My Private Prairie Home Companion

We spent the past week visiting my aunt and uncle at their cabin on Birch Lake, in western Minnesota. Setting for Garrison Keillor's stories, birthplace of Sinclair Lewis, and as rural as you like.


Grey Eagles' general store does sell everything. The sausages looked good, and the tuxedos were reasonably stylish.


World's Strongest 4-Year-Old Competition at the Stearns County Fair.


Hmm... better safe than sorry.


I tried to buy some local "microbrew", but the lads at the shop recommended against it. Seems that although the German ancestry in these parts inclines the locals to drink a lot of beer, it's much more an interest in quantity over quality. I'm not saying it's dire... oh, wait... maybe I am. Summit from Saint Paul, the Extra PA was ok, I guess.


Lots of birds... here, a noisy cardinal... loons and woodpeckers in the background, pelicans on the dock, egrets and plovers amongst the thrushes, hummingbirds and goldfinches in the garden, and hawks and bald eagles overhead. Apparently, there are some snowy owls in the area too, but that's one species we didn't see.


Not a bird.


Flight of pelicans.


Loony family.


...but of all the birds, I kept running into this broad-rimmed pearly-toothed drinksnatcher. A rare species for sure.


And continuing with the fowl, this kitty likes jerk chicken. Note the Chateau Musar...


I, on the other hand, was not getting on with the budget bbq.


Local seafaring person.


Paddling out to see, without me.


Leinenkugel, the local beer, from Wisconsin. We learned all about local dialect and customs from a documentary filmed nearby, you may have heard of "Fargo".


Being signaled by auntie: "Wait for me!!"


"um... the boat keeps making this funny noise, and I think we're out of gas?"


Lake-side idyll.


Wobegon Trail. 120+ miles of cyclepath. Wish we'd had bikes.


Cafe Charlie's in Freeport.


"We're not gonna need bigger buns."


A day in the Twin Cities, and a quick visit to my first U.S. home, graduate student housing at the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. A view from my old sledding hill, my first school bus stop, and happy times! Haven't been here since I was seven years old.


Minnehaha falls. Methinks the Twin Cities are vastly under-rated for natural beauty.


Mapping Joy and Pain at Minnehaha Park, a public arts project.


Lake Harriet. There are some who own houses on the lake, and then there are those who just drive around the lake.


Lake Harriet, that is. But Big Birch suits just fine.