dreamshark, posts by tag: travel - LiveJournal

In 2016 I signed us both up for the Global Entry Program, which lets pre-screened US citizens bypass customs on reentering the US. But wait, there's more!  The Global Entry card also works as well as a passport for getting back into the US across the Canadian land border (a life-saver during that period where our passports were lost). But the real reason for getting it is that it also includes TSA Pre-Check for a cost of only $15 more than applying for TSA Pre-Check alone. And TSA Pre-Check is worth its weight in gold. It lets you bypass most of the security line at domestic airports as well as exempting you from some of the dumber TSA requirements, like removing your shoes and segregating your shampoos and lotions in a little ziplock bag. 

But the application process is annoying and can take months because you have to schedule an interview. According to the government site, you absolutely need an interview just for an uncomplicated renewal, and they are backed up for months. So when I noticed that our Global Entries were expiring in 2022 I decided I'd better get on the ball. Went online and filled out the forms again and then waited for the applications to go into pre-approval mode so I could try to schedule interviews. Astoundingly, they just skated right past the interview requirement and approved them both!  In two days!  I was so confused by this that I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out where the scheduling link had disappeared to (the website had OF COURSE been completely scrapped and reimagined since our initial applications, requiring brand new accounts and so on). But I finally noticed a message in the Notifications section congratulating me on my approval. Zounds! Something finally went right. 

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Trip Advisor tipped me off to this great charity organization that pools donated Frequent Flyer miles and turns them into airline tickets for stranded refugees trying to get from staging areas to family members or new homes. Currently they are focusing on Afghan evacuees, but they have been around since 2016 helping other migrants. Seems to be legit.



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I have visited TEN Minnesota State Parks this year, trying to find a decent swimming beach. It's been surprisingly frustrating. Sometimes you get a big, beautiful lake devoted primarily to boats with a swampy little beach as an afterthought. Or a beautiful looking sandy beach that turns out to hide a difficult rocky entry. Or a huge sandy beach that is clearly meant to be used for day trips but has no changing rooms or even flush toilets. I still haven't found one that matches up to my memories of McCarthy Beach (best beach in the park system, IMHO). But since I haven't been there in years, maybe that isn't fair, so I'm picking a winner for 2021. And it's this quirky little swimming hole in the southwest corner of the state: Camden State Park Beach. The park itself is an unexpected little gem of a river valley that appears out of nowhere in the middle of miles of soybean and cornfields. But this strange little beach is the real reason to go here. I've never seen anything quite like it. 

Sure, it doesn't look like much: a shallow sand-bottom pond that appears to have been created by damming up a picturesque little creek. Way over on the far side, water spills over a pile of rocks into the Redwood River. I didn't get a picture of that side, but you can see a great view of it here, on the park's Virtual Tour Page. There is also an inflow stream over on the left side. But it turns out that the real water source for this pond is a glacially cold spring under the deep end of the pond. And I mean COLD. Lake Superior cold. So cold that you literally doubt your own senses as you wade into it. According to an old janitor that looked kinda like Sam Elliot, it's 18 feet deep over there and the water is 58 degrees down at the bottom. The pond is crystal clear, probably because it is constantly flowing. There are little fish and tadpoles in there, with kingfishers diving off the dead tree. And apparently other aquatic life; the janitor told us a funny story about the time somebody carefully placed a live crayfish in each urinal in the men's room. 

Over the 85 years since swimming hole was created it has silted up a little bit, creating some shallow spots with water weeds. It could use another dredging, but it's still perfectly swimmable, and it's perfect for flotation toys (which are highly desirable, since the pond is so cold that you need some way to warm up). It is a really fun swim.


Of course this pond was created by one of those 1930's government work programs, which they topped off with this structure, the best-preserved example of a vintage bathhouse that I have found yet. Not quite as elegant as the one at Lake Shetek, but the changing rooms are in good shape in this one. It's too bad that the clothing check service is no longer in operation, but that would be expecting too much.  

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So once the WPA finished constructing every park building they could think of, they decided that what this lake REALLY needed was for all the islands to be connected with stone causeways. So they did that. The one to Loon Island has been developed as a nature walk full of informative signs. From the first one we learn that there never were any loons around Loon Island, just cormorants, which the settlers misidentified and then proceeded to wipe out. So the upshot is, now there are neither loons nor cormorants on this lake, but there sure are a lot of stone causeways. This meandering lake is part of a huge glacial moraine so there were a lot of stones lying around to use as building material. 


The entry to that island looks like an enchanted forest, doesn't it? Which is how it must have looked to the early settlers, since all the land surrounding the lake was open prairie with only the islands forested. The settlers marveled at the big trees and then immediately chopped them all down

But according to the signage on the island, the forests have regenerated two or three times since then. First the original elms and ash and hackberry grew back, but when Dutch Elm Disease came for the elms the hackberries mysteriously died too (out of sympathy? Apparently nobody really knows). At which point the patient basswood and oak finally came into their own. Apparently the stolid, unflashy basswood has a forestry super power - it grows equally well in full sun or in shade. So when everything else dies out, there is always a crop of basswood coming up under the canopy, ready for their day in the sun. (You can tell from the signage that these islands are a forestry PhD's dream.) 

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Well, that part of the trip could have  gone better. It turns out that all Camper Cabins are not alike, even in the same campground, and I managed to pick the lemon. Apparently Cabin C1 was some kind of pilot project and is markedly inferior to the standard design they eventually settled on. The large screened porch and substantial front stoop that doubles the living area in the standard Camper Cabin is missing, with just a tiny strip of a screened porch in its place. The main room is about the same as the standard model except without the excellent electrical work - note the ugly on-wall wiring, exposed fuse box, and complete lack of outlets on one side of the cabin. Instead of a ceiling fan there is a rather nice oscillating fan, but with no place to plug it in due to the previously mentioned shortage of outlets. Even the mattresses are different: uncomfortable naked box springs instead of the thick foam mattresses in the newer cabins.  The location is also unfortunate - a long walk from the toilets and in full sun most of the day. We made it work with the deployment of 3 extension cords and the emergency extra cushions we always bring for the beds, but it's hard not to feel bitter when you can clearly see that everybody else's cabin is better than yours. 

On the plus side, it's nice to have parking right next to the cabin door. And although it was a long and difficult hike to the toilets, involving an unlighted path lined with brambles and burrs, when you got there it was a full campground shower room with flush toilets. For future reference, Cabins C3 and C4 are primo, standard design and located at the other end of the bramble path just across the road from the nice shower room. 

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I started this summer's tour of state parks in search of a really good swimming beach, and finally found one. Lake Shetek is a surprisingly large and scenic recreational lake in the southwest corner of the state with a lovely Depression-era state park on the east side. The WPA really went nuts here, constructing not only the usual restrooms and picnic shelters but TWO entire group camps with bunkhouses and dining halls, and this spectacular bathhouse and swimming area. 


The bathhouse is really beautiful, fronted with a stone terrace and two long curved staircases sweeping down from the men's and women's discreetly separated dressing areas to meet at the shore. From the outside it looks perfect. Sadly, the changing booths have been left to deteriorate pending some vague future "renovation" (according to a passing janitor). The modern restrooms are in good shape, but I'm sure the architect of this graceful structure did not expect generations of future bathers to be changing into their swim clothes while standing on one foot in the toilet stalls. I was so distressed by the situation that I brought a broom from our cabin and swept out the women's side of the changing room so I could use it without standing on a carpet of acorns. If they ever get around to fixing that up I'd give this beach an A+ 


The lake is shallow and sandy, and this is the very definition of "easy entry."  The steps literally terminate in the sandy lake bottom. And there's even a handy place to sit on either side to take off your flip flops. The swim area is large and includes a huge lap swimming lane. The water was a little green, probably because the lake is never more than 10 feet deep. But it was plenty cold out past the first string of buoys and made for a very refreshing swim.

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Yup, it's another exciting Minnesota road trip in which we pick up FOUR more state parks, strategically located in the part of the state that is as far as possible from ongoing wildfires. Geologically, we pick up at the edge of the same ancient glacial moraine where we left off, rambling around the path of the River Warren. 

This is Minneopa State Park, just west of Mankato. It's basically a lovely picnic area that just happens to have an improbably extensive campground and bison herd. We passed on the bison herd, just stopping here for a picnic on our way to our actual destination further west. Here's another beautiful historic restroom building from the 1930's, which embodies all the elements of design described in Chief Architect Good's Park Structures and Facilities design manual.


There's also a pretty two-tiered waterfall.

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On the final leg of our Itasca trip we picked off two more state parks that were nowhere near Itasca, finishing up with Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. This is one of those obscure state parks that focuses on history and birding, so you probably haven't heard of it. Although it is at the southwest corner of Mille Lacs it does not actually have any lakefront on that majestic body of water, and thus does not have a swimming beach worth mentioning. But they do have a fire tower that they seem quite proud of, so we thought we might as well stop and take a look. Although, as I commented to Richard, "it's not like you are going to climb the thing."

