2023 Wind River Day 7: 7/23/23

 Another travel day today. Back on the road headed east again. I had a terrible running workout, thinking I could do a longer speed workout after all the hiking and running I've been doing the last 7 days. Needless to say, it went terrible. I hung in there for ~75% of the volume, but at a much slower pace before pulling the plug. 

We went to the another bakery in Lander after I tried one yesterday before leaving town. A good sweet roll, if not cardamom like advertised. 

Much of the first ~3 hours of the car ride was running the high plains to Casper. Not much between the Wind River corridor and there. I don't even know if we passed a proper town. Always pretty amazing to drive through and truly understand the vastness of the interior/high plains.

We admittedly just drove the outskirts of Casper, so maybe they have a nice downtown and neighborhoods, but it seems like kind of a crummy town. Sprawled out, centered around the car, existing because of oil.

Zig Zagged down I-25 a little before cutting across again on back highways (US 18 in this case). "Lusk" was a bit of an outpost, before another massive stretch without services. Something like 90 miles before there was a gas station, food, etc. Pretty crazy.

The temps also became quickly atrocious outside. Our car read 100 by mid-afternoon. Can't imagine how the cattle (or any other living thing for that matter) feel when they are out there under the beating sun without and pray of shade for the entirety of the day.

Soon enough, we crossed over the state line and the Black Hills rose before us once again. It was a good last ~40 minute drive from Edgemont to Custer State Park where we were staying for the night. The black hills maybe don't have quite the elevation of the Rockies, but they are still gorgeous in their own right.

I ended up messing up the camping reservation. I thought I had booked for Legion Lake, right across the street from Legion Lake, but I must have gotten kicked over to a different campground as I booked it. 

We got Dash out for a swim in the lake before heading 12 min down the road to Blue Bells campground, which was nice, if not on water. They were out of firewood at the store, but I collected enough downed wood from the woods to make a fire to cook a dinner of brats, baked beans, and veggies wrapped in tinfoil, followed by smores for dessert. Another great camp meal to cap off the day.

2023 Wind River Day 6: 7/22/23

Another day out in the Rockies. Up for a run again. With Kate for the first bit, then solo. Picked our side of town, which is hillier, but kept the pace easy and it was a nice run.

I used “Alltrails” online to find another good hiking trail at the top of the Canyon maybe a 30 min drive away. When I had planned this trip, I envisioned doing at least one “summit” but it seems like a lot of the large peaks in the Wind River Range are hard to get to. Mainly accessed through backpacking. I suppose that’s part of the cool thing of the Wind River range: it’s a lot of designated wilderness area.

The hike was a ~9ish mile out and back through mainly pine forest with occasional scrub meadows. The designation was a set of two reservoirs that honestly looked like mountain lakes if you didn’t know they were man made. This made for easy trails; only a slight incline on the way out, but also good for Dash. I think he got to swim 5 times on the hike.

The first lake was maybe only a 30 minute hike too, and then we ran along that for a while before cutting along a stream to the next lake. We saw a decent number of trail runners, but the largest user of the trails were mountain bikers. These we saw once every 10-15 minutes or so. Lander must have a large percentage of their community that is into outdoor activities. At only 7300 people or so, it sure seems like a lot of people are out utilizing the vast trail network right out their back door. That’s why you’d live there, I suppose.

We both dunked in as well at the 2nd lake (very chilly) and soaked in the views of snow capped peaks in the distance over lunch. My legs were pretty heavy with a run + the hike, but the trek back was easy enough.

Dinner was at the Italian Restaurant in town. It was definitely a bit pricy, but also had huge portions and good drinks. The food was well done as well. Kate had a Clam Linguine and I had a chicken-bacon Gnocchi. I could barely finish my plate, which is saying something. Kate wasn’t able to finish hers.

Downtown is only a ~5 min walk from our Airbnb, which was definitely a plus when I booked it. It’s nice to leave once for the day via car for the hike and then not have to get back in the car again for the day.

I wouldn’t say either hike we did was out of this world amazing, but it’s good hiking in the area and a cool town to explore. Nice to stay in Lander.

2023 Wind River Day 5: 7/21/23

Slept in a bit this morning and went for a run on what was supposed to be a flat route for a 9 miler. It was on a road north of town paralleling the river through pastures with great views of the mountains. Most of this ended up true, but I missed my turn (should have memorized the road name) and it ended up being 12 with a 2 mile stretch on the highway. Not the worst, but I was certainly dragging by mile 10.

We ate an early lunch at the Airbnb and then drove 15 minutes up to Sinks Canyon State Park. Here, a branch of the Popo Agie mysteriously disappears into the rocks, appearing a half mile downstream. They still haven't confirmed exactly the path the water takes, but additive dyes confirmed that it takes something like 2 hours to cover that distance. Pretty cool to check out.

We picked the most popular hike in Lander; a 3ish mile hike out and back to the waterfalls farther upstream. There were definitely people on the trail, but only a fraction of what we would consider "busy" trails from other hiking areas. 

Dash was with and while he's done some hiking with us, honestly not a ton, and while it's comparable to walking it was still a fair amount of training to get him to move in ways we wanted him to when navigating rocky stretches, steep inclines, etc. He did pretty well overall though and loved soaking in the pools of the falls. 

Supposedly, at the very top, people treat a section as a water slide. We did not see this, so we must have missed it, but it was still a great mountain hike.

Dinner was down at the Lander Brewpub, which is adjoined with the "Cowfish" restaurant downtown. They had 6 beers on tap, a couple of which we had tried the night before and another I tried with dinner. Good, if not great beer. Burgers for dinner; when in Wyoming, this is a good play. With that said, they had a solid menu and we had a great arugula side salad as well. But these are never guarantees west of the Mississippi. 

Another good day out in the mountains. 

2023 Wind River Day 4: 7/20/23

Sunrise over the Bighorns 

Ten Sleep brewing

 The team broke camp at 5:00 AM this morning, so we didn't have much of a choice but to follow suit. We waited it out a little, but had everything in the car at swung by the drive-thru coffee shop a couple blocks away to pick up some morning Jo.

Rather than head to the park to have breakfast, I figured we'd just drive up into the Bighorns a bit and find a nice view. It was a travel day today of sorts, but we had a little less than 4 hours to get to Lander and lots of time to do so. 

