, there is also a silver lining of hope.

For me personally, I look at this past year as a total reset. It has given me a lot of time to think, and also do some of those things I’ve always wanted to do like take that darn Spanish class, fix up the house, and quite frankly spend more time just being instead of always doing. Getting used to the uncomfortable, the isolation, and dread of routine. Spending more time together as a family of four while missing deeply our extended family and friends. It has also been a time for reflection and to be grateful for everything I’ve been able to do so far and all I’ve been able to see of this amazing planet.

CULTURE
Mount Rushmore
— 4 Comments

January 6, 2021

January 6, 2021 is a day that Americans and much of the world will never forget. After the numbing, emotional rollercoaster of the past ten months of a global pandemic, racial tensions, riots, violence, economic hardship and political madness, we arrived at the biggest threat on our democracy in modern times.

As we watched with horror and disbelief, our nation fell on one of the darkest moments in history. Four days later I’m still trying to comprehend and digest what had happened and wonder where on earth our future lies.

5344 34th Ave South
CULTURE
Eagle River, Michigan
— 22 Comments

Nevertheless, She Persisted: Welcoming 2021 with Cautious Hope

As we finally close the door to an immensely challenging, dark 2020, it is time to once again renew ourselves for a new year. A fresh start and hopefully a break from a very difficult, painful year. I debated over and over again if I even had the emotional strength to pen a blog post. But in the end, I decided that I can’t give up and it is time to restore my optimism and hope for a brighter, less complicated new year ahead.

As I look back over the past year, like everyone, it was an emotional rollercoaster filled with many ups and downs. It was frightening, angering and at many times difficult to even comprehend. Yet through those trying months, there were sprinkles of happiness and a somewhat peaceful realization of the utter importance of living each day as it comes, not thinking ahead or dwelling on the past. On enjoying and being grateful for the positive things in our lives and blessed for our family, our friends, our health and most of all, this incredible life we’ve been given.

2020 brought so many changes in the world and has impacted each one of us in our own lives. For me, 2020 meant a lot of changes. I stopped blogging, traveling, seeing my family and the people I love. I went from always running around and doing things I love to being at home almost all the time except for walks and grocery shopping. I’ve tried to settle my restless soul with finding peace in the little things and the beauty of nature and family. It has been a trying, emotionally complicated year but nevertheless, I persisted.

CULTURE
Northernair Lodge, Ely MN
— 48 Comments

When COVID hits your home

It started as a cough. At first, we thought nothing of it except that it was our 15-year old son’s normal fall cold. He gets a bad cold every single year and it always starts with a cough and then a stuffy nose. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except that this cold was about a month earlier.

Besides the cough, our son was fine and continued to get up to do his online school. Over the weekend, we hosted our usual small “bubble” of friends at our house, one of my daughter’s friends and our neighbor, the small group who we have been hanging out with since the pandemic began. We told them about Max’s cough but honestly thought nothing of it. We live in a city of a million people and out of everyone we knew, only one person in our circle of friends had tested positive for COVID. It still felt like something we only read about every day in the newspaper but that hadn’t truly reached us.

Like most of my family and friends, we have spent the past eight months following all the Covid rules and living a pretty boring, isolated life. We wear masks everywhere (thankfully it is a state mandate), my husband works from home, we don’t go out to eat indoors at a restaurant, have not flown anywhere, don’t go to the gym or do anything considered risky. We have hardly socialized with friends except for outside, socially distanced. Since March, we have basically lived a very sheltered, limited life and have only allowed our small bubble inside our home. The only risk we took was allowing both of our teenage kids to play outdoor sports. I had felt as a parent that so much has been taken away from them, and sports was the one thing they had left. The risk was small since they were outdoors but it was there.

Despite all the precautions we took, somehow Covid made it to our house, and when I got the call from our doctor that my son tested positive, I was completely shocked and terrified.

