Vacation 4 - Kentuckiana

I should start by saying that the word “Kentuckiana” is a thing. I’d never heard it before we started visiting the area but the term is used it quite often. I suppose it’s a handy term given that the greater Louisville area spills over into Indiana. I’m not sure if it’s used much elsewhere in either state. Probably not a lot. Apparently, a couple hundred years ago, Louisville’s neighbor across the Ohio River, the less famous New Albany, IN, was the dominant city. But an industrial boom in the 20^th century generated tremendous growth in Louisville thanks to shipping, railroads, manufacturing and, of course, bourbon.

Coming to the end of the long drive from Michigan - Crothersville exit

But our visit would primarily take place a half hour farther north. Scottsburg, I should say, is one of the most uninteresting places in America. I’m guessing that most residents would not disagree. And, strangely, I don’t mean it disrespectfully. But it’s flat. No mountains. No body of water. No views. No distinguishable characteristics. It’s a bunch of buildings surrounded by farmland.

And yet it’s always the most relaxing part of the journey for me. I oddly look forward to my time there. Nothing interesting means no FOMO. It’s a sensory deprivation town.

To be fair, there is a town square with some older buildings around it, but it’s far from vibrant. Folks in town generally flock to Walmart and the strip of fast-food places as you enter town. The square does have a nice coffee place which, when there are no noisy kids, is a decent place to get work done (and it has some killer chocolate chip cookies).

After leaving the countryside a few years ago, my mother-in-law relocated to Scottsburg. It made more sense after my father-in-law passed away. We were already familiar with the town given that it was only about 20 minutes away and was the destination for their basic shopping needs. I think the transition for her was relatively straight forward. Could I live there? Probably not. Uninteresting is fine when you have an intense job and you’re looking to clear your head on vacation. Long term it would get old quickly.

Having said that, Louisville is relatively close so you’re within reach of interesting things. I have grown to like Louisville though I’m not sure I would want to live there either.

* * *

One challenge when traveling in the US is making sure that the girls stay active. Priya and I have our workouts and those happen early morning regardless. But the girls need some sort of push and/or activity that draws them to doing things, particularly when it’s hot and humid outside. At the very least, we often go for walks and one walk that we do most visits is across a pedestrian bridge (former railroad bridge) over the Ohio River in Louisville. 

It offers great views of the city and is a popular jogging/biking path. Temperatures and humidity were quite high making the walk less pleasant than it normally would have been. But it was good to get out. After the walk we stopped at a tiny Japanese restaurant in Jeffersonville for some ramen then on to some overpriced ice cream.

On another day we went to a place called Activate which is what they call “an active gaming experience”. We’ve been there a few times with the kids. It’s a chain and they continue to expand around the US and Canada. It’s a pretty cool idea. You go in and it’s dark like a movie theater or a laser tag place. There are about a dozen rooms, each with a different game that combines physical activity with some sort of technology. One room has a checkered disco floor, and the objective is to work as a team to step on the correct color of lighted tiles as the colors change increasingly quickly. Another room has a big pole in the middle and a roving eye that you avoid (like hide and seek) while you dart around the room pushing numerical buttons. There’s another room that has moving laser lights that you have to avoid (like in heist movies). And so forth. It’s a bit expensive, but it’s fun and kids get a workout without noticing.

Another go-to activity is the gym at the YMCA. That’s where I go to work out and we would sometimes go in the afternoon with the girls to play basketball. The key is to find things to do with air conditioning. As the planet warms, this is going to be increasingly important.

* * *

Alas, we finally came to the end of the long vacation. After almost five weeks, we were ready to get back to Nairobi and get back to our routines. We were also looking forward to getting back to the cooler weather of the Kenyan winter. It’s not chilly this time of year, but at least it’s not hot.

After a week at home, I’ll be off to Zanzibar for a week of meetings (assuming they get my visa done in time). Then the 3-week countdown begins until I come to the end of my job. It’s a mix of excitement and apprehension. I’ve never not worked so it will be interesting to see how I adjust. For now, excitement is winning out over apprehension.

Vacation 3 - Wisconsin-Michigan

We left St. Paul on Monday (July 27) and our objective was to make our way to the eastern Michigan town of Ludington. Our route would take us across the state of Wisconsin and across Lake Michigan.

