2011-11 Exploring Mendoza Argentina

LeAnn and Ray went down to visit Mariah in Mendoza as she was finishing off her semester of study there.  We left on Monday afternoon and connected through Atlanta to Santiago, Chile and then to Mendoza.  It was about a 10 hour flight to Santiago and then a quick 20 minute flight across the Andes into Mendoza.  The Andes were snow capped and beautiful as we flew over them.  The highest peak in South America is Aconcagua and is located between Santiago and Mendoza.  Mendoza is located on the east slope of the Andes, but in the gradual sloping foothills.  The area is high desert and has warm days and cool nights, which is one of the reasons it is known as such great wine country.  The weather is sunny most of the time, although we had some rain and clouds while we were there.  Since Mendoza is in the southern hemisphere, it is spring time and the weather is getting wonderful.  We arrived in Mendoza about 1:00PM  on Tuesday and Mariah and her host mom, Susy, picked us up at the airport.

We drove about 20 minutes to the hotel that Mariah had picked out for us, the Bohemia Boutique Hotel.  It was a small hotel that used to be a house in a residential neighborhood about a 15 minute walk from Mariah's house.  The staff at the hotel all spoke English and were very helpful and friendly for our entire stay.  The hotel is between the large San Martin park and Avenue Villanueva Aristides, which is lined with restaurants and shops.  The restaurants all have outdoor seating areas and people would be eating or drinking at all times of the day.  However, the dinner time did not usually start until about 9:30.  This didn't work out too bad since the 3 hour time difference from home meant we would be eating about our regular time.   Since it is a desert environment, most of the trees in the city were brought planted and then have to constantly watered.  This is accomplished through a series of open troughs along the street, called acequia.  You have to pay attention to them so you don't step in them or trip on them as they are usually about 3 feet deep.   The result is gorgeous tree lined streets.

Our first trek was to San Martin Park which houses part of the university, a velodrome, soccer stadium, lake with a rowing club, and a large fountain inside a roundabout.  This was a great park to relax in and many people were walking through the park.  We made our way to Avenue Villanueva Aristides and had our first taste of Argentine Malbec wine at a sidewalk cafe, and it was very good.  Wine is very popular and available almost everywhere.  We also had our first empanadas, which are like mini calzons about the size of one's fist.  They are mainly filled with meat of some sort, beef, pork or chicken.  Beef is very popular and served in large portions for every meal.

We then wondered over to see Mariah's house where she has been living for the past 4 months.  She is fortunate to be so close to school, bus lines and the park.  She has her own bedroom upstairs with a good amount of privacy.  She also has a good sized backyard.  Susy is an artist and has a lot of her paintings decorating the house.  She also has a studio out int he backyard where she can work.  Overall, it has worked out very well for her.  She has had about a half dozen students stay with here int he past, and one even painted a mural on the wall leading up the steps to Mariah's bedroom.  We went downtown to dinner at a great restaurant called 23 Gran Bar to eat at that night.  It had a large enclosed outdoor seating area so there was no street noise, and an associated winery, although that had closed by the time we had eaten dinner, so we did not get a chance to go through it. We walked to Independence Plaza to see it lit up in the night before heading to bed after a full day



Originally we had planned on going to Potrerillos for kayaking and ziplining on Tuesday, but the weather was supposed to be rainy on Wednesday, so we stayed in town and decided to head to Potrerillos on Thursday.  We walked down to back down to Independence Plaza and spent a little more time exploring the park. In the park, there were people playing a game very similar to bocce ball, except they used flat plastic discs rather than balls.  The court was roped off and the discs had to stay within the confines of the court.  We then walked over to the nearby stores selling local items such as leather goods, wine, olives, and candies.  One of the candy stores was also the manufacturing location, so you could watch them make the product in the back of the store.


