40th Anniversary of Walt Disney World (10/1/2011), Orlando, Florida

The current state of the commercial aviation experience in the United States is approaching epic tragedy. The terrorists keep on winning every day as the core, fundamental rights of American citizens are violated by their own government every day. I’m not a big political junkie either way, but it’s amazing to me how almost everyone just rolls up any opposition to what’s going on here. Combine this with apparent apathy from the airlines and a big lack of common sense when it comes to TSA policies and suddenly the Pan Am era of aviation seems like paradise.

I’m angry about my experience at the Las Vegas airport today, but some of the blame falls on me. I probably should know the TSA rule about snow globes by now, but when that’s all your ten-year-old asked for, you don’t really think about a one-inch glass ball being a security risk in your bag. You also have to wonder if the 50 snow globes for sale in the gift shop on the other side of security were ever checked at some point. And don’t get me started on liquids, nail clippers, tiny screwdrivers or any of the other stupid policies…

My options for the snow globe were to throw it away, leave security and mail it or go back to the front check-in desk and pay to check my carry-on. All of these options sucked, but I chose to walk all the way back to the front of the airport and check the bag, as the post office was closed, the self-service kiosk was out of envelopes (and cost $23) and there was no way in hell I’d let them take my daughter’s gift.

The TSA agent and supervisor I spoke with were both professional and courteous. I tried to remain calm, as you don’t want to make a scene there for fear of what might happen (again, so wrong that I even need to worry about that). I had plenty of time to do all of this, but I had to wait in the long screening line a second time.

The other issue today was the full body scanners. This was my first experience with them at any airport and I had planned to opt out. But like all the other people I complain about in the first paragraph, I submitted too. Who needs the Fourth Amendment, anyway? Thankfully, it broke down the second time I went through screening.

So who do we have to elect to get Bruce Schneier in charge of airport security?

Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada

Bellagio Conservatory, Las Vegas, Nevada

Chandelier Bar, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada

Finally scanned a bunch of old postcards I found in the basement and uploaded them to a new gallery on 7 Minute Miles.

I totally love the old font used on so many of these – anyone know what it’s called?

My job has taken me to Loveland, Colorado, the past two weeks to work on a large education project. I’ve enjoyed working on this one a lot – the scope is large and interesting, the client employees are great and I’m working with a very knowledgeable co-worker for the first time. Loveland and Berthoud are very nice towns with the typical western U.S. look to them (and majestic mountains off in the distance).

Food and lodging have been pretty nice – the Best Western I’m at was recently remodeled and the locally-owned restaurants I’ve been to have been excellent (Bent Fork Grill and 4th Street Chophouse). I’ve been loving the Chick-fil-A across the street from the hotel too (maybe loving that a bit too much).

Last week I took an evening off and drove down to Morrison, Colorado, to catch the Joe Cocker/Tom Petty concert at Red Rocks. That venue was amazing and is by far the best place I’ve ever seen a live show. I took a walk around the Trading Post trail before the show and got a little winded on the 1.4 mile trek. Stunning scenery, though.

As for the concert, both acts were firing on all cylinders. I enjoyed Joe Cocker’s set more than I thought I would, with lots of great songs (You Can Keep Your Hat On, With a Little Help from My Friends, Shelter Me, You Are So Beautiful, etc.). The official Tom Petty site has a nice summary of the show with photos and here is the setlist:

• Kings Highway
• Listen to Her Heart
• Won’t Back Down
• Free Fallin’
• Oh Well
• Mary Jane’s Last Dance
• Driving Down to Georgia
• Breakdown
• Jefferson Jericho Blues
• Taking My Time
• First Flash of Freedom
• Running Man’s Bible
• I Should Have Known It
• Good Enough
• Learning to Fly
• Don’t Come Around Here
• Refugee
• (encore) Running Down a Dream
• You Wreck Me
• American Girl

Heading back to Minnesota tomorrow night. Up next: Tapemark on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then off to Hurley, Wisconsin, for another week.

Here are a few shots of what I’ve been working on lately. Various 318 projects this month have taken me to downtown Minneapolis, Novi, Michigan and Hurley, Wisconsin.

Nerd overload…

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit a state for the first time (which hasn’t happened in a long time). A project for 318 took me to a client in north-central Nebraska, which turned out to look a lot like southeast Minnesota. The towns we stayed in all had populations under 3500 people and all the people we met were very friendly.

In hindsight, it probably would have been quicker to drive, but we flew Air Tran to Omaha (via Milwaukee) and drove about three and a half hours from there. Lodging for this trip was the Super 8 in O’Neill and our Mazda 3 came from Enterprise. Not a perfect travel experience, but nothing too awful either. Side note: Budget at OMA rents all three current MINI models.

You know you are in a remote area of the country when the nearest Walmart is almost two hours away. AT&T’s cell coverage was surprising good, though, and it seemed like every restaurant had free wi-fi. We ate at all the local spots in O’Neill and Atkinston and I sampled the Nebraska beef more than once.

With Nebraska off the list, I’m down to 11 states left to visit. A drive from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast (via Kansas City) would cross off half of them, but I’m not sure when (or if) I’ll try that. Might be fun, though…

I’ve in the middle of a long training trip to California (more on that soon) and thanks to my brother and his wife, I got to spend Sunday at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. The weather was perfect – the sun burned off the early morning fog and temps were in the upper 60s with sunshine all afternoon.

Driving to Anaheim from the LAX side of town always seemed like too much work to me – today I took the 90 to the 405 to the 105 to the 605 to the 91 to the 5 to Disneyland Drive. Parking in the main resort parking area now costs $14, but I did get a close surface lot spot right next to the tram stop.

I arrived about 15 minutes before the 9:00AM official opening time, so I stopped at the La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney for a chocolate croissant and some cranberry juice ($7.74) before going through the main gate on the Disneyland side.

The first part of the day was spent hitting some of my favorites: Space Mountain, Matterhorn, It’s A Small World, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Jungle Cruise. Not much new to report: they are prepping for the return of Captain EO, Haunted Mansion was back to the original, non-Nightmare version, the Rivers of America were drained and the Jungle Cruise had a new (for me) piranha feature towards the end.

