One of the great moveable feasts has arrived

[jenett]

Namely, I am (as soon as I put some library laptops away, and take some things down to the faculty room to mail) on spring break.

Given that my summer break kept getting eaten by work, and Thanksgiving and winter breaks were mostly about my feeling really lousy, and not doing much besides watching back bits of TV shows and sleeping a lot, I am delighted to have a break in which I might actually have some brain and time to do something more enjoyable.

Tonight is for lounging.
Tomorrow is for our Springtide ritual (which means I must bake bread). There may be spinning group in the morning, depending on when I wake up and how starting the bread goes.

Sunday is for pottering. Also laundry, if I don't do it Saturday.

And then I drive up to Duluth for two lovely nights at a widely acclaimed bed and breakfast, a bunch of pottering around a city I don't know yet, and probably a fair drive up the coast of Lake Superior (last one is weather dependent, but it looks like the few things that would discourage me are unlikely. Basically, anything that makes driving actively unpleasant, like a blizzard or major storms.) I have an idea of which places I'd like to eat at, and other that, a vague idea of other things I want to do. There'll be photos and journal foo about it after.

And then there's more lounging and stuff, along with less thrilling things like doctor appts.

Yay for spring break!

Comments

[amethystfirefly]

probably a fair drive up the coast of Lake Superior

ooooh. I'm so jealous. ;_; I miss the Lake.

(I used to live in the UP, about 45 minutes to an hour south of Houghton/Hancock.)

[jenett]

Would you believe I've lived in Minnesota for nearly 11 years, and this is going to be my first time up there?

My current theory is that I've been putting it off until I had resources and time to go up regularly, because I have a Thing for water, and bodies of water, and .. erm. Water. Yeah. And I do sort of suspect this might turn into a weekend every half year or so.

(I can't decide what I'm looking forward to more, either: lots of gorgeous lake, or a chance to lounge around and read with no real agenda. Since lounging around and reading whenever I want is pretty much one of my definitions of bliss, you can see the rating scale here...)

[amethystfirefly]

I'm the same way. So living away from any big body of water drives me a bit insane. I live a 5 minute car ride's away from a big creek, but it's not the same as the lake. And I doubt that if I went swimming there, I'd have the same amazing experiences I had up on the lake. It'd probably more likely to get trash nibbling at my toes than baby fish with clear skin. :P (Not that the creek is horribly polluted and trash-filled. It's just that I live in a city now, and that just naturally leads to less pure waterways.)

Plus I don't drive and am a cripple, so that 5 minutes drive isn't walkable for me. Oleander's determined to try to walk it at some point to see if we can handle it.

How about lots of lounging around and reading by a lake? ;)

[jenett]

Well, it's a little chilly to be lounging and reading outside just yet. (It's going to be in the low 40s, probably, this coming week, which is perfectly nice "Let me go for a nice brisk stroll" weather, but not so much with the "Let me lie here and not move much for a couple of hours.")

But the bed and breakfast I'm staying at is actually out on a spur into the lake, and apparently has stunning views, so I suspect I will somehow manage to survive. (http://www.solglimt.com/suites/harbor_view.html is the suite in specific, but doesn't have a good shot out the window. I'll be packing my camera, so there will be photos.)

On the rest of it: my current exercise is swimming at the Y, mostly, and I'd forgotten how much I love just playing in the water. How'd I lose that? (And how soothing laps are.)

It also occurs to me you might get a kick out of an essay I wrote shortly after the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis 2.5 years ago: http://jenett.dreamwidth.org/628507.html

(Yay for Dreamwidth's search function, that makes finding stuff like that trivial.)

[amethystfirefly]

Oh, good point. And my cold tolerance is definitely not what it used to be.

I remembered the same thing when I went to the pool here in the apartment complex. Alas, my social phobia and body issues kept me from going more than a few times.

And yaaaay pics. \o/

[amethystfirefly]

I love that post, btw. It reminds me of Lake Superior's connection to the UP.