After about 15 minutes out of town, we found a gravel road with an awesome 360 degree view of the mountains right off the highway that we pulled off and had our granola/bananas along with our coffee. It was an absolutely stunning view to see the sun rising over the plains to the east.

We drove another ~45 minutes to the Tensleep Lake road for a run. It wasn't exactly what I envisioned for speed work, but we knew it was long after driving it 5 years ago and had access to water and plenty of trails right next to the side of the road for one of us to hang out with Dash while the other was running. I did 6 miles up hill and 6 miles down, attempting to do speed work that ranged from slow, but reasonable pace, to laughably slow. Even the way back wasn't crazy fast because it was gravel and the grade was pretty steep in spots. Still put in some good work for the day though.

Kate staggered her run a little behind mine to limit the time Dash was in the car. When I got back, I then took him for a walk while she ran. She pitched her speed for the day and opted for a trail run along the creek, which was a sweet trail.

The drive down the Ten Sleep Canyon was just as amazing as 5 years ago when we last drove it. Huge sheer rock walls rise above the road. Great scenery.

We had putzed around enough to start the day, that lunched time out well for a return to the Ten Sleep Brewery just outside of town. We had lunch supplies and got a flight to drink. I wasn't exactly in the beer drinking mood post workout, but it was nice to be back here as well. We were also here 5 years ago and the views from their patio are also great.

Pit-stopped in Thermopolis for some ice cream at their local walk up ice cream place. I think every town out here has at least one or two. I know I harped on this a little yesterday, but in the window were two signs. One said "powered by Coffee and God". The other was for "Christian designed" apparel from Central Wyoming. 

There were four models on the poster. Two of them were black. To me, this just feels like blatant false advertising. Wyoming has the lowest proportional population of blacks in the union (thanks Wikipedia). Quick math would indicate there are a grand total of ~4600 in the state. If these models were from Thermopolis, they would constitute 25% of the African American population in town. 

As I continued to think about it though (it was a long wait for ice cream), I reconsidered. Maybe if you are black and live in Wyoming, you ARE crazy religious. That would explain why you'd choose to live there in the first place. Getting back into the car, we actually saw one of the (presumably) 8 black residents of Thermopolis walking down the sidewalk. What an interesting conversation it would be to get their life story of how they ended up in Central Wyoming.

Our place in Lander is right in town. Lander seems sweet. It's fairly lush by Wyoming standards, thanks to the water from the Popo Agie River. There's no college here, so the community they've built has been organically grown, which is pretty cool.

For dinner, we walked a few blocks to the city park where they had concerts in the park and food trucks all summer long. We were a little late to the show, so a lot of the food trucks were out of a lot of menu items, but we ended up with a burrito, tacos, and some chips and guac and took in the show. 

Looking forward to some good mountain hiking the next couple days.

2023 Wind River Day 3: 7/19/23

 

Up early today for a run with the team. They were leaving at 7, so it was 6:30 wake up, then a cup of coffee at the "Y" before heading out on the river path in town. Luckily- they had just had their big workout yesterday so our top dog, Landen, was on a recovery run. He's a 15:40 5k guy, so he could grind me pretty good on a training run if he wanted to. The river path in town has a couple miles of nice, flat(ish) gravel along the river, before cutting across a field, running through the Veteran's home area, and onto a bike path by the side of US 16 before cutting back onto a dirt path by the river. We made it maybe a half mile on that part of the path before flipping it and heading back. Kate reported that that stretch of trail was some of the nicest on her 10 mile run. We only went 9 and thus missed out on the fun. Nadir Yusuf was also out for the camp. He's a Willmar grad from ~8 years back and an outstanding distance runner. He debuted in the marathon at Grandma's this spring with a 2:15. Pretty cool to talk to him and get an insight of his training in the build up.

Post run, I was on Dash duty for a while while Kate ran. The team headed up for a hike to a fire tower, we headed over to Lake de Smet (reservoir) for a swim and a picnic lunch. It was a great beach for swimming. Really sandy and not a ton of people; very Dash friendly.

After returning, we met up for the team for their brief (~15 min) pool workout, followed by their annual balloon toss competition. Basically, they partner up and then ~36 groups face off with seeing who can throw it the farthest without breaking the balloon. I ended up getting wrangled in as well to pair up an unpaired runner. We weren't the first out, but it certainly wasn't pretty.

Dinner was pizza, although Kate and I picked up a ready-made salad as well from the grocery store.

Dessert was night #2 at the Lickity Splits ice cream shop down. Behind us in line was a Wyoming Grandmother talking to her Grandson. I can't remember exactly what the topic was, but the quote that stuck with me from the Grandma imparting social lessons on the boy: "If it's between being right and being kind, always choose kind." Much of my feeling is admittedly based on preconceived notions and biases, but I would still argue that this overarching attitude falsely dominates much of the great plains/mountain west states. I've heard multiple people talk about how Minnesota nice is fake (and it can be), but South Dakota people are genuinely really nice. We've certainly had good experiences with locals all over the West, but I can never shake the reality that these states overwhelming voted for Trump (Wyoming was 72%, I think) and a specific brand of Christianity or Mormons dominate the culture. 

Nice is easy when everyone looks the same as you, has a similar financial situation as you, has a similar religion as you, etc. It gets a lot harder to be nice when complications like inequality and diversity come into play. Then being nice over being right isn't necessarily actually being nice in the end. It's also just straight up hard to believe that anyone who willingly votes for Trump twice has any interest in truly being nice. But I suppose that's my world view based on my upbringing and life.

Post dinner- we walked over to the Middle School where they had a google meet set up with former Willmar runner turned pro: Jessa Hanson. She had a cool story of her journey in running and it was great for the athletes be able to hear about training, nutrition, mental health, etc, especially I think, our female athletes to have a role model of this caliber speaking with them. 

I don't know if this is good or bad, but listening to her talk about all these things, it again reinforced that everything I've learned and most things I'm doing after 24 years of running are the "right" things. The training philosophy is there, recovery, nutrition. At the end of the day, you can do all the right things and this is how far my body will take me. Genetics just takes some people farther. Again, whether good or bad to have this realization is debatable, but definitely one that Nick and I have talked about whenever we come across "elite" (whatever that means) runners and hear their stories.