I had lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country (chicken sandwich, fries and a coke, $11.94) and did some shopping for a shirt Colleen wanted me to look for that she saw last June. The stores on Main Street were fun to go through, although I’ve decided you need to buy what you want when you see it, as every store seems to have unique things and size selections on more common items can vary wildly between locations. And even though it wasn’t terribly busy for a Sunday, this place moves some serious merchandise.

In the afternoon, I did a “park hop” over to the California Adventure side and got a Fast Pass for Soarin’ Over California. That must be one of the bigger successes in DCA, since the return time was about five hours later in the day. I set off from there to the Tower of Terror, which was incredible (as usual).

Much of DCA is under (re)construction, which created some tight confines in parts of the park. Walt Disney Imagineering had a great center set up, though, called the Blue Sky Cellar, which contained lots of information about their plans for the next few years (World of Color, Little Mermaid, Cars Land, etc.).

I walked around Paradise Pier and hit some rides I had never tried (Golden Zephyr, Maliboomer) and one I had (California Screamin’). The roller coaster was super-smooth this time and didn’t give me a headache (thankfully). DCA now has their own Toy Story Mania (like the one at Hollywood Studios in Florida) and the line was ridiculously long here as well, so I skipped it.

I took a break from the parks and walked over to Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Hotel. The World of Disney store didn’t really have anything different from what I saw in the parks and seems to pale in comparison to the one in Florida. The new D Street store was really awesome, though, and I almost walked out with two nerd-tastic retro shirts (Space Mountain era 1977 and a sweet Tron design).

I caught the monorail back to Tomorrowland, walked through a few stores in the castle and Frontierland, then went back to a store in New Orleans Square to buy this awesome Shag Haunted Mansion limited edition shirt:

How cool is that? I also stopped back at a store on Main Street for a different shirt for Colleen (the original one she wanted was nowhere to be found). Thankfully, they still had the size she wanted – I think it was the last one in the whole joint.

The fast pass was burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided to go back to DCA before heading out for the day. The information desk had no suggestions for an indoor, sit-down restaurant, so I went over to the Grand Californian Hotel and ate at the buffet served in the Storytellers Cafe. It wasn’t super great food, but it was comfortable, warm, quiet and away from the hustle and bustle of the parks.

After dinner, I used the fast pass, jumped on the tram back to the parking area and hit all of the freeways again in reverse order to get back to Venice. Fun times!

A week ago we packed up the family in the car and headed north to Duluth to visit the water park at the Edgewater hotel. It was just a quick overnight trip on a school night, so the place wasn’t very busy. That was a good thing, since it’s smaller than the Mall of America water park (or any of the Wisconsin Dells spots). Still, it was a very nice place and the kids had a great time.

We stopped at Tobies on the way up and had dinner Sunday night at the Duluth branch of Hell’s Kitchen.

I had this (with chicken):

Baked Penne Pasta tossed in a creamy garlic sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese, oven baked til golden. Includes French bread & whipped butter. $10.25 Add vegetables $1.25, Italian sausage $1.75, grilled chicken $2.25, chopped shrimp $4

Nice food, cool atmosphere and great service, but a little pricey.

On Monday, we visited the original Grandma’s in Canal Park for lunch before heading back home. The Godfather sandwich there is still one of my all-time favorites.

This week I had the chance to travel to California again – this time for meetings in Santa Monica. I flew the “new Delta” both ways – out in Delta equipment and back in an old NWA plane. LAX terminal five was actually very efficient and the air travel part of the trip was surprisingly stress-free for a change.

The weather was, of course, perfect out there – sunny and near 80 both days. I stayed at a quaint little motel on Main called the Sea Shore Motel. It was an easy walk to the beach and about a mile from the pier.

I had good food all trip. For dinner, I ate at the World Cafe, which was a block down Main from my motel. The sirloin and au gratin potatoes were excellent and I couldn’t pass up “David’s Housemade Butterscotch Pudding” for dessert.

For breakfast the next day, I had the jerk chicken omelet at Swingers Diner Santa Monica, followed by lunch at Fritto Misto. Turns out this is the same Fritto Misto as the location in Hermosa Beach that I’ve been to several times. The spaghetti carbonara was to die for!

I planned to walk out on the pier, but ended up walking along the beach south of the pier and looping back to the motel early. I wasn’t that familiar with the area and the lighting at night wasn’t the greatest – I’ll have to explore more during the day next time.

There was also a familiar sight near the pier – the big blue Kooza tent that was in Minnesota this summer is in town through December 20. It was great hearing the music again as I walked past…

It was almost a month ago, but I never got around to writing a post here about Colleen’s 40th birthday trip to Los Angeles. Some of the pictures have been up on Facebook for a while and now there are a bunch in the 7MM photo gallery too.

The kids spent the week in Grand Marais with my parents, so it was just Colleen and I on this one. We flew Sun Country to LAX, arriving late Monday night. The usually wonderful Emerald Aisle at National had only mini-vans available at that hour, so we spent the week driving around in this thing.

We stayed at the wonderful Belamar Hotel in Manhattan Beach the whole trip and had a great third-floor room with a balcony overlooking the pool. Even for a boutique hotel, their prices were very reasonable and the service was top-notch.

Each day of the trip started off with breakfast at the incomparable Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in Manhattan Beach. I’m pretty sure I could start the day there for the rest of my life and be happy about the decision. Make sure and try the potatoes stroganoff…

Tuesday was Hollywood day, which included stops at the Grove, the LA Farmer’s Market and an afternoon taping of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson show at CBS Television City. It was really interesting watching them tape the TV show, as everything happened out of sequence in a studio that seems much, much smaller in person. Jeff Foxworthy was the guest that day. We stopped for dinner at the Hollywood branch of Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, then drove by the Columbia Records building before driving down Sunset Boulevard through Beverly Hills and Bel Air on the way back to the hotel.

Wednesday was beach day. After breakfast at Uncle Bill’s, we walked along the Manhattan Beach pier and the Strand before driving down to Hermosa Beach. We did a little shopping and had lunch at the Good Stuff restaurant located across from the pier. We spent a little time in the hotel courtyard before driving down to the Redondo Beach pier for dinner at Kincaid’s Bayhouse.

