Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
July 12, 2011 – Fishing Waters
One of the things I most look forward to is fishing in beautiful surroundings.
Here Martin shows off a baby northern pike he let go.
The nicest fish of a pretty lousy fishing week – the biggest of three smallmouth bass caught right together in some swift water – this one was 19 inches and was released.
Me in my natural habitat – on an island in a channel, baiting up.
The rapids entering into Lake One from Lake Two.
The head of the rapids from Lake One, heading to Confusion Lake. I could spend a lot of time wandering down this river to the next lake!
July 10, 2010 – Loon Baby on the Lake
We’ve finally arrived at the cabin a few miles south of the Canadian Border. Right across from our cabin is a small island. This year there is a nesting loon pair on the island.
The sight of a baby loon on a parent’s back to protect it from being eaten by large fish, is one of the neatest views in nature. We’re here for a week to soak up the water, woods, and cool weather.
one year ago…”Goat Milk Cheese (Chevre)”
July 6, 2011 – Linda’s Visit to White House With Bonus Obama Visit!
Pretty good day, as those things go. Linda and the other rural America “Champions of Change” first toured the White House. As no cameras were allowed, use your imagination!
She was able to get this photo outside the White House.
From the photostream of the event:
Linda Barnes, Farmer and Educator, Marshalltown Community College (MCC), IA, at the White House Rural Champions of Change meeting at the White House, in Washington, DC, on July 6, 2011. She was asked to participate along with President Barack Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the President’s Domestic Policy Adviser Melody Barnes and rural communities leaders from across the country for the White House Rural Champions of Change event to strengthen rural communities and promote economic growth. Linda Barnes is a professor of biology at the Marshalltown Community College and also an organic farmer. She founded the Sustainable and Entrepreneurial Agriculture Program at MCC which is the first associate degree program in sustainable agriculture in the Midwest. The program focuses on improving attitudes related to sustainable agriculture due to their practical, hand-on focus and local connections. I believe there is a significant component of this program that is geared towards immigrant communities in the area. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
Linda briefly spoke to the President, no doubt the part of their conversation that delved into the preferred s’more marshmallow roasting habits of the Obama family, probably did more to make her visit more memorable than a barrage of policy questions!
July 5, 2011 – Linda Visits Claire in DC
Linda was able to drop in and see Claire (and actually have a sleepover at Claire’s place one night while she was there).
Mother and Daughter in front of USDA building, Claire’s work station for the summer.
After all the photos of her out and about town, there’s at least one of her at work!
Claire picked out this place for them to dine. This acclaimed restaurant is owned by the North Dakota Farmer’s Union! Great food and atmosphere.
At the Capitol at dusk.
July 4, 2011 – 4th in DC
Since Linda and I had to wake up at O’dark thirty to get Linda to the airport (3:30 am), we were not thrilled about driving to fireworks, so the kids lit snakes and sparklers outside with the fireflies. Claire, however, had a different experience.
There was the parade down Constitution Avenue and here’s Claire’s perch in front of the National Archives.
I’m glad she filmed the finale of the fireworks – probably better than what we might have seen!
one year ago…”Are You Smarter than a Dean of Agriculture at Iowa State?”
June 22, 2011 – Visit with the Secretary of Agriculture
Internship day three brought a visit to the top dogs at the USDA.
USDA Photo by Tom Witham.
Here Agriculture Secretary Vilsack talks to Claire, much as he did to her mother last summer. Watch out if those two ever team up! Claire said that the Secretary’s days are very scripted – sit in a specific chair from 8:05-8:15 for small talk with xyz, then move to next room and stand to greet someone else, and so it goes. But he told the interns he wanted to go off script with them and show them his office. Claire was impressed that the centerpiece of his office was a photo of George Washington Carver and Henry Wallace, namesakes of the Wallace-Carver interns.
USDA Photo by Tom Witham.
Here, Lona Stoll, Senior Advisor to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack briefs the interns.
USDA Photo by Tom Witham.
Finally, a picture of the whole gang.
June 21, 2011 – World Food Prize 2011 Laureate Announcement
The interns were invited to the 2011 World Food Prize Laureate announcement press conference at the State Department.
Interns mingle with the crowd in the Benjamin Franklin Room.
Claire thinking about taking the podium!
Claire hangs out with random documents in the State Department – in this case with the Treaty of Paris.
More interns at the podium.
Photo: World Food Prize
Claire was near the front at the presser (lower right). Hillary was supposed to make the announcement but got held up at the White House where Obama evidently held her over (the day he made his announcement on troop withdrawal in the Middle East). Pols in attendance included Iowa congressional representatives Steve King, Tom Latham, Leonard Boswell, and former Senator George McGovern.
one year ago…”Summer Tradition”
June 20, 2011 – Washington Beginnings
The first-week of the internship starts in DC with all the interns from around the country.
Claire plays her role as special interest lobbyist well!
Hanging out with some of the other interns over a meal.
Mystery sign in a car parked outside the USDA office. Not sure if it’s an employee’s funeral or a message to the USDA from Congress?
one year ago…”Mammatus”
May 29, 2011 – Daily Life of the Camper
Claire writes today.
