Summer holiday 2

Minnesota

The next leg of the trip was St. Paul, MN. If you follow this blog you’ll know that this is a consistent stop for us, either at Christmas or during the summer. It’s a nice, relaxing place to hang out, often when we are in full on jet lag. This time, coming from Idaho, we were more coherent than normal.

Our friend Kathy showed us more of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Each time we see something new. I always say, it’s a very livable place – even during winter (so sayeth me).

In the summer the city is so green and there are so many trails and cool places to discover. One of the things we visited was Minnehaha Park. The central feature of the park, Minnehaha Falls, was a favorite subject of pioneer photographers. Although he never visited the park, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow helped to spread the waterfall's fame when he wrote his celebrated poem, The Song of Hiawatha, featuring the Native American hero, Hiawatha.

We had a picnic and rode around in one of those 4-person pedal karts. It screams tourist but it was actually a nice way to have a look around the area, covering more ground than if you walk. It’s a bit of work but something you need when you’re playing tourist, sampling lots of foods and not always getting the workouts in.

We also visited the Bell Museum which had just opened a week or so earlier. It apparently existed previously and was moved and upgraded. It has a digital planetarium, high-tech exhibits, wildlife dioramas, etc. Kind of a nerd’s delight. And of course we were all delighted. 

Next stop, southern Indiana.

Indiana

We soon found ourselves arriving in Louisville on our last leg of the trip. One of our main priorities this visit was the 90^th birthday of my father-in-law. It was planned to be a surprise, including the arrival of friends from their time living/working in India. It turned out to be a great and touching event. Quite a bit of work and thought went into it but it was worth it. We had some rain but tents had been arranged which allowed the event to go on unfettered. Cy had touched a lot of lives over the years and those present were just the tip of the tribute iceberg. Many of those who could not attend were able to pass on their sentiments via video which was compiled by one of their close friends from back in the day.

 

With the friends in town for the birthday, it was an occasion to do more tourism than we would have done otherwise. It’s not that we don’t explore the area but not quite as much as we did this time. In addition to having friends in town, there are other reasons for this. One is that Indiana is often our destination soon after arriving in the US. Add to that the fact that the in-laws is such a relaxing place and you end up with a perfect place to chill after stepping out of our rather bustling lives in Nairobi. Another thing that has changed over the years is that the girls are older now and it’s easier to explore with them. When they were little, there were fewer options.

drone fascination

at the Speed Art Museum

Japanese food

tasting bourbon

We spent a little more time in Louisville than we normally do. It’s a pretty cool city with lots to do. We had heard about bourbon tours but had never done one before. The fact that the gang all seemed interested, we decided to give it a go. It turned out to be quite fascinating. The history of bourbon is intertwined with the history of the city. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever had much bourbon in my life but the tour was well done and peaked my interest. Towards the end you do a tasting of different types of bourbon which I found super interesting, particularly with the information provided by our tour guide. 

crossing the bridge

We did the bridge walk as well. That’s something we do during most of our visits. The Big Four Bridge was built in 1895 and was formerly used for rail traffic crossing the Ohio River, separating Kentucky and Indiana. It was turned into a pedestrian bridge in 2013 and, though the transformation was a costly investment, it seems to me to be a big hit for locals and tourists.

Before long I was packing my bags and heading to the airport. I had to return earlier than the ladies due to my need to get back to work. The sad surprise, after I’d settled back into my dual life in Kenya and Somalia, was that my beloved wife broke her wrist while roller skating with the kids. It was a stunning revelation for a number of reasons. She hasn’t broken bones before and she’s generally pretty careful. In any case, thoughts immediately turned towards the implications of the days ahead with a forearm cast, in in particular international travel without dad to schlep the bags.

In the end they managed but it took some planning and a quite a bit of pain. I was happy to have them back in one piece, more or less.

Summer holiday 1

At last we were able to make our break. Vacation at last. As we’re learned over time, vacation is not about resting – at least not with two kids and thousands of kilometers of travel. It’s about seeing family and friends, doing lots of fun activities, eating lots of good food but not much relaxation. It’s too bad really, since that’s what you need most when you’ve come off several months of work. Now I realize that when you peruse these blog entries you do see some fun activities during these past several months. And yes, we do some really cool things. But bear in mind that they can provide a rather distorted picture of how I spend my time. Life is a lot more work than it looks here. It’s just normally not blog-worthy.

The Hague

what's not to like about the Netherlands

We began by going to The Hague to visit friends. Amsterdam is a frequent stopover for us on the way to the US. We have several friends in the Netherlands, most of whom we met while working in Burundi. I do love it there. It’s so clean. Everyone rides bikes. It’s organized. I love the food. To be honest I don’t know if I could live there. High population density. People are sort of rule-crazy. And most importantly, no mountains. In fact much of the Netherlands is below sea level. But for visiting, yep, Holland rocks.

oh my...the cheese, the bread, the meats...

Idaho

Then it was on to Idaho. We more or less did the usual drill, we just get a bit better at it each time. We get better organized. We expand what we are prepared to do without borrowing stuff from people or buying each time. It’s complicated but we’re working on it. The added twist this year was backpacking. We normally car camp but this year we wanted to get the girls out to do some real camping. As such it creates additional storage and packing challenges.

The backpack trip was to a place called Blue Lake. It’s a short hike, which is what we wanted for our newbie backpacker daughters. We wanted it to be an enjoyable experience so that they would be keen on doing it again in the future. My sister and brother-in-law joined us. They were the ones that scoped out the destination according to some things we’d discussed a while back. They nailed it. Worked out great. All of us have a taste for doing it next year as well, possibly something slightly more ambitious but not too much.

Afterwards we settled into the car camping thing. I do enjoy that as well, mostly because of the time with family and friends. But real roughing it in the mountains, bonding with nature, is rather special for me. One of the advantages of glam-ping is that you can run into town rather easily to do things like buy food and watch World Cup matches. Which we did.

yep, the numbers get bigger each year; after you get past about ten in the circle, no one feels the warmth of the campfire anymore

off to get firewood

there are worse ways to spend a vacation

In any case, it's about time with family more than it is about bonding with nature.And for that the glam-ping was a success.

with their uncle

After camping we headed to my sister and brother-in-law’s beautiful house/cabin for steaks and showers. Such a great place. Probably bigger and more elaborate than I would ever want but having a cabin in the mountains has been a dream of mine since I was a child.

Then it was off to my brother’s new-ish place not far from my sister’s. He’s living the dream as well. He has a house/cabin in the mountains that he’s fixing up. Feeling a bit left out.

this is where you spend the end of the day...

Then it was off to my parents’ to hang out and have some doctor visits. Healthcare in Nairobi is not bad but it is useful to accomplish what we can while we’re in the US. Plus I enjoy being at my parents’. It’s still easy to get around and you don’t spend excessive amounts of time in the car. And there are lots of activities for the girls.

and, of course, the trip to the dentist

After less than two weeks, we would be off again, first to Minnesota for a couple of days and then on to southern Indiana.