Vacation time is precious, so I don't know if I'd want to make a yearly endeavor to go to Wyoming, but it was cool to see the routine that is referenced so much throughout the season and means so much to our athletes. I could definitely see coming back in the future for the extent of the trip, especially without having to juggle Dash, which made participating in all the activities more challenging.

2023 Wind River Day 2 7/18/23

 

Sunset over the Bighorns from camp. I failed to take a picture of the encampment.

Downtown Buffalo. A block away from the ice cream store that is frequented by many of the athletes 1-2 times per day.

Up for a run at the Spearfish River campground before heading out for the day. It's a bit tricky with the dog + camping to have both of us running; one that is constantly in need of management. Kate ended up doing a short run with Dash, with more coming in the afternoon. I ended up doing my main run in the morning. There's a nice trail that parallels the creek through town, and the Spearfish Canyon road is a steady incline, but gorgeous. Did a mixture of these two to round out the run. The Badlands aside, the Black Hills are the first "real" West in my opinion. Such a different landscape than anything we can find in the Midwest.

     It was a leisurely depart for the day after the run. We found a coffee shop/bakery (Ruby's Roast) downtown that was solid and ate outside before heading west again.

     The drive from Spearfish to Buffalo isn't crazy long, but still long enough. I downloaded Matthew Mcconaughey's memoir on tape, so we spent a fair amount of time listening to that to pass the time as the arid high plains rolled by. Large stretches of this stretch of 90 have little to no exits/towns. Just endless scrub and buttes. 

    Got into Buffalo in the early afternoon and ate some lunch from Subway before meeting up with the team. They camp out every year (Harris has been doing it for 31 years) at the YMCA in town. It's a good setup. They have 24 hour access to the "Y", with bathrooms, showers, a pool, and a gym. It's right across the street from a large city park with multiple picnic shelters and a huge municipal pool.

     We set up our tent of the edge of the collection. Kate got an afternoon run in and we spent the rest of the bit wandering around town exploring.

     Dinner with the group (there's ~90 people from 3 different schools) was served at one of the picnic shelters. Fried chicken (catered) and watermelon. I have no idea how Harris coordinates feeding that many mouths with the other coaches. It's quite a production, although I suppose he has a lot of experience and plenty of formulas.

     It's again tricky to balance with Dash. He loves adults and generally has been okay with teens, but probably because there's so many, it overwhelmed him and he freaks out, not wanted to be petted. Reasonable enough, but certainly an added challenge when camping with 90 of them. Part of what made this trip work though, was bringing him with, so that comes with the territory.

     Tuesday evening, the kids had more free time, and then the Hopkins team met for ~20 minutes or so to wrap up the day/trip. They've been journaling their running each day (a great skill to build) and there was some good reflection prompts to what habits they'd bring back to MN and the rest of the season. It seems a no-brainer to me, but I forget sometimes that at age 16, many of them see their training in Wyoming as an accomplishment, and it is, but it certainly doesn't make our cross country season. The weeks to come thereafter do that. Such is the blessing and curse of distance running. Anyone can see massive improvements if they put in the time, but it's a measurement of weeks/months, not days or individual runs.

     Cool to finally get out here and see the tradition that Harris has built over the years.

2023 Wind River Day 1: 7/17/23

 7/17 Wind River Road trip

And just like that, we’re off again. Not exactly a quick start today as we wanted to run, but more importantly, the Impreza was still at the shop needing to be picked up. Not sure if it was a miscommunication when they contacted me Thursday or if they forgot Friday, but I spaced and then the only thing left to do was open them up Monday morning and pack the car thereafter.

We ended up rolling out around 8:50, which honestly isn’t horrible all things considered, but certainly isn’t great when your goal is the western edge of South Dakota for the day.

Pit-stopped in St. Peter for a River Rock stop, then continued the trek SW through Minnesota’s heartland. 60 has been continually built up to increase travel speed between the cities and I-90 West bound. A blessing and a curse, I’m sure, for the communities along the corridor. What was once probably 2-lane road in my life time is nearly 4 lane and frequently limited access for most of the route. I’m always amazed by how this corridor makes you appreciate how big Minnesota is too. We think of Mankato as “Southern” Minnesota. Then you drive on 60 for another couple hours before hitting Worthington in the southwest(ish) corner of the state.

Ate lunch at Palisades state park just across the border in SW. Typically, I’ve done Blue Mounds, but wanted to check this park out and it’s fairly close to the freeway. I believe it’s the same creek (Beaver Creek) that runs through Split Rock Creek state park near Pipestone and definitely the same quartzite that is prominent in the SW part of MN. The creek cuts right through it, which was pretty cool to hike along, even if only for 20 minutes or so. Dash got a little swimming in in the creek, which is also always a bonus. 

Departed to start cutting through South Dakota around 2 maybe and made pretty good time until Kimball MN, where we stopped for some Ice Cream. They have a walk up stand right off the freeway that had really good quality ice cream. Definitely a pick me up in the section of the state where there are woefully few options for services.

Chamberlain came up soon enough thereafter. This is definitely the informal gateway to the west on the 90 corridor. Cornfields and irrigation are quickly overrun by vast plains following the sweeping view of the Missouri River.

It’s amazing though how much of South Dakota remains post Chamberlain. Whatever progress you think you’ve made is gradually rubbed away mile after mile through the plains before you finally approach the Badlands.

We stopped in Rapid City quick to grab a couple dinner items we lacked in our fridge before finishing the last leg of the journey to Spearfish. We waffled a bit on going out to eat/staying in a motel or both with thunderstorms in the vicinity, but settled on cooking and camping when it looked like the storms were passing right as we approached town.

It was a good call. A good “hobo dinner” with some Prieve chuck steak and a nice camping spot right along the creek. It was a slog to get here, but nice that we made it. We still have some other big driving days ahead, but this was the largest one. Looking forward to seeing the mountains tomorrow.

2023 Mexico Day 8: 7/2/23

Navigating the many stairs of Guanajuato

La Bufa

 Well, the last day in Guanajuato today, a place with special meaning to Kate after spending 3 of the past 5 summers here. We got up for a run again on the Panoramica and ran the other direction this a.m. Nice scenery looping in and out of canyons above the valley. Our run was cut a little short by a couple of dogs up ahead in the road that were actively chasing a car. The stray dogs don't pay any attention to you and ones with owners are always behind gates, but playing it safe, we turned around and headed on a different road back into the city center, then walked back up the (~225 ft) hill to get back to our apartment.