We also stopped at the Central Mercado.  This was a wet  market selling fresh meat, fruits and vegetables.  We even at lunch there at a pizza place.  We went to the city government center as Mariah found out we could go to the top of the building and look out over the city.  It was just starting to rain as we got there, but quit by the time we made it to the top and found our way to the lookout.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy and the view of the mountains was not that good, but still worth the effort.  We stopped at Havana Cafe and had and afternoon treat called a Submarino.  It is basically a glass of hot milk in which you dip and stir in a chocolate candy bar until you have hot chocolate. It was an fun and interesting way to make hot chocolate.  We had planned on taking an open top tour bus through the city and park, but since it was threatening rain, we decided not to do that.  We went back to the hotel and had some snacks in the small garden area outback before heading out to dinner at Azafran.  the steak was delicious along with the shrimp.  We got to go into the wine cellar to pick out our wine for the meal with the help of the sommelier.  It was a great experience.  We again ate out on the sidewalk, and even though we had a little rain, we stayed dry under their overhang.  We took a cab back home in order to get ready for our adventure day on Thursday in Potrerillos

2011-10 College Visits with Kara, Alyssa and Annie

We headed down to Des Moines with Kara and 2 of her friends, Alyssa and Annie to visit Drake University.  She has been to about 5 different schools already and is interested in graphic design, marketing and business, although she is not sure exactly what she wants to do.  Her 2 friends joined us on this trip in order to check out Drake and Iowa State, where we were going to stop on Saturday

We toured the campus as part of an official tour and met with a professor in the graphic design area.  When you go on a tour, you have one tour guide per family so it is very easy to ask questions and see specific parts of campus.  This is the only school that we have been to that gives everyone a one on one tour.  After the formalities, we met up at lunch with a friend of the girls from Eagan who graduated last year and is attending Drake.  Michael then took us around to show us a few more areas of campus and the Greek street.  The campus is very pretty and although surrounded by busy streets, there are no streets cutting through the campus, so you don't have any problems going from one side of campus to the other.

After spending time with Micheal, we went downtown to tour the area.  There is a large sculpture garden downtown with many interesting works of art.  After taking some photo's there, we went to eat.  During the orientation, the tour leaders were asked where their favorite places to eat were.  A couple mentioned Zombie Burgers, so we decided to try it out.  It was a good recommendation with a large variety of burgers, all named with a Zombie theme.

Since we were close to the capital building, we drove over there just as the sun was setting.  The area was preparing for Des Moines Walk for the Cure which was occurring on Saturday morning.  The banners and tents were up and the water tables were stocked and ready for the finisher to come in.  Coincidentally, the Dallas area Walk for the Cure had been the weekend before when we were down there.

The Drake Bulldog volleyball team was playing a game that night, we went back to the Knapp Center on campus to watch the game.  They were playing against Evansville, and beat them 3-1.  The crowds weren't too big, but it was a beautiful venue for watching and playing volleyball.

On Saturday, we got up and headed up to Ames to revisit Iowa State.  Kara had been there on a visit last winter, and wanted to check it out again.  We met up with a Rachel, a sophomore from Eagan who then took us on a tour of the design center and showed some of her work along with many others who was on display or in process.  The skill level of these students is amazing.



Since it was homecoming, the campus itself was quiet.  We had driven through the sororities and fraternities to look at some of the homecoming displays before meeting up with Rachel.  There is a lot of work that goes into putting the displays together.  We noticed that everyone was bringing their own beer supply in 6 packs, 12 packs and full cases.  It was still 4 hours to game time, and everyone was starting to get together.

Before we headed out, we made a quick stop for Ray at a large boulder that is on campus that was moved from MN by the glaciers and left about 1 mile from campus.  It has some unique granite bands through the rock.  As we headed out of town after spending a couple of hours on campus, we drove past the staduim and saw were everyone was hanging out in the parking lots and having pregame parties.  There were so may pop-up canopies that it was a sea of yellow and red.  The lot was full of RV's and party busses.  It looked like there were a lot more people in the parking lots than would fit in the stadium, so we figured many may hang out in the parking lots and continue the party while others went to the game.

Kara has a big decision ahead of her, and after seeing a handful of schools, realizes that each is unique and has its own set of advantages.  Good luck to her in making her final decision.