We checked out of the hotel early on Thursday and had breakfast at the usual spot. From there, it was a relatively painless freeway commute to Anaheim for a day at Disneyland. My brother and his wife (who work for Disney in Florida) were kind enough to get us two tickets to the parks as a birthday gift for Colleen. The main park was open from 8AM – 9PM and we were a little worried about crowds when we found out it was both Laker’s Day and Grad Night. Everything turned out fine, though, and we got to do almost everything we planned on.

Colleen got a birthday button from City Hall when we first arrived and people wished her happy birthday all day long. We tried to get dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou, but they were booked. We ended up waiting for cancellations and did get in after waiting about an hour. That secretive Club 33 door tempted me the whole time we waited, so I asked for membership info at City Hall when we left.

We hit all of our favorite rides and popped over to the California Adventure side to go on the new(ish) Monsters, Inc. ride and the Tower of Terror. Other new things on the Disneyland side included the Finding Nemo submarine ride and new Mark VII monorails. There were some changes in It’s A Small World (that we didn’t much care for) and the Tiki Room was back to the original version (which we loved). We caught the fireworks, which started while we were on the Matterhorn, then drove back to the airport for a red-eye flight back home.

Welcome to 40, Colleen!

As we’ve done the past few years (could it really be 9?), the family packed up the car early on the Fourth of July and drove to my aunt and uncle’s cabin, which is located just outside of Luck, Wisconsin, on Bone Lake.

The crowd was a little smaller this year – our immediate family, mom and dad, grandpa Smith, my aunt and uncle and their daughter (who just got married last month). Add in three dogs, fireworks, lots of great food, jet ski rides and perfect weather and you get a very enjoyable holiday outing.

The lake had more boats on it this year (around eight) and the water levels were really low – I’d say maybe down a foot overall. The neighbors across the bay launched really loud mortar shells all day. That was fun at first, but the novelty quickly wore off. I’d love to hear one of those suckers go off in the city, though.

Traffic through Lindstrom, Taylors Falls and St. Croix Falls was decent and we stopped at Eichten’s Cheese shop, Rainmaker Fireworks and the Milltown Drive-In in Milltown, Wisconsin, on the way up.

The drive home was uneventful – no speed traps this year. We got home in time to set up a bonfire in the driveway, watch the Eagan fireworks and set off our own display that we purchased at Rainmaker.

Pictures are now up on Facebook and in the private section of the 7MM photo gallery (the password has changed – email or call me if you’d like it).

A day after our return from Florida, Colleen and I took a two night trip out to Las Vegas to celebrate my 40th birthday. We stayed at the Bellagio and met our friends the Millers for dinner at the new BLT Burger restaurant, followed by the 9:30 showing of the Beatles Cirque show, LOVE. The American Kobe burger was great, especially with a vanilla shake. It was sort of weird eating where the white tigers used to lounge around…

We are huge fans of Cirque du Soleil and had high expectations for LOVE. Unfortunately, they were a little too high. If you take away the incredible music of the Beatles, you are left with a very average Cirque show. We’ve seen many of these acts before in other shows, but performed with more flair. One exception to this was the roller blade act, which was truly remarkable. It’s a shame so many of the other acts were just so-so (by Cirque standards). At least there weren’t any annoying clowns!

Despite the recession, Las Vegas is still an expensive town. While we found good deals on the hotel room and the show tickets, almost all of our meals were more than $50 for two people (even breakfast) and I still can’t believe places think they need to charge for refills on $4 sodas.

I was a little disappointed in two of my favorite travel companies – Sun Country Airlines and the Bellagio. Sun Country has added the luggage charge to the first checked bag, added fees for advance seat selection and most importantly, dropped the free cheeseburgers. I guess I’d rather have them stay in business, but they were one of the last “good guys” when it came to these nice customer-focused policies.

As for the Bellagio, I had emailed them ahead of time telling them we were coming out for a special event, but no one said or did anything until the last day. A casino loyalty program worker came up to us while playing video poker and offered to bring us reprinted cards (we had left ours at home). When he checked my ID, he wished me a belated birthday. I know they are a huge hotel run by a huge corporation, but that’s what databases are for, right?

Gambling was as fun as ever, although I ended up down about $25. I wish I could be like the guy in jeans and a T-shirt sitting at the $300 minimum blackjack table with his girlfriend, but I got nervous enough at the $5 table and quit after about 15 minutes. The poker room at the Bellagio was calling me too, but I chickened out – I think I need a few test runs at the local casinos first. Video poker was a nice substitute, though, and I actually enjoyed playing the slots this time too.

What a city…

7 Minute Miles has totally been neglected for almost a month. Facebook and Twitter seem to get all the attention these days, but I need to get back to the original programming here too.

The holidays were great, but I got sick right before them and there is still this damn cough that just doesn’t seem to go away. This was especially bad, as I was signed up to run the 2009 Walt Disney World Marathon yesterday. I ran a total of 12 training miles the entire month of December and hadn’t run at all in more than 3 weeks. The lack of training, combined with a really hot and humid day, led to a very slow time of 5:07:51 (more details on my Facebook page – bah).

Aside from the physical pain of running a marathon, it’s amazing I haven’t keeled over from an anxiety attack at work. I spent hours and hours the week before I left for vacation trying to pin down some network problems at HSRA and was sure I had it fixed the day before I left town. Everything was humming along the morning I left, but the dreaded call came an hour before I was supposed to get on the flight. I’ve been on the phone a lot since we got here with a contractor, but I’m mostly mad at myself for not building a more robust infrastructure. I guess it is aging, but it makes me look stupid.

I’m trying my best to actually be on vacation the rest of the week. We are planning to just hang out tomorrow, then go to Animal Kingdom on Wednesday, dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Wednesday night, lunch at the Canadian pavilion in Epcot on Thursday, followed by some additional time in the Magic Kingdom. We travel back to MSP on Friday, then head to Las Vegas on Sunday for two nights to celebrate my 40th birthday.

I’ll try to be better about spreading the news around all of the sites – although I might be busy looking for homes and jobs in Florida the next few months…

OK, so I’m like about 20 posts behind on all my sites right now, but I thought I’d write a quick one here just to let the Google crawlers know I’m still alive…

While visiting the north shore of Lake Superior this weekend, we ran into a high school (and college) friend of ours in Grand Marais. Twicks and his family were up for the weekend too and invited us to visit them at camp in Lutsen. Turns out his wife’s family has run the place for 40+ years.

