Monday, March 28, 2011

Hope for Spring

Much of the snow has melted. The walkway under the cedar trees along my apartment house is down to the sidewalk now. The pond of water from the melting snow that I jumped through on my way to work is gone.
It is so nice up here because there are few tall buildings. I live on a hill and the morning sun shines through my windows at sunrise. Then in the evening I go out back to watch the sun set as there are only trees to the west. It is such a gift to be in a place in which I can easily see the sun rise and set everyday.
I spent the last four days in the cities. Mike and I had a relaxing time together. Finishing up taxes: felt good to get them done, shopping for art supplies at WetPaint, closing up the final paper work for Mom with Jeanne and then the three of us going to lunch at the Downtowner, Mike and I hiking down at the rising Mississippi river with Bailey, an enjoyable, delightful dinner with friends Saturday night. And finally Sunday morning: 7am mass and then Mike makes me breakfast.
As I was headed out of town yesterday, I felt excited to be driving back up North!
I am so grateful for this opportunity to be up here!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

The End of the Road

I've just completed my 3rd week up here  I'm getting used to working in the clinic pharmacy, and  I started in the hospital pharmacy last week for two days. I'm getting to know the other pharmacist I work with in the clinic pharmacy and she is good to work with.

At one time there was an iron ore mine in Ely and most of the homes were miners homes. The town is now known as the "entryway" into the wilderness. And they call Ely "the end of the road" because once you are here, you need to turn around to leave because the wilderness is all beyond it. It's the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It is the boundary between US and Canada. The boundary is filled with  hundreds of lakes. People come up here and take canoe trips from one lake to the next and camp overnight. Mike and I have been coming up here and taking canoe trips for many years. In the lakes you can't have any motors on your boat; you can only have canoes that you paddle. The lakes are connected by streams or by land that you have to walk over and carry everything from one lake to the next. Many of the businesses in town are called "outfitters". They "outfit" people with all the equipment and gear that one needs to go on a canoe trip.

The town is not very big. There is forest all around it. What I like most is the pine trees up here. There are so many pines. In some areas up here, their height draws your eyes upwards towards the sky. I've heard it called a cathedral of pines: that it is.

At this time of year the snow stays on the pines, making it a winter wonderland.

In the lakes there are big granite rocks, left by the glaciers after the ice age. Some are as big as houses. On some lakes it is difficult to get your canoe landed because it is so rocky. 

The town has 2 grocery stores, many restaurants, (however most close up for the winter months). There's a hardware store, post office, police station and a city hall.  There are many different churches here. One grade school, one high school and a community college.

There's so many different people up here and some have moved up here from other cities. In the clinic-hospital I've met a couple (a nurse and lab tech) that moved up from Chicago, one of the pharmacy tech's is from New Hampshire. There's a lot of artists up here. This weekend is the Ely ArtWalk. The Ely businesses remove their own window displays and exhibit artists work. I went yesterday. It was a beautiful 30 degree day to walk around town and see the art. There are people here who cross country ski: I met members of  the Nordic ski club yesterday. They take care of two ski trails. There's people who race dog sleds. And there's fishermen, and dog mushers that take them on trips into the boundary waters. There's a couple scientists stationed up here evaluating the area for future mining, there's biologists studying the bears. The list goes on.

Today I'm going to walk over to the city park to see the finished snow sculptures. Yesterday teams were carving them. Lots of sculpting tools were all around. They take it very seriously and the pieces were amazing. The sculptors start out with 8 foot cubes of compressed snow.

The days are getting longer and the falling snow is still beautiful. I'm getting spoiled living in an apartment where I don't have to shovel.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Week 3

 I am managing to stay warm. I don't check the temp like I used to because I don't dress any differently whether it's 15 degrees or -22! and it's not cold/doesn't feel cold unless there's a wind. I did notice it was still light out after 5pm today! Just having the days longer is great!

