Shenandoah

We visited too many cities on our Tour d'East Coast and the mountains were calling us.  Shenandoah National Park is perched on the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Western Virginia.  These mountains are beautifully different from the ones I've fallen in love with in Montana.  Instead of rocky outcroppings and grueling trails in excess of 10,000 feet, the Blue Ridge Mountains are a gently folding blanket of green trees with gorgeous sun-streaked trails.

The trees were just starting to change colors, but still monotonous enough to make every pull-out look the same.  The road is nice, but the hiking trails are spectacular.  We only had time to do two short trails.  The first one was the Old Stony Man trail, which leads you up to the second-tallest point in the park, a mere 4,010 feet.  We stayed in the Skyland Lodge, which is right next to the Old Stony Man trailhead.  By the time we got checked in and put our gear on, it was 45 minutes until sunset.  Even though the sign at the trailhead told us it would take 2 hours to complete the circuit, we left with 30 minutes to spare and got to the summit to see the sun dip behind a neighboring mountain and were down in less than 45 minutes.

Sunset over Shenandoah Valley

Old Stony Man actually starts on a portion of the Appalachian Trail, which spans from Georgia to Maine, so now I can officially claim I've hiked the Appalachian Trail. :P  It was impressively lovely, especially this time of year with the trail lightly covered in leaves and the sun shining through the yellowing trees.

Appalachian Trail

The next morning, we tackled Hawksbill summit.  We did a three-mile loop that also encompassed part of the Appalachian Trail and ended up on the rooftop of Shenandoah, 4,050 feet.  The view was nice, but there's something to be said for busting your butt all day to get to the top of a really tall mountain vs. doing a jolly 2-hour hike to the highest peak in a park.  I miss Glacier.  Still, there was a fantastic view at the top that is worth the easy walk.

 Hawksbill Summit

South of the park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, which connects Shenandoah to Great Smoky Mountains National Park begins.  I actually liked the scenery on this road better than the parks' - it was a bit more dramatic and in some places more of the trees had begun to change colors so it was very spectacular.

 Trees Outside Skyland Lodge

Gettysburg & DC

If Europe seems light years ahead of the U.S. in terms of interesting history and architecture, then the East Coast is to the Midwest what Europe is to the U.S. We spent the last few days visiting Gettysburg, PA and Washington DC. Amazing. Amazing.

Gettysburg

I was only half-excited to see the famous Gettysburg Battlefield, now I can't wait to go back and see what I missed. Now a National Military Park run by the National Park Service, we skipped the pricey museum, movie, and cyclorama, and headed for the field with the bookstore's audio tour in hand. This was a good way to do it since Nathan had already started demonstrating his encyclopedic knowledge of the event - it would have been a shame to pay to hear someone else tell me the same thing. It also allowed us to get out there and imagine what it must have been like to watch the Confederates peter out at the High Water Mark and try to hold both your left and right flanks on Little Round Top as the 20th Maine. (Yes, I learned something!) The battleground is FULL of great stone monuments to mark almost every round fired. There's so much to see and do, you could easily spend a weekend or more there, even if you deplore learning about people killing each other like I do, I truly found Gettysburg fascinating.

Monuments galore at Gettysburg

Gouverneur (his real first name!) Warren who scrambled up Little Round Top to discern where exactly the Confederates were in the treeline below.

Washington DC

DC just proved to me that you shouldn't knock a city 'til you've tried it. I used to have the impression that DC was a dirty, dangerous, terrorist-ridden, political dumping ground destined to spontaneously ignite in the flames of its own disgrace. The truth? I think I could live there.

I liked everything I saw of DC - the metro: why doesn't every city have one? the museums: second to none! the restaurants: lots of amazing things I can't get at home! famous sites: check! access to influential people: check check! It's just a neat place to be.

Luckily Nathan's brother, Justin, just moved there and was able to show us around on the inside track. I met a colleague from IBM at a restaurant called Central that had excellent (albeit expensive) burgers and desserts. Thanks, Bobbi! Saturday night, we also did a circuit tour of all of the monuments lit up beautifully.


Sunday we did a marathon of all things tourist. Starting out at the Museum of the American Indian, we sat next to the pipes our friend Travis from Pipestone National Monument crafted. They are some of the first things each visitor sees in the museum and Travis has a key role in the museum video also!

Museum of the American Indian

Travis' Pipes

We got side-tracked on our way to the Capital by the excellent Botanical Gardens:


The capital...