It was great seeing them and we had a fun time swimming and touring the facilities.

More posts coming soon…

Got to cross item #8 off my Things to Do Before I Die list this past weekend:

Wade across the Mississippi headwaters with my kids.

We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota, staying in the wonderful Itasca Suites near Douglas Lodge. Worth every penny…

We spent some time hiking around the south end of the lake on Friday, visiting the Old Timer’s Cabin and the Clubhouse. We then went to the headwaters for the classic wade across the Mississippi before taking a trip around Wilderness Drive to visit the large white and red pines. For dinner Friday, we ate at the Douglas Lodge dining room, which serves a mean Lake Itasca walleye.

After sleeping in Saturday morning, we rented bikes and rode from the bike shop back to the headwaters area for lunch. Colleen and kid one headed back to the rental area to switch to kayaks, while kid two and I rode our tandem/trailer bike on the 16 mile loop around the lake. Way too many hills, but spectacularly beautiful scenery (on par with 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach).

The kids went swimming for an hour before we went back to the room, cleaned up and hit the road for Lake George, Minnesota. I love the diners in small towns in rural Minnesota–friendly staff, huge portions and low prices. Our total for dinner for four at the Lake George Cafe was under $23.

On Sunday morning, I woke up early to run, but was still too sore from the bike ride to get out the door. Everyone woke up and packed the car to beat the 11AM check-out time. After another quick visit to the Old Timer’s Cabin (and the gift shop), we hit highway 71 and headed south. We stopped in Wadena for another great, cheap lunch at Larry’s Family Pizza ($15) before dodging rain storms and hitting heavy Sunday traffic on I-94 back to the metro area.

Loved everything about this trip and hope to go back again soon. Highly recommended.

Pictures posted in both the private and travel galleries.

Got back yesterday from several days worth of wedding activities for my wife’s cousin in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Our kids were in the wedding party and everything went great. A few pictures are up in the private section of the photo gallery.

Congrats to the newlyweds and thanks for including us in your celebration.

My favorite small town newspaper had two great entries from the sheriff’s report in June:

1:17 p.m., Grand Marais: Report of a loose collie mix with no collar downtown, between Boulder Park and the harbor. A deputy determined it to be the same dog she’s been chasing all spring but can never catch. The dog ran away from the deputy when it saw the squad car, and was still on the loose, somewhere downtown.

But here is my all-time favorite:

7:55 a.m., Grand Marais: Complaint about neighbors who started partying outside on their deck at 7 a.m., being very loud, dropping the “F-Bomb,” and taking off their shirts and showing each other their muscles. A deputy spoke with them, and they quieted down.

Instant classic.

So is Studio 5 one better than Studio 4?

This conference always seems to go by so quickly. Check out my Twitter feed for all the sessions I’ve been attending. Very interesting stuff here this year. I wish I had more time to learn iPhone programming–there is a lot of money to made there. The shirts this year at the fake Company Store were awesome, so I picked up a couple.

In the food arena, I had lunch yesterday at an Irish pub called The Chieftain located right around the corner from Moscone. Had fish and chips that had a strong ale flavor – yum. Dinner was at Lori’s Diner, where I had a real cherry Coke with an open faced hot turkey sandwich. Food is definitely part of the reason I love San Francisco.

I ran five miles this morning before the sessions started, running from the hotel to Fisherman’s Wharf and back. They now have an In-N-Out Burger at the Wharf, along with all the other wonderful places. I really need to bring the kids here soon.

More good sessions today, with Dr. Paranoid from Pixar presenting again at lunch. I finished several lingering work projects yesterday during breaks and after dinner, so I might be able to go to the Design Awards and Stump the Experts tonight. Nerd fun.

What a week. After the Tapemark, I headed home, mowed the front lawn, grabbed a quick dinner, then drove to the airport to catch a flight to San Francisco for WWDC week.

The flight on Sun Country had some nice surprises. The flight was pretty crowded (130 people), but my row had about four inches of additional leg room–just as good as sitting in an exit row. Arrived right on time and the notoriously slow SFO luggage system had my bag out on the carousel right away.

A quick ride in a Toyota hybrid cab brought me to a new hotel–the Orchard Gardens Hotel on Bush Street. It’s a green hotel and the room is really nice: flat-screen HD TV, in-room wireless, Thymes toiletries and a really comfortable bed.

Today’s keynote at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference was OK, but a little thin on substance. The new price point is nice, and I like the 3G and the GPS, but none of it is available yet and I was hoping for “one more thing.” There was some new stuff in the later sessions, but that is under NDA.

Walked down to Belden Place to have dinner tonight at Sam’s Grill and Seafood Restaurant. I ordered Alaskan Halibut and was a little disappointed. The cheese cake I had for desert was a little better, but I really hate places that charge $3 for a 10-ounce mini bottle of Coke with no refills. Always fun to sit outside in San Francisco, though.

Just wrapped up another week trip to HSRA Los Angeles. Same old, same old – troubleshoot tech issues, upgrade workstations, install more security cameras, dis-infect Windows machines, etc. School goes until late June, so I may be out one more time before then. If not, there is a lot of upgrade work to be done this summer (Leopard, Office 2008).

I didn’t stray far from the South Bay this time, visiting some of the same restaurants (In-N-Out Burger, Mickie Finnz, Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, El Pollo Loco) and trying some new places (El Torito on the Redondo Pier, Ruby’s Diner, Buona Sera, Noah’s Bagels). There are a bunch of places I want to try farther north, but the freeway headache is just too much for me right now. My red Prius rental car with the video rear-view monitor was nice, though.

Can’t believe I haven’t gone to Disneyland yet while working with the school. My brother is running the Disneyland Half Marathon in August, so maybe I can time a school visit for that. That would be worth fighting traffic for…

After a very crowded flight on Sun Country, I rented a car and drove to Digital Forest in Seattle to pay a visit to my co-located servers. There were several tasks I’ve been waiting a while to complete:

• Install and configure a new HP ProCurve switch within our half rack to better manage bandwidth between servers.
• Re-configure a hardware RAID and upgrade to Leopard Server on Xserve 3.
• Configure the firewall, mail server and iCal server on Xserve 3.
• Clean the tape backup device and re-configure to auto-clean in the future.
• Install a demo version of BRU backup software on all four servers.

