Spring Break - Duluth, MN

Over spring break, we decided to spend a weekend in Duluth. It couldn't have worked out better. The weather was fantastic, tourism was low, and the 2 hour drive was just right.

Saturday had temps in the upper 50's, which is awesome for Duluth in early April. We decided to spend some time at the historic lift bridge, which the kids really liked. The timing worked out well since one of the larger freighters was coming into the harbor while we were there.

We stayed at a hotel that had a waterpark, and that served as a good family event center as well. On Friday, we celebrated Nikki's birthday, part of which was spent cleaning up one of our child's throw-up 4 times that day. The joys of being a parent.

On Sunday we went to the Great Lakes aquarium - which took a few hours to visit. It's mostly stocked with the same fish you see everywhere, but the kids liked it pretty well.

House on the Rock

When we go to visit Chicago, we've started to make a stop in the Wisconsin Dells for the kids. This year, since Easter was at the end of spring break for most schools in MN and WI, the rates were jacked up big-time when we decided to go to Chicago over Easter weekend.

We opted for a plan B: doing House on the Rock instead. This is in the same general area of Wisconsin, but a little off the beaten path. Still, there are signs all along the interstate that we've always ignored, so this looked like a good opportunity to make.

As an aside, the weather didn't cooperate. The Madison, WI area has had record snowfall, and the day we were passing through the area was pretty crummy due to another snowfall of 6-9 inches of fresh snow. The positive is that the House on the Rock had very view visitors - it was almost like we had the entire tourist trap to ourselves.

This is a an interesting place that I guess you need to go through once. Nik and I commented that we won't be bothered if we don't go back for another 15-20 years. The place was hit or miss for me. A few rooms were interesting and unique, most were boring to me, much less the kids. Karsten and Kiera both used the words "dark" and "scary" to describe it. I couldn't imagine this place during peak tourist season and having to maneuver around lots of people. Still, the House on the Rock took several hours just to tour all the rooms since it's a pretty sprawling place encompassing several large buildings that have been added over the years.

Oh, and did I mention that there's shag carpet everywhere - including most ceilings? I'd hate to have to be the one to vacuum this place.

Here are some pics. My favorite was the Infinity room, which juts off the top of the mountain and goes ~100 ft. straight out over the valley. Visibility was bad due to the weather, but the effect was still stunning.
This is a pic. of the Carousel Room. Supposedly, there are 20,000 lights on that thing. I counted them, and that's a bit of exaggeration. I stopped at 599,527, but I'm not sure if I counted some lights more than once since the Carousel was moving the whole time.

Lastly, we were told to check out the bathrooms. They were pretty cool. This is one of the nicer men's rooms.


This bathroom below helps men keep man law #12: avoid using the urinal right next to another dude at all costs. There was easily 5-6 feet between the urinals, and each urinal had it's own sink to boot. On the downside, the picture looks like some dude still has bad aim, if you know what I mean. That, or they just hosed the place down for a cleaning... I stayed away just to be sure.

Vacation: Crazy Horse Monument 6/20/07

At this point on our vacation, we had already driven by the Crazy Horse monument a few times. It's pretty difficult to miss, and clearly visible from the highway. After all, they're making the ENTIRE MOUNTAIN into a rock sculpture. To put the uninitiated into a proper prespective of the size of this, all of Mt Rushmore would fit on the head alone of the Crazy Horse monument. That hole in the mountain is as tall as a 10-story building (about 100 ft). That's BIG.

The entire site and project is privately funded, and there are no estimates when it will be completed. I can only hope it will be completed in my lifetime, but that's pretty doubtful.

I learned a lot at this site, and I think the kids did too. I found myself leaving with two deeper realizations: 1) that the Indians got totally shafted by the white man, and 2) the man Crazy Horse is far more significant to not only Indian culture but to National Culture as well. Overall, it was a sombering experience, but I think it's better that way.

One cool thing is you are able to take rocks that have been blasted from the mountain during the project. I picked one that has lots of colors in it. I'll keep it on my desk as a reminder of how I ought to treat others fairly and as a reminder of what Americans have done that frankly cause me embarrassment and shame.

We went in the evening so we could all watch the light/lazer show on the mountain after going through the video presentation and museums. My camera had a hard time focusing on something so far away in low light conditions, so I wasn't able to take many pictures. The second picture has the 1/34 scale model with the monument in the background. The last 2 pictures are blurry, it was a LOT of tweaking just to get those. For more pics and info, here is the link to the Crazy Horse memorial.