We doubled back to the Museum of the American Indian for lunch. They serve all manner of out-of-the-ordinary native dishes. I myself enjoyed the Crawfish Fritters, Three Sisters (corn, squash, and black beans), and Yucca Fries in green chili sauce (slightly more dense than potatoes and sweeter). Justin stole the last of the Rabbit Pot Pie which I have just now forgiven him for.


Most of the afternoon was spent at the Air & Space Museum, then we trucked it up and down the mall to visit the Washington, Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII, Korean, Jefferson, and FDR memorials/monuments.


We ended the night with a trip to Georgetown and an Ethiopian Restaurant called Zed's. It might just be the fact that I'm about to move to a small Kansas town whose Sonic is 1/6 of the restaurant options, but I just loved the variety of everything you can get in DC. You want it? They've got it! I will be back.

Worth the Wait! Wait!

Yesterday Nathan and I checked off another one of the quirky entries on my life list – we went to a taping of NPR’s Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me, Live from the Chase Auditorium in Downtown Chicago. I think this might have been the best $22 I’ve ever spent.

But first, some news about the other excellent pieces of our East Coast Extravaganza 2009. We made a stop in Milwaukee to visit Nathan’s dad, who took us to an amazing Brazilian restaurant downtown called Sabor. This place had a fairly unique concept. Everything was all-you-can-eat, including the first course: the “salad bar”. It's in quotes because this was not your ordinary salad bar. Sure, you had some greens and dressings, but there was also exotic vegetable concoctions: grape/walnut/unidentified delicious white thing mixture, watermelon/yellow tomato/feta cheese mixture, fresh salsa, fish fritters, and a host of other options.

When you’re done with your salad course, you flip a little coaster that’s orange on one side, green on the other, to green. This signals the waiters that you are ready for your meat course. Did I say course? I meant courseS! There were 12 types of meat ranging from leg of lamb to bacon-covered beef and chicken, plus filet mignon served in small portions. The kitchen would just rotate through them and when ready, bring them out to the people whose stoplight coasters were green. You could try as many or as few as you wanted. We were able to get through 10 out of the 12 meats before starting to feel sick. Each table also had sides of beans and rice, mashed potatoes, and cinnamon bananas. Any positive adjective I use here to describe this meal would be an understatement. Yum!

Ambiance

The next day we headed to Chicago for Wait! Wait!, but we had an entire afternoon to kill. If you had an afternoon in Chicago, would you spend it:

a) Shopping?

b) At a museum?

c) Driving around looking for parking and wishing people would learn how to drive?

The answer for us was b, but sadly, we were stuck with c too. The Field Musuem was hosting a special exhibit called Real Pirates. Aye, it was well-worth the admission price, it was! Lots of info on a pirate ship they discovered call Whydah, including a reproduction of the ship and the only real pirate treasure that’s ever been found! It also dispelled pirate myths, so a few of my hopes and dreams were dashed when I found out that pirates didn’t really bury their treasure and that not a single pirate treasure map has ever been discovered. The museum also has amazing exhibits on evolution, dinosaurs, plants, animals…well, it was a museum.

We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for the night with a lake-sliver view through the surrounding skyscrapers. Nathan took advantage of the Check In, Rock Out program, which lets you check out Gibson guitars and use them in your room throughout your stay.

Ok, but none of this really compared to Wait, Wait, so welcome back to this topic. For those that have never heard Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me, go the website and download the podcast – you will not be disappointed. Each week, Carl Kasell, Peter Sagal, and some near-celebrity panelists (this week it was Charlie Pierce, PJ O’Rourke, and Kyrie O’Connor) make light of the week’s news in a quiz show format. The only prize? Carl Kasell’s iconic voice on your answering machine, which is enough to draw plenty of callers.

Wait! Wait! Stage

Charlie Pierce, Kyrie O'Connor, & P.J. O'Rourke, Panelists

For those that have listened to the show, you’ll appreciate this. The show last night started out with Peter chastising Obama for not arranging the Olympic Decision announcement for Thursday instead of Friday. Given that they are making that decision the day after they tape the show and a day before it first airs, we taped the beginning of the show twice – once as if Chicago won the bid, and once as if it hadn’t. Sneaky.