I’ve finished most of the on-site stuff and plan to work on the configuration tweaking while watching the Wild game on Versus tonight. If it weren’t for the cold I think I’m catching, this would have been a near perfect trip.

Oh yeah, also had lunch with Digital Forest geek wrangler Chuck Goolsbee at a place called New Teriyaki & Wok. We both had the chicken and beef combo, which I thought was very good. Always nice to visit with Chuck, keeper of the Mac Managers mailing list.

One night in the Seattle rain, then back to spring in Minnesota.

Made it back yesterday. Overall, we had a very nice, relaxing and unique trip. Also realized this trip completes #25 of my things to do list: Ride a train across the Rockies.

Picking up from the last post, kid two participated in an all-day beginning Mountain Riders class on Friday, while kid one and I skied together all day. I got to ride the two new lifts I hadn’t been on (the triple and the T-bar) and both the snow and the weather were great.

My uncle came back from Spokane on Friday evening and we went to dinner with him at the St. Bernard’s Pub. This on-mountain restaurant has been there since the 60s and the inside decor has not changed much since then (it was awesome). I had a really good hot turkey sandwich that was a little different: thick bread, garlic spread, turkey, cheese and gravy with thin cut Idaho french fries on the side.

We all hung out at the condo until it was time to drive down the mountain to the train station. It was snowing pretty hard again (they were expecting another nine inches of new snow overnight) and the road to Sandpoint was treacherous. The train was only a few minutes late arriving and we made it with plenty of time to spare.

The ride back was less stressful, as we knew what to expect. It snowed all the way to the Minnesota/North Dakota border, so the views weren’t quite as good as the westbound journey. The train was packed and we were told they were sold-out for the next five days. There were switching problems in Montana, so we arrived in St. Paul about two and a half hours late.

More pictures have been uploaded to the photo gallery (Travel/Empire Builder and Private/Spring Break 08). Please contact me if you need the password for the private section.

I’ve been coming to Schweitzer Basin since I was nine. The resort has changed a ton since then. In fact, it’s changed since I was here two years ago. Venerable chair one has been replaced with two new lifts: a high-speed detachable quad that goes to Midway and a fixed triple over Face to the top. It remains a great, relatively undiscovered ski area with lots of great terrain and few crowds.

After arriving a little after midnight on Monday at the Sandpoint train station, my uncle Greg from Spokane picked us up and drove us to his condo on the mountain. On Tuesday morning, he skied with kid one, while I took kid two on the bunny hill. About 400 feet down, kid two fell and strained her knee. She totally wanted to quit, but I got her to ski between my legs to the bottom of the hill. We did four more runs that way before meeting the others for lunch.

After lunch, those two took off and we tried Happy Trails again. Another fall and things got worse. Kid two limped back to the car, dropped off the skis and hobbled to the ski patrol office. Ice, Advil and no more skiing for the day was the diagnosis. We sat in the lodge while the others skied.

On Wednesday, the wonderful staff at the Kinder Kamp agreed to take kid two for the day, even though she was now too old to go there. So Greg, kid one and I got to ski together all day. It pretty much snowed all day (about 4 inches), which gave me my first ever ice beard. We had lunch at the Outback Inn, which uncharacteristically had seating available inside. The Idaho potatoes they serve there are to die for.

The snow yesterday was awesome. The temperature stayed around freezing, but the snow felt wet when it hit you. Once on the ground, though, it stayed pretty light. 3-4 inches of soft snow on top of groomed corduroy is skiing nirvana for this old guy. Sundance and JR (kid one’s first true black diamonds), along with G-3 and Revenge on the Colburn side were my favorite runs of the day.

Today, kid one joined the Mountain Riders–instructor-led groups for kids too old for Kinder Kamp. Dave the instructor led the three Riders all over the mountain, including the new T-bar (which I still haven’t been on). The new snow was knee-deep today (12 inches overnight) and the sun made a brief appearance around lunchtime. Medium-strength wind all day, though.

Kid two and I hung out in the village all day. In the morning, we did some shopping, purchased internet access for the day, uploaded a bunch of photos and had lunch at the Chimney Rock restaurant (taking a break from the cafeteria food). In the afternoon, the kid watched a movie on the laptop while I read a bit of the Ed Viesturs book my friend Jake lent me.

Now we are about to head back to the condo, make dinner, then start getting ready for the return train ride late Friday night (we actually leave at around 2:30am Saturday morning). Depending on the weather (and the knee), we should have one more day of skiing tomorrow too.

This year I decided to take the kids on a new adventure for spring break–riding the Amtrak Empire Builder train to Sandpoint, Idaho.

The last time I rode Amtrak was when they still had a train between the Twin Cities and Duluth. This one was very different–top speed of 79mph and a coach capacity of 266 people (which I think we actually had).

The Empire Builder runs between Chicago and Seattle, leaving St. Paul around 11:30pm and arriving in Sandpoint 22 stops and about 26 hours later.

Yeah, that was a really long time, but overall it was enjoyable. In fact, it would probably be my favorite way to travel if we had booked a sleeper room with an electrical outlet instead of coach. Our seats actually did have an outlet, but in a cruel twist of fate, it was partially blocked by the immovable seats in front of us.

The uncertainty of doing something for the first time led to a lot of stress. I wasn’t sure about the luggage (no checked baggage to Sandpoint and a weird ski bag rule), didn’t know much about the on-board food options and was afraid I’d miss getting off the train in the middle of the night.

The baggage went fine, food options were varied (although I’d bring more of our own stuff next time) and the conductor took care of getting us off the train at the right time. We were about 45 minutes late, but in general, I thought it was a good operation.

North Dakota and eastern Montana were just as you’d expect. In fact, I think this is where all old American cars and trucks go to die. The scenery improved immensely at Glacier, but that was also when the sun went down.

Up next: skiing adventures at Schweitzer Mountain Resort

Photo Galleries

The whole family decided to come along to the North Shore for a quick overnight weekend trip last week (while I attended the Richard Thompson concert at Lutsen).

