Five on Friday

ONE
I tagged along on a #whirlwindarttripwithkate to Minnesota last weekend. The impetus for the trip was a visit to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona to see a show by Karen Goulet (Ojibwe) and Monique Verdin (Houma) titled Aabijijiwan / Ukeyat yanalleh (It Flows Continuously) for an article that Kate is working on for Arts Midwest. (Click that link to see her pretty face, then scroll down to peruse the articles she’s already written for them.)

We visited MMAM for the first time last year to see two other shows: Liz Sexton: Out of Water and Courtney Mattison: Undercurrent.

All of those shows are mind-blowing. I took photos but, seriously, the museum does a much better job and visiting those links is well worth your while… and there is much more to entice. I am certain that I’ll be visiting that museum again!

From Winona we drove north along the Mississippi to Minneapolis. We stayed at a very fine hotel downtown, enjoyed some lovely meals & drinks… fancy digs for visiting thrift shops & used book stores! It was great.

I picked up a bug on the way home, though, and was pretty sick on Monday/Tuesday. I’m finally feeling close to 100% today. Thank god, just in time for the weekend!

TWO
I brought knitting along, of course. I even brought Ali’s blanket panel — determined which colors I’d need, so I wasn’t schlepping more than necessary — but, of course, I didn’t knit a stitch of it. I did do a little looking ahead to Maddy’s panel, though, and put in an order to replenish some colors that are running low, along with more black for the border. It’s amazing to actually be contemplating knitting the border!

THREE
That’s not to say that I didn’t knit! My current Musselburgh isn’t suitable for travel — I’m still figuring it out, so it’s neither mindless nor relaxing at the moment. Instead, I cast on a Garter Yoke Baby Cardi (Rav) for a coworker’s new baby girl, and I made some progress.

I had just sorted through a bunch of yarn, y’know, and came across this crazy hank — some bright blue, a little light pink, and quite a bit of purple. Purple : Amethyst : February Color (birthstone). I’m sticking with that. I added a slip stitch every 10 stitches in an effort to minimize weird pooling/flashing, and I like it… I also like that, by some stroke of luck, the pooling is happening in a pleasing & pretty symmetrical way!

That photo was taken a couple of days ago. I began the garter stitch border at the bottom edge of the cardi last night. I should have a finished sweater next week!

FOUR
Everyone’s summer schedules/plans are on the calendar and I’m already exhausted! Kate’s heading west for work in mid-May, Rusty’s joining her in early June for a West Coast road trip, they’ll return in time for Maddy’s arrival, at which time Ann & fam will be wrapping up their month-long visit, and Viv will still be due to arrive!

There’s also a temporary change at work coming up this spring wherein I won’t have my lovely long weekends, but, in exchange, I will likely grab an extra day here & there throughout the busiest part of summer when I’ll need it most.

FIVE
With all that in mind, Rusty & I took a good look at the calendar to plan a last-long-weekend-get-away… while we still can! So, last night I booked a sweet motel in Escanaba, where we’ll stay on a Friday night next month as we get a head start on our way to Sault Ste Marie! I originally looked at doing some of the Lake Superior Circle Tour, but really would like to just do a little exploring here & there while I mostly sit & watch boats go by. I found a sweet Airbnb for three nights on the Canada side, only about half-hour from Soo Locks, that looks perfect!

I would like to drive up the east side of the lake to Wawa… a little nod to nostalgia. My dad took us on the Circle Tour in about 1970 (don’t do the math — that’s an unfathomable number), which is the last time I was in that area. I’ll have to queue up Gary Puckett & The Union Gap for the drive…. that was the soundtrack of that trip! Have a great weekend!!