Monthly Archives: July 2009

A day at the fair

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On Thursday, we not only walked down the trail, we also strolled around at the Beltrami County Fair, where we worked in the Bemidji Pioneer booth. These are some photos of the horticultural competition. You’d think I actually was a gardener, from as often as I post garden-related photos!

Here’s today’s quote, from Bethany:

"It’s pouring out!"

Not only was that quote before we started walking, it was before we even met for the day. In fact, it was over the phone as she called to say she was on her way.

She still wanted to walk; she just wanted to borrow a shirt with sleeves.

We skipped the trail and hit the sidewalks on Minnesota and America avenues. I tried not to take any garden pictures, but there was one too pretty to turn down. We also checked out a nice house for sale. The rain was pretty light until near the end, when it started coming down hard enough that I looked down the street to see how far away my apartment was.

We were scheduled for a shift in the Pioneer’s booth at the fair from 2-4 p.m., so we headed over there around 1:15 so we could wander around for a bit first and take some photos. It was a quiet afternoon in the booth; not many people were in the commercial building, compared to what I would expect for the weekend. We talked a lot with the woman in the ACLU booth on one side of us, and I got one of my fingernails done by the guy in the booth on the other side. We also stopped to chat about the Lake Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival with Brian Bissonette at the Paul Bunyan Telephone booth, and I visited with my insurance agent, Ken Cobb of Pine Country Insurance.

Of course, I ended up taking pictures of flowers at the fair, too. :)

Here are two pictures for today’s quiz:

 

Wednesday’s photo was from the Masonic Temple near downtown Bemidji.

Have a great weekend!

– Laurie

 

 

 

 

Flowers and puppies

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I probably sound like a broken record, but I love the opportunities we have to see beautiful flower gardens, and to see them again and again as the summer progresses. This garden on Lake Avenue near our trail along Lake Bemidji is one of my favorites. I like the variety, the mixture of heights, the close meshing of foliage. I’d probably prefer an even closer meshing; some might say messy!

We walked an hour early today because I went to my daughter’s house in Red Lake Falls for a little welcome-home gathering for their new puppy, a pomeranian-chihuahua cross. It’s called a pomchi.

They named him Butters, after a character from "South Park," a show Jada is not allowed to watch.  But she seems not too curious about why her parents named a dog after a dairy product.

In this photo, he is munching on a pig’s ear I bought him on the way out of town. He spent much of the afternoon sleeping, wherever he was placed: In between feet, on a chest, curled up in an arm. Then he woke up and started biting our feet. Cute pup!

But back to walking.

It was a great day to walk today (Wednesday; I’m working hard to get this done before midnight!), not too hot, not too cold. On Thursday after our walk, we’ll be at the Pioneer’s booth at the Beltrami County Fair from 2-4 p.m.

Today’s quote, from me: "We should have T-shirts made with ‘Trail’ on one shirt and ‘Mix’ on the other, and then we’d have to walk in the right order."

Bethany decided they should have the reverse order on the back.

Today’s mystery picture:

Yesterday’s picture was the bird bath at the park outside Baker Park Apartments near Bemidji State University.

Enjoy the fair if you go!

The Dragon Boat Festival is getting under way too. The Tourist Information Center is decorated for the event:

Yeah, I went a little crazy with the photos.

– Laurie

game continues…

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Our little game continues today, as we see just how well our blog readers know Bemidji (and so far, to be honest, all I know is that of the 150-some people who read our blog post since yesterday, no one has yet commented. So either no one knew or you’re all very Minnesotan and keeping your opinions to yourself, which would probably be me as well).

But, first, today’s walk.

From me: "Let’s see how far we can make it today before they kick us out ."

Laurie and I began in early spring walking along the trail to the Bemidji State University campus, and then along the campus bordering the lakeshore, to Diamond Point Park. But, several weeks, if not months ago,once construction progressed on Sattgast Hall at BSU, workers had shut us out of the lakefront area there by shutting the fences and forcing us to walk along Birchmont Drive. (I’m not saying the construction workers are mean, they’re doing their job – and, to be honest, I’m the type that would probably trip and fall on the scaffolding, bringing down a crew full of workers.)

But today, there did not seem to be any obstacles or issues with work going on, so we walked along our trail, along the BSU campus’ lakefront properties and made it all the way to Diamond Point Park. It was a nice return to our former path, although we did still take some street routes back home. However, we did notice later, at the end, that we weren’t as worn out as usual. And we realized that we had not taken any steps or made ourselves climb up steep embankments as we have been lately.

It was an absolutely perfect day for walking. Not cold, but cooler than recent days. We also had a few refreshing sprinkles drop on us just as we reached the end of the route.

OK, so as we continue our How Well Do You Know Bemidji guessing game (that’s a non-official title; I didn’t run it by Laurie yet), I offer you this picture:

Do you know what it is? Do you know where it is?