We left Saturday morning and stopped at Toby’s in Hinckley for some donuts and caramel rolls. Straight shot from there to Gooseberry Falls State Park, which was just spectacular with sunny, blue skies and incredible ice formations around the falls. We spent a lot of time there hiking and taking pictures (links below to the photo galleries).

From Gooseberry, we drove all the way to Grand Marais to get a late lunch at Sven and Ole’s Pizza. Tried a sausage and pepperoni thin crust for the first time (tasty) and kid two lost a tooth eating her cheese pizza. Lots of people in town for this time of year–the jewelry store and Ben Franklin both had lots of people in them.

After lunch, we drove down the Croftville Road and took some coastline and cabin shots. The ice along the big lake is so cool to look at (literally).

We drove back to Tofte and checked in at the AmericInn, where the kids spent the evening and next morning in the pool swimming. We all slept in Sunday morning, then drove to Beaver Bay after the last swim session, eating lunch at the Yellow Wolf Cafe and stopping for desert at Betty’s Pies. I had a walleye sandwich at the Yellow Wolf, which had to be the largest walleye fillet I’ve ever seen. Recommended.

On the way through Duluth, we drove to Canal Park, across the Lift Bridge and back again. Saw lots of restaurants, shops and buildings we hadn’t seen before, including the new Hell’s Kitchen on Lake Avenue (looked awesome). One final stop in North Branch at the Outlet Mall before we got back home in time for the Gophers hockey game.

North Shore Photo Gallery
Private Up North 2008 Gallery

There are very few artists I will travel out of town to see, but Richard Thompson is definitely one of them. When I saw he was playing the very small Papa Charlie’s Tavern and Stage in Lutsen, I ordered my ticket and booked a room for Saturday night.

I’ve been to the Papa Charlie’s restaurant before, but had never seen a show there. The ticket said doors at 8pm and I arrived a little after 7:30. Walked right in without showing my ticket and couldn’t figure out how they were going to set up the place. I ended up talking to what I think was the venue manager and he had me turn in my ticket for a wristband and said the small area in front of the stage would be standing room only, with some bar stool chairs along the back wall.

Once I knew the lay of the land, I camped out on the edge of the stage (stage right, about four feet from the mic). The sunken area in front of the stage is barely big enough for a ping pong table (which was actually what was there when I first arrived). A crowd of between 350-400 (per the manager) filled in behind me and we were ready to go at 9pm, when the stage manager turned down the lights.

Unfortunately, they came back up a few minutes later and they announced the show would start at 9:30 instead. Once he took the stage, this is what we got to hear:

• Bathsheba Smiles
• Walking on a Wire
• Crawl Back (Under My Stone)
• Down Where the Drunkards Roll
• Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
• The Hots for the Smarts
• I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
• Sunset Song
• 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
• How Will I Ever Be Simple Again
• Cooksferry Queen
• Persuasion
• I Feel So Good
• Genesis Hall
• Johnny’s Far Away
• Pharaoh
• Valerie

First Encore:

• Beeswing
• Wall of Death

Second Encore:

• I Misunderstood

I enjoyed the show a lot and just kept staring at his hands for most of the show. Just amazing finger work, with the highlight probably being the solo towards the end of Valerie that closed out the 90-minute main set. I was happy with the song selection–Bad Monkey from the new album being the only song he didn’t play that I would have liked to hear (maybe the next electric show?).

His between song banter was in the usual Richard Thompson style, with my favorite line being “I’ve never been this far away from civilization before.” I brought a paper notebook with to record the set list (“for those of you taking notes”) and got one good shot with my iPhone (see above). The crowd was very receptive the whole night–I’d guess it was about half “true” fans and half skiers looking for some apres-ski entertainment.

Fun, fun time. Thank you Mr. Thompson!

The whole family spent the night in Marshfield, Wisconsin, Thursday evening. Colleen had meetings at the Marshfield Clinic, so the girls and I spent time in the Holiday Inn swimming pool (just like last fall).

We tried two new restaurants (Scotty’s Pizza and Central Waters Brew House) and one old one (Crabby Dave’s). Didn’t care much for Scotty’s; the service at the Brew House was suspect and the place had a strong beer-making smell (but had good food). I’ll always love Crabby Dave’s just on name alone.

We got out and explored a little more this time. The Wildwood Park & Zoo was closed, but they have a unique road that goes around the outside of most of the large animal pens. You could even park and walk right up to some of the animals (including a cool albino deer). At the entrance to zoo, is a restored 2442 Soo Line engine that made for a good picture.

Over at the fairgrounds, they have the World’s Largest Round Barn. And oh how I wish this place was open in the winter. Maybe next time…

Marshfield Photo Gallery

Returned Thursday afternoon from another week in not-so-sunny SoCal. At HSRA Los Angeles, I found the new Cisco VoIP equipment in the server rack (above), along with their new phone headsets (which turned out to be way different from the ones on 24). Sun Country helped me transport a new video editing workstation with two 23-inch Cinema Display flat panel monitors 1,528 miles without damaging or losing anything. Hurray!

This trip also included:

• binding six new graphics and video machines to the network
• running a new network cable to the video production room
• installing system and Office security updates on 150 machines
• fixing the camera on their ID card system
• installing additional RAM in two video machines
• rebuilding one advisory Mac mini from scratch
• managing issues surrounding full hard drives on managed student accounts

Still need to troubleshoot some issues with ARD clients dropping from the admin computer lists and some other miscellaneous issues, but overall, it was a productive trip.

The studio director and I didn’t get out to the beach all week, as it was too cloudy, cold and rainy every morning. We did walk to the top of the hill on the last night, as I wanted to see how big the waves get when the wind blows off the ocean (not very).

As for food, this trip was all about saving money. Aside from the trip to Canter’s Deli I wrote about earlier, I ate lunch at In-N-Out and El Pollo Loco (and skipped lunch the other day). The other two dinners were both in Redondo Beach: Hennessey’s one night and Gina Lee’s Bistro the other. Everything during the week was decent–not bad, but not spectacular either.

Next work trip will probably be an overnight to Seattle to visit my servers at Digital Forest.

President’s Day weekend was a wild one in the Kingsbury household. Birthday activities for kid one included dinner Saturday at Lucky’s in Mendota (her past birthday favorite Don Pablo’s mysteriously shut down), roller skating at Skateville on Sunday afternoon and tickets to the Wild-Nashville game Sunday night (birthday pictures are up in the private album).