All panelists and hosts were present (they don’t call in). The callers who play games, including the celebrity “Not My Job” contestants actually do call in. The thing that impressed me most was that they taped the show all in one take – barely any mistakes. Then, we taped the alternate beginning. Finally, the producers went through and made them redo a handful of lines (really, only four or five) that they messed up or that were covered by some noise that made the lines inaudible. Peter promised us in the beginning that there were three reasons we would want to stick around until the end:

1) The chance to get WWDTM merchandise, including an exclusive bowling shirt (every one comes with the name Carl on it).

2) We got to ask them questions at the end. I chickened out of just asking outright if I could have Carl Kasell’s voice on my answering machine. I bet they get that question all the time.

3) The stars stick around after the show so you can meet them.

Nathan & I in front of the Wait! Wait! stage

While most people were filing out of the auditorium, Nathan and I made our way to the stage and got to meet EVERYONE. Really, we have autographs to prove it! I also got my picture taken with Carl Kasell and Peter Sagal. While standing there giddy with the excitement of meeting the people responsible for making me laugh so hard every weekend, I was tapped on the shoulder by a stagehand and asked if I’d like to have the script Peter Sagel used in tonight’s show? "YES!!"

Nathan & I with Carl Kasell!

Peter Sagal

The script had Peter's hand-written changes. It’s also fun to see how much of the show really is scripted and how much isn’t. On Peter’s script, the panelists’ witty quips are nowhere to be seen. That doesn’t mean that they are all spontaneous, but it does mean that they are not scripted – the panelists make up their jokes and jump in when they feel like it. The hints that Peter uses to help contestants win more often then not are scripted. Anyway, the net is that I got a pretty unique souvenir for free just by hanging around acting like a groupie. It might be the best souvenir ever.

Souvenirs

This is just the beginning of our trip, join me next time for more anecdotes from Gettysburg & Washington DC. If anything interesting happens there, you’ll be sure to hear about it right here on Amber’s Waves.

Endor Feast

There are eight of us in Rochester that are part of a Dinner Club. We rotate every two weeks cooking and have been doing this for a couple of years. As we've pretty much made everything possible, we started to have theme rounds. We had the "secret ingredient" round (a la cuisine!), a country round, and then we all just gave up and declared this round the "choose your own theme round". Last time, my friend Sara came up with the brilliant plan to have dessert for dinner and dinner for dessert. We had a cake (meatloaf with mashed potato frosting) with ice cream (mashed potatoes) and confetti (colorful vegetables) for dinner and then a burger (two sides of a vanilla cupcake with a brownie in the middle and frosting tomatoes/lettuce and fries (sugar cookies cut in strips) with ketch-up (strawberry dipping sauce) for dessert.

Dessert for Dinner

Dinner for Dessert

I had to think of something decent to follow this up and hence a Star Wars themed dinner was born. Invitations went out that started "A short time from now, in a neighborhood really quite close..." and ended with "So R2Detour over to Amber's for an 'Out-Of-This-World' dinner night".

The menu proceeded as such:

Appetizer
Obi Wontons w/TIE (thai) Fighter Sauce

Drinks
Jedi Juice (Crunchy Punch)
Bantha Milk (By Request)

Salad Course
Organakin Salad

Main Course
Ham Solo Burgers -or-
Millenium Falcon Filets
Vader Tots

Choice of Burger Toppings Included:
Pickled Lukecumbers
Empire Can't Catch-up
Mon Mustard
Gwalkermole (later dubbed 'Ewokamole' by Nathan)

Dessert
Princess Leia Cinnamon Rolls
Hoth Brand Ice Cream

A good time was had by all and we even drew Vader, Leia, and Ham Solo himself from all the way across the galaxy to the party!

Amanda (Vader) & Amber (Leia) with Handsome Ham Solo

May the course be with you!

Adventures of the Waning Days of Summer

Various people have started to wonder aloud why I haven't posted in three weeks and the answer is I can't keep up! Much has happened since the bat incident, which followed a perfectly fun weekend in Pipestone with my grandparents and parents. We spent a lot of time in Luverne, MN, visiting the Jim Brandenburg Gallery (he's amazing!) and Blue Mounds State Park. The highlight of that visit (besides seeing everyone) was hiking to the Visitor's Center, which is built right into a cliff with a beautiful look-out tower that used to house a writer's study. One whole side of the house is a quartzite wall, and that includes the bathrooms!