- Bethany

ANSWER FROM YESTERDAY’S POST: A pane of stained glass from the front door of First Presbyterian Church, 501 Minnesota Ave. N.W.
 

The Dragon Boat Festival is upon us…

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One of the perks of walking along the waterfront every day is that we get to see events unfold, whether it’s the Bemidji Jaycees Water Carnival, Art in the Park or, now, the Lake Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival. We walked past the boats today, although if it wasn’t for Bethany pointing them out, I might have missed this photo. I noticed a pile of life jackets to the left of the boats and completely missed the boats! (I guess you could say I "missed the boat" … yeah, I know, that was bad.)

Competing in the races sounds like fun, but I haven’t taken the plunge yet. A bunch of my co-workers literally took the plunge last year when their boat capsized during a race. That was the part that made me the most wistful to be on the team. Obviously I’m not the most competitive person around, if falling off a boat is appealing to me. :)

The other day I glanced through a publication on walking to lose weight. It said that if we could carry on a conversation, we’re not walking fast enough! Heck, we chatter the whole time, whether we’re huffing and puffing or not.

Today the black plastic that has been walling us off from part of the trail had been moved a little, so we used a different access to get up the hill to Lake Avenue. It looked pretty easy, but we had to dig pretty hard for footholds, and grab onto whatever we could find to pull ourselves up.

"It’s always an adventure!" Bethany exclaimed as we huffed and puffed our way up the hill.

Here’s our view as we came out into the sunshine. The construction on the future bike trail changes every time we walk through. It looks like things might be beginning to take shape.

On Friday, Bethany announced a new feature of our blog. We’re going to be sharing close-ups of bits of Bemidji such as architecture, decoration, lettering, etc., and asking readers to leave comments with their guesses (or certainties!) of what is pictured. The idea came from a contest we held more than 25 years ago at my old job at the Crookston Daily Times. It was fun then, and I hope it will be fun today.

So here’s your first one. I’ll give you a hint: It was taken within our walk paramaters, which includes downtown, the waterfront, Bemidji State University, Diamond Point Park, Lake Avenue, Birchmont Drive, and Beltrami, Minnesota and America Avenue from 15th Street to downtown. We don’t walk all of that every day, but we rarely walk outside that area.

Good luck!

– Laurie
 

seagulls!

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The absence of seagulls this summer has tormented Laurie. OK, maybe torment is a bit strong of a word, but she has remarked several times this summer that she hadn’t seen any gulls.

Well, today, that all changed.

Laurie: The seagulls are back!

From where, we have no idea. All we know is that we have seen maybe three or four of them this summer, usually along Lake Bemidji between Bemidji State University and Diamond Point Park.

But, today, we saw about two dozen along the Lake Bemidji waterfront near the Tourist Information Center.

There were two others, maybe older kids, out near them, so maybe they were feeding the birds. But either way, we saw seagulls today. Lots of seagulls.

You can tell it was a fairly boring day when I spend several paragraphs writing about birds, but that’s how it went today. It was a typical walk.

But … (drum roll please) … we have decided to change things next week! I won’t give out too many details, but Laurie did this contest of sorts at a newspaper she used to work at and we thought we would try it online and see how it turns out. So come visit us Monday afternoon sometime! (Disclaimer: Previously described "contest" will not come with any type of tangible prize. Bragging rights, at a most.)

Wishing you all a great weekend!
- Bethany

Shade, please?

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Doesn’t this look like a great view from a tire swing?

Bethany had Lola with her today, so we skipped the trail and walked along the sidewalks, up America Avenue to 15th Street and back down Minnesota Avenue.

It’s really nice to walk down the streets sometimes to see how the gardens grow. It’s so much easier to appreciate landscaping when you’re walking. What is a pretty glimpse from your car becomes a showpiece with many facets when you’re walking.

However, halfway through the walk we really missed the shade of the trail. It didn’t help that we had to backtrack three or four blocks in search of a toy Lola had dropped. Lola was a bit crabby by that time, to which her mother, also a bit crabby, responded:

"We’d be back by now if you hadn’t dropped your toy."

When we got back, we sat in the grass outside my apartment for a while and tried to introduce Lola to my cat, who I had outside on a harness. Lola was more interested in my car keys. And her mother. :)

Have fun with your own friends and families and we’ll catch you Friday afternoon!

– Laurie

I got a bird … and some Loons?!

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So I got another bird photo … and it isn’t nearly as terrible as my first bird picture!

(If you look closely enough, you can even see the bird has something in his beak.)

I must have been having some kind of good fortune today, because I was even able to capture on "film" a second bird just a few moments later (but this one is a bit more in the vein of "Where’s Waldo").

Today was a very nice day for a walk, perhaps even too nice. It was one of those warmer afternoons that had Laurie wishing for her swimsuit and me a glass of water. Luckily, BSU is just about halfway on our hike and we were able to duck inside and find a water fountain.