Showered up and headed to brunch with some of Kate's classmates at Oajillo. Complementary with your order right off the bat you received coffee or tea, a pancake, fruit, and a fresh mango-pinapple-orange juice. All amazing. The food was good too, although they are not in a rush to bring it out. We probably waited more than an hour after ordering. The patio was great though and they had live music, so there was really no rush.

Post brunch, we met up with the German backpacker we shared a table with last night at the Enchilada place to hike up to the Bufa, a rocky outcrop above the city. To save a little elevation, we took the Funicular back up to the Panoramica. Great views on the Funicular (as always) even if it does make me a little nervous as I can be situationally afraid of heights. The hike trailhead was a mile down the road and then a gradual ascent on a gravel road for another mile or so before the last .5 miles of rock scrambling up the last ~350 feet of elevation gain. Great 360 degree views of the surrounds though and I added a few more birds to my bird list for the trip. 

Without binocs, it's been a bit limited, but I've still managed ~30 in Mexico. Guanajuato probably would be a great place to birdwatch. I managed ~17 from our apartment alone and absolutely missed some that I saw, but couldn't get a good enough look at to confidently ID. The hummingbirds especially took a while, although I did settle on a few based on beak color, size, and light/dark combinations of back and stomach. I think I'm now a top 600 birder of the Guanajuato state (mainly because I don't think e-bird is a thing here). Ha.

Rested up at the airbnb again pre-dinner with a nap, some reading, and cards. Dinner was at restaurant Corazon on another rooftoop patio. Not mind-blowingly good food, but solid. Grabbed some dessert at La Vie en Rose (a French Restaurant) before turning it in for the night. Our flight leaves at 5:00 am from the Leon-Guanajuato airport, so it is another no-sleep kind of night. That's how it goes sometimes traveling. 

Great trip overall though. A couple bumps in the road to start things off, but pretty smooth sailing from thereon out.

2023 Mexico Day 7: 7/1/23

 

   Guanajuato has been really cool to explore. So many winding side-streets, alleys, and pedestrian walks. It's like a dang slot-canyon of buildings rising up the hillside. I (foolishly) tried to navigate us back a different way from the Mummy museum yesterday without google just by logic and we ended up turning around and heading back the way we came. We did take an alternative path down to the main drag before dinner tonight (with the help of google) and had success, but it was a lot of winding turns that at times even looked like a dead end before abruptly turning and opening up again. Within these pedestrian walkways, sometimes small, public courtyards appear with some benches and trees before the path continues and closes up to 5-6 feet wide again.

     The city center was lively as always. Tonight, there was a giant VW Beetle festival of sorts with 150ish beetles parked on one of the streets back to back and people showing them off/gawking at them. The mariachi-type bands were still going along with all the bars and restaurants with music of their own spilling out into the street. Such a great and unique atmosphere.

     We didn't get the earliest of starts today after staying up late last night, but eventually coordinated heading to a local preserve I'd seen on google maps. It had a visitor center and we were able to Uber to it, so while we couldn't find a lot of info about it online, I figured we could get there and figure it out. A couple of Kate's grad school friends came with too. It turns out, there wasn't as much of an organized trail system. There was a trail that we were generally able to follow (with a few missteps), but as far as we could tell, the 3 mile loop was about it, despite a sizable protected area. It was a nice enough hike though. Oak forest and good views of the hills. 

I've ended up bird watching some this trip (hard not to), but without binocs, it's a bit tricky. I downloaded the Merlin packs, so that helps, especially the sound ID. Occasionally one will get close enough that I can get a good look at it, or it has a distinctive enough call that's easy to match with birds I know in the U.S., but I'm sure I've missed wide swaths of birds.

Post hike- I didn't have a great game plan to get back to the city. Probably a bit too cocky that we'd figure it out with that many good Spanish speakers. Uber though, doesn't pick up that far out and service was spotty at best. Luckily- the employees at the visitor center could call a taxi, and we also learned there was a public bus that would have come by in an hour had we not wanted to spend the money on the taxi.

We chilled at the apartment for a while after, playing a little cribbage, reading, eating lunch, etc, before heading back out for dinner. "Enchiladas de Lupe" was a little hole in the wall place up a bunch of tiny streets from the main drag. Presumably "Lupe" was off to the side surrounded by mounds of supplies for making two dishes: a specific kind of "mining" enchiladas as eating by miners back in the day (with potatoes like the midwest) and Pazole soup. We had the Enchiladas (delicious) and a soda. Ended up striking up conversation with a German guy we were sharing our table with (it's a small place) who was doing the "quit his job, now he's going to travel for 5 months" deal. Pretty cool dude to talk to.

On the way back, we stopped at a couple Mezcal bars as we really haven't done that yet. The first place was heavily infused and hardly tasted like Mezcal, so we got one and move on. The next place was more of a classic dive bar with different types of Mezcal that they did an awesome job talking through. I got it translated through Kate of course, but it was a cool experience to sit there and soak it all in.

One more day and it's been a good trip. Ready to go home though and be back in MPLS.

2023 Mexico Day 6: 6/30/23

 

225 feet of pain awaits

First full day in Guanajuato today. We didn't have any groceries anymore so we grabbed a cup of coffee and some breakfast at a place Kate used to study at: Cafe Tal, which was only a ~10 minute walk, but included ~225 ft of elevation change.

Went back up all ~225 ft and set out for a run after that on the Calle Panoramica, which is generally a rim road high up on the hill. It's where our Airbnb is and is generally low traffic with a sidewalk to hop up on when needed. Hills the whole way, but nothing killer. Usually within a half mile, you are switching directions again (up/down). We ran over to the old mine ruins that made the town wealthy, then cut through a dirt path for a bit, detoured down to the place Kate stayed her first summer here, and headed back to our place. I felt a lot better than the first couple Mexico City runs as we've slowly acclimated to the altitude. Still not easy though.

We set off for the University to meet one of Kate's former classmates (also a Jon) for lunch. Grabbed a bite at a cafe with a sweet patio (although I think many of the places here probably have sweet courtyard or rooftop patios) and decent food. It was great to Kate to catch up with her friend and nice to meet him. He's also from Minneapolis and a sharp dude.

