Category Archives: TRAVEL BY REGION

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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The Doors of Guatemala

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Doors are fascinating. They are also quite mysterious for who knows what lies behind the doors of a place. They are the gatekeeper when closed. Yet when opened, they offer you a look into a whole new world of possibilities inside.

When I think of doors, there is one place in particular in which I was utterly blown away by the doors:  Guatemala. This colorful country had perhaps some of the most unusual and interesting doors I’d ever seen during my travels. For those of you who have been following my blog, you have already seen these photos. However, I decided to spruce them up a little by playing around with the colors.

Come, take a walk with me and admire some of my favorite doors I found…..


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A trip around Andalusia: The route

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I promised I would move on to my next series and here it is: Sumptuous Spain!  I am digging back through my archives a bit as I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from readers on it.  So, I am going to go for it even though (a) The trip was 8 years ago (b) I had to scan every single picture as it was before I had a digital camera, and (c) I am going off my old, leather-bound travel journal as memory.  (My own brain is way too foggy for a trip in 2004, especially after two kids). 

Thus all in all, this series of posts will not be anywhere near as detailed as my recent ones on Guatemala, China, Nepal, Morocco, Costa Rica or Argentina, all relatively recent travels.  But on the bright side of things I don’t have many pictures or stories written down thus it will mostly be a few fond memories per city.  So here goes nothing, Hasta Spain!

Photo credit: Wikipedia Free Commons

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A return to Iceland

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I felt like I needed to spice my blog up a bit.  Lately I’ve done an awful lot of posts on Minnesota and even have another one in the queue.  When I started this blog it was mostly for sharing my stories and photos from traveling somewhere else.  Yet I came to realize that many of my readers have never even been to Minnesota and perhaps don’t realize how incredibly beautiful it really is.  Hence my recent focus on places around the land of lakes (we do have over 13,000!).

This morning I wanted to share some photos I’ve reworked from my trip to Iceland back in the summer of 2008.  Iceland truly appealed to me.  It has all the nature you could ever desire, loads of hikes, and not many people.  I found a lot of peace and serenity in such a beautiful, magical place.  It is my hope that I can return someday as there is much to see in this gorgeous land.

Here are some photos that will help illustrate what I mean.  Hope you enjoy!

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The Magic of Torres del Paine revisited

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Lately I’ve been having fun playing around with new iPhone applications like Snapseed and Instagram.  For a novice photographer, these photo processing applications are a ton of fun.  You just snap away and can process the picture into amazingly different styles right at your fingertips.

Since early spring, I’ve been using my iPhone a lot to take pictures, mostly of flowers.  One reason is that it is so easy and portable.  I always have it with me usually in my pocket.  Another reason is that my iPhone actually zooms much better than my small, pocket-sized Canon Elph.  I must admit that I am no professional photographer.  I just love to take pictures during my travels and am actively working on getting better at it.

Besides using Snapseed for photos I’ve taken with my iPhone, I’ve also began using it to revisit older pictures I’ve taken from the past such as these ones I took back in 2003 in Patagonia.  These photos were scanned since I didn’t have a digital camera at the time.   I took these files and imported them into my iPhone into Snapseed and here is what I came up with.  Not bad, huh?

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