Trying to Find Spring

Here's what I woke up to this morning.

It's beautiful, but it's also April 23. Enough already!

This helps readers understand why I went looking for spring by driving a bit further south.

Last November I also did this when the weather was warmer and did a walk in Des Moines. I had planned to also do the West Des Moines walk the next day, but winter arrived. I though a warmer day another time would be much better idea. I'm so glad I waited, for this walk didn't turn out to be what I expected. It would have been a miserable experience on a cold November day.

This walk is also named Valley Junction and I expected the route would take me through an interesting shopping area. Instead I did 10 K in residential areas, housing that appeared to be built post World War II lacking any kind of interesting architecture.

What helped a bit were surprises I found in a couple of yards. Somewhere beyond the 5K point these wooden sculptures surprised me.

These are both made from wood, obviously a very talented person did these. There were not any signs to explain anything about the objects.

While I was not enjoying scenic sights along this walk, I did find green grass and flowers.

I could have been home in the snow. Instead I added another 10 K to my distance records and added W to the Walking the USA book.

Adventures in Indianola

Today I enjoyed a French toast breakfast at the hotel

and then drove about 20 miles south to Indianola. Indianola has a population of about 15,000. The town was founded in 1849, three years after Iowa became a state. A Wikipedia article says the town was named after a town of the same name in Texas. (Indianola, Texas is now a ghost town, destroyed by a hurricane.)

The temperature early this morning was about 33 and there was a stiff wind blowing. I'm certainly in denial of the weather. I should have brought along a hat and gloves, had a winter coat. 

I went to Indianola to do a Volksmarch, picking this one to go in my Walking the USA for the letter, I. The walk box is located at Jiffy Express. I found the clerk at the counter here to be especially helpful.

I found the map and decided to do a 5K look that went around the Simpson College campus.

The route first went on city streets by an old Carnegie Library.

Indianola now has a new library, and this building is used by the Des Moines Area Opera. Walks often go by a Carnegie Library because some walkers keep track of how many of these buildings they can find.

The route took me north. I noticed a squirrel run and especially noticed it for it was a different color than the ones I see in Minnesota.  I was able to get this photo of this inquisitive fellow.

Soon I found myself on the campus of the college. Simpson was founded in 1860. It has many old buildings and also some quite new buildings.

This is College Hall. A careful look at the flags will show the American flag is at half-mast in honor of those killed in the Boston Marathon bombing.

I wandered into the library and found some interesting displays of old objects related to the college's history.

This is a set of Dresden china, owned by a music professor in the 1920s. It has a motif of buildings from the campus on the pieces.

And here's a band uniform from the 1950s.

I noticed some flowers! These are the first spring flowers I've seen outdoors this year.

Near this area I noticed this window in a old building.

With further investigation I learned this is a Science Building, built in 1889. And much to my surprise, one of the first students here was George Washington Carver.  Carver went on to finish his baccalaureate degree at Iowa State University, the first African-American student who graduated from the University.

The walk next took me by Buxton Park.

 This will be more lovely later in the spring and summer, but it looked good to me for we are seeing piles of white in Minnesota, rather than green grass.

I walked a large rectangle path north of the park and then back to the campus. Then the walk took me through a residential area. Glad to have been routed there, for in this neighborhood I saw something I've never seen before:

yes, indeed -- pink garbage cans. I noticed these by many houses in this neighborhood.

I was getting interested now for a break. The route took me through the downtown area and I spotted Uncommon Grounds. I decided to go there for a coffee and also got a half sandwich. All was good and I think I made a good choice for there was a steady line of people coming into this shop to pick up their lunch.

Leaving the coffee shop, this window caught my eye.

This building is now occupied by a law firm. It appeared that some kind of sign had been removed over the front door, this I have no idea about how old is this building nor what was its original use.

The last four blocks back to the start point were cold. In the time I was in the coffee shop the sun disappeared and gray clouds blew in. I was glad the remainder of the walk was very short.

My second adventure occurred a bit up the road.

Above is the National Balloon Museum, this kind of balloon:

Enjoyed a short visit here. I'd never before seen all the equipment that goes with the balloons, nor did I know anything about balloon competitions.

Returned to the Des Moines area and decided to try to find the Jordan Creek Shopping Center. I found Cheesecake Factory. Haven't been in this restaurant for years.

Enjoyed a lovely salad

and got a piece of cheesecake to bring back to the hotel for later this evening.

Sometimes the Best Adventure is No Adventure

Since Minnesota is having persistent winter I decided to go south for a couple of days. Another "wintery-mix" was forecast to begin yesterday afternoon. Well, at lunch time when I got out of a meeting -- held in a room with no windows-- I was most surprised to see the "wintery-mix" had already arrived. I decided to still go with the plan, but oh so slowly. It wasn't safe to drive much more than 30 mph (48 k). I promised myself to stop in Owatonna for "lunch." Got there about 3 PM. The normal 1.25 hour trip took a bit more than 2 hours.

I saw many vehicles in the ditch, a high percentage were vans. I think the drivers were going too fast for the road conditions and the vans didn't have the right weight for the road conditions.

While stopped in Owatonna, I opened up the web on my phone to see weather radar and could see the snow stopped somewhere on the Minnesota-Iowa border. Sure enough, although sometimes rain continued.

