Jobs, snow, and Duluth

Another month, another post it seems! Not many exciting developments, but I have been getting used to my jobs - I've even begun to make friends with some of the girls from Michael's, so that's nice. As introverted as I am it takes me a long time to build friendships, so it's nice that it's starting to happen here.

Sylvan work is still very slow - I've only been working about one day a week. It's become clear that Sylvan is really geared more towards reading than math, so I'm almost like an accessory tutor. But there was one week when my students canceled and I didn't have to go in at all, and I realized that I genuinely look forward to my time with the kids and need to be recharged every week with that feeling that it is something I want to do full time. Today I split my hour between trying to teach a 3rd grader how to multiply and teaching a senior in high school Algebra II how to do some tricky graphing, which reinforced how much better I am with the older kids - that's what interests me, and I got so invested in trying to help her understand. With my 3rd-grader I just get stumped because it's hard for me to break down those basic functions to even simpler procedures. Again, something I've felt all along but it's nice to have experience reinforce it.

North Dakota is treating me just fine. It's October 4 and we have our first winter storm watch for tonight; they've been forcasting a couple of feet of snow! I don't believe it'll happen, but it's definitely coming. I don't mind the sudden descent to highs in the 40s, but the prospect that these temperatures aren't even "cold" in comparison to what's coming sort of freaks me out. I'm trying to crochet double-fast on the afghan I'm working on!

That's pretty much it by way of an update! I finally wrote up an entry about a trip Matt and I took a couple weeks ago, so I'll just add that on now. Hope everyone is doing well!

By UND regulations, Matt has to take one full day off from flying every two weeks. And since he'd worked every day for the first part of September, Thursday the 15th was it. He suggested that we go somewhere, since I had the day off too, and travel will become a bit harder once it gets all snowy around here. So all that was left was to decide where to go. We've already been to the Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) and twice to Winnipeg. The only other "destination" close enough to make a day and a half trip worthwhile was Duluth, Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior (largest of the Great Lakes) and the westernmost point of the Great Lakes system.

We ended up leaving Wednesday afternoon after my morning shift at Michael’s. That way we could spend nearly a full day in Duluth! By far the coolest part of the drive was the directions: "Right on Hwy 2 (one of the main cross-streets for our apartment building), continue for 250 miles." Our hotel was even located on Highway 2! It seemed so cool to me, after navigating the California highway system.

The four and a half hour drive was rather nice. I wanted to try to count the lakes we passed, but it soon became a rather daunting task. Besides, there was too much fantastic scenery to look at! The Red River Valley (where Grand Forks is located) has its moments, but when push comes to shove, it’s really just a flood plain. But finally I saw naturally occurring trees! And though Minnesota’s fall color hadn’t really kicked in, a few trees were starting to turn and gave a pretty good idea of the splendor to come. Plus we lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather, so I had a good time driving through the countryside, through teeny little towns on our way to a *real* city.

By the time we got to Duluth it was dark, but that made it so much better to see the lights of a city twice the size of the one I’ve been living in! We came up over the hills (hills! I’d forgotten!) to see all the lights of the port reflecting off of Lake Superior – from buildings of downtown to the towering grain bins to spectacular bridges all lit up. I was so excited that we’d arrived and was ready to start the next day!

In our hurried research about Duluth we’d read about Canal Park – shops, restaurants, walking paths, and parks that stretch along the revitalized waterfront – and had decided to check that out. But the best surprise: Duluth is home to the Great Lakes Aquarium, which was running an exhibit called “The Abyss” which purported to compare Lake Superior wildlife with that found in the deepest crevices of the ocean. Needless to say, it sounded super cool to Matt and I, so that even I wanted to get up early to make sure we could fit it all in .

We started Thursday at around 7, though the aquarium didn’t open till 10. But that allowed us plenty of time to get ready and strike out to find some breakfast. We remembered seeing a Starbucks in downtown Duluth the night before during our wandering search for both dinner and the hotel, so we figured that was as good a place as any. But when we got downtown the smallest coin we had for the meter was a quarter, so we decided to walk around a bit first, so as to get our money’s worth.

