Traveling to the Twin Cities

That's right folks! Greetings from Minnesota, one week later :) The first week of July my family and I traveled up to Minneapolis to visit family. While we were there, we got to see some amazing sites, such as the Minnesota History Center, Fort Snelling, the Minnehaha and Saint Anthony Falls, the Walker Art Center's outdoor areas and the great neighborhood around my relative's home. Fun was had by all! I toted along my road trip bag for the 10 hour car ride and got ready for  great vacation in the northern Midwest.

Now get ready for a lot of pictures!

On the first night we went to this great restaurant Town Hall Tap. OH MY GOODNESS THE FRIES. Just look at them with me- ahhhhh. Some of the best fries I've ever had. They had the perfect amount of crunch and a slight sprinkle of cheese and spices along the top that came together as a celebratory bite in your mouth. I could have eaten a whole extra plate of these beautiful things.

The chicken sandwich was also delicious, with a good ratio of condiments to chicken. This place was spectacular, and if you find yourself in Minneapolis I highly recommend stopping by.

Wednesday we headed to the history center, where the cool "Welcome to Minnesota" super-sized postcard comes from. We saw several exhibits on Minnesota, but there was one particularly cool one on toys of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I was surprised at how many toys I had played with myself. Sometimes this meant I played with the updated version of the late 90s, but other times the same toy was right there, on display. After going through the exhibit, I couldn't imagine why kids would want to be glued to screen all day when they could be playing with Barbies and Hotwheels.

That afternoon we went to Fort Snelling, my favorite place of the whole trip. It's like an interactive fort, with people representing the types of folks who would have lived and worked in the fort. There were presentations throughout the whole day that people could participate in and/or listen to, as well as a closing "parade" of sorts at the end of the day. A really cool history spot!

The next day (Thursday) was outdoor day, and we went to the Walker Art Center's mini golf course temporarily set up this summer. It's full of artist-designed holes that are both maddening and tons of fun. Every hole is different and brings a different challenge. The one above was like those coin funnels you see at the mall, only it was your golf ball doing the spinning.

Before and after the golf, we walked around the neighboring sculpture garden and saw the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry, as well as many other cool outdoor art sculptures. I especially loved this tunnel-like structure with all the different flowers scattered around.

That same afternoon we saw two beautiful sets of falls, one at Saint Anthony and the other at Minnehaha. Above are the Minnehaha falls- that is an insane amount of water tumbling off a cliff! It was both remarkable and very, very frightening to see the water plummet to the bottom. We don't have anything like this where I live, so the falls were a really cool experience.

Of course, you can't go to Minneapolis without stopping by the Mall of America. I was interested in a couple of stores we don't have where I live and to, of course, see what it's like when you put a theme park in the middle of a mall. You can kind of see in the picture how the rides fill the middle of the mall. I had to get a snap of the American Girl store, since I loved it so much as a kid (Samantha fan for life!).

After Fourth of July shenanigans (and some of the BEST fireworks I have ever seen- sorry Disney World), it was time to go home. Our drive took us into Wisconsin, so naturally we had to stop at the World's Largest Culver's to finish off our vacation. It was a great finish to a great trip. The  Twin Cities are really cool to visit (don't even get me started on the wonders of Caribou Coffee) and I loved getting to see them with my aunt and uncle.

Have you been to the Twin Cities? What are your favorite things to see there? What cool places have you traveled to this summer? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

What I Read: The Bean Trees

5/5 Daisies

(I'm mixing things up ;))

Oh goodness, a fiver! Who would have thought such a thing would come from the likes of me :)

So first of all, hello, I'm back! After a quick vacation away from my blog I am ready to return to my regular posting and overall dedication to writing twice a week. Which I will actually do in July ;) So if you have anything you want to see me post about, or any book suggestions, I'd love to hear them in the comments below. And please do comment, I would love to hear what you like (or don't like) and your thoughts on the things I write about.

But I digress- to the review!

The Bean Trees surprised me. I know a little about Kingsolver's background from studying her in class, so I was nervous this would simply be a retelling of her personal journey to Arizona with a twist (the surprise toddler). But this novel contains so much more. Taylor and Turtle’s story pulls you along from chapter to chapter, and I found myself constantly wanting to know what would happen to the pair next.

Kingsolver is a rich writer. Her prose is nothing less than stunning, and sometimes the English Writing major in me would pause in the middle of a paragraph to just go back and appreciate the language she was producing. For example, here's a sentence from chapter eight:

"The sun was setting, and most of the west-facing windows on the block reflected a fierce orange light as if the houses were on fire inside."

And another, chapter 12:

“From time to time nervous white ribbons of lightning jumped between the moutaintops and the clouds.”

I mean, what is that? It reminds me of Fitzgerald in my all-time favorite book, The Great Gatsby. Sentences just pour from each page into your head, sentences that could have been mundane and boring but are in fact breath-taking.

The story Taylor tells through Kingsolver's words is worthy of the language. After leaving her hometown in Kentucky, Taylor finds herself with a three-year-old girl she dubs Turtle and a whole new family in Tucson, Arizona. As Taylor learns about the world outside rural Kentucky and about the little girl she now calls her own, I learned about people, and became fascinated with this world.

