Category Archives: Minnesota

Leave no trace behind except your footprints and your memories

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Jacksprinter’s Sunday post is valuable. Something we find and hold near and dear to our hearts.  It could be money. It could be land. It could be freedom. Or it could be memories. For me, there is nothing more valuable than my childhood memories of our annual fall trip to climb Eagle Mountain. A tradition that started a lifelong love of nature, togetherness, family, and hiking.  

Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota, will always hold a special place in my heart. Located in the northeastern part of Minnesota at the start of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Wilderness, it is one of the best kept secrets in the Midwest. Pristine forests, magical untouched lakes and impressive wildlife are all the wonderful things you will find along the trail.

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

As a child, I hiked this trail every single fall with my family, until I moved away to college. It was a family tradition that I will never forget and is held deep within my most precious, sacred memories of childhood. The fall colors once we reached the top were an artistic tapestry of brilliant hues of pumpkin orange, golden yellow and crimson red. If I close my eyes, I can almost see it now.  Almost.

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Hiking around Cascade River Falls

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Author’s note: I’m back to my series on our long weekend at the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. To read recent posts in this series, click here.

One of the most popular State Parks along Lake Superior’s North Shore is Cascade River State Park. Located about 10 miles southwest of Grand Marais, Minnesota this park offers spectacular waterfall views and rushing rapids of root beer-colored Cascade River.  There are over 18 miles of trails within the park and it also meets up with the 286-mile long Superior Hiking Trail.  There is a wide variety of flora and fauna to be discovered but what I enjoyed most was the sounds and sights of the roaring river and multiple waterfalls.

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Second attempt at Carlton Peak

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Author’s note:  This is the second post on our hike up Carlton Peak in Northeastern Minnesota. In case you haven’t heard, the most devasting, damaging floods in history have recently struck this part of Minnesota.  Over 100 million dollars of damage is estimated.  Roads are closed, homes and universities are flooded.  Even the zoo was impacted with a dozen animals drown and the dramatic rescue of a seal and a polar bear who escaped the escalating flood waters.  Let’s keep our thoughts and prayers in mind for the people impacted by this devastation.  To read full updated article, click here. 

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A touch of nature along Lake Superior’s North Shore

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Our first morning along Lake Superior’s North Shore wasn’t looking too promising.  Dark clouds had rolled in over the lake and we could hear the low rumble of distant thunder all the way across to Wisconsin. I sat out on the oversized verandah, sipping my morning juce (mi gasolina, as it was nicknamed during my recent trip to Guatemala) and listening to the dramatic, haunting call of the loons.

If you have never heard a loon before, then you probably don’t know what their song is like.  One you hear it, you will never forget.  It is perhaps one of the most beautiful, melodic sounds I’ve ever heard. To prove it, see for yourself.   Click below, close your eyes and listen.  It is a cry you will never forget. A beautiful mourning wail…

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A Night on the North Shore

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We arrived on the North Shore of Lake Superior mid-afternoon on a Thursday. The weather was perfect and amazingly cool compared to Minneapolis, just a few hours south. We made a few stops along the way to Gooseberry Falls and also pulled over to take a shot of the most photographed site in Minnesota, the Split Rock Lighthouse.

The air was fresh and pure. The brilliant blue waters of Lake Superior glistened in the sun. I could hardly wait to get to our destination, a log cabin along the shores of the lake, and spend a weekend relaxing, hiking and doing what I love best: Enjoying nature and being together with family. There couldn’t be a more ideal place for it than here.

The Split Rock Lighthouse.

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Photography: If a rose could last forever

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Remember back in early and mid-Spring, I did a series of posts on the perennial gardens over near Lake Harriet?  (click here to see most recent post). I found some delightful surprises that captivated my soul and I’ve gone back several times since to see what new has come up.

The biggest attraction of all of course is the Rose Garden which blooms each summer in hundreds of colors and types of roses.  When it is in full bloom, it is perhaps one of the most beautiful places in the city.