Arrived safely in Des Moines about 6:30 and checked into a hotel. About 8:00 PM I took a very cold walk, maybe only 100 meters to a nearby McDonald's. The temperature was in the mid 30s but the wind was really blowing and it was a cold,cold walk.

Walking in Chanhassen

We are still experiencing winter in Minnesota even though the date is April 12. So I pulled on corduroy slacks, a sweater, boots, and a winter coat and headed for Chanhassen.

According to a Wikipedia entry, Chanhassen is a combination American Indian word that means sugar maple tree. Chanhassen is a southwest suburb of Minneapolis, and according to Wikipedia the median household income is $92,000. This level of income is obvious as one walks about and looks at the homes. Chanhassen is somewhat famous for having the largest professional dinner theater in the United States.

The walk began at a lovely branch of the Carver County library system. Outside I found this lovely sculpture.

The walk continued past shops, not very interesting as they are built in a quite contemporary strip mall style. And I had to keep my eye on the sidewalk, too.

This time of year the sentiment begins to build that  Mother Nature put this here and Mother Nature can take it away!

At the 0.5 mark I found St. Hubert's Church.

Next to it is a late 19th century City Hall building, now apparently an office area for a diet food company.

The walk now turned to a winding street called Frontier Trail. I walked through a housing area built within an area of ravines and hills. The temperature was just at freezing (32F and +1C), but there wasn't any wind, so the walk was actually quite pleasant.

Found a snow man.

These trees are beautiful, but truthfully I would have enjoyed this view more in December than April.

I also caught a glimpse of snow covered Lotus Lake.

5K went by quickly, glad I got out and did a walk!

When done I walked across the street from the library to the Minnesota Grille located in a Bylerly's grocery store. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and sweet potato fries. Later when I got home and got on the Internet, I discovered this was National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. Who knew?

Trying to Find Spring

The meteorologists have taken to calling April in Minnesota persistent winter. I took a walk along the river on Sunday afternoon trying to find any signs of spring.

The sun was out and a rather stiff west wind was blowing. There were many gulls about -- they migrate through here rather than spend the warm season here. I think they were simply having fun gliding the wind.

The one above is obviously resting.

It was a good day, too, for flying a kite.

I saw remains of snow everywhere.

Now today, Tuesday, it's just about all gone. However, as I'm writing the rain is just beginning -- a start of a forecasted two day winter snow storm. Ugh!

Walking in Zumbrota

I've been anxiously waiting for April 1 to come along, for most of the Volksmarches in Minnesota begin on that date. Yesterday I took off for Zumbrota.

Zumbrota is located just a bit more than an hour away from where I live. It is a small town with about 3200 residents. According to the Wikipedia site for this town, the name comes from a combination of the French words for Obstruction River paired with a Dakota Indian word for village, torj. Anyway, it's truly the only Zumbrota in the world. And excellent for Z in my Walking the USA and Walking MN record books.

The walking route begins at the Public Library and then one continues to the nearby Covered Bridge.

 This is the last covered bridge in Minnesota. It is functional now only for bike and foot traffic, but is a very stable structure and the picture below shows.

Next the route map directed one to the bike trail along the river. However, the late spring prevented that plan!

I walked paths and drives parallel to the bike trail as much as I could. The weather was pleasant and it was indeed nice to get outdoors and walk.

The route map I had said I should eventually come out in a residential area. Well, I did, just not certain I was in the right place. I used the GPS map on my phone to get me from where I was to where I should be.

The rest of the walk went quickly. I went by the Carnegie Library building.

This area is now used for arts and concert activities.

Nearby is an old theater.

This theater is also used for the many arts activities that take place in this town.

I also went by the Congregational Church. This church was built in 1861 and has been in continuous use since then. It is now within the National Register of Historic Places.

It was fun to see this town, one I've driven by many times. And it was good to get outdoors again. I live by river trails, but it was fun to see some new sights.

Easter Brunch

almost featured a bit of Europe, too. My older daughter and I went to the Nicollet Island Inn. This Inn is located on a small island between the main channel of the Mississippi River and a small backwater channel.

Here's my daughter while we were waiting to be seated.

We were seated at a table that gave us a nice view of the backwater channel and the little bridge one can cross to get to the area called St. Anthony Main.

Brunch at the Inn is a great experience, for it is five courses, with choices within each course, so each can have an elegant brunch with some favorite foods.

It starts with coffee, juice, and pastry.

For the second course I had a lovely quiche made with cauliflower and cheese. I'd never thought about putting cauliflower in a quiche, but will do so in the future. It is really good!

For this course, my daughter picked Eggs Benedict and ate every bite!

For the third course my daughter choose a salad. I asked for the pea soup.

Pea soup seems so European to me. And the white garnish is celaric cream. I almost sent our waiter off to the kitchen to ask the chef where he had found celaric in Minnesota. We had talked about celaric during my recent stay in Romania and when I saw it mentioned on the menu, I knew I had to have the soup. It was so very good. While I was eating this, my daughter had a serving of meatballs with mashed potatoes. Again every bite disappeared!

My dessert course was saffron rice pudding with blackberry cream.

I think this is the first time I've ever had anything flavored with saffron, and I'm not 100% sure I liked it that much. I would have preferred to have plain white rice with some cinnamon. But at least now I know.

This was a cold day with blustery wind. We picked a lovely way to enjoy sometime together.