We just spent this past week in Minnesota visiting Ryan's parents and his sister Tonya. Friends in New Jersey looked puzzled as we shared our plans to travel to the tundra during the week long break from school. Yes, it's cold here and yes, there is a lot of snow. But somehow it felt refreshing. (I'm sure if I was living here and in the midst of possibly one of the snowiest seasons ever, I'd use a different word than "refreshing"). It snowed after we arrived and like good Minnesotans we didn't let a moderate storm stomp out our plans. We drove Roo to one of the "top 10 places in America to skate".
The Depot, an old train station in downtown Minneapolis that's been reborn as an ice rink attached to a hotel with a water slide.
A no show by the Zamboni driver left the ice a bit too "shredded", as Roo likes to say, but we had fun. The weekdays began and Ryan headed into the Minneapolis office to catch up with colleagues, and I left Roo at his Grandparents and headed up north to a Dwelling in the Woods. My own hermitage with a wood burning stove,
situated amongst the pine and birch, provided three nights of secluded warmth. I built my very first fire.
Two books, two movies, and several catnaps later, I woke to a 0 degree F morning (minus 17 celsius) and headed back to the twin cities. Roo had fun days with his grandparents which included building a snow fort
and climbing through the tunnels at the Children’s Museum.
We’re back in Jersey, the snow is gone, and Roo’s busy discovering his toys tonight.
