You know what I miss the most about Duluth (aside from you and the unique art scene)?

Nature.

It's hard to find a good spot in the suburbs to really soak up nature. Sure, some parks are really nice, if you ignore the swing sets and the subsequent children, the groomed grass and the paved paths, the hum of Suburban Activity, and the general lack of foliage. Still, it's nice.

It's not as nice as the nature somewhere like Duluth. There were a few days that one of my co-workers would drive me home from work and we'd stop at her place and walk through Chester Park. On the drier days, we'd lay down in the leaves and just be. Friends and I would take a trip out to Gooseberry when we needed a stress reliever. When we lived on campus, we'd head over to Bagley Nature Center. The trails were not paved. The foliage was dense. The air was crisp and refreshing.

The view is nothing to sneeze at either. Enger Tower is fabulous, but there's a place up at the tip top of Bagley that we nicknamed "The Point" (which is totally not the same as "Park Point," which we found out the hard way freshman year).


photo courtesy of Mr. Sixty Three Hertz.

I get really nostalgic for the aesthetics of Duluth. Onalaska isn't measuring up. Minneapolis won't really have much to offer in this realm either.

Guess I'll just have to come visit.
(This post went nowhere. I have the flu. Cause and effect, I hope.)


Also, on a not completely unrelated note, I wanted to share these nine photographs I wish I'd taken. (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)

And now on a completely unrelated note, my birthday is next weekend. For your reference, I want this Betsey Johnson cardigan and/or this external hard drive (which is apparently out of stock, so a similar model will suffice).

Or just to get an hour to play my songs on the radio for you.