Mike came up last weekend and got here early; about 3pm and the snow started about 4pm and snowed all night. He stayed until Sunday at about 1pm.  I sure do miss him. It's pretty special to only see him when we're both not working! It's been years since it's been like that; feels like dating again; I can't believe it! I've heard when you have kids to make sure and have "dates" with your spouse. Mike and I always thought it was hard to find the time to do.

Last week I went to the community college for a presentation of a Mixed Blood Theatre (from Mpls) show, open to the public, that my landlord and his girlfriend invited me to go with; it was good to get out. My landlord is originally from Chicago, built his own cabin and lived in it up here for 15 years, then went to Hawaii for 10 years and just got back this year. There seems to be a lot of people with a varied background like him up here.
 
Yesterday at work I couldn't believe it was my third week! Tomorrow I start in the hospital pharmacy.
Next weekend Mike won't be up, but I'm looking forward to the start of the Ely Winter Festival. There are the 8 foot cubes of snow all over town for the snow sculpture competition. I heard they get teams from as far as Mexico. And next Sat there's the Ely Artwalk around town with exhibits of art by artists from the Ely area in almost every business around town so I am looking forward to that.

Mike brings our dog, Bailey, up too, and it sure is hard to not have him around all the time. And funny that since I've been gone he clings to Mike now.

The stars are out tonight. A goodnight to all from Ely.










 

Saturday, January 22, 2011

It's cold up here

Yea, I'm pretty sure the gum I was chewing in my mouth hardened as I was walking to work Wednesday am. Mike and I are so very lucky we were moved in before the below zero weather got going. The morning after we were all moved in it dipped to -27. We did the lease up here for 6 months to start with because we don't want to move again in the winter. Things are going well. I am sure glad I can walk to work. I have the car plugged in now and will go out for the afternoon; probably hit Pamida, maybe Subway, stop at Mealy's. Pamida is not a store Mike and I really like, but it's the other end of town so by driving to it, I'll get the car warmed up. I think Subway and Pizza Hut are the only fast food chains. I'm glad Subway is up here. There's a local pizza place that is the best. Sir G's, it's called. It's one of the resturant's that stays open through out the winter.

Special Neighbors

I have some pretty special neighbors up here.
Her name is Lily and she just had twins!

http://www.bear.org/livecams/lily-hope-cam.html

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Driving to Ely

I'm in St.Paul right now finishing up packing. We went up with most of what I'll need last weekend. It was really beautiful up there. All the pines keep their snow cover on, and the other trees stay "frosty" and all the snow is so white; we got out for two hikes and it was awesome; it's quite a winter wonderland!

The drive up last Friday was rough with pulling a trailer. It started to sway on the freeway and that put me in panic mode for 2 days.
Actually, I'm still recovering. Mike, who was driving, stayed calm and we finally got there safe. I said, "well if you are so calm, then maybe I should drive so I'll be calm" but he said no way. Then after we got unpacked in Ely and we went to return the trailer, we took a wrong turn. We were heading down a road that looked up ahead like it went directly into the woods, it was getting dark, weren't sure if there was a turn around ahead, so tried to turn around where we were on the road and got stuck in the snow. This was with a pickup pulling the trailer. It was such a bummer. Well, we finally made it out after shoveling for a very long time and after attempting to take the trailer off unsuccessfully. We had AAA on the phone,
not even sure if someone could have come out to us at that time up there. Then Mike pulled out the mats in the truck to put under the tires and we got out!

Needless to say, I need to move to Ely in order to recover from that drive to Ely!

I stopped in the Ely clinic where I'm going to work to say hi and everyone was very nice so I am hoping they are as nice as everyone in St.Paul. Then I know I'll do fine.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Time out from Getting Packed

This post is just a test as I'm new to blogging. Nikki, my daughter, set up the blog for me which I am grateful for however I'm still trying to get used to doing more on a computer, than just what has been work related, so that is why the test.  Mike recently got me a laptop to bring up north and I'm trying to figure that out too.
I believe the connections computers foster are worth it.
Back to packing.....