This may end up being the longest blog I have ever written. Since most of the things I have accomplished in the last week follow a "theme" I thought it would be interesting to try to write about all of them in one blog. If this ends up turning in to a novel, I will switch back to the "one blog per one bucket list accomplishment." We'll see how it goes... :) Feel free to skim through it.
The reason I included the majority of these things on my bucket list can be summed up to this: I hate winter. I just cannot stand it. I live in Minnesota and I don't think I've ever belonged here. Even as a small child, when my parents encouraged me to play outside in the snow, I remember being reluctant to leave our warm house and be subjected to the subzero cold. As I got older and I had to experience longer rush hours, cars not starting in the morning, scraping the snow off of windshields, sliding into the ditch, drudging through piles of snow to take my dog outside, slipping on the ice on my driveway and hurting my wrists/back/etc my hatred only grew stronger. This last winter was one of the worst winters in Minnesota history. I think it ended up being the 3rd snowiest on record-- with about 7 giant snow storms (I may be exaggerating this number in my head, but definitely it's not far from the truth), snow from October until May, and weeks of below zero temperatures... Because I hate winters, I usually spend a great deal of time inside and end up getting somewhat seasonally depressed. I really don't want to be a Bitter Betty... and I'm actively trying not to be! A lot of the things on my bucket list are on there because I want to try to enjoy the good things the seasons have to offer. I've been plotting my escape from this state for the past couple of years, but in the meantime, I'm trying to convince myself to love Minnesota.
Now you might not be making the connection between "fall activities" and Minnesota winters, but in my mind fall has always kind of signified the death of summer and the beginning of winter-- it's a horrible way to look at it, I know this. I never really made the effort to enjoy the fall leaves or fall activities, I just complained about needing to pull my winter coat out of the closet. Hopefully someone else in Minnesota can identify with this, so I don't feel like the Grinch. But even if I am the Grinch, this list is proof that I am trying not to be. If I didn't put many of these "traditional" fall things on my list, I probably wouldn't have done them. :) This is my therapy.
And honestly, this is one of the best falls I can remember. So it has been working!
One of the best things about fall in Minnesota is the apples. There are hundreds of apple trees in the Minnesota country area, and about 10 different orchards on the outskirts of the Twin Cities that sell apple pies, apple donuts, apple cider, and usually allow you to pick apples right off the trees. They will often have hay rides, petting zoos, bonfires, and several other fall activities as well. I can probably count the number of times I remember going to the apple orchard on one hand, but it always is a lot of fun.
This year, Jeannie told me that she had found discount tickets to a local apple orchard and asked if I wanted to come with. Of course, we forgot to buy the tickets in time, but we picked a weekend to go to one anyway. We decided to visited the one in Stillwater because they also have a winery. I had never been to this particular one, and it was actually one of the better ones I've been to, because Stillwater is a popular city in Minnesota to visit in general so the orchard was relatively big.
Because it was later in the year, all of the apples on the trees had already been picked. Of course, there were plenty of apples inside, which were beautiful and enormous. It also didn't make much of a difference to me, because my dad has a handful of apple trees in our backyard and gave me two bags of free apples. :) Jeannie bought a few apples, but we also collectively bought an apple pie, apple donuts, apple cider and beer cheese soup mix (not really apple-related, but one of my favorite things.) We also walked around the barren trees to take pictures and enjoy being outside, as well as the winery, which also had very few grapes left. There was also several goats in a petting zoo, a man playing accordian and singing polka (which was one of the less enjoyable features of the orchard), a few games, wine tasting, several baked apple products and childrens activities. We mostly just enjoyed the experience, since we didn't have too much money to spend, but it was still a fun trip. :)
I have brought my little sister to the apple orchard in the past, and I had really wanted to bring her again, so the next weekend I tried to squeeze in a second trip. That Saturday also happened to be Brian's nephew's birthday party at the Minnesota zoo, and since we wanted to be with his family and Amy really loves the zoo, I tried to make it all fit into one day. The problem was, the zoo expedition was scheduled from 11-4. One would think the apple orchard would open relatively early, but the majority of them opened at about 10am and were about an hour away from the zoo. After a lot of research and frustration, I found one in Lakeville (that I had never heard of) that opened at 9 and was about a half hour away. I figured if we left early enough, we could be there from 9-1030 (about an hour and a half), pick out pumpkins to carve later that night, and just enjoy being at the apple orchard.
The apple orchard was... well... probably the worst one I've ever been to. It might have been the fact that we had gone so early, or maybe because we went so late in the year. But all the apples were picked, and when we went inside the building, we were greeted by two teenagers who literally looked as if they were glaring at us the entire time. There was also no music playing and no one else in the building. There were no apples, a few apple products, and instead of apple cider in the fridge they had coke products. Because it was so awkward, we spent about 30 seconds inside and left to see what was outside. The pumpkin selection was also not the greatest, so we walked around the minimal attractions and went through the hedge maze they had set up and left. We ended up going to Cub for our pumpkins and buying donuts there instead. It was a little disappointing, but something to laugh about.
We went to the zoo, which was really fun, since none of us had been there more than once in the last decade. Then we went to Brian's new apartment to visit his new kitten. Jake came over, and later my cousin Michelle, and everyone but Michelle carved pumpkins. Amy and I also spent the afternoon making apple crisp with the apples from my dad's apple trees, using a recipe from my cookbook. And it actually ended up tasting pretty good! I'll probably make it again for my work's potluck next week.
Friday was Amy Vergin's birthday, which ended up being out in the Rockford area at Justin's. I thought it would be a great night to use my dad's telescope to look at the moon, so I invited Alyssa (who is interested in astronomy and most science-related things) and Brian (who had already used it and wasn't interested, so mainly came with to appease me), and we planned to go after the party was over... which I assumed would be about 11-- an ideal time to look at the stars. I was inspired by a podcast I had listened to at work last week (I listen to a lot of podcasts, since there aren't many more interesting things I can do while I process paperwork), which talked about how the moon was formed (by an astroid that collided with the earth millions of years ago, and was covered by lava which eventually cooled and resulted in a lifeless mass of rock.) My dad made a telescope when I was a toddler, but I had never been very interested in using it until recently, which is why I put it on my bucket list. I had originally wanted to go in the spring, but since it was one of the last weekends it would be warm enough, I figured we could go now and get it checked off my list. Of course, I invited Amy and the rest of the party to go if they wanted to, and most of them did!
It was a beautiful night-- it was probably about 50, so it was cool enough to be out for a limited amount of time, and the sky was perfectly clear. The only problem was that it was a moon-less night! Since that doesn't happen too often, I didn't really think to look it up. My dad was able to show us jupiter, however, and were able to see about 4 of it's 63 moons. I was kind of disappointed, because it's not usually an easy task to arrange something way out in the country at my parents house, until Jen pointed out that I looked at "a" moon. Just not "the" moon. I looked up my bucket list and it didn't say "the" moon, so I've decided it was successfully completed. :)
Overall, I was able to take advantage of most of what fall has to offer in Minnesota. Since fall is not very long in Minnesota, it ended up being extremely busy, but it was definitely a lot of fun. Next year I'll have to go to the Zombie Pub Crawl (which was the weekend I went to Duluth-- kind of a bummer) and maybe create an elaborate Halloween costume? But this fall was definitely more eventful and fun than it ever has been. :) I'd say my overall goal was accomplished.
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