Chelsey Out of Chicago

For my graduation/birthday present, my mom and Chris took me along for their road trip back to California.

Our trip began with a drive a few hours north, to Door County, Wisconsin, to a 150 year old lighthouse. To visit the Cana Island Lighthouse, we had to ride in a wagon pulled by a tractor across a few feet of water, because the lighthouse is indeed on an island. We went to the top for a wonderful view of Lake Michigan and the shoreline. The Fresnel lens is being removed and put in the museum, so this was the last summer to see it in its proper home.











Minneapolis was our next stop. In the morning my mom, Chris and I went to a park near our hotel so we could go for a run/walk. The park was really a series of lakes and supposedly part of the Twin Cities Marathon course. It was a really wonderful place to run and I liked how they had two parallel paths, one for biking and the other for running. Parts of Chicago's Lakeshore path seem to be attempting this, but first, one of the paths is almost always under construction and two, people don't seem to follow directions as well as folks in Minneapolis do.
                                            


We went to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden because I wanted to see the Spoonbridge and Cherry. This is something I had seen in The American Art Book when I worked at Petroglyph, but I never thought I would see it in real life! It was the center piece of the garden, but there were also many other interesting sculptures, many of which were by the same artists I had seen at the sculpture garden in Grand Rapids, MI with Patrick. So basically, I'm an expert on sculptures now ;)

                     






Our next destination was Glacier National Park (a 14+ hour drive). We drove through North Dakota to get to our hotel in Billings, MT so as to have a break in the driving. The only stop we made in ND was in Fargo to do laundry at a laundromat and getting some pretty tasty Chinese food for lunch. I found the landscape along the drive rather beautiful. Yes, there was nothing out there, but that nothing contained painted canyons, grasslands and buffalo to admire as we zipped by.

From Billings we made our way to Glacier in time to pick up the race packet for the half marathon my mom and I were to run the following day. The race began at 6AM so you can imagine what time we had to get up to take the shuttle to the start (but I'll just tell you, rather than leave it up to your imagination: 3AM). This is part of a series of Vacation Races that are put on at various National Parks -- Patrick actually did the half marathon in Shenandoah in Virginia last year. It was cold and due to rain but it actually held off until the middle of the race for a lovely five or ten minutes of rain and hail. At the start, my feet were so cold that I mistook my balled up foot muscles to be rocks caught in the ridges at the bottom of my shoe. We warmed up a bit though as we got moving and made our way up the five straight miles of uphill. The hills afforded beautiful views, so I'm not complaining. I'm proud of my mom's effort! She wasn't too far off her half marathon PR, which is pretty amazing considering all the aforementioned conditions. The remainder of the day was drizzly, so we recovered and slept most of it.

                

Before heading out, we did a few small hikes (less than a mile each) to see some of the park. Then it was on to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We did a hilly run in a large park right outside of Calgary (famous for a rodeo, ha!) and then it was time for me to head to the airport. I flew to Chicago and have been back since last Tuesday, the 19th. Thanks to my mom and Chris for an amazing trip!
                                         

That was a quick crash-course on the trip. I may revisit some moments in more detail in a later post. Also, my next posts will be traveling back in time so I can share my birthday celebrations and how graduation went.