10 Questions About…

Last weekend I had an unconference in Duluth. I wrote a ton about the unconference itself on the Blandin on Broadband blog (if you’re interested). The super quick take is that a group of folks who use web 2.0 tools (especially in rural Minnesota) all got together to talk about why and how we use those tools. It was fun.

The family came to Duluth with me and we stayed an extra day for a vacation. Here are some of the highlights:

1. We stayed at the Inn on Lake Superior. They have s’mores every night at 8:00. Who doesn’t love that?
2. We walked up to Fitger’s for dinner on Saturday night. We were led by Mary M and her family from Grand Rapids – so they knew the ropes. The food was good and the beer is locally brewed. The best part was that it was a nice walk up the boardwalk to get there.
3. You can see some picture of the girls walking out to some structure in Lake Superior. It was an easy walk out on the ice on Friday night – by Monday I think you’d have to swim out there. So we were there at a perfect time to see how the ice goes out.
4. The hotel had two pools. There was an outdoor pool on the roof, which is open in all seasons. It’s nice and warm like a hot tub. We were there on a sunny day so it didn’t feel too cold making the long walk from the door to the pool – even though it was probably about freezing outside.
5. The second pool was a more regular pool inside – but there was a Jacuzzi there too. So that was fun for a dip too.
6. The girls tracked down the ugliest animal/amphibian I have ever seen in a local book store (Northern Lights Books). It was a zombie frog. It floated at the top of the fish tank like it was dead. And it was so pale and white – and that’s coming from a family that understands pale and white! Apparently it’s nocturnal. We did see it dive to the bottom – where it somehow looked even uglier than before.
7. We saw a huge ship leaving the harbor – which is particularly cool to see when there’s still so much ice on the lake.
8. We had brunch at a place (Hell’s Kitchen) where the staff wears their pajamas.
9. We had two TVs in the hotel room and we all got to watch as much cable as we wanted.

This weekend I got to do some blog training in Morris. The short cut is I train bloggers in rural Minnesota who are involved with the NWAF and U of M Extension Horizons project. It’s a projust to reduce poverty. I absolutely love working with the bloggers.

Anyways, the training was on Saturday morning so we decided it might be fun for the whole family to jin me for te weekend. We stayed in a hotel with a swimming pool. It was also a hotel where we could hear people party at 4 am – but that was OK. Really 5 people in 2 queen beds, it’s not going to be the best night sleep no matter how you slice it.

The pool was nice and warm and they had cable. Hello Iron Chef, Sponge Bob and What Not to Wear!

One fun highlight was going to see the girls basketball game at the U of M Morris. As most of you know, we’re not big athletes but we really enjoyed watching the game.

We also went bowling. The best bowler won. (Yup, that’s me!)

I have started a fun project with Extension Services and the NWAF. They are doing poverty reduction programs in various communities throughout Minnesota. Part of the program is to get community members to blog about their experience and progress.

I get to train the bloggers and offered technical assistance. So Grandpa and I hit the road last week so that I coidl do train 3 night in arow. The people are great and it is fun to see different parts of Minnesota – more fun when you are traveling with somoene – but it is tiring!

I don’t usually blog about work here – but work was kind of interesting this week. On Monday night I headed to Brainerd to talk to the Minnesota Resort and Campground Association. My friend Jan and I talked about Web 2.0 stuff for tourism. On Tues I met up with my friend Bill to do some work with the Blandin Foundation in Grand Rapids.

But the fun (and noteworthy) part came Tuesday night. We heard that Hillary Clinton would be in Hibbing – so we headed up there. It’s not too far from Grand Rapids. I had never been to a rally like this before. It was held in the hockey arena and the place was jammed. We saw the line to get in and were worried we wouldn’t get in.

But we got it as did 5,000 or so other people. The place was filled but it wasn’t overly crowded. Everyone was friendly and I think every Democratic politician past or present within a 200 mile radius was up on stage. The strangest thing was a guy with a cowboy hat with McCain stickers in the middle of the room. He didn’t say anything and I think he eventually took of his hat – but it was strange to see him.

Also the security was pretty light. After the RNC demonstrations I pretty much expect a full militia at any public event. There were a few guards but that was it.

I taped most of Hillary’s speech.

See Amy Klobuchar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQZlIFafQOo

Jim Oberstar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3LTxokeqTM (I think)

Last Saturday we went to Nelson’s Farm in Litchfield with Grandpa. The weather was perfect! The girls enjoyed the baby kittens best. Grandpa and I didn’t. But there were other things that we all liked. My favorite part was the corn maze. I always love those. I think Kate really loved it too – because we were able to turn it into a competition. She was storming ahead to help us find our scavenger hunt items and then get out.

I think Grandpa’s favorite part might have been the trebuchet that catapulted the pumpkin into the field. There was a playground/playset with a cool, long tube slide. There was an area where you could pan for jewels and marbles. Really just being outside on such a beautiful day was nice – especially for the hay ride.

On the way home we stopped by the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Darwin, Minnesota. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. Now there’s a little gazebo-type thing built around twine-ball. It’s fun. Then the kids and I played at the park with Grandpa went to the cemetery to see the graves of my Grandma and Grandpa Treacy. Lily kind of missed seeing that so we all stopped by cemetery on the way home and realized that Lily was born right about the time her Great Grandpa would have turned 99.

Here’s a video on the catapult. I hope it works. It doesn’t work for me today: