Life experiences take seed and grow within living and traveling through landscapes. When a message arrives from a high school teammate that was a classmate 60 years ago, it’s an invitation to revisit to visit that time and place.
Accepting the opportunity to attend a 1965 graduating class reunion brought back thoughts of another place and time in a small town in Michigan.
However, the journey began with leaving an Ely landscape and traveling.
Can this be an opportunity to put in play a puzzle of landscapes that have shaped a lifetime to date and spend time with people and places that define that life?
Today, I can look back at three weeks ago, leaving Ely in a charged vehicle and heading for the first stop with family and friends in the Twin Cities for the last weekend of this year’s Minnesota State Fair. This three-day experience provides memorable reflections on past years and potential to explore more of that urban landscape and its’ unique Minnesota extravaganza.
Like a walk in the forest that has been visited before, certain things are expected and desired. By volunteering for the Minnesota Ornithologists Union in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources complex there will be lots of interaction with people equally excited about the environment and all its elements. Other organizations will be there to share their knowledge and activities.
Trying to wrap your head around why having your picture taken holding a gar would be a memorable experience would be memorable is memorable. After all, who goes fishing either of Minnesota’s gar species? Just maneuvering the travel, parking, crowds, and seeming chaos is worth the test of patience and acceptance that there may be something special around the next corner.
Who would expect a giant loon sculpture at sunrise on the morning drive? It was worth driving early to beat the traffic and be able to stop and photograph it.
After two grandsons were packed up and off to college on this weekend and their parents had shared summer events, it was time for everyone to consider what those landscapes and move on to what school, work and autumn landscapes would provide. Next stop on the road to reunion would be visiting brothers and their families in Wisconsin and more stories from the past. Stay tuned for announcements of more landscape- based activities that have been occurring and are upcoming. After all, for naturalists everything where it seems natural or unnatural has its roots in nature.