After lunch, right across the street, we hit up a smallish Museum situated in Diego Rivera's birth house. Not much of it was in English, but it was nice enough to wander around and look at some of his work, even without a lot of context.

Hitting up all of Guanajuato's greatest hits for tourists, we next walked over (and up) to the Museo de las Momias (Mummy Museum) as it's a well attended attraction in town. Despite the popularity with a lot of tourists, it's actually kind of a morbid back story. There was a cholera outbreak in the 1800's and a bunch of people died. There was also a burial tax that some (poor) families couldn't afford to pay. The bodies instead were simply stored in a building and because of the arid climate, they eventually mummified and started paying to see them even in the early 1900's. In general, it's interesting as it seems to me like Mexicans have a fascination with death and the afterlife, etc. This seems like no exception. 

It was rather expensive, given that the entirety of the museum took ~25 minutes, although we admittedly didn't dwell. It just didn't seem like a respectful thing to gawk at. Our time was extended a bit with an afternoon rain shower/down pour, so we waited it out before walking back down the hill to the city center again.

The evening started with hearing some action research projects from fellow University students of Kate also finishing up their masters. I assumed that it would be all in Spanish, but they were all in English and actually really interesting to listen to. The first presenter was a Junior High Immersion Science Spanish teacher from St. Louis Park trying to infuse language objectives alongside science objectives as she taught. Her findings were inconclusive. As a science person, I generally hold the results of any sort social study of humans with a confined sample size as sketchy, even if the process is still valuable qualitatively. I also think that Science-Spanish immersion is frickin hard. There's just a lot of moving parts and it's hard to get them to fit all together.

The next presenter was a Kindergarten teacher that used an app to record herself pronouncing words, then adding pictures and the written text and mashing those together into an interactive resource that her students could use to help form sentences (re: La Mantis es verde). Really creative use of "app smashing".

The final presenter was one of Kate's friends, Josh, who taught in a diverse school in a vaguely metro D.C., Maryland. He had an animated presentation about using authentic resources to increase engagement when talking about street food in Mexico.

We grabbed some dinner afterwards at a pizza place with a bunch of her classmates and a few spouses before reconnecting with the "afterparty" celebrating Josh's successful defense. Cool to see Kate connect with her school friends again and to get a feel for what her time her was like (intense class time aside)

2023 Mexico Day 5: 6/29/23

 Travel day today. We woke up around 7 and I finally got to run in Chapultepec Park. Nice to run in there after not getting in Monday. Brick roads were meh, but the scenery is nice enough and no worry of traffic. Theres two sides to the park that are split by a highway. I thought the transition between the two would be obvious enough, but it was not. Ended up on a circuitous route on the way there, but found the ideal connection on the way back. Elevation is still a killer though.

Ate the rest of our fruit up for breakfast along with some yogurt and granola before heading back out to the Autobus del Norte to catch a bus to Guanajuato. It took us forever to get out of the city heading north. Both because of the size of the city, but also the speed of the bus (obviously related). There was a never ending treadmill of concrete-made neighborhoods climbing up the hillside. Even 45 minutes after boarding the bus, the neighborhoods were more dense than all but a handful of those Minneapolis. Eventually though, the city faded away and we were left with scattered towns, a little agriculture, some pastures, and scraggly forests/arid grasslands in between. Hard to make an ecological comparison to the states. Maybe like the eastern foothills of the Rockies in New Mexico. There were definitely stretches of huge oak forests climbing up the hillside as well, but those seemed more the exception.

It took forever to get to Guanajuato. Partially because we left late, and partially because I do think we hit unexpected road work, but it was a solid 5.5 hours on the bus despite there being only one stop. 

The bus station for Guanajuato is a bit out of town on top of the hills. We caught an Uber again and made town in less than 10 minutes. We drove the first short bit on top of the hill and then went through a tunnel and all of a sudden, the valley and city opened up beneath us. Kate had talked about the steepness of the hills quite a bit, but it's still another thing to experience in person. Again- hard to make a comparison, because it was definitely built at a time when the hill was the master and the people worked around, rather than the other way around. I would assume there are plenty of these towns in Switzerland or Italy, but none really in the U.S.

Our Airbnb was rather tricky to find initially because they also don't do as great with addresses here compared to Mexico City. We found it fairly quickly though and headed down a steep flight of stairs to get there. There's and awesome patio though overlooking the city. The place itself isn't as nice as the one in Mexico City, but still is great and will serve us well.

We grabbed dinner at a vegetarian Falafel place that Kate had been to while studying here. It was definitely refreshing to get something lighter after a lot of heavier fried meals the last few days (or none at all when I was sick). We then meandered the city center with Kate leading the way to different cool spots, the University, etc.

The city center is on a river bed that they presumably drained or rerouted somehow and is at the bottom of the hill. During colonial days, it spent time as one of the richest cities in Mexico and one of the largest producers of Silver in the world. You can see how there's still a lot of money in the town, even 400 years later and even though assuredly a handful of individuals were presumably retaining all that money.

The colored buildings and narrow, steep, winding streets are so cool to explore. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Out of curiosity, I did a little research on these and apparently there are 1157 of them in the world. My rough math scrolling through the list is that I've now been to 31 of them. Barely scratching the surface, but more lucky than most, I would imagine.

The city center was also amazingly lively for a random Thursday night. Think a town's "days" in the U.S. and then block after block of that in the downtown area. Lots of shopping and restaurants with patios and large windows spilling out into the streets. There's also these singers that go around trying to lead a group of people around the city. According to Kate, they'll sing songs, then talk about folk-lore of the city and generally act boisterous to give even more energy to the night life.

Pretty great introduction into the city. Looking forward to a full day of it tomorrow.

2023 Mexico Day 4: 6/28/23

Well it was an excellent bounce back day after feeling run down yesterday. We got up earlyish in attempt to beat the crowds at Teotihuacan and generally had success. To get there, we took an Uber up to the Autobus del Norte bus station. We've generally used Uber to get around quite a bit as it's cheap and pretty efficient. It took maybe 30 minutes or so in a decent amount of traffic. While they do have limited access roads, a lot are still at grade and aren't truly a "freeway". I suppose they are the smart ones in the end as all the U.S. cities are trying to get rid of their freeways through urban parts of town. From there, we took a bus that was generally non-stop to Teotihuacan although it did make a few stops on the way out of the city center and as we got into the town that the ruins were in. There's no sign on the road for any of these, so I assume there's maybe "zones" where they'll stop on demand and pick up/drop off as need be and then in the middle of the trip, they won't stop. Who knows. The Norte bus terminal was also huge. And tons of different vendors rather than a centralized ticked area. I didn't expect that, so Kate asked a security guard, who didn't seem too interested in talking to us, but pointed us in the right direction. In general though, people have been super helpful in pointing out where we need to go in similar situations.