I’d been watching the Rose Garden often during my daily runs around the lake and nothing  had transpired since the last time I’d checked.  However, Monday was entirely different.  Sophia and I set off on a bike ride along the lakes and on our way home I noticed a blur of color as we passed by the Rose Garden.  I wondered out loud….is it ready?

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Destination North Shore: Our first stop along the way of Lake Superior

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The state of Minnesota may have some severely cold winters, yet one thing that makes up for it is the fact that we do have lakes.  Lots of them.  Recent estimates have put Minnesota’s lakes in the 11,000-13,000 range, depending on what you count as a body of water.  Lakes not only provide us with water but with everlasting, pure beauty and recreation.  You can hardly drive anywhere without seeing a lake.

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New Blooms at the Trial Gardens

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Over the weekend, we had our good friends in town from Chicago and wanted to give them a tour of our lovely neighborhood in Southwest Minneapolis.  After stopping at my favorite coffee shop Patisserie 46 to get a cup of mi gasolina we headed towards the Rose and Trial Gardens near Lake Harriet.

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A springtime visit to the Bird Sanctuary and Trial Gardens

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Last Friday, we finally had a sunny day!  As they love to say in Minnesota, April showers bring May flowers.  However, this year due to an extremely early arrival of Spring, things have played out a little bit differently. The flora that we would normally be seeing in mid-May has come about a month early and is peaking now.

Remember that post I did on the gorgeous Spring flowers I saw last month in Virginia?  Well, those same lovely flowers such as the crab apple and cherry trees, tulips, daffodils and irises are now blooming here.  Even the wonderfully, fragrant purple lilacs are in bloom sweeping a delicious, sweet smell into my house.  The only thing left to come are the peonies.

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Photography: From Minnesota with love

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I couldn’t help myself. I am overwhelmed by the beauty of spring and the delightful array of colorful spring flowers.

I believe strongly that nature can heal you.  Enlighten you.  And brighten your soul.  I was drawn to visit the Minnesota Arboretum in the outlying suburbs for an afternoon of photo taking and embracing the beauty of mother nature’s rebirth and revival.

Hope you enjoy!  No worries, too.  After this post, I’m back to Guatemala with a visit to some of Antigua’s famous ruins!  

The tulips were so brilliant, they hurt my eyes. 

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The Power of Flowers: Spring in Minnesota

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When I was planning out my travel schedule this year, it never occurred to me that I would have the fortuitous opportunity of experiencing three Springs.  Spring is one of my favorite times of year.  After a long, cold, brutal, colorless winter suddenly there is a huge rebirth of color and everything comes to life.  This rebirth of life brings so much joy to me that at times I find myself engulfed in absolute spring fever madness.

I can’t concentrate.  I can’t stand to be indoors.  My heart and soul are bursting with energy to be outside and to be alive once again.  I want to run faster.  I want to breathe freer.  My soul is begging me to be outside, experiencing the thrill of mother nature at her finest.

Photo of tulip bursting with color and brightness and growing towards the sun…

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Itchy eyes and the early arrival of a Minnesota spring

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Spring has come a month early this year in Minnesota.  After an unseasonably warm winter with hardly any snow to amply cover the ground or build a snowman, Spring has launched full force in what most people consider “Minne-snowta“.

The ice off nearby city lakes such as my beloved Lake Harriet faded into our memories almost a month early.  The trees are in full bloom and the allergy index is high. My eyes are itching, my nose is running and I have desperately scrambled to unpack my summer cloths while the temperatures soar on average 30-40 degrees higher than normal.  The average high for today of 44 degrees F is a long ago memory as each and every day another record is set and it feels like June.

In fact, it seems like we just skipped past Spring all together and jumped into summer.  But the telltale signs of the trees, bushes and flowers in full bloom reminds me that yes it is still spring.  The spectacular showing of brilliant reborn green has been making my eyes water as I marvel at their sensational beauty and watch the world around me come back to life.   It gives me joy, inspiration and miraculous hope for the future as I witness the rebirth of Spring and embrace the phenomenal changing of the seasons that encompass the circle of life.  

Here are some of my favorite photos I took today during my morning walk around Minnehaha Creek and Lake Harriet nearby my home.  

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