The most interesting part of our walk happened at the end at Paul and Babe, where we ran into the Minnesota Loons, a chapter of the Newmar Kountry Klub, an RV social club that was celebrating its state rally in Bemidji with some sightseeing, shopping and other activities. (All have Newmar recreational vehicles.) The Loons have monthly rallies at various locations throughout the state, and July’s was in Bemidji.

So … in honor of the Loons, here is today’s quote, from their apparent leader, Ron, of Guthrie: "We’re from all over Minnesota."

The group was staying at the Royal Oaks RV Park and was at Paul and Babe for a photo op. They were friendly, delightful people who seemed to really be enjoying themselves. (And, really, who couldn’t with today’s weather? It was gorgeous.)

Have a great day!

- Bethany

 

Happy Tuesday!

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This is basically the view from my postage-stamp yard outside my apartment.

I’m pretty used to the construction and the detour by now. The only thing that bothers me is remembering to go to the post office, which I used to do by pretty much just walking across the street. Now, "A Wrinkle in Time" has been sitting in its Netflix package since Saturday night because I don’t remember to make that jog over to get to the drop box.

When we end our walks, sometimes we sit in my little yard for a while. This time we did it with one of my two cats in a harness and leash. The cats want to get outside constantly; when Bethany comes over, she is prepared to do battle at the doorway to keep them inside. I think I live too close to downtown to let them explore outside, but the harness and leash is at least a compromise. After Bethany left, I took the other cat outside for a while. I should probably take them out like that more often; sit outside and read a book and let the cat wander the length of a leash for a while.

Today’s walk was pretty uneventful, just walking down the trail, chattering about work and family, then reaching 12th Street and climbing up a rain-soaked semi-path to the street above before walking through campus. We took 10th Street over to Minnesota Avenue on the way back and admired the gardens while we walked.

When we walked past the Beltrami County Law Enforcement Center, we saw a car parked across the street, which is a no-parking area that is painted bright yellow. A guy had walked into the building and left his passenger inside.

Bethany:

"It takes guts to do an illegal parking job right outside the Law Enforcement Center!"

He didn’t stay there long, but yeah, I think I’d question that if I had to make a quick stop there!

In case a picture of road construction isn’t colorful enough, here are some pretty flowers. :)

– Laurie

 

 

 

back at it!

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Well, after a very lackluster walking week last week, we’re back at it!

So today’s quote, from me, (inserts huffs and puffs throughout): "We, obviously, need to walk more often than once a week."

Yep, once. That was the total times we walked last week. Sad. It was my fault, of course, due to work commitments and my needing to get out of town early Friday morning. And, at the time, it seemed fun, but today, I was more tired than usual. More tired than usual for a Monday, too.

So, I’m trying to re-dedicate myself to walking daily.

We didn’t walk as far as usual today, but, hey, we walked. I came close to canceling again. But I made myself go. And it was very nice to get outside again today.

For our picture today, I thought I would share the spot where we drag ourselves up from the trailway to the roadway along Lake Avenue. We’re not opposed to hills and steps – but this is getting a little ridiculous.

OK, so the big horizontal black thing is some kind of fence. I am guessing they put the fence up so we wouldn’t walk any further. We walked maybe 5-6 feet beyond where the fence started before we realized that we should maybe get out of the way.

So this skinny trail-like dirt path is actually an uphill climb. Surprisingly, I didn’t fall – and I’m quite the klutz (my tennis coach used to say I was the least coordinated tennis player he ever met – but I did all right).

So we made it up. But it is a little bittersweet to see construction work progressing. Not to say that the new trail won’t be great – I’m sure it will – but in the interim, there is an awful lot of dirt. And fewer trees.

- Bethany

The end of the line…

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After a couple of days off due to other commitments, we hit the trail again Wednesday but reached tne end of the line as we confronted our trail was roped off like a crime scene shortly after the 10th Street steps.

We didn’t really want to backtrack, so we thought about going up right there. Bethany made a hesitant attempt.

"I don’t know, Laur," she said as she took a few steps up the dubious "path."

Then, "Uh-uh. … No way."

After Bethany’s retreat, we meandered back a ways and found a decent path that didn’t require Herculean effort to traverse.

A couple of days away brought a change in the landscape of part of the last section of the trail, as some of the work on the bike trail has resulted in some areas of missing trees, which felt a bit jolting as we walked.

We already knew that we would lose the last several steps of the stone steps near the Bemidji State University campus, so that wasn’t a surprise, but seeing the work makes it a little more real.

Behind the uprooted tree is rubble from the bottom steps.

I’m glad most of the steps will be preserved. There’s some great masonry along this trail and it would be a shame to lose it.

We talked today about going bicycling sometimes, so at some point maybe we’ll be riding along that paved section that has currently displaced us from the end of the trail.

The storm Tuesday tried to displace us, too, but we soldiered on past a large tree branch obstructing the 10th Street steps.

Here’s a shot of Bethany making her way through the jungle. Below is the obstruction.

We’ll see what Thursday brings us!

– Laurie