St. Paul to Manitowoc

As you leave St. Paul heading due east, you immediately enter Wisconsin. We drove part of this road a couple of years ago when we went to Chicago and then down to Indiana. But after Eau Claire, it was new territory. I say new but the whole drive looked more or less the same. Lots of farmland, dairies, small towns with fast food and gas stations, etc. The countryside does has a beauty to it, but it’s a lot of the same thing.

After about four hours, Google guided us towards the outskirts of Green Bay. As we were approaching the area, the skies grew darker and the wind picked up. We had been tracking some storms on our phones, and it appeared that things were becoming more menacing by the minute. We were listening to local radio when the first tornado alert was announced. The first alert mentioned the potential of a tornado touching down in the area. A few minutes later they announced that a tornado had touched down not far away. Through looking at the doppler map on the phone and listening to the weather reports on the radio, we could get an idea as to where the storm was headed. By the time we had passed Green Bay, it appeared to have moved southwest of us.

We just kept going since we needed to get to Manitowoc to catch our ferry. Though we were beginning to think that with these violent storms in the area, there was an increasing risk that the ferry might not happen. The dark clouds off to our right had an eerie jagged shape pointing towards the ground that looked like they had the potential to form a funnel cloud.

The weatherman on the radio then announced that there were three confirmed tornadoes that had touched down in the area. We passed through periodic downpours that were so intense that we had to slow to a crawl at times. He began to urge people to stay off the roads and seek proper shelter. We continued on given that it sounded like the worst of the storm was now west of us towards Lake Winnebago. We figured that unless the storm changed directions, we were likely going to avoid the bad stuff. We were still experiencing wind and rain, but not in any danger.

We finally pulled into the town of Manitowoc and made our way to the ferry. It was about an hour before the scheduled departure and there was already a queue of vehicles lined up to board the ship. In spite of the pouring rain, it appeared that they were in the process of loading and we were beginning to think that the ferry was going to happen after all.   

* * *

The Ferry

After about 20 minutes in the queue, we reached the front and were guided to park in one of several lines of cars. You leave the keys inside, grab what you need for the ferry ride and leave the vehicle for the drivers to load after you’ve boarded the ship. We had to do this in the wind and rain.

I’ve taken many ferries in Europe and Africa, and I've always driven directly onto the ship. It would be too big of a security risk in most places to have a shipload of unlocked vehicles. I love the fact that you can do this in the US.

We came to learn that this particular ship, the S.S. Badger, is quite famous. It’s a the last coal-fired ferry in the US with a long history going back to 1953. As people filed up the stairs to the multiple passenger levels, the regulars all scurried to their favorite seats. We went to the top level which had a couple cafeterias and afforded nice views of Manitowoc. The rain had stopped by this time and before we pulled up anchor, the sun had appeared. We hoped it would result in a less choppy ride to Michigan. I’ve never been one to suffer from motion sickness, but as I get older it seems to affect me more.

The Badger is loaded with activities including a kids’ play area, bingo, a movie room, etc. They check your bags when you board to make sure you don’t bring on your own food/drink so the bars and cafeterias were doing some good business.

We were soon heading out across the lake. It was actually fun being on the ship and I was glad we opted on this mode of transportation to get to Michigan. It also saves a ton of driving rather than heading around the southern part of the lake through Chicago and back up the eastern lakefront.

The only other time I was on Lake Michigan was over thirty years ago when I joined my brother’s sailing team for a race between Chicago and St. Joseph, MI. That’s a fun story but I’ll refrain from recounting it here. But that was my first encounter with how big this lake really is. Given that the skies had mostly cleared, I was able to observe that you can maintain sight of the Wisconsin shore about a quarter of the way. Then you have no sight of land for about half the voyage before catching sight of the Michigan shore for the last quarter of the trip. Just in case anyone is interested in that sort of thing. Though you do lose cell reception for a while, the ship has wifi so you can stay connected.

It’s convenient that the port of arrival in Ludington is the also the town where we will be spending the next five days. As we approached the harbor, we passed by the lighthouse at the end of the pier. We could see some family gathered and waving. People have been arriving at ports by ship for millennia. Very old school but pretty cool at the same time.