CULTURE
George Floyd Mural at Cub Foods (38th and Chicago in Minneapolis).
— 31 Comments

The George Floyd Murals of Minneapolis: A Demand for Justice, Hope and a Better Humanity

This is a developing story and I will be updating it regularly with new murals as they go up around the city. While not every mural is not of George Floyd, I used the liberty to call them the George Floyd murals because every single one of these murals has been painted since his tragic murder on May 25th. Please check back often and let me know if I am missing any murals. My goal is to document the murals throughout the city over the coming months. I will also interview muralists and artists to learn as much as I can about why them. Therefore, as I receive more information I will update the accuracy of this post. Finally, if you plan on visiting these murals, please do so with humility and respect. There have been many complaints from residents that George Floyd’s memorial site at 38th and Chicago has become a “tourist attraction” which is not at all what it is meant to be. Please be respectful. If you would like to make a donation to one of the many social justice groups in our city, I am including a list at the end of this post. Thank you. 

May 25, 2020.  A life is tragically taken. A local and then global protest began demanding justice and systemic change. A movement begins. George Floyd is just one of the countless other people who have been a victim of violence, racial injustice, suffering, and pain.

Monday, May 25th is a day that changed my city, Minneapolis, forever. That tragic day, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds outside of Cup Foods on 38th and Chicago. Following Floyd’s brutal murder, thousands took to the streets of Minneapolis, some peaceful others violent, demanding justice for George Floyd, systemic change, and hope for a better, more just world where black lives not only matter but are treated with equality and respect.

Without diving into all the social justice and moral issues of George Floyd’s death and the immense racial inequalities in our city, our country, and our world, I want to use this space as a living museum to document the incredible art that is going up on the boarded-up businesses around our city. Artists are using their voice to demand social justice, antiracism, systemic change, and hope by painting powerful murals all throughout Minneapolis.

George Floyd Mural at Cub Foods

George Floyd Mural at Cub Foods (38th and Chicago in Minneapolis).

What started as a cry of outrage for the brutal death of George Floyd outside of Cup Foods has grown into a citywide movement of representing pain, suffering, tragedy, and hope. It is my commitment to document and share this voice throughout the coming months. I will be updating this post with finished pieces of art and new murals on a regular basis, and I will also be speaking with local communities to learn more about what each piece means and who created it. It is my commitment to myself, my children, and my community that together we can make this city and world a place where all people are treated equally with humility and respect. A country where every single human being is treated with freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

Powderhorn 

38th Street and Chicago Ave South

One of the first and now most renowned murals to be painted as a tribute and call to justice for George Floyd was done shortly after he was killed by Good Space Murals artists Niko Alexander, Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain, Xena Goldman, Pablo Helm Hernandez.  The artists began painting the mural three days after Floyd was killed on the side of Cup Foods and completed it in less than 12 hours. For the artists, it was a way for them to heal and demand justice for George Floyd. Today, this site continues to have peaceful protesters and those coming to pay their respect often leaving flowers. There are also ways to donate to community initiatives and outreach for those impacted by the protests. Several community groups have set up pop up food shelves and are collecting canned food items and essential supplies. More murals are going up around the Powderhorn neighborhood and I hope to document them soon.

George Floyd Mural at Cub Foods (38th and Chicago in Minneapolis).

George Floyd Mural at Cup Foods (38th and Chicago in Minneapolis).    

CULTURE
Street Art Minneapolis
— 22 Comments

My Heart is Broken for My Minneapolis

The last week has been utterly heartbreaking and traumatic as we’ve watched our city fall apart. My family is all physically safe however our hearts are broken and it will take years and years to rebuild our city. Instead of focusing on all the scary, heart-wrenching news, I wanted to share a post I published two years ago that shares some of the beautiful multicultural street art that paints these very neighborhoods which have been destroyed. As we slowly start to mend and rebuild as a city, I hope that these murals will bring a sense of culture, community and much-needed hope in such dark days of grief, pain, and heartbreak. As soon as things calm down, I will add the new George Flloyd mural that has gone up at 38th and Chicago. 

