Carleton 2015

We drove through here on a very hot, muggy July afternoon in 2010 (Northfield: July 2010) on our way back from the east coast. It was too late in the day to get a formal tour, but we wandered around, scurrying between air conditioned buildings. Given our family's general reaction to hot weather - and D's experience with the heat in Hanover just a week or two earlier - you'd think that would have ruled this place out. But less than a year later, he arrived for "accepted students" weekend. We delivered him and his stuff the next September (2011) and now, all of a sudden, he's graduating.

Graduation got under way under a light drizzle and behind a wall of umbrellas, but by the time the graduates were going up for their handshakes, the rain had stopped and the view of the stage had been restored. It's a small school, so all of the students could be called by name and given their diplomas, and all within a relatively bearable length of time.

I'm not sure how much we'll see of Northfield from here out, but it looks like trips back to the midwest may continue, albeit to Wisconsin, not Minnesota.

Northfield

According to Google Maps, it should have taken me just under 24 hours to drive the roughly 1700 miles from Seattle to Northfield (I-90 and its I-94 alternate are almost exactly the same). But I didn't use Google Maps.

Instead, I arrived in Northfield late in the afternoon of my 8th day, having driven 3600 miles. That just seems to be the way I do things.

I had pizza with D that evening. The next day I did a laundry, changed the oil, shipped some stuff home (making room in the car for more of his stuff), and took the rocket box off the car so I could park at the airport. Then D and I headed up to MSP to pick up M and her mom.

Friday was gorgeous. We walked around campus and along the river in town, much as we have many times in the last 4 years. We met a bunch of D's friends and even some of his profs. We kept our fingers crossed that the weather would be just as nice for the next day's graduation ceremonies!

Northfield

We're back again, for the fourth September in row, dropping D off for his senior year. (I guess we actually came through a year earlier, too). We just spent one night. Long enough to help him find his stuff from June and move it across campus into his new dorm room. We arrived late afternoon on Thursday and M and I headed out towards Minneapolis after lunch on Friday.

My sore foot and the gray weather sort of discouraged me from my normal early morning walk along the river, and so I have few good pictures this time around.

Northfield/Carleton
July 2010
September 2011
September 2012
September 2013

Seattle

4100 miles in ten days, one of which only included the 50 miles between Northfield and Minneapolis.  I love these trips, but this one was a little too quick, without much time to explore along the way.  I preferred the last couple of September trips when M and I could take a little longer - maybe even spend a couple of days in one place or drive less than 400 miles in a day!

The map above my desk has all the trips of the last three years (since July 2010) inked out in Sharpie.  And D still has two more years in Northfield!  I guess there is still more white space to fill in.

The trips are all labelled in the blog:

• Road Trip 2010
• Road Trip 2011
• Road Trip 2012
• September 2012
• Road Trip 2013

I'm always a little burned out after each trip, but it only takes a few weeks and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Minneapolis

Friday was an easy driving day compared to the other nine days of the trip, since we only had to get ourselves from Northfield to Minneapolis. I appreciated the break and it was nice to spend an evening in the city after miles and miles of mountains and plains.

We got a great room at a great price at the Marquette. The first photo is the view from the room. We had dinner at the Gorkha Palace with K, who just started at Macelester. And we had breakfast at Hell's Kitchen before heading out of town. We'd be in Montana by Saturday night!

Carleton College

We're back for a third September in a row to drop D in Northfield. And dropping him is about all we left time for this year. We arrived Thursday evening and were out after lunch on Friday.

He was looking forward to being back at school.  The summer painting job may have contributed to this, but I think new classes and playing Ultimate were really the main motivations.

He's in Myers this year - chosen for its proximity to dining hall and playing fields, I guess.

Northfield

The first time we came through Northfield, three summers ago on our cross-country trip before D's senior year, it was baking, (July 2010) but it seems like every visit since has been wonderful.  I'm sort of getting used to the routine of wandering over to the river and into town for coffee early in the morning - and somehow the reflections of the old Malt-O-Meal mill and the waterfall are always good photo candidates (September 2011).

Minnesota

Bobb, the enthusiastic travel companion we picked up back at the Palouse Empire Fair (scroll down a few posts), has found pretty much the whole adventure exciting.  Even when others were appearing bored or sleepy, Bobb had his eyes on the road ahead, wondering what new surprises lay in store. He was particularly amazed by the cattle guards on Union Pass in Wyoming, which often came with cattle, and the buffalo in Custer State Park in South Dakota.

And today, he was nearly overwhelmed by hundreds of miles of corn and soy beans (the latter is a more tenuous identification)!

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

Our final stop before hitting the road and a thousand miles of prairie was the Sculpture Garden.  The centerpiece is the Oldenburg/van Bruggen Spoonbridge and Cherry.  We wandered for 30 minutes and were just heading out when we got a call from D saying that he had gotten the final class he had wanted.  We were in Jamestown ND by the end of the evening.

Guthrie Theater

We hadn't really planned on visiting the Guthrie, but it looked inviting from the river with it's cool architecture and strange cantilevered projection.  There's no charge to wander through and the spaces are amazing!  It provides great views of the city and the river -- framed by interesting windows and rendered like paintings by the tinted glass.

Minneapolis

We drove up the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi and then through St. Paul.  We walked around the Macalester campus, then headed for Minneapolis where we explored the Stone Arch Bridge and St. Anthony Falls - the only significant natural falls on the Mississippi (although not so natural anymore).

Moondance Inn

The trip back was a chance to try out some different kinds of places - both to stay and to eat.  The Moondance is a beautiful restored mansion in Red Wing, complete with a pair of Puli's (dogs with black dreadlocks at both ends and in the middle, so orientation is a challenge) and a great breakfast. I'm not sure the decor of these old-style B&Bs is necessarily our style, but we enjoyed our stay.