It was roughly an hour on the bus to get to the ruins. It was super interesting to drive out of the city. It didn't take super long to get out of the old lake bed (although presumably Teotihuacan was also in the same lake, so maybe we just cut over a peninsula). There were definitely stretches of agriculture as we approached Teotihuacan, so I'd say it was out of the city by my definition.

The ruins were outstanding. Pretty cool to spend a couple of hours meandering around the giant pyramids and old city ruins. You can't climb them any more (probably for the best, but you could as recently as 2018), but gazing up at them is a sight to behold. Absolutely worth the trip out there.

Got back into town and had a late lunch at a cafe in our neighborhood. My appetite still isn't the best, but it was also the first full on meal I'd had, which was a good sign.

We chilled at the Airbnb for a while and took the Metro down to the Frida Kahlo museum for our 5:00 tickets. While we've definitely taken a lot of ubers, it's been nice to ride the subway a bit. First because it's basically free at 5 pesos a ride and also because it's good people watching and a good taste of city life. 

It was again fairly easy to get down there and walk the neighborhood for a bit to get to the museum. It's a few miles south of us and definitely seems more relaxed, a little less dense, but still well-to-do. Colorful houses, well kept plants, tree-lined streets.

I'm not a big art guy, but it was great taking in the Frida Museum as well. She was multi-talented in modes of art she produced and so iconic. Ultra famous in her lifetime. She was connected with artists all over the world, random Marxist exiles from Russian, event the Rockefellers. Her house was cool to meander through too. The museum did a good job leaving a lot of the rooms intact like they were when she lived there.

Post museum, we went back up to the subway and traveled toward the city center. The "Nivel Sky Bar" is in their oldest/one of their biggest skyscrapers in the city and the most "central" in the city (presumably before they put up height restrictions like other cities). 

The drinks were a little expensive for Mexico, but I believe cheaper than going to the observation floor only 4 floors higher and the views were amazing (drinks were good too). It was so cool to watch the sun set on the valley and see the lights of the city come on. Another great perspective of the sheer size of the metro area.

Dinner was a little over a mile away at Darosa. We walked the large prominade across the street from Alameda Central was bustling we people, street performers and vendors. Most of the streets are lively, but this one had great energy and was fun to talk through.

Darosa was opened by a friend of Kate's cousin Scott. We actually met the owner, which was pretty cool to make the connection. It was a higher end Italian place and great food. Definitely smaller portions, but the bill in the end was still less than $50.

Finished up the night at a local Gelato place back in our neighborhood. Despite the setback of getting here and the overnight illness, it's been a great stay in Mexico City. Looking forward to heading to Guanajuato tomorrow.

Random jottings:

- A lot of Mexicans love to sweep. Every morning, there are people sweeping out in front of their store. And in general, the streets are quite clean. Gotta be tidy, I suppose.

-Another sizable chunk of Mexicans drive around selling Tamales or other foods in their cars/trucks and blast what they are selling over a loud speaker. Possibly as enduring as the sweepers, but also more annoying. Of perhaps the oddest/biggest offense was some guy driving closer to our airbnb at ~10:30 at night selling them. First off, too late for such noise (for Midwesterners anyway), but also, who's sitting in their house just waiting for the impulse buy of Tamales at 10:30 at night? Then again, those guys probably know more of their market than me. What's funny is that it's definitely a recorded voice and it seems to be the same from different trucks and different parts of the city. There is a male and a female version, but if a truck has the male voice, to me, it seems like the same male voice as another truck in another part of the city. How the heck does that become a commercial entity?

2023 Mexico Day 3: 6/27/23

 Well, it was tough sledding today. Ended up getting sick over night and basically emptied my digestive tract. We had planned to bus out to Teotihuacan early in the morning, but after a night of no sleep and losing all my food, we quickly scrapped it. Kate went for a run in Chapultepec while I slept and tried to force down some water and electrolyte drinks.

I summoned up the energy early afternoon to go to the Museum of Anthropology for a bit, but it wasn't exactly easy. The museum is really cool though. Glad I went, otherwise there really wasn't another opportunity to go without skipping out on something else. Various halls were basically dedicated to different groups of Mexicans from around the country. The level of detail on the work was outstanding. Some of the coolest in my opinion were the meticulously structured bead crafts with hundreds or thousands of beads laid out into a colorful tapestry. You wonder how long it took to put it together. There were also amazing designs made out of various ropes/twines starting with smaller diameter ones in the center and getting larger farther out. The largest was ~8 feet x 5 feet in size and incredibly intricate

 Therein lies the problem of getting sick/flight issues while traveling. There's only a finite amount of time you have and if you miss a day for some unplanned reason, something is going to have to give.

While I made it through the museum, I was definitely not in a state to head out for the evening, so I unfortunately had to skip the Lucha Libre event we had booked for the evening. Definitely a bummer, but if I was struggling to hold it together at a museum, I don't think a more "lively" event would have been a good idea. Kate still went though, so I'm glad she's been able to make the most of the day despite me being a bit out of commission. 

It's also odd, because Kate and I basically at the exact same things yesterday. I might have had bigger portions of something, but I don't think there was anything that I had, but Kate did not. The mystery of germs, I suppose. I did eat a little food this evening, so hopefully after some more rest and water, I'll be on the mend for tomorrow. 

2023 Mexico Day 2: 6/26/23

Our balcony

The Zocalo

 First full day in Mexico City did not disappoint. We slept in a bit after our lack of sleep yesterday and decided to run down to the largest park in the city that’s about a mile from our Airbnb. Getting there was choppy running; to be expected in this big a city, but it was great to take in the sites of the neighborhood. It was also a bit of a challenge to actually get into the park. I thought there was a gate right at the end of our street, but it wasn’t open, so we had to run along the fence line for a while. When we got to the next entrance, that one was also locked. Every Monday, the park is closed for cleaning. Good, I suppose, although a lot of hacking streets to come up empty-handed. We settled for running along a boulevard path for a while which was nice enough. Lots of huge trees lined the sidewalk. Still lots of stopping at any big road crossing, but it was my first day back running after Grandma’s so it was mainly just getting out for the heck of it.