Street Art Minneapolis

CULTURE
Northernair Lodge, Ely Minnesota
— 51 Comments

Hello from Minnesota

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them”. – Rabindranath Tagore

It is rather unbelievable how much our lives can change in a matter of weeks and even days at this point. As the world moves into the unimaginable lockdown, many of us are feeling scared, isolated and anxious about the future. I read a post from a fellow travel blogger, Lexi of One Foot Out the Door called Hello from Houston and it sparked a glimmer of hope and connection in this uncertain, unprecedented time. Wouldn’t it be nice if more of us checked in and shared with each other what we are all going through in our own parts of the world? Maybe it would bring us more together and help us feel less alone? Without further ado, here is my own “Hello From Minnesota” update. While honestly, this post is a far cry from any of my travel writing, I feel like it is the least I can do right now to feel connected to my online community.

Please share with me your story. If you write your own “Hello from” post, please share a link in the comments as it would be nice to start a thread of messages from around the world.

I’d love to know how everyone is doing. Stay well!

Mitchell Lake, Ely MN

Hello from Minneapolis, Minnesota my home of over twenty years where we are blessed with a cosmopolitan city and a state of over 10,000 lakes.

As I sit here at my desk in my home office, I think how bizarre it is to be entering our second full week of the “new normal” with my entire family working and learning from home under one roof. My son’s high school was the first to close indefinitely on Friday, March 13th and my daughter’s middle school was next. A few days after, every school in the entire state was ordered to close until May but I’m wondering if that is even realistic. Meanwhile, my husband’s office officially closed and locked their doors last week and he has been working in his home office in our basement. It feels so odd to all be under one roof 24/7! But it also brings me peace in this isolating, scary time.

While we aren’t on a “shelter in place” order yet (this starts tomorrow, Friday March 27th until April 10th) we are told to stay home and if we do venture out to social distance of the standard six feet. Our restaurants and bars have closed until at least May but again probably longer. Malls and theaters shut down while more and more stores are trying to offer order online and curb side pick up. The streets are empty of traffic yet on nice days it feels like everyone has come out of hibernation and is walking around our lakes (which is a problem with social distancing!).

Almost two weeks into the “new normal”  is not only hard to believe but mentally hard. I keep re-reading all the quotes I have on mental toughness and strength to get me through this pandemic without losing hope. I also have truly tried to stop reading too much news as it just seems to increase my anxiety levels. I have always been a worrywart and it is hard to not be one right now. Yet on the positive light, I feel so blessed to live in a state with amazing leadership by our governor and excellent health care and businesses that are all doing whatever they can to help out. Medtronic is making more ventilators, 3M is ramping up their mask production, and Mayo Clinc is helping with the backlog of tests. Minnesotans are stepping in to help the vulnerable by donating food items, creating makeshift food pantries, volunteering and more. I have never felt so proud to be a part of this community. We are all in this together.

Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Since this all began, I have realized how much of my normal everyday life that I took for granted. Yes it was too busy. Yes it was a bit crazy, but it was my life and I loved it.

The morning early rises to drive my son to school. Listening to music and the radio in the car while I ran my errands. The ease of going grocery shopping or the delight of going out to eat with friends. Seeing my community. Going anywhere besides being stuck in the house save my daily walks. It is unimaginable how much our lives have all changed and how quickly. If I think about it for too long I know I will start to cry.

As we prepare to really hunker down even more before our two week order to stay home except if absolutely necessary I remind myself in such difficult times like these what I’m grateful for:

  • Getting outside for a walk each day in nature and seeing people I know from afar has been wonderful.
  • Lots and lots of family time while we are all cooped up in the house.
  • Making slow cooker meatballs and other homemade treats with the kids.
  • The birds are singing and Spring is on its way meaning I can spend more time outside after a long winter.
  • More Zoom, Skype and Facetime calls with friends and family around the world.
  • An overall feeling of a stronger community. I am encouraged by how much we’ve all been able to come together.
  • Food, shelter, water and love.
  • My home. My Minnesota.

