Maplelag 2011

We went to visit Maplelag Resort in Callaway, Minnesota last weekend and had a blast!

Not many pictures because we were too busy skiing!

When we weren't skiing, we were enjoying the sauna and hot tub, or eating the delicious food the lodge makes or just hanging out in the lodge reading a book.

This was probably the best vacation we have ever taken! It's only flaw was it was way too short.

We stayed in a cabin that used to be a Finnish Sauna from Northern Minnesota. Three beds and a wood-burning fireplace. Very cozy! All of the amenities were just a short jaunt away in the lodge.

The cross-country skiing was fantastic. All of the trails are groomed frequently with nice, deep tracks and the weather could not have been more perfect (though I never thought I'd say that about temperatures that perhaps reached a high of 3 F all weekend)

The view from our cabin

Inside...looking at the decor
The roastily-toastily fire in our cabin

Lined up and ready to ski...


Coleen on her way out to the trails


After coming in from an early morning ski...

A view of the lodge when coming in from the trails


This was on my favorite trail JibFly

William out on the trails


Can't wait for next year!

Dorothy, I don't think we're in Wisconsin anymore...

William had to make a business trip down to the Carolinas last week and I was able to join him for the weekend. We went to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden near Charlotte and then over to Great Smoky National Park where we took an 8 mile hike up to Charlie's Bunion.

Everything was wonderful! It was warm. We have had a cool spring here in Wisconsin and getting out of the plane and feeling the sun upon you was a lovely thing.

It is extremely lush. Green everywhere. The trees towered above you and everything was flowering. The azaleas up in the mountains were blooming. There were large patches of wildflowers along the road that included Flanders poppies and cosmos. I don't know if they were truly wild or had been planted at some point but they were lovely. This was at the botanical garden, but the ones on the roadside were similar.

The Botanical Garden was lovely. There were all sorts of plants growing outside that William remembers tending in the greenhouses in Chico. Including the passion flower.

And then they had an orchid conservatory which was full of orchids and other tropical plants that cannot handle the cold of South Carolina - bananas, begonias.

We had great food while we were there. Lots of fun restaurants both in Charlotte and Asheville.

Then we got to hike a part of the Appalachian Trail. The trail starts in Georgia and goes all the way to Maine. You can see how much further you had to go from where we were at the North Carolina/Tennessee border.

We chose to hike only 4 miles in to a place called Charlie's Bunion which was a rock outcropping overlooking the layers upon layers of rolling valleys that are part of the Smoky Mountains. It was quite stunning.

We had a great weekend and when we talked to Coleen in New Mexico it sounded like she was having lots of fun visiting her grandparents. We did wish that we could share it all with her. She would have especially loved the different kinds of rocks in the mountains and the fiddler that was dancing a jig in downtown Asheville. Well, I guess that gives us an excuse to return...

First Stop- Albuquerque

On the way to William's sister's wedding in Phoenix, we stopped in Albuquerque to visit my parents. My brother and his wife flew in from Seattle while we were there, so we had a sort of mini family reunion.

It was a great visit! Very relaxing, considering how short a time we were there. Sunday, William and I had some time to ourselves and went and wandered around our old haunts. Since it was just going to be the two of us, Dad let us borrow his convertible.

Nob Hill, where we met at work;
While at UNM, we conveniently visited the Center of the Universe...
Zimmerman library, also at UNM, my alma mater:




and it wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the Frontier for a plate of Huevos Rancheros with fresh tortillas!
We finished the night by going back to my parents and Dad & I had fun photographing my quilt,while William and Coleen warped the loom she got for her birthday. (While going through Lawrence, KS we stopped at the Yarn Barn and bought a Kromski Fiddle rigid heddle loom).She warped and finished her project all in one night.
Monday, we ran a couple of errands(including a second trip to Frontier) after we went to visit my parents new church building, which is quite beautiful,
with a stunning view of the Sandia mountains.Then went back to their house and had a birthday party complete with a spumoni cake
Since we were all together we celebrated Coleen's and Cat's birthdays together.
Coleen had a lot of fun with the treasure hunt my parents concocted.
Tuesday morning on our way out of town, we stopped and had breakfast at Weck's (another favorite from when we lived there) and saw this hot air balloon take off in the field next door.

Wool Festival

Last Saturday we went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. This was our second year. It is about three hours away, east of Madison, so it makes a fun little get away. On the way down we stopped at the Farmer's Market in Madison which is always overwhelming - the market surrounds the capitol building and is brimming over with beautiful displays of fruits and veggies, flowers, cheeses, honey and...well, you get the idea. Knowing that anything we bought would be sitting in the car all day, we limited ourselves to a few things we can't find locally- garlic, a whole bunch to plant in the garden; sweet potatoes, some sheep's milk cheeses and the first apples of the season.

The sheep festival had a barn with different breeds and also brand new baby lambs. This guy is four days old. What a cutie!






This is a shetland lamb. I like shetlands. They have interesting fleeces and they are small. When William dreams of owning sheep, I hope they are shetlands.

William was especially looking for some parts for his new loom and some rug warp. He found both. Coleen is hooked on needle felting, so we bought a new book and some colorful rovings for her to play with. I'll show you our first projects in my next post.




After leaving the festival, it was back to Madison to Oberich Gardens. This is a wonderful set of botanical gardens, set up in a series of rooms. Each with a different feel. Unfortunately, one of my favorites, the herb garden was being renovated but everything else was lovely.

They have a thai pavillion on one side that is surrounded by more tropical plantings.


All in all, it was a great day.