Sunday was not kind to me, as I nearly lost all functioning of my right wrist in a rather embarrassing sequence of events. First, I played several hours of Guitar Hero III (a new birthday present), which made the wrist a little sore. Then I decided to try roller skating again after a thirty year lapse. Two bad falls and the wrist was really hurting. Finally, the Wild made their game way too exciting, causing much clapping with the sore hands. By the end of the night, I couldn’t even unzip my jacket when we got home.

Some ice and Advil helped me recover enough to catch a 7am flight to LAX today. Lugged a bunch of video gear to the school and drove to Hollywood for a late lunch at Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. We drove by Pinks first, but there must have been at least 100 people in line. A nice drive down Sunset to the 405 completed the day. The Kings are on the local FSN channel tonight versus Phoenix, but I’m almost out of gas and the wrist could use some rest.

I lucked out last week, scheduling a technology visit to HSRA Los Angeles during bluebird weather in Southern California. Minnesota, meanwhile, dove into the deep freeze (sorry family). On the day I came back, it was 65 degrees on the beach and -15 when I left the Wild-Ducks hockey game that evening.

Ouch.

It was a productive trip for me, configuring several Windows machines (not fun), installing two new security cameras, running workstation upgrades and finally fixing a spell-check problem that has been an issue since the start of school. I also have a plan for dealing with the data-loss issues associated with running portable home directories on Mac OS X Server. Just waiting for a good time to flip that switch.

The good weather was combined with unusually smog-free views that let us view Malibu across the bay and snow on the mountains to the east. I tried to bike or walk along the beach almost every day and found a nice housing development a block away that would be perfect if I ever hit the lottery. Only $1.5-2.1 million, according to Zillow).

Lots of new food places this time: Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles in Long Beach, the Union Cattle Company in Hermosa Beach (great steak), Hennessey’s Tavern in Hermosa Beach, Mickie Finnz Fish House in Redondo Beach (also owned by Hennessey’s) and Chicago for Ribs in Redondo Beach. No In-N-Out Burger this time–a first!

Just before my latest trip to Los Angeles, I received this email from Tom Petters, Owner and Chairman of Sun Country Airlines:

Dear Mr. Kingsbury,

At Sun Country, we understand the importance of customer service. It’s why we fly out of the convenient Humphrey Terminal in Minneapolis, why we fly to the destinations you want to go to (31 of them, to be exact), and why our employees treat every passenger with a level of service uncommon in the airline industry.

It’s also why I’d like to upgrade you to first class on your upcoming flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Los Angeles on 1-12-08 as well as your return flight on 1-18-08. As one of our most valued Ufly Rewards members, we’ve noticed how often you fly Sun Country and would like to thank you for making us a part of your travel plans. We recognize your importance and look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

Feel free to contact our Ufly Rewards Service Center at 1-866-609-8359 with any questions you might have about your upgrade. I’d also like to invite you to send me an email at tpetters@suncountry.com with your suggestions, comments or ideas about how Sun Country can better suit your needs as a traveler.

Again, thank you for making Sun Country a part of your travel plans. I hope you enjoy your experience on your upcoming flight.

Sincerely,

Tom Petters
Owner and Chairman of the Board
Sun Country Airlines

Bravo!

The last tech support trip to HSRA Los Angeles was very productive. My primary goals were to install new security cameras, troubleshoot a student data syncing problem, get their ID card machine working, re-image some old machines, install some new software and do the usual software updates across all 150 machines.

My co-worker who came along did a lot of great work getting machines moved around and cleaning up the ID card machine. I got most of the things done that I wanted, but there are some parts that need ordering to get the rest of the cameras installed. Overall, I’m very happy with the progress.

We got to do a few fun things this time (for a change). In addition to the Vegas jaunt, we went to see the Wild beat the Kings at Staples Center on Saturday night. Very interesting to see how they do things at another arena–especially one with a lousy team and a lot of empty seats. Makes the Minnesota experience seem magical by comparison. Vote for Lubo!

Restaurants included the awesome Kincaid’s Bayhouse at the Redondo Beach pier, the Rocky Cola Cafe (also in Redondo Beach), Good Stuff on the Strand in Hermosa Beach and (of course) a visit to In-N-Out Burger.

It rained the last two days and temps were cool for LA. How I long for that weather now, though…

My co-worker and I took a short little jog up I-15 to spend about ten hours in Las Vegas. We left on Sunday night and got to the Strip about 9:30. We checked in to Treasure Island and I took him on the walking tour of the middle of the Strip: TI, Mirage, Caesar’s Palace, Bellagio and the Venetian.

It was a very cold desert night (the Prius said it was 38 degrees) and I thought the fountains at Bellagio were going to freeze up. We got to watch them with Elvis singing Viva Las Vegas, which was cool.

I don’t think I’ve been to Vegas in almost two years. Changes this time included the new Cirque theater for LOVE at the Mirage (which looked just awesome), construction of the new CityCenter and a new hotel casino between the Venetian and the Wynn called the Palazzo (which looked just like all the other recent towers in town).

I didn’t do much gambling this time, although I played a few hands of video poker and a couple of slots (Red, White and Blue and a piggy one for my daughter). Lost about nine bucks overall. Got a lot of good Christmas shopping done though.

We had the breakfast buffet at TI before heading back on the freeway. Very scenic desert drive in the daytime, but I still prefer flying.

Never thought I’d get a Prius as a rental car in LA, but it was one of the best rentals I’ve ever had.

The very geeky display screen gives you all sorts of info, but I’m still not entirely sure how the car decides to balance the gas motor with the electric one. It drove very much like our old Civic and averaged around 45mpg.

The only things I didn’t like were the annoying beeping when in reverse and the stupid refusal of the display to show the currently playing song on the radio unless you were stopped.

After celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary with my wife on Friday at Trattoria da Vinci in downtown St. Paul, I headed out on my favorite local airline to LAX.

Here’s a shot of the Redondo Beach Boardwalk–more pictures and posts to come after I get some rest…

UPDATE: Pictures are now available in the Los Angeles album of the photo gallery.