Mitchell Lake, Ely MN

Things that I miss and will be so thrilled to be able to do again someday:

  • My extended family! We all live so far apart and all across the US. I long to be near them but simply can’t for awhile.
  • Being out and about. I have never been a homebody and have always had a hard time being in the house for an entire day. This has been a real test for me to find joy in being “trapped” inside my house when I long to be out wandering about and part of something bigger than my home.
  • Travel. Travel. Travel. This is a selfish thing to miss in a time like this one but travel has always been the one things that I love so much besides my family. I am not sure when travel will resume again but I am so incredibly blessed to have been able to do what I’ve done over the years.
  • My community. From the restaurants to the coffee shops to the stores and schools and even my gym. I sure miss seeing each and every person that makes up my community.
  • My travel work and blogging. I was just getting started working with some really amazing travel outfitters around the world but that has dried up as has my travel writing.

So like I said above, this is not by any means an excellent piece of writing but it is writing from my heart. I want everyone who reads this to know that I am thinking of you all, wherever you are in the world. Please let me know how you are doing. I will leave with this quote, a silver lining to this difficult time.

“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value – the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it’s all about”. – Joseph Campbell

Update: I’m going to keep a running list here of fellow bloggers who are updating us from around the world on what their lives have been like and the impact. It is a great way to keep us all connected. Please check out their posts and offer words of encouragement. We are all in this together! 

Hello From Houston – One Foot Out the Door

Silver Linings in the Storm – Plus Ultra

Joburg COVID-19 :Lockdown Journal Day 1 – 2Summers

In the Time of Corona – In Flow with Otto

Hello From New Hampshire – RoarLoud

Hello From Fort Lauderdale – Heidi Siefkas 

Hello From Northern Virginia – EAt. Live. Stay. Will Travel For Food

Hello from Lancashire, UK – Starting from the Middle

Hello from Florida! A New Appreciation of Home – Fit, Life, Travel

Hello from Bergen – In Flow with Otto

Thoughts in Uncertain Times – What’s in my brain as New Zealand experiences the international civil emergency in New Zealand that is COVID-19

Something to Ponder About

Ditch Digging – Linda Hensely 

Hello from Equador – Zeebra Designs and Destinations

Hello from Lockdown in New Zealand – Travel Bugs World

 

If you have written a similar post, please let me know and I will share.

CULTURE
Base Camp 2, Machete Route, Mount Kilimanjaro Tanzania
— 4 Comments

Finding Moxie in the Midst of Uncertain Times

Moxie. Determination, courage, or nerve. A force of character to contend with. The ability to be active and move.

Moxie is the name of the workout studio I joined this past fall when I was feeling isolated working from home and in search of a new community. Like almost everything else around me, Moxie Movement Studio has closed yet the lessons I learned there are even more important than ever in the midst of these uncertain, unprecedented times. But let me back up a bit and tell the story about finding my moxie.

For the past 15 years, I have been a dedicated mom, volunteer and devoted to my local community school where my kids attended for almost a decade. I made a wonderful world of friends and built an incredible community. Then life happened. My kids grew up, moved on to new schools and so did I or at least I thought. I never realized how important and essential my community was to me until it was gone. It was especially evident as I began spending more time alone, working at home. I was isolated and lonely. It became obvious that I needed a new community for this phase of my life.

I searched and searched all throughout last year testing out many different “communities” to find my place but nothing truly took hold. I tried volunteering more, going to a coworking office space and frequenting a community coffee shop to work at (which I loved until it closed). Then, out of the blue, I found Moxie.

I heard about Moxie Movement Studio from a friend in the community who had tried it out and loved it. At first, I was quite skeptical as I’m not a gym person and prefer to be outside in the fresh air and nature as opposed to being crammed in a smelly gym. But I was desperate to get my endorphins flowing again especially since I had to quit running. In the midst of middle age and a passion for being active, I knew I had to find a cure to get my body and mind flowing again and perhaps find a new community. I had to find my Moxie.