Once on Michigan soil and having greeted the family, we waited for the car. The youngish drivers would pull vehicles off the ship, park the car, leave the keys inside, and jog back in to get the next one. Eventually ours arrived and we were soon on our way to the beach house.

* * *

The Beach House

Last year was our initiation to the beautiful setting of my sister-in-law’s boyfriend’s vacation home. He generously invited the whole family last year and we ended up with about 13 people in the house. This year I think it was 12. The house can absorb it, but it does put a strain on the logistics to support five days together.

Most of the family tend to jump on the opportunity to take part in all that the gated community has to offer. There is golf, pickleball, tennis and other court sports. There are canoes and paddleboards for the water activities. Walks on the beach. Swimming is nice on the river feeding into Lake Michigan, but swimming in the frigid lake itself is only for the brave.

Some of the family were content to spend most of their time on screens and rarely leaving the house. This is unfortunate given that screens are something you can do without making a long drive. I understand that this is the reality for so many people, not only young people, but I do think it’s sad (and not very healthy).

Given that this is the time of year for our four family birthdays, we carved out some time to celebrate. With mine in May, two in July and one in early August, we power through them in about 80 days and are birthday free for the remainder of the year.

The Maritime Museum

I realize that my blog posts can range from the interesting to the rather mundane. It’s basically a log of whatever is happening, whether it’s exciting or not. A maritime museum is significantly less riveting than an Al-Shebab threat, but it deserves a little shout-out, at least in my opinion.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t fully operational on the day we went. They were doing some work on the place and the nice lady at the entrance price was charging half price. There were apparently a couple of cool things that we missed out on like interactive simulation that puts you at the helm of a Great Lakes car ferry in the 1930s. Not necessarily a childhood dream of mine, but it could have been interesting.

The museum is located in a decommissioned Coast Guard station built in 1934 and there are three floors of exhibits. As I said, nothing riveting, just interesting. But it is significant in that maritime activity on Lake Michigan has been a bigger deal than most visitors think. With the beginning of the car ferry industry in the late 1800s, Ludington developed into a major commercial harbor. At one time it had the largest car ferry fleet in the world.

One of the newer exhibits upstairs covered the infamous Armistice Day Storm of 1940, an unanticipated historic winter storm that struck the Great Lakes and the Midwest. Three ships sank on Lake Michigan, all of them just south of Ludington, and a fourth ran aground right on Ludington beach. To be honest, I don’t think I had every heard about it before, but it was crazy. Apparently, it was a relatively nice mid-November day and people were out and about wearing light clothing. Over the course of the day, however, temperatures plummeted by 60 degrees. Roughly two feet of snow fell in less than 24 hours with up to 20 ft. drifts and 80 mph winds. Over 150 people died. It happened so fast that people were unprepared and many were unable to get to shelter. The exhibit had some pretty graphic photos, but overall I think it was well done. 

* * * 

Unfortunately, the week went by too fast. By the following Saturday, we all loaded up our cars and headed out – most towards southern Indiana, some towards Grand Rapids.

Vacation 2 - Minneapolis-St. Paul

After a busy and exhausting time in Idaho, we were off to Minnesota. We were discussing that we have been making this pilgrimage to see our friend Kathy since 2010.  She’s known our daughters since they were born. I met her on my first trip to India back in October 2008. She was still teaching there but nearing retirement. After she settled in St. Paul, and given that the airport located fifteen minutes away from her house is a convenient travel hub for us, it became a regular stop. She often catches us in the throes of jet lag, but on this occasion, arriving from a couple weeks in Idaho, we were more on our A game.

Early morning run along the Mississippi

Other than extensive time sipping coffee and/or tea catching up on things, we do tend to squeeze in a few activities. I’ve said in the past how much I’ve enjoyed getting to know the Twin Cities area. This time we explored a few new places.

Patriotic game of mini-golf

 

The Butler Did It

On the first evening we were there we went to the Park Square Theater in downtown St. Paul to watch a play. The theater is located in the historic Hamms Building, the previous headquarters of the mostly defunct Hamms Brewery. St. Paul has done a good job of preserving historic buildings and I’ve always been one to enjoy a bit of old architecture.