Camping is a completely different style of life, and it’s so easy to forget everything but your basic needs which is endlessly refreshing. We pride ourselves on building one match fires, and all of the fires that we cooked on in the Boundary Waters were made with a single match.
Claire stirs the food while tending to the fire at the first campsite.
One of the beautiful things about camping is that your whole life for that period of time can fit into a canoe, and you can carry it anywhere in two trips. The efficiency of all the equipment is a beautiful thing.
Typically you try to find a campsite somewhere between 2 and 4 so you have time to set up camp. Portaging and canoeing all morning and afternoon is exhausting. Linda rests on a rock here after arriving at a campsite.
It gets cold at night. One morning we woke up with ice in our water bottles. Linda had the luxury of a brand new sleeping bag to keep her nice and toasty! The tent also held up quite well and it was affectionately nicknamed the “Emerald City”
Sometimes the weather doesn’t go quite your way. We were fortunate to have glorious day time weather all up until the last day when we awoke to raindrops. That’s when you pile on the rain gear and put a smile/grimace on your face!
one year ago…”Garlic off to Great Start”
May 28, 2011 – Boundary Waters Adventures
Claire writes today. One of the conditions of going on the Boundary Waters trip was that Claire carried the canoe on some of the portages. She and Linda split the portages about 50-50.
Here she carries the canoe on a portage
Claire paddles the bow in the canoe in one of the lakes they visited
Linda does her share of the beastly portages here.
The most useful (threatening) tool we had.
one year ago…”Smallest of Habitats”
May 27, 2011 – Mother-Daughter Get-Away
Claire requested a BWCA wilderness trip with her mother in the time between school and the start of her internship. Three weeks after ice-out isn’t necessarily the best time, but the bugs and other people are slow and sluggish at the end of May.
Here’s the route – plenty of portaging on this route.
At the Poplar Lake landing, ready to go!
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #210″
May 21, 2011 – Linda Presents
The session Linda spoke at was filmed by HBO for an upcoming four-part special on the farm bill and health. Linda relates that at one point, she may have rubbed one of the panelists the wrong way as a former US Secretary of Agriculture bristled at one of her comments regarding the importance of local and regional food systems to help America become more self-sufficient by 1) eating a healthier diet based on varieties that taste better (and therefore eaten more) than those bred for shipping long distances 2) in case of a disruption of supply from other countries or the Central Valley of California, for regions to grow more of their own food. The former Secretary seemed a bit agitated and responded that there has never been a modern famine in the US. As the panel’s job was to tackle obesity, the comment about famine seemed somewhat out of place and after the discussion the HBO crew told Linda “that makes great television.” Although you won’t have the more extensive text that went along with the presentation, I’ll post that tomorrow.
As many have and will find out, the “Wall” is a touching reminder to all of us who lost family, friends, and Americans in the Vietnam war.
After the museums on the Mall closed and Linda was walking back to her hotel, she had a “moment.” The herds of middle school tours in their mobs of different-colored t-shirts were flocking back to their buses – the groups themselves people of all colors and accents. Then hordes of 20ish young adults, also in their colorful kickball or frisbee team shirts came to use the Mall. Their temporary bases dragged with them, giant elementary-school balls, all having a good time, sans alcohol on the public green space in the Capital. I think it made her hopeful for Claire’s upcoming summer in DC as well.
one year ago…”Salads By the Gallon”
May 20, 2011 – Linda’s Trip to DC
I had intended for Linda to write about her trip, but between trying to get the garden in and getting ready for a wilderness trip with Claire, it never happened, so I’ll try to fill-in for her. Linda was asked by make a presentation to the Institute of Medicine (one of the National Academy of Sciences) regarding barriers to domestic fruit and vegetable production to a panel investigating factors of obesity. But she had a half day or so the day she arrived to check out the Mall.
She was happy to stumble on this great lunch at the National Museum of the American Indian consisting of a salad of the three sisters (corn beans, and squash, and a wild rice salad – “native foods” so to speak.
She found refuge in a conservatory surrounded by her friends in the plant kingdom.
And she remembered the moon shots of her childhood.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #209″
January 2, 2011 – Claire Out of the Country Again!
Claire had spent virtually no money at school on “mad money” and between her miles to India and thriftiness, she had enough dough to fly to Montreal for an Indian Reunion of sorts.
One excursion an aspiring political scientist might want to make is a trip Ottawa to see the Canadian Capital. Here they are on the approach to Parliament Hill.
The Canadian Parliament building in Ottawa.
Claire was relieved to see that “Women are Persons” in Canada as well.
Of course, this revelation that Women are Persons, doesn’t mean the people in America’s attic don’t have a sense of humor and make female Supreme Court justices wear clothes reminiscent of a holly, jolly, philanthropic fellow!
Of course, no international trip is complete without sampling the local foods. In this case, Claire displays the maple beaver tail.
Back in Montreal and some brightly colored row houses.
Claire, excited to be reunited with her luggage after a three-day break-up, courtesy of United Airlines.
one year ago…”Putting the “art” in mARTin”
