On Visiting the Grand Canyon

~ Amy Lauters ~ 1 Comment

It’s bitterly cold in Minnesota this week, and it’s making me think about our latest trip someplace warm. Our family went to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon in October, and we all loved it. In fact, we all rated it as better than Disney in some respects.

We arrived in Phoenix when the weather was turning cool in Minnesota, and Phoenix itself was hot. We rented a car at the airport and drove up through the mountains to Sedona, then on to Williams, Az. From Williams, we took the train into Grand Canyon National Park, where we stayed as Maswik Lodge for two days before reversing out trip back to Phoenix.

What made it more fun than Disney? I think it might have started with the train. We purchased tickets on the Grand Canyon National Railway, staying in their hotel the night before and the night after our trip. The station in Williams anchors a train line that runs right into Grand Canyon National Park, and it’s been there for more than 100 years. The cars vary from old nineteenth century Pullman cars to modern luxury cars, and the ticket prices vary accordingly. We decided we preferred air conditioning when riding in the desert (a wise choice), and bought tickets to the 1950s car.

We arrived the night before our ride, checked into the Railway Hotel, and ate from the buffet at the Fred Harvey Restaurant next to the depot. There, we started learning about the legacy of Fred Harvey, a nineteenth century entrepreneur who brought fine dining to the west and southwest, and imported young women of impeccable character to serve the travelers at his hotels and restaurants. These “Harvey girls” married locally, helping to establish communities at the stops along the route that Harvey hosted.

One of these original Harvey properties actually exists in Grand Canyon National Park.

We enjoyed excellent food (I had beef tenderloin) and live music before heading back for some swimming at the hotel pool. The excitement about the train built as the night wore on, and we were up early the next day for breakfast at the buffet.

We also took advantage of the restaurant’s packed lunch service. We were told that dining in the park could be challenging, and restaurants were not always open. For a reasonable $17, we got an insulated lunch bag filled with a sandwich, bottled water, trail mix, cookie, fruit, and cheese stick. The lunch bag itself, emblazoned with the Grand Canyon National Railway logo, made it worth the price, and as our day unfolded, we found the snacks and water to be invaluable.

Once we’d picked up our lunches, we went to the depot. Our luggage was handled separately, and frankly, I felt a little spoiled by not having to haul luggage onto a train. I think that might have been my favorite part, personally. We were able to just take our lunch bags and backpacks to the depot. There, we were treated to a skit put on by a crew of terribly inept cowboys. We immediately suspected shenanigans, especially since they kept getting up after getting shot, and our suspicions were confirmed when some of the crew–including the sheriff–followed us all onto the train. We found our seats easily, and as our train left the station, our porter treated us to an introduction to the train, the Park, and the history of the area. He emphasized drinking lots of water, again, and I finally caught a clue. We were heading into a desert.

Definitely time to buy a water bottle or four. I bought four water bottles on the train, and they proved to be extremely helpful to our staying hydrated the rest of the weekend.

The train also featured a singing cowboy who started a sing-a-long in our car. We already were having a great time when the train pulled into the station. Our first views of the Grand Canyon village were of a pretty little mountain town. We had tickets for a tour right away, and we went to find our bus. Once on the bus, we opened up our sack lunches for a snack and a drink, and chattered at each other as the bus took us upon the South Rim to our first stop: Mojave Point.

Friends, I cannot describe the experience of seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. I can tell you that every single person on the bus said, “Wow!”, involuntarily, when our bus came around the corner of the mountain and we saw it for the first time. It’s vast, layered with stratified rock, a ribbon of river at the very bottom, which is so far away that it’s hard to recognize its scope. We were stunned, and a little afraid. When we got out of the bus to walk out on the path, I kept my children firmly away from the edges and railings.

But that view? Worth every penny.

We took lots of pictures; my girls had their iPads along and were taking video of everything. Our tour took more than an hour, and took us to all the main high points along the South Rim. When it returned us to the village, it took us to Maswik Lodge, which was our lodging for the night.

Maswik features clean rooms that have their own entrances and exits to the outside. Ours had a patio off the back into the woods from which we were able to view deer and other forms of wildlife. We could walk up to the food court in the main lodge any time we were hungry, and take a trolly bus to any other spot in the park on our whim. If we were still hard core backpackers, we could have outfitted ourselves easily with what we needed to hit the trail.

As it was, we decided to walk gentler trails along the South Rim, from one point to another, and to spend some time at the big Visitor’s Center with its indoor and outdoor exhibits. We also made time to send postcards from the village post office and just relax to the sound of the wilderness around us.

We also dug into the area’s stories, exploring the original Fred Harvey property there and eating at its cafe. When we left on the train to head back to Williams, two days later, we felt invigorated.

Then we were robbed on the train. Of course, these were the same inept crew as before, and I was able to buy them off with one shiny gold U.S. dollar coin. But still, it made us giggle as we saw the sun set from the train window over the mountain.

I’m sure we’ll return.

On a new year, and the nature of inspiration

~ Amy Lauters ~ Leave a comment

The first resolution I have for this new year–though I am not a fan of resolutions–is to write more. I’ve gotten somewhat out of the habit, and it’s not quite like riding a bicycle.

But in order to write more, I need to think about the nature of inspiration. I’m not one of those folks who’s ever considered “The Muse” to be a source of inspiration. As a professional journalist, I never had time to consider writer’s block, for example. The story content was already there, waiting to be shaped. I had to make sense of it, shape it, and write it. There’s no room for doubt about how words go together in that kind of pressure cooker, and significant experience with that method of writing also means leaving those words behind when they’re out on the page.

I think that’s why I have a hard time going back to an earlier work to revise it. In my mind, I’ve completed the story and moved on. Being prompted to go back and revise sections of something, therefore, feels challenging in a way I can’t really express properly.

Still, that’s something of a tangent. The thought today is, how do I go about the resolution to write more?

I think the theme this year will be writing about the lost.

Last spring, I worked with a group of students