The play was called The Butler Did It, written and produced locally and ended up being quite a treat. Thankfully my daughters enjoy this sort of thing.

10,000 Lakes

Very livable city

During the day we went for a few walks. On day two we did a walk around Minneapolis that included Cedar Lake near downtown. It’s really amazing how many lakes are tucked into the state’s urban areas. I realize that their license plates brag about the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” so I suppose it’s inevitable that some are within cities. In reality there are actually 11,842 bodies of water in Minnesota that measure 10 acres or larger, but they didn’t have that statistic when they came up with the license plate idea. At least it’s more relevant than Idaho’s plates. I have never liked the “Famous Potatoes” moniker given that it’s a distorted representation of the state. I’m aware of the business/political interests that have put it there (and kept it there), but how many states tout their third largest commodity so boldly?

The Guthrie Theater

I digress. On another walk we went to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. It’s an impressive building that allows you to just walk in and roam about the place. After living in Nairobi for ten years and working in Somalia, this sort of thing comes as a shock to me. A very pleasant shock. When Americans talk about fighting for freedom, I get the sense that not everyone understands it the same way. For me, one amazing thing about the US, generally speaking, is how safe it is. I remember my daughters commenting a few years ago about how surprised they were that most American homes are not surrounded by walls as they are in Nairobi. And most establishments don’t have metal detectors at the entrance. To me, that is freedom that American should protect. Adding more guns to the streets will only make it look more like Mogadishu.

I digress again. In addition to hosting concerts and performances, the theater has a wonderful deck that offers a cool view of the city. You can also see the newish stadium where the Minnesota Vikings play. As a kid, I revered sports stadiums like sacred cathedrals. I still find them impressive, but I am a bit more nuanced about how they reflect a society’s values.

Cleverly built to look like a ship (as seen through a tinted window)

 

Circus Juventas

The afternoon before we left, we went to something called Circus Juventas. I had never heard of it before, but it’s a performing arts circus school for youth. The performance is sort of like a Cirque de Soleil put on by kids. Most of the key performers were high school age, but there were some that were as young as five years old. I have to say, it was pretty amazing. It’s hard to believe how talented these kids are. I kept telling myself throughout the performance that these are not professionals – just youth who have arrived at this level as an activity while they are in school. My only complaint was that the performance was a bit long. I was already tired of sitting when they announced the intermission.

 

The Landmark Center

Maybe one other thing to note regarding our visit was the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul. When we stopped in, we didn’t have much time given that it was not long before it would close for the day. So we did some speed-tourism on the main floor. I think it merits more time at a later date.

To understand the importance of the building, a bit of background about the city. St. Paul was chosen as the capital of the Minnesota Territory in 1849 because of its strategic location as the northernmost navigable port on the upper Mississippi River. As a result, it was a key commercial hub and a natural gathering place for steamboat travel and trade. When Minnesota prepared for statehood, there was some competition for the role. In 1857, a territorial vote attempted to move the capital south to Saint Peter. However, a local legislator named Joe Rolette hid the approved moving bill until the legislative session ended. This dramatic move allowed St. Paul to retain the title of capital when Minnesota was granted statehood 1858. As new states joined the Union, the government in Washington was looking to strengthen and formalize linkages with the more remote parts of the growing country. It allocated funds to each state for the purpose of hosting core federal institutions. Though the initiative was derailed somewhat during the Civil War years, it picked up momentum in the latter part of the 19^th century with an even greater sense of purpose.

The Landmark Center was designed in the 1890s and opened its doors in 1902 as a post office, courthouse and custom house. The castle-like structure has cylindrical corner towers with conical turrets occupy on every corner. There are two massive towers, one of which houses a clock. The building was in active use until the 1970s when it nearly fell victim to demolition. Thankfully it was saved by a citizen’s group and subsequently renovated to its original grandeur. In addition to a small museum, it currently houses some prominent Twin Cities arts organizations. 

* * * 

After three nights in St. Paul, it was time to move on to the next leg of our journey. We rented a car at the airport, bid our farewells and began making our way east towards Lake Michigan.