I could go on and on about The Bean Trees, but instead I will encourage you to see for yourself what I'm talking about. Every element to this book works: plot, language, characters, conflict, the whole shebang. Kingsolver has created a novel worthy of re-reading, with a story we should all hear once in a while about how life isn’t always fair, but it’s how we deal with it that matters. I would definitely call this a must-read, and you can expect to see me start reading The Poisonwood Bible soon.

What do you think of Barbara Kingsolver? If you've read The Bean Trees, do you love it as much as I do? Also, let me know what books you've been reading this summer!

How to Stay in Touch with College Friends

Last week I got to see two of my best friends, Jordan and Hattie, for Jordan's 21st birthday. We all met up at her house and spent the afternoon on the lake, visiting Jordan's grandmas, and wrapping things up with her birthday party! It was great to see them again (we'd met up earlier in the summer to see The Fault in Our Stars and to have dinner), plus I was pretty busy the first half of June and it was nice just to get away for a day and do nothing but hang out with my friends.

That being said, it's hard for me to keep up with my college friends over the summer. "Out of sight, out of mind" doesn't really apply. It's mostly just that I have so much going on that when I think about checking in with friends and seeing when we can meet up it's in the middle of something. But, that's no real excuse and being proactive about keeping in touch with my friends is something I need to be better about.

So here are a few things Jordan's Birthday Extravaganza taught me about how to better stay in touch with my college friends:

Friends that eat together, stay together. Meals are quick and easy ways to get together with friends who live in the same area as you. Everybody's got to eat, and you can make lunch or dinner last as long or as short as you need to. Plus, who doesn't like an excuse to eat at fun restaurants?

Group Messaging is your friend. Jordan, Hattie, and I have a group chat that's been going on for a long time. It's fun to shoot each other funny things we come across or things that happen during our days with each other. At school it's easier to tell each other these things in person, but during the summer, when they're not just a walk away, keeping up with your friends on text is an easy way to keep each other in the loop.

And Snapchat, if you're into it. I'm a occasional Snapchat user, but I love to see my friends' snaps of their everyday summer lives every now and then. I'm not the best at always snapping back, but if you like the app it's another great option to keep in touch. If your friends are out of the country, it can also be better than iMessaging depending on their WiFi situation.

Meet them in their element. You know your best friend's college room inside and out, but have you ever seen the park she frequented as a kid? Her childhood bedroom? The tree house in her backyard? Especially the summer after your freshman year, it's fun to visit your friends' hometowns and see where they lived before campus. I loved hanging out on Jordan's lake, seeing her family, and just experiencing a day in the life of my dear friend. Even friends who live close, like my friend Hattie, have their own personal places and neighborhoods that are a part of them. I think this is the best way to stay close to your friends over the summer, and even learn some things about them along the way :)

Plan day visits. If you live close enough, get-togethers don't have to be extended events. Hattie and I got to Jordan's around one in the afternoon and left later that night. We still had plenty of time for fun and for catching up with each other. While of course weekend-long adventures are also good ways to see one another, sometimes all you can squeeze in is a day. And even those days will stand out to you as a highlight in your summer.

I hoped some of these helped! But keeping in touch is a constant effort. I'm still trying to get better at hanging out with my friends instead of hiding on my couch with my technology (like I am right now... ;)). But when you're intentional about it, staying in touch with your friends is much easier. What advice do you have for staying in touch? How do you keep in touch with friends you don't see every day?

What I Read: Cry, the Beloved Country

4.5/5 pineapples

Oh, do I want to give Cry, the Beloved Country five stars so bad. It has everything I love in a book: beautiful language, an intriguing plot, thought-provoking themes, and characters you care about. Written in the 1940s about South African life, it also appeals to my historical side and makes me think about a completely different life than I know.

Alan Paton wrote Cry, the Beloved Country to discuss the issues plighting his home country for many years. The novel was developed as Paton traveled through Europe and North America. After one particularly rough bout of homesickness came Kumalo, Zulu pastor and main character. Kumalo's journey and subsequent story is what pulled me through the novel, but it was Paton's passion for South Africa's issues and lyrical writing that made the reading experience pleasurable.

But here comes the missing .5: Even though the hardships Kumalo endures are only a part of the story, I felt that once they were wrapped up the story should have ended. I raced through the first two books in the novel, but it took me a week to finish the final 50 or so pages. Paton dragged me through those final chapters, chapters I felt could have been summarized in an epilogue and made much more powerful.

If there was a deeper meaning behind the final chapters, focused on Kumalo's community, I missed them. I missed them because I felt like I was forced to read past the true end of the plot, past what I as a reader was entitled to know. However, the last chapter was beautiful, and I appreciated the closure it brought the characters. It also felt like it had a true purpose in the novel, as a way to sum up all the questions Paton was writing about.

Which is a part of why I like this book: it asks questions. There is no clear answer to how South Africa can change, only examples of the people and problems that live in it and why some sort of action is necessary. Paton lets the reader decide what is right/wrong, and what might be the change the country needs. Kumalo invested me into this entirely foreign world, but it was the beloved country that made me desire a change in people blinded by fear.

Have you read Cry, the Beloved Country? What did you think? I'm thinking The Bean Trees is going to be my next book... Barbara Kingsolver, here I come!