We stopped at the local market to get some fruit at the end of the run and eventually chased down a bakery with outstanding pastries. Ate them as a breakfast/lunch on our patio. Excellent food.

Today, the main goal was just walking around. It was a little over 3 miles to the Zocalo, so we decided to walk it, checking out a couple of the bigger monuments in the city along the way. Avenue de Reforma is one of the main drags in the city. Lots of activity, although there kind of is everywhere we go. The Angel of Independence straddles the avenue, looking a lot like the big monument in downtown Indianapolis. 

Monument to the Revolution was a couple blocks off the avenue, but was just as grand or more. It’s a massive stone structure on a huge plaza. You could go up in it too, but it was $7, which seemed a bit pricy for a view that would be dwarfed by the office buildings in the area, so we settled for just relaxing on the plaza a little bit. 

Next up was the Alemada Central which is the historic park of the city center. We strolled through that and onto a pedestrian only street which had tons of people moving on it. Very similar to any of the old medieval centers of European cities. This brought us to the Zocalo and Cathedral. It has to be a weird relationship that many Mexicans have with the Cathedral and Catholic Church. Many Mexicans are catholic, I think, but the cathedral is such a reminder of the brutal colonial history that came to the city with the Spanish arriving.

We did walk through the Cathedral (in no small part because Kate was looking for a bathroom) and while it was grand, I’ve seen enough Cathedrals that I guess I’m just not as awe inspired as I once was.

From the Zocalo, we started making our way to the huge artisan crafts market. We hit upon a street that nearly every vendor was selling different kinds of light fixtures. Lots of stimulus for the eyes. Then it transitioned to other electrical items (plug-ins, wires, etc). From there, plumping, faucets, etc, flooring, you name it. It was like a massive Home Depot in the city center, split up by independent vendors. Pretty cool to take it.

We needed a break from walking so we found a cafe on the edge of a park and ordered a couple coffees and a dish of huevos rancheros. I got Cold Brew + Orange juice (combined) which was an awesome combination. Kate had an iced latte, which was also great.

The Artisan market was amazing. It was unclear if they actually made all of the crafts, or it some are simply shipped in from China, but the variety and level of detail on so many of the items was amazing. We want to get some new low-ball glasses, but aren’t checking luggage on the way home, so we’d either had to cram the suitcase or ship them. Still haven’t rule out buying them, but we’ll wait and see. Kate did but a couple cool mobiles for friends that have babies on the way. One with hummingbirds and another with turtles.

It was looking like rain as we left, but it hadn’t rained yet so we decided to try out the Metro on the way back (we were done walking for the day, so it was either Metro or Uber). The Metro is roughly a quarter to ride and easy to navigate. We got off at our stop though and were greeted with a downpour. We were roughly a mile from our place and there was a bus transfer we could make, but after waiting our the rain for a while under a shelter, it was unclear where the bus stop was (or if there was a bus stop). We saw a bus pass, but hesitated because we didn’t know if it was the right one. Later research indicated it probably was and there is no stop, you just have to flag them down. At the time of uncertainty though, we decided just to Uber the rest of the way home. Much more expensive than the Metro, but still not a big deal at $5 or so.

Grabbed some beer at a brewery in the neighborhood: Morenos, which was also good. Then dinner at a Oaxaca restuaurant: Pasillo de Humo, right down the block from our place. It was good, but not great. 

All in all a great first full day in Mexico City. Ready for a couple tours tomorrow.

2023 Mexico Day 1: 6/25/23

 It was a rather short turn around between the bike trip and embarking on our trip to Mexico, but the time is prime to travel. Both because we’re not really training right now after Grandma’s, but also because Kate still has friends in the Guanajuato program that we can visit during that leg of the journey.

We got back from the bike trip around 4 on Friday and I went to work getting the laundry going, unpacking camping items, and prepping a new pack list for Mexico. Kyle is headed up to the Quetico this week and as we exchanged texts about our upcoming travels, he mentioned how easy it is to make a pack list these days after doing it so many times. I’d generally say that’s true. I have a “stock” pack list that I slap into my current planning doc that only needs minimal efforts from trip to trip. On a side note- I also recently used my REI dividends to buy some new carry-on luggage that visually looks smaller than the suitcase I’ve been using for 15+ years, but definitely seems to fit a lot more in it. So much easier than checking luggage. Very slick.

Our first challenge of the trip occurred before we even left. Sitting around with Andy on Friday evening, we received a notification from Volaris saying our flight had been canceled. We tried customer service three times with three different reps and couldn’t get a great answer as to why or other options. The only option they offered was leaving in 2 weeks for the trip. Not an option if only due to sunk costs on airbnbs and museum tickets already purchased. The email was fairly vague, so we ultimately decided to sleep on it and try again in the morning to unpack the issue.

Saturday morning, we contacted Frontier, who was operating the flight, via their chat. This is the only way to contact them nowadays, email aside. There is no customer service line to call. They assured us that the flight was still running and thus there was nothing to act on. There was a flight leaving for Denver on Saturday evening, so we figured an option could be to take that and spend a night in Denver to ensure that we caught our Mexico flight in Denver, which would be much more challenging to rebook. With Frontier’s reassurance though, we decided to stay the course.

To gain a better piece of mind, we drove out to the airport Saturday morning simply to confirm that the flight was still running. It turns out though that Frontier doesn’t staff their kiosk unless a flight is departing; which there wasn’t. So empty-handed, we headed back home. One benefit (we thought at the time) we did glean from the Frontier chat was a confirmation # for tomorrow’s flight. I figured if we had that, we were in a good position to flight out as scheduled (we were not).

We went to bed a little after 10 for a 2:30 AM wake-up to make our 5:30 flight. When I picked up my phone, the first thing I saw was an email from Frontier stating that the flight was canceled. We figured the best place to resolve the issue was still at the airport, so we grabbed an Uber as scheduled and arrived a little more than two hours out from our flight. No Frontier employees were present; only a growing line of frustrated customers. As we waited for someone to show up (no guarantee based on the last 24 hours), I thought back to Kyle and I stranded in Arizona and we decided to act decisively. There was a 6:40 flight with Delta to Denver at an unfortunate sum of $350 per person, but would still get us there with plenty of time to make our connecting flight to Mexico City that left at 12:30. 