The Cliffs at Blue Mounds with some Contemporary Rock Art

The family - minus Grandma who is hiding behind the camera

The next weekend, ten of us headed back out to Split Rock Creek State Park for what promised to be a great camping trip. Good friends, tents, delicious camping food, kayaks, and yes, even a few perfectly legal beverages (if you're outside the park). However, reality hit when we couldn't leave our tents Saturday morning because of the rain. It finally subsided enough for the creation of what was henceforth known as the "party pod", which was my tent plus two giant IBM umbrellas plus four people MAX plus games! I got to introduce everyone to the best game on the planet, Werewolf. This is a psychological game I learned about from my colleague, Dirk Spannaus, in Tanzania. With a group of no less than nine people, you split the crowd secretly into wolves and villagers. The wolves silently kill one villager per round and the villagers discuss amongst themselves, trying to figure out who the wolves are. It's way more fun and interesting than I can make it sound, so if you help me gather up nine people sometime, you can try it out for yourself.

It was nice for everyone to finally go on a tour with Nathan at the park and Jess, Jackie, Amanda, and Danny earned their Junior Ranger Badges (lovely pictures of pipes and wildlife were produced by all)!! Later that night, the rain, thunder, and lightening were so horribly close, I decided to bail and headed toward our dry apartment in Pipestone at 12:30am.

Amanda, Jackie, Jess, & Danny with their Badges

Everyone, including Marie & Kris, had fun taking their pictures with the ranger

And that brings me to this weekend! Friday I went to Madison for lunch with my friend, Jas, who I hadn't seen in 500 years. The day was a PERFECT day to be there. After a two-hour lunch outside on State Street, I wandered around campus and enjoyed some delicious Babcock Hall Ice Cream on the terrace. I really miss that city.

Bascom Hall

I took a trip with my parents up to Horicon Marsh on Saturday. What a spectacular place! The scenery is beautiful and if you're into bird watching this place is heaven. We saw Sandhill Cranes and Egrets among a plethora of other birds. There were also frogs parked every 10 feet on the trail, a muskrat that ran a few feet in front of us, and a pair of River Otters in the marsh.




On our way back, we stopped at an unlikely roadside attraction: the Honey Acres "Honey of a Museum". Complete with a 70's era video that taught us everything about bees and beekeeping, this place was kind of funny, but kind of sad. I guess after visiting so many National Parks, I expect interpretation to be a little more artfully done, but I do admit that I learned something and will probably check for the Honey Acres label when I buy my next jar of honey. You can try out some honey and stare at a working beehive if you can get the little kids out of the way first.


A little preview of what's coming up soon - we've got a two-week vacation planned in October to the East Coast and I'm bringing my laptop to blog. Lucky you.

1 Batty Bat

I woke up at 4:30am Sunday morning to what I thought was a strong wind brushing past the blinds in the Pipestone, MN loft bedroom we're renting for the summer. I didn't think much of it until a minute later with the most monotone expression, Nathan sighed, "There's a bat in here."

My first thought was not one of disgust or horror. In fact, I think bats are pretty cool. No, my first thought was, "great, now we're going to have to get rabies shots". When I was getting my shots for going to Tanzania last year, one of the recommended doses was your first three rabies shots. Recommended, but not mandatory and luckily, Dan, the very cute immunizations nurse at Olmsted Medical Center readily talked me out of getting them. If I had gotten bitten by anything, I could always fly to the nearest Western Hospital (by the way, that was half a continent away in South Africa) and get all of the shots at once. "However", he said, "if you ever wake up with a bat in your room, go and get the shots."

I've never forgotten that and here I am in just that situation. As I'm wondering if he only said that because African bats are more dangerous, I decided I would hide under the comforter. The bedroom has a very low ceiling that curves and the bat, needing a bit more space, was flying about a foot above us. Nathan somehow got up, so I was stuck in the room with the circling bat hoping he could get it to leave so I could come up for air. He didn't do it fast enough because I suddenly felt it brush my head. Then the deafening silence of the lack of constant wing beats that we'd been hearing for the past few minutes. "Nathan!! I think it's near my head!" I decided to move and sure enough, it took off...right off my head!

After several minutes Nathan came back having banished the bat to an attic crawl space closed tight by a munchkin-sized door. Good! Now we can just wait for the bat to die and get it tested for rabies!

I did a little research the next day. Sure enough, even in the United States, if you are in the room with a bat for any period of time where you are not fully conscious, you need to assume the bat has bitten you. It probably hasn't, but bat bites can be small and pain-free, so you may not have noticed those tiny vampire teeth sinking into your neck and you might not see the mark. Only 1% of all bats actually have rabies and there was a very small chance one of us had been bitten. The verdict - if you don't have the bat, go and get your rabies shots within three days. Bummer!