I spent last week out at the LA school and got about 80% of the things done that I wanted. It’s almost like time moves twice as fast when you know you have to leave town at a given time.

The weather out there was very un-Southern California: cloudy every day with highs around 60 and lows below 50. In hindsight, it was actually very nice, but I would’ve packed different clothes (hence the new sweatshirt I picked up at Downtown Disney). It seems that the air quality had recovered from the recent fires.

I ate at a lot of the same places this time, finally trying something new on the last night. The Bluewater Grill was located right on the harbor in Redondo Beach and had some really good seafood. My co-workers had an oyster sampler and swordfish, while I tried some halibut from Alaska.

Looks like I’ll be back again in December to wrap up things for the year.

Very striking sunset over the Pacific tonight outside the Studio 4 apartment in Redondo Beach. Wrapped up another visit today cleaning up first-week-of-school issues at HSRA LA. Heading back to Minnesota in the morning…

How could I not eat here? Quick overnight trip to Marshfield, Wisconsin with the family (my wife had meetings at the Marshfield Clinic). Stayed at the Marshfield Holiday Inn and had a blast in their nice pool area with three-story water slide. Driving back this evening…

Arrived back from the latest trip to Los Angeles last week and felt totally exhausted. I’ve got one week to recover, then it’s back out there again.

A few notes from this trip:

I’ve been working my way down the South Bay–first trip I stayed in Manhattan Beach, second time Hermosa Beach and this time Redondo Beach. My co-worker and I stayed at the Best Western Sunrise Redondo Beach Hotel, which was very nice, but a little pricey for this type of hotel. The location was great, the room was in good condition, the staff was friendly and the breakfast buffet was convenient. Unfortunately, the free in-room internet access didn’t work, but it did work in the lobby. When I told this to the front desk worker, he apologized and offered me a $50 gift certificate for a future stay. Well done.

I got out for a couple of six mile runs along the beach in the mornings. I ran from the Redondo Beach marina up the Strand through Hermosa Beach and out to the end of the Manhattan Beach Pier. From there, I ran along the beach front itself back to Redondo, dodging the waves and birds. I left by 6:30 both days, so the crowds were light. Very fun run that I hope to do again next time.

Speaking of next time, I’ll be spending it at the new “company” apartment in Redondo Beach. Located about four blocks from the ocean, the two bedroom apartment will make a nice home away from home for future visits. It will be great to not spend all that time looking for good hotel deals.

Restaurants this time included In-N-Out Burger, Sushi Casa Arigato in Redondo Beach and Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in Manhattan Beach. LOVED Uncle Bill’s–reminded me of Key’s, except by the beach. Manhattan Beach as a town is probably my favorite spot in the South Bay. Definitely need to spend more time there in the future.

On the last night, Jake and I drove over to Knott’s Berry Farm and took advantage of the half price after 4pm deal. I wanted to do the Chicken Dinner Restaurant again, but it was either that or go in the park. We did stop at a “Chicken Express” window, but it was nowhere near the same quality as the real restaurant.

The log ride was closed for renovation and the Xcelerator shut down before I got back there to ride it, but I did get in a few rides. Rode the GhostRider once right away (and again before we left), then did the Calico Mine Ride, followed by the old school Montezooma’s Revenge and the jaw-compressing Silver Bullet. Knott’s really seemed much larger when I was kid, but it’s still worth a stop every now and then.

Big gap in posting since Grand Marais because it seems like I haven’t stopped moving since then…

Here is a shot from the balcony of the HSRA Los Angeles program director’s home. And no, she doesn’t own the place (HSRA schools are not the place to make that kind of money). Very nice house and very nice dinner the first night we were in town. Thanks Jenn!

The L.A. school project is coming along, but there is still so much to do. One more return trip in the next few weeks will hopefully wrap it up.

I’ll upload some new pictures to the photo gallery tonight and will attempt to write more the next few days.

Finally made it to one of my “7 in 07” restaurants–Chez Jude in Grand Marais. Or as my daughters called it, Chess Dude.

We started off with the Lake Superior whitefish cakes balsamico with lingonberry horseradish sauce appetizer, which I got almost everyone to try (our family is not known for experimenting much when it comes to food). My father order the fish & frites (cod), while my mother order the sandwich special–a wild rice burger.

The girls were happy to see they had a kids menu and both ordered a hot dog. This was no ordinary kids dish, however. The presentation was perhaps the nicest I’ve ever seen for a kids meal: three-sided plate with the hot dog on one corner, fries stacked in a little shot glass (like a blooming flower) and a wildflower in the third corner.

For my meal, I choose walleye prepared in parchment paper over thin-cut potatoes in lemon sauce. The presentation on this was also superb–they even brought a scissors to cut open the parchment. Along with the fresh squeezed lemonade (with my own replacement flask), it was a great meal.

We shared two desserts, the French apple frangipane tart with cr?�me anglaise and caramel drizzle and the maple blueberry creme brulee with coconut haystack. The kids meals also came with Moose Tracks ice cream cones.

The setting at Chez Jude is charming and we had a table on the outside porch. Great views of the harbor and the weather was perfect for being outside. Highly recommended.

This was the first time I’ve been in Grand Marais for the Dragon Boat Races. We didn’t watch much of the actual competition, but it was fun seeing all the people practice.

Now in it’s fourth year, the event raises money for three local non-profit groups: North House Folk School, North Shore Health Care Foundation and WTIP Community Radio.

On our way back from the Amethyst mine, we decided to make a stop at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, located just west of Thunder Bay. I actually had this one confused with the middle falls on the Pigeon River, which is a much smaller, less dramatic falls. Kakabeka was very scenic and well worth the short drive out of our way back to the border. Plus the road to Kakabeka passes a Tim Hortons…

I always thought this was the very northeast tip of Minnesota, but Google seems to say otherwise…

On Friday, the girls and I drove to Canada to visit Amethyst Mine Panorama, located about 30 miles east of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

I visited this mine when I was a little boy and should have gone back sooner–it was a blast! The mine has a large open pit area with water hoses that you can use to create your own little mining sluice. Amethyst was everywhere, but it was like a little treasure hunt searching for that “perfect” find. After almost forty pounds of rock and tiny cuts on all my finger-tips, we headed back towards Thunder Bay.

Pictures available in both the private and the North Shore albums.