CULTURE
— 24 Comments

Life in the midst of a pandemic: Keep Calm and Carry On

Wow, so much has changed since I penned my last post on the coronavirus. From a major concern to a global pandemic life as many of us know it has indefinitely changed. I would be lying if I wasn’t filled with worry or concern about all of the uncertainties of how this will all play out. So much is unknown. However, I am trying my best to keep calm and carry on. That is all we can do in such unnerving times.

While toilet paper has officially run out at most stores, and life is slowly but inevitably shutting down, it just all feels surreal. As I try to go about my day to day business, I’m constantly reminded even from the pet food supplier of what I need to do to prepare for the dreaded virus. You can’t escape it no matter what you try to do. Turn on your computer and log on to email, it is there. Turn on your car radio, it is there. Schools, gyms, museums and even churches have closed. Offices have advised employees to work from home. Every day something unexpected shuts down. Even going to the grocery store feels odd while shoppers hurriedly rush through the aisles, stocking up on supplies that could last a year, and God forbid, you accidentally cough and then come those accusatory looks of fear that you may have it. I feel like we are living out a bad dream.  It is simply not like anything we have collectively ever experienced in our lifetime.

CULTURE
— 20 Comments

Travel in the Age of Coronavirus

To Travel or not to travel. That is the question.

We’ve all been following the news of the spread of the Coronavirus. It is hard not to. With the overload of information coming out online it is hard to ignore it and also at times hard to not fall into the media hype and worry. What makes matters worse is that every single day the situation is changing and there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty about how this will all play out. The shelves at the store are running bare of hand sanitizer, hand sanitation wipes, canned goods, and even toilet paper. Doctors’ offices and clinics are resorting to hiding their once free face masks since people are running out the door with them. Grocery stores are passing out hand sanitizer wiped down grocery carts, and the list goes on.

The World Health Organization warned that panic buying and market manipulation are depriving health workers with the supplies they need to fight the virus while others are profiting by buying all the supplies up and making money off the panic by selling marked-up face masks on eBay.  Life in the age of coronavirus has become for some people clear pandemonia and for others a wait and see approach. While the situation is alarming, I am tending to lean more towards the wait and see how this all unravels before stocking up my basement with supplies and going off the deep end of fear. I also am doing my homework and reading good, reliable articles on the situation so I can remain educated and informed.

So what do we do when it comes to travel? Obviously, I’m not going to go to a place that has a large outbreak however I’d be lying if I wasn’t the slightest bit concerned about getting on a long haul flight or a cruise ship with a bunch of strangers. Fifteen years ago I caught full-blown influenza from the passenger next to me who was slouching in his seat and coughing all over the place. It was the sickest I have ever been to this day but I recovered. No one in my family got it. I never wore a mask. I didn’t wipe down the house. But I washed my hands and stayed home in bed, away from people that I could spread it to (which was my biggest fear). Since that day, I have always gotten my flu shot, washed my hands frequently and followed basic hygiene that you always should do regardless of an epidemic.

As of now, I’d get on the plane and fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you want to look at it) we have an international flight approaching soon for Spring Break. But it is hard to know how I’ll feel this summer as we have a cruise booked leaving from Rome in June. Do we panic and cancel now? Of course not. First of all, it is hard to know what will happen. No one knows. It could all simmer down with warmer weather or else it could become a lot worse and a lot will change. Second of all, if we canceled all our travel plans now, we would lose an awful lot of money and things may be fine to go by the time the trip comes.  While we purchased trip insurance (I always do for every trip)  I did not purchase “cancel for any reason” which I have sometimes booked in the past. Cancel for any reason is the only travel insurance that will cover something like coronavirus.

So for now, all I can do is “keep calm and travel on”. The future like with anything is uncertain.

Instead of reading the “Breaking News” headlines, I stay connected to real news and have found these resources very helpful for keeping informed of this constantly changing situation. Here are a few of the best resources out there:

CULTURE