I decided that since I already had to get shots, I had nothing to lose by trying to find the stupid bat and capture it for testing. I went down to the hardware store and bought some thick gloves, then decided that the empty juice pitcher would be the perfect place to imprison the bat. I put on long sleeves, a baseball hat (like that's going to protect me), the gloves, and grabed the pitcher and flashlight.

I winced as I opened up the door - so far so good, no bats flew out. The crawl space was actually quite spacious and recently painted white, so it was easy to find the one tiny flying mouse in the corner sleeping like it should during the day. I got two steps in and decided to call the Pipestone County Sheriff's Office instead.

They sent out a really nice officer, equiped with a net and great resolve. They extract bats from houses all of the time apparently and he fearlessly went into the crawl space and came out with the bat in his hand. I asked him where to take it for testing and he said, "I don't know, we've always just let the bats go!" The internet had scared me too much to let the poor thing go, so we stuck it in an empty gatorade bottle and off he went.

I drove the bat-in-a-bottle to Pipestone National Monument for some help in figuring out what to do. The poor thing was so cute and so very scared - I really felt bad for it. After showing it off to some kids in the Visitor's Center we figured out that the local vet would take it in for testing. We dropped it off.

"Great!" I was thinking all night that the bat would be tested, it wouldn't have rabies, we wouldn't have to get the shots, then the vet could release it from its harrowing journey to meet up with its family once again. Later that night I asked Nathan if he made sure to tell the vet we wanted her to release it when done, Nathan said, "I think they're going to euthanize it." WHAT?! I tried to get him to call the vet and make sure she knew to let it go, but he just laughed at me and asked, "Don't you know what the test for rabies is? I think they need a brain sample."

Again, I consulted the internet and then cried for the next 30 minutes. I can't believe that we actually paid someone to kill a bat, just to avoid the pain and side-effect of a few shots. I'm still pretty sad about this.

However, we did avoid the shots as I found out yesterday that I do not have rabies. Michael Scott would be proud.

I do owe the earth one bat. If anyone's got a bat I can save, let me know.

A Fair Weekend

Friday morning I met Minnesota Senator, Amy Klobuchar, during her one-hour whirlwind tour of IBM.

It was the first time I'd ever been part of an entourage. For the duration of her visit, there were about 30 of us following Amy around, explaining things IBM thought she ought to know. We walked from the cafeteria IBM history exhibits, to manufacturing, to the Computer Hall of Fame, to the Benchmark Center (where we test our supercomputers), to the Inventor Hall of Fame, to the door. No notes were taken and Amy looked pretty overwhelmed the whole time. I'm pretty lucky to have been included, but I literally got two minutes - during the walk from manufacturing to the Benchmark Center to tell her all about the IBM Corporate Service Corps.

It turns out our Senator has never been to Africa, although she said that John McCain promised to take her on his next trip. I'm still kicking myself for not asking if I could come along too.

Based on what I saw today, I would never wish the life of a Senator on anyone. According to a very friendly staff member, this was her first of three stops in Southeastern MN that day, then she'd hop into a military helicopter to attend an event in Duluth that evening. I thought my schedule was bad.

Lucky for me, all I had to do was work until 4:30 and then cut out to gorge myself on delicious Olmsted County fair food.

Chicks in the 4H Building

Friday night, I also patched a giant hole in my 80's upbringing - I saw The Goonies. All I have to say is never listen to people reminiscing about a movie from their childhood. Things are always WAY better when you're 8. I also realized why I hadn't seen it. It came out when I was two and IMDB finds plenty of items to stick in their "Parental Advisory" section. When I was younger, 'stupid' was a bad word and I wasn't allow to see PG-13 movies until I was....13. The Goonies wouldn't have made the safe list.

Despite the movie, the viewing was really fun. It was shown as one of the Olmsted County Historical Site's Outdoor Summer Movies. They post a giant screen on the side of a barn and invite everyone to come for free. You can't beat a free outdoor summer movie (oh, unless the movie is something far more brilliant, like the selection a few weeks ago: Top Gun).


Saturday, I went up to the cities for an amusing day at Valleyfair. Despite lacking quite a bit in the roller coaster department, this park does have my all-time favorite ride: Xtreme Swing. So simple, but so fun. I can get you discount tickets if you'd like to try it yourself.