"I could climb it," Richard stated. It might take me a while, but I could do it."  "Oh, you could not," said I. 

I then spent about 10 minutes changing shoes and digging out my walking sticks at the van before heading up the little trail to the tower.

And when I got there, Richard was already heading up the second round of stairs. I waited a while to see if he was going to give up and come back down, but he didn't. So what could I do but join him?


It wasn't actually as hard as I thought it would be. According to the timestamps on my photos, it only took us about 5 minutes. Recommended as a source of cheap adrenalin. It's not the least bit dangerous, but it FEELS dangerous. The view was more scenic than it looks here. I guess you need a better camera to make a sea of treetops, a tiny strip of lake, and featureless sky look like more than a very cheap motel painting. It's more exciting when you're swaying in the wind.


While we were slogging up the stairs (there are 11 sets of them, if anyone cares) we were passed by a young boy and his father who had come to leave one of the kid's painted rocks as a memento. Apparently it's their summer hobby - painting rocks and leaving them at tourist destinations around the state. Totally charming. 

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On Day 3 we checked out of our cabin in Itasca and headed for Mille Lacs, where I wanted to check out the beach at Father Hennepin State Park. Along the way we stopped to photograph this giant walleye at Garrison. There are a lot of giant fiberglass fish in Minnesota, but this one has a particularly artistic paint job. 


Father Hennepin State Park, on the southwest shore of Mille Lacs, has a huge and showy beach but not much else. We stayed in a nearby fishing motel and just day-tripped to the nearby parks. Day tripping is where the appalling lack of changing facilities becomes an issue, and this otherwise lovely beach was seriously downgraded for that. Not only were there no changing rooms, there really weren't even rest rooms - just a rather nasty pit toilet located quite a ways from the beach. Ugh. How is that even legal? I realized much later that the solution to that problem would have been to stop at one of the park campgrounds on the way in to put on our suits. But until we got to the beach we didn't realize it would be a problem. The beach isn't quite as nice as it looks anyway because there is a moderately rocky entry hidden under that pretty blue water. I was able to pick my way around the rocks and find a sandy path in, but Richard found it daunting and retired to the nearest bench with a book. However, just the sheer size of the beach meant there was a lot of room for lap swimming, so I give it a B or B+.



Da Boathouse, a fun local watering hole near McQuoid's Inn where we were staying. Those are dollar bills stuck to the ceiling with large tacks. There's a story behind that, although not a really compelling one.

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The Old Timers Cabin is one of the oddball attractions at Itasca that is easy to miss, which is why it was kind of my favorite. Richard saw the exhibit about this at the Interpretive Center and we went looking for it: down the long flight of stairs from Douglas Lodge, past the riverboat mooring, through the bog walk, and up a little rise to this most beautiful point jutting out into Lake Itasca. It doesn't look all that remarkable until you realize that it is a full-size one room cabin built of logs so big that they only needed four courses of them. Holy buckets! (as we say in Minnesota)


Okay, for scale, here I am standing in the doorway. Which is not a super tall doorway, but well over 6 feet high.


And here is the magnificent view from the cabin dooryard. What a shame that nobody ever lived here! Why not, you ask? Because this was the CCC's first "practice" cabin, built with the biggest logs they could lay their hands on. It was never meant for anybody to live in. 


Again, scale. 


And here is the really excellent explanatory sign, from which we learn many useful things. Yes, this was "the boys'" first practice cabin. The boss wanted to call it The Old Timers Cabin for some reason, but the boys called it The Honeymoon Cabin. One can only imagine why. They built it in the winter because snow sledges were the only way to move those huge logs. And they couldn't just cut them where they stood because the boss WOULDN'T LET THEM CUT DOWN ANY TREES; they had to scrounge around and find deadfall. Boy, did they EVER. They built the cabin first, then jacked it up and added the granite and mortar foundation later. 

And back in 1935, the National Park Service produced the  most amazing document, modestly titled Park Structures and Facilities. This little book was authored by one Albert H. Good, grand Architect for the State Park Division of the NPS, who combined a profound knowledge of the principles of design and construction with a deeply held philosophy about the state and national park system, a florid writing style, and a soupcon of wit. Seriously, I recommend following that link and perusing this little book. Some of the material is a little dated (oh, if only the 1935 philosophy of bath houses was still in vogue!) but for the most part it is timeless. Since you probably cant read that sign, here is Mr. Good's pithy review of the Old Timer's Cabin:

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