Favorite discovery about downtown Duluth: the “Skyway System” – hamster tubes that connect all the buildings by some path or another! Very handy in the winter time, and fun even in September, I can now say. We also stumbled across a cute little bakery/coffee shop and got yummy chocolate pastry things. Neighborhood shops always feel better to me than Starbucks, so it was a very successful trip through the hamster tubes!

Then, on to the aquarium! I was actually quite impressed, despite my doubts. After all, I grew up with the Monterey Bay Aquarium (hereafter MBA – don’t get fooled and think I’m contemplating business school), and I seriously doubted that an aquarium 1500 miles from the ocean could really be an aquarium at all. But then I’m pretty much an ocean snob, even though I can now admit that Lake Superior is really huge, and definitely warrants an aquarium. But that didn’t stop me from comparing it to the MBA. For instance, the GLA didn’t have any adorable sea otters, but it did have river otters, their much bigger and more vicious looking cousins. Still tons of fun to watch though. The aquarium also had a bald eagle named Bogey who was awe-inspiring to see up close, even though it was sad to see him in a relatively small enclosure since he couldn’t fly due to falling out of the nest (and onto a golf course – hence the name) when he was a baby. There were also some cool reptiles and of course tons of fish from the Lakes, including the ubiquitous Walleye. (Seriously, it’s at every restaurant. I miss salmon.)

The Abyss exhibit, however, was pretty disappointing after the MBA – it had mostly pictures of the crazy animals, as opposed to in Monterey, where they actually *have* an abyss right off the coast. And after seeing the “Jellies” exhibit a few years ago in Monterey, the tank with the two (count ‘em, two) jellyfish inside just didn’t cut it. It was all right though, we really weren’t expecting much from the Abyss exhibit. The most fun part of the aquarium was a huge model pool of the Great Lakes system with working canals and gates and little toy boats so you could make them float out from “Duluth” all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. I had tons of fun, and only caused a few flash floods to the surrounding countryside. Oops.

We were through with the aquarium at about noon (hey, it was small!) and so decided to stroll around Canal Park before looking for a late lunch. Luckily it was a particularly gorgeous late summer day, so the walk was awesome, taking in the scenery of the lake, forests, and “mountains”. (I’m sorry. I grew up in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada. Those were not mountains, even if they did have ski lifts on them.) We happened to be rounding the point where the canal is located at just about the time an enormous tanker was heading through. It was pretty neat to watch them raising the bridge and see this huge ship squeeze through the canal. We also got to visit a little museum about the port and do some more scenery-gazing and chilling before we were hungry enough for lunch at a fantastic little Italian restaurant.
By the way, that's the tanker (the "Chios Sailor") and the canal in the pictures.
Heading back to the car we decided to take a little nap in the park before heading home, but even after we woke up we still had some time to spend in Duluth before we needed to leave. We ended up driving up around the north shore of Lake Superior, where we got to check out some pretty fantastic lake-front houses. We stopped at a little “beach” (in other words, an outcropping of rocks) where we skipped some stones and I actually touched a Great Lake! Check that off the life to-do list I spose. Not that it was ever on there, but still. Eager for a little coffee drink before the long drive back, we decided to head up to MSU-Duluth. After all, where there’s smoke (college students) there’s fire (caffeine) right? The campus was actually super pretty, and we ended up walking around a bit to find a coffee shop. It was pleasant enough, although strange to be at college with that first-week energy pulsing around; I miss that. Interesting thing about the campus: all the buildings – dorms, classrooms, dining halls, student union with grocery store, bank, etc. – are all connected by underground tunnels! I was leafing through the student paper and saw a column about how you can go weeks without stepping foot outside. Aah! I mean, I guess that would be nice in the winter but how creepy is that?

So that was our trip to Duluth! A Superior outing, to be sure. (Ha!) Two weeks late and about two pages too long I’m sure, but there it is, I’ve been meaning to do this for quite some time. Definitely if you’re ever in northern Minnesota, you should stop by! .