2011-10 Visiting the Old Neighborhood in Dallas

We went down the Dallas Ft.Worth area for the wedding of LeAnn's niece Amy to Jeff.  My mom was invited to the wedding, and since we lived in Dallas for about 10 years from in the 1960's and early 1970's, we decided to go back to the old neighborhood and see how much had changed.  We got in our "cop car" that we had rented.  The kids were so embarrassed to be riding around in this car

Before going to the old neighborhood, we went into Arlington to see the Texas Ranger's Ballpark (who would win the American League pennant later that night)  Across the parking lots was the new $1 billion Cowboy Stadium.  When I lived in Dallas, I had gone to Ranger games in Arlington Stadium, which had been nearby, Texas Stadium in Irving, which is now a big empty lot that we drove by.  The new stadiums are beautiful, and it is nice that they are both near each other to share many facilities.  We didn't have time to go in either of the stadiums.  One of the parking lots we pulled into appeared to be open,but someone came over and told us we had to leave because they were doing some high speed car tests in lot.  Again, the kids got so embarrassed that we got asked to leave and couldn't understand how I would not know this was going on.

Taking the freeway over to the old neighborhood, the first thing that me and my mom noticed was how much traffic there was for a Saturday morning.  They were working on the freeways, so even the through streets were packed.  We pulled in front of the old house and got out to take a bunch of pictures.  The house looked good with a new walkway from the sidewalk and a large planted area between the sidewalk and driveway.   Overall, the house looked very well kept.  Many of the houses looked good, but there were a few that were in pretty tough shape.

Next, we drove over to Herbert Marcus Elementary School where I went to 1st through 7th grade.  Since I went there, they have added another addition onto the school.  This was the second addition since they added a large wing on while I was going there.  Besides the new addition, there are a bunch portable classrooms out back.  There were portable classrooms in use when I went to school there too, so the more things change, the more they stay the same.  There was a janitor out front cleaning the walkway when we drove up, so we talked to him for a little bit.  He said there are over 800 students there now, most of them Hispanic.   Even the message board outside the school was written only in Spanish

Behind the school is a cricket pitch and there were people playing cricket back there.  We hadn't even heard of cricket when I was going to school there.  Where there were cornfields and horse farms out beyond the ball fields, there are now nothing but houses and even some large office buildings (probably 15-20 stories tall).  The old park area where we would spend our summers used to have a pool, basketball court and covered activity center.  Only the covered activity center is still there, but there is a new rec center where the basketball court and pool used to be.  I would assume there are courts inside the building now.  It looks very nice.

We drove over to our old church, Walnut Hill Lutheran, and not much had changed there, except that again the message board out front now was all in Spanish, and the trees are so big that the entire lot is shaded.  The education wing was built not long before we left, and that is were I had my first job.  Me and my dad cleaned the kindergarten rooms 3 nights a week.  My mom worked at the kindergarten.

We next drove to the other side of the freeway into Farmer's Branch.  We stopped at a small park that straddles both sides of a creek that we used to hunt for tadpoles, crawdads and small fish.  It's all still there and I saw some turtles and fish along the banks.

It was a lot of fun to get back to see everything and bring back a lot of old, good memories.  I had forgotten some of the names of the roads, mixed up a couple of locations of where things were, but was still able to get around pretty good.

2011-10 Picking Apples at Montgomery Orchard

We headed out to Montgomery Orchards on a warm fall day to go apple picking.  Even though it was early October, it was in the upper 70's.  Normally we have to bundle up for apple picking, but not this year.  The orchard we chose this year was about 45 minutes south of home.  The fall colors were probably just a little past peak in this area.  Colors this year were very vivid throughout the state due to the wet spring and summer combined with a dry fall.

They had a corn maze in the shape of a Lincoln penny to celebrate the 150 years since his inauguration. They had a selection of pumpkins, and we found out they were from a neighboring farmer who grew them more for fun than anything.  In addition, we saw an apple cider making demonstration using an old fashioned cider press.

After we sampled the cider, we taste tested the various apples that were available for picking.  These were Honeygold, Haralson and Fireside.  We ended up getting a bag of each since some of us like the sweeter apples and others like the more tart varieties.  The orchard is on a north facing hillside and is sectioned off into 5 or 6 different sections.  Each section had multiple varieties of apples in very neat and orderly rows.  Everything was clearly labeled and marked.  The farm had started out as a small hobby farm with a few trees, but has continued to grow and adding new sections until if filled the entire hillside.