It’s funny how random interests of our childhood can come back around to benefit our future. I spent so many hours playing poker with the Chisago guys and honestly think this helped me make a quick judgement based on the situation. The flight was expensive, but the outloook was dim and we already had a lot of sunk cost in the trip. The price certainly wasn’t cheap, but not backbreaking in order to continue our scheduled trip. Not booking the flight could result in either a more expensive flight or a delay in our trip (or both). I’m still glad in hindsight (13 hours later) to have booked the flight, albeit pissed that they have not (yet) agree to refund it.

We took the light rail over to terminal one and promptly ran into a Hopkins Cross Country runner on the same flight #teacherlife. If we were more on the ball, they asked for two volunteers to bump to the next flight. $400 each. Basically a sign from God as it still would have put us on track to make the Mexico flight, but even hesitating for 30 seconds left us out of luck. With that said, the rest of the flight went smoothly and we arrived in Denver and found our departure gate easily. We had 4 hours to kill, so we walked a long way into another concourse to find a Starbucks. Not because it’s superior coffee, but because we literally have 10+ gift cards to there from students over the years. #teacherlife. Then I chased down the Frontier customer service kiosk and waited in line there for 20 minutes, only to move one position up in an ~11 person line. Went back to the Frontier chat and had a lengthy conversation attempting to recoup our costs (to no avail), before we boarded the plane to Mexico City.

I slept a bit on the first leg to Denver, but my legs were achy and while I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep on this flight. We were kept on our toes though with plenty of turbulence, especially on take off and landing. Made it safely though and easily grabbed an Uber to our Airbnb in the Condesa neighborhood. 

It’s a great studio apartment with a balcony on a quiet street but right next to tree-lined streets and a vibrant street life. After relaxing on the patio for a bit, we strolled the streets and wandered through the parks. It feels a bit European, certainly closer to that than the US, but definitely has its own flavor. We ended up at Naco Tacos for a great dinner of…tacos. Kate had a Guanabana drink and I had a Dos Equis Amber to wash it down. We wandered a bit more and ate some Churros and Chocolate at “El Moro”, supposedly a neighborhood staple. Swung by a bookstore a bit on our block to browse as well. Funny to see all of US and European literature crammed into a small corner of the store. 

Despite the flight mishap, we’re glad to have made it and had a good first evening in the city. Looking forward to expanding our reach into the city tomorrow.

Southern MN Bike Tour Day 4: 6/23/23

 Up for the standard breakfast of coffee and oatmeal and we hit the road with our earliest start yet: 8:20 or so. Not exactly the crack of dawn, but it was nice getting some morning miles in without the sun. No Greg this morning: Katie picked him up last night as they had a wedding in Duluth the next day they had to head to. So it was down to Andy, Dad, and me. 

The grind out of Welch is a beast: 330 some feet of elevation gain in 2.5 miles. It's graded about as even as it can be though and we were fresh, so it could have been worse. With this said, the Cannon River Valley is pretty cool. Those bluffs are massive and it's amazing how much natural habitat they've been able to preserve down there. Lots of birds singing in Welch and during the climb up. 

Hit a few backroads that went in and out of fairly big valleys before connecting with 316 that takes you into Hastings. 316 had a wide shoulder, but that was the only redeeming quality. Lots of trucks, lots of traffic. There was a bike trail when we hit the outskirts of Hastings, but then it quickly disappeared and it was again a ton of traffic to navigate the city streets headed towards the city center. We hit the sidewalk some and clogged up traffic some, but eventually rolled up on Wuollet's (formerly Emily's) just outside of downtown. Had some good doughnuts and coffee and talked a bit with the locals. Always a lot of gray hair patronizing the coffee shops and bakeries at mid-morning when we come in for our mid-morning break.

Wound the neighborhoods through Hastings and out the northwest side of town. Took some backroads for a time, then eventually connected to the Spring Lake Park Reserve trail that takes you all the way up to St. Paul. This was some of the best biking of the trip. A great trail, rolling hills, nice views, big woods. Very enjoyable. 

The trail abruptly comes to a stop on the edge of the park and you have to hit some gravel, then a paved industrial road out of the valley and back up to civilization. From there, the trail has long stretches of industrial yards it goes through, with still some decent woods sections in between. Interesting for sure, if not always beautiful. We took a water stop for a bit, then trekked on into Inver Grove Heights. Hacked some back roads for a while to avoid the trail which parallels a super busy highway and then reconnected with the travel as it dives back down to the river and has some really nice waterfront stretches as it heads into South St. Paul. These stretches were also awesome. Maybe not the most beautiful of the trip, but great, expansive views and some nice trail to ride.

We had a little trouble finding the exit to Cesar Chavez Blvd (google misled us), but sorted it out and grabbed some lunch at El Burrito Mercado. I got a huge plate of nachos and enjoyed the ambiance. It was good to see the "downtown" area of West St. Paul. I've spent such limited time there; probably one of my least visited part of the core cities. It's cool to see a part of the city that seems almost foreign. Add it in the hills and you could have said I was in Pittsburgh and I would have believed it. 

George Street leaving the restaurant was a steady grind up hill to the Smith Bridge (High Bridge), but it was great to cruise down that with awesome views of the city. We finished up the ride by hitting the Ayd Mill trail, then down Selby/Dayton, and back into our neck of the woods. 

Total mileage for the day: 52ish.

All in all- another outstanding bike trip. Fun to bike with the family and very impressive that my Dad chugged right along. Looking forward to planning one again in the near future.

Bike trails traveled on
(have a name, are ~3 miles or longer)

Midtown Greenway

South Cedar Lake BT

MN River Bluffs LRT

Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail

Mill Towns Trail

Cannon River Valley BT

Mississippi River Regional Trail (Dakota county)

Robert Piram Bikeway

Ayd Mill Road Trail

Still work to be done on connecting our MN bikeways, but also pretty solid!

Bird species: 62 official into E-Bird, although I'm sure that's a low count and I missed some along the way.