Sunday's Post: West Coast Adventure!

Yesterday morning a bunch of us gathered at Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety: Richard Bonomo, Cecil Markovitch, the single B-Boy, a woman who has no name on my blog, Mr. N'Awlins, OK Cap, Jillymoose, myself, and our intrepid leader, Anna Banana II. I was all stylin' as you can see in the photo below (taken by Mr. N'Awlins), in my Team TIAA-CREF t-shirt, Team TIAA-CREF hat, and Team TIAA-CREF water bottle. (To answer the question you are probably asking yourself, TIAA-CREF is an investment firm specializing in 403(b)s for educational institutions, and the team in question was a competitive bicycle team. No, I did not compete on it, I merely watched.) It says it is presented by 2820 Magazine, which I assumed was a periodical of some sort, but which Mr. N'Awlins tells me is an address in New Orleans.



We were a little late getting on the road, and Anna Banana II hoped Mr. Duck would not be mad that we were late. We had rented canoes from him at least a decade ago and were so late getting to the pickup spot that he had sent the bus back and only had the canoe trailer, so he took one of our number to pick up her van and left the rest of us sitting by the side of the river. AB II was hopeful that the original Mr. Duck had long since retired, since he was an old man at the time, and the Mr. Duck she had talked to on the phone recently sounded younger. We could only hope Mr. Duck Sr. had not passed on the story of our misadventure to Mr. Duck Jr. as family lore! AB II and I sang the Mr. Duck song:


Mr. Duck (quack, quack)
Was out of luck (quack, quack)
And so irate (quack, quack)
He had to wait (quack, quack)
Cuz we were late (quack, quack)


At this point we have no memory of who actually wrote the Mr. Duck song, although I suspect it was a group venture. AB II called Mr. Duck Jr. to say we were running 45 minutes late, and he was fine with that. However, we were almost to Mr. Duck's place when Mr. Duck called her back to say the sheriff's department had closed the mighty Kickapoo River to canoeing because of an obstruction and the high water. (It had been raining all week and most of the rivers in the state are under a flood watch.) We were very disappointed but decided to go to Wildcat Mountain State Park for our picnic lunch. Here is a photo of the view from Wildcat Mountain.



In this view you can see the mighty Kickapoo, which is usually such a shallow river that lots of casual (and by casual I mean drunk) people canoe and tube on it. It didn't look too high, but you can see it is not clogged with drunken people on tubes.



We didn't see any wildcats on Wildcat Mountain, but we did see kids playing with balloons that would make loud squealing sounds as they flew through the air, deflating. Just as I pulled out my camera to make a movie of this, they stopped playing this game. You will just have to console yourself with a picture of a pretty flower instead.



Since we weren't very far from the West Coast (of our state, that is), Cecil Markovitch suggested we visit the Guadalupe Shrine on the bluffs above the Mississippi River. It closes at 4:00, so we hurried there and rushed up the hill to the main church. I took a picture of the cute little votive chapel, but we didn't go into it on the way up, and it was closed by the time we came down. You will just have to envision the beautiful pyramid of votive candles in blue glass holders inside of the chapel.



Here is the altar area and the glorious baldacchino in the main church on top of the hill.

Looking up into the dome of the main church of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine.



Then Cecil suggested we go to Perrot State Park. At the visitors' center, we found out we could rent canoes for $10 (much cheaper than Mr. Duck), and I rejoiced to think our canoeing trip had been saved, after all. However, by then it was almost 6:00 in the evening, and the others didn't want to make a two-hour canoe trip, so they decided to hike up to Brady's Bluff. I was going to stay behind, and here you can see a photo I took of a hummingbird visiting a feeder outside of the visitors' center.





Rich insisted I come with the others, so instead of following them up a switchback, we just scrambled right up the hill to catch up with them. Then we climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed to the top of Brady's Bluff. Here are some views of the Mississippi River and the bluffs on the other side (Minnesota).




On the way down we discovered this gorgeous vista of Trempealeau Mountain.



Then we went to the Trempealeau Hotel for dinner. As you can see, they serve delicious food and peerless beer. I was actually going to have wine, but the bartender had attempted to make me a gin fizz, which wasn't like a real gin fizz but was quite good, like a lemonade slushy with a kick. Here are the signs, day and night.




We went down to the riverfront, just a few feet from the hotel, and I tried out the nighttime setting on my camera. Most of the photos are a little blurry, since I am not quite as steady as a tripod, and this one made me laugh because just as I snapped it, a train rushed by.



This one worked out a little better; you can see the beautiful full moon and the lights across the river, in Minnesota.



We got home well after midnight but somehow I woke up in time for Mass this morning anyway. Then I came to Rich's house to blog on his computer Aquinas, and I took this photo of my "money tree" mystery plant. It must be a balloon flower.



Famous Hat