We are now back in Arcata.
Kelvin learned a lot of things while in Minnesota this past week.
They included:
The state is flat
Before we left CA, we made sure to bring an ice-scraper (which we weren't sure would be provided by the rental car companies). Kelvin asked me if we'd need chains (obviously associating them with snow; we once drove an extra 500 miles because we forgot about the Sierra Nevada mountain range). We most certainly did not need "chains" while in MN, as the state is so flat you can see for hundreds of miles. We did run into a bit of snow on our last evening there, but the roads were still incredibly easy to drive (compared to our winding Hwy 101/coastal road to/from our town of Arcata). We learned about the north-flowing Red Lake River (somewhat atypical) which tends to flood when this area warms in the spring but Canada is still frozen tundra, and because it's so flat.
People hunt
K and I were both pretty surprised when bearmeat was part of our Thanksgiving dinner. I informed him (and he deduced from the multiple hunting/fishing stores up here, Cabelas being one) that many Minnesotans (my cousins included) are really into hunting. At Thanksgiving dinner, someone asked us, "do people hunt up by you in CA?" I honestly couldn't really say. I don't think people go hunting in our woods (we probably have some law against that), but I couldn't be sure. We certainly aren't hunters. I think we in California are so hippie-dippie that we generally think hunting is inhumane and go more for slaughtering grass-fed cows/organic chicken raising/oyster shucking/clam digging/abalone diving.
The liquor thing
On Tuesday, we went to Hugo's (grocery store) in the evening to grab some wine for our Thanksgiving day dinner. Even after traversing all the aisles, we couldn't find any wine. When Kelvin asked a grocery clerk if the store sold wine, he received an emphatic "NO!" for a reply and was slightly taken aback. So we found an actual liquor store down the street a bit where we purchased our couple of bottles and were educated by the owner there that indeed, MN has laws prohibiting just any store for selling alcohol (of any substantial %). I guess you can only buy it from dedicated liquor stores and only before 10 p.m. or days other than Sundays. As I obviously am not and never was a big drinker (including medical school where pretty much all I had time for was studying and frisbee ;)), I did not recall this fact about Minnesota.
Religion matters
K was very impressed with the sheer # of churches we saw in every single town we passed in MN. Fisher, a town of 400, has two Lutheran churches and one Catholic church. This church:population ratio, fairly remarkable, seems to be fairly constant among most MN townships.
Salads are different
In Minnesota, salads aren't always salads. Casseroles, jello desserts, and iceberg lettuce can all constitute "salad." Be careful what you expect from a "salad bar."
Meal names
Breakfast= breakfast. In Minnesotan, "lunch" means a snack, "dinner" means lunch (noon meal), and "supper" means dinner (evening meal). This confuses me, and I lived there! Kelvin was more than confused when conversing with my grandma about meal plans. People definitely have accents, and my family has accents like in the movie Fargo.
Gas doesn't always make sense
Please tell me what's wrong with this picture below. Can you take a guess which grade gas we picked to fuel our rental car? We were just thrilled to pay less than $4/gallon.
Glad my honey learned a thing or two about the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Kelvin learned a lot of things while in Minnesota this past week.
They included:
The state is flat
Before we left CA, we made sure to bring an ice-scraper (which we weren't sure would be provided by the rental car companies). Kelvin asked me if we'd need chains (obviously associating them with snow; we once drove an extra 500 miles because we forgot about the Sierra Nevada mountain range). We most certainly did not need "chains" while in MN, as the state is so flat you can see for hundreds of miles. We did run into a bit of snow on our last evening there, but the roads were still incredibly easy to drive (compared to our winding Hwy 101/coastal road to/from our town of Arcata). We learned about the north-flowing Red Lake River (somewhat atypical) which tends to flood when this area warms in the spring but Canada is still frozen tundra, and because it's so flat.
People hunt
K and I were both pretty surprised when bearmeat was part of our Thanksgiving dinner. I informed him (and he deduced from the multiple hunting/fishing stores up here, Cabelas being one) that many Minnesotans (my cousins included) are really into hunting. At Thanksgiving dinner, someone asked us, "do people hunt up by you in CA?" I honestly couldn't really say. I don't think people go hunting in our woods (we probably have some law against that), but I couldn't be sure. We certainly aren't hunters. I think we in California are so hippie-dippie that we generally think hunting is inhumane and go more for slaughtering grass-fed cows/organic chicken raising/oyster shucking/clam digging/abalone diving.
The liquor thing
On Tuesday, we went to Hugo's (grocery store) in the evening to grab some wine for our Thanksgiving day dinner. Even after traversing all the aisles, we couldn't find any wine. When Kelvin asked a grocery clerk if the store sold wine, he received an emphatic "NO!" for a reply and was slightly taken aback. So we found an actual liquor store down the street a bit where we purchased our couple of bottles and were educated by the owner there that indeed, MN has laws prohibiting just any store for selling alcohol (of any substantial %). I guess you can only buy it from dedicated liquor stores and only before 10 p.m. or days other than Sundays. As I obviously am not and never was a big drinker (including medical school where pretty much all I had time for was studying and frisbee ;)), I did not recall this fact about Minnesota.
Religion matters
K was very impressed with the sheer # of churches we saw in every single town we passed in MN. Fisher, a town of 400, has two Lutheran churches and one Catholic church. This church:population ratio, fairly remarkable, seems to be fairly constant among most MN townships.
Salads are different
In Minnesota, salads aren't always salads. Casseroles, jello desserts, and iceberg lettuce can all constitute "salad." Be careful what you expect from a "salad bar."
Meal names
Breakfast= breakfast. In Minnesotan, "lunch" means a snack, "dinner" means lunch (noon meal), and "supper" means dinner (evening meal). This confuses me, and I lived there! Kelvin was more than confused when conversing with my grandma about meal plans. People definitely have accents, and my family has accents like in the movie Fargo.
Gas doesn't always make sense
Please tell me what's wrong with this picture below. Can you take a guess which grade gas we picked to fuel our rental car? We were just thrilled to pay less than $4/gallon.
Glad my honey learned a thing or two about the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
1 comment:
wow, gas is so cheap!!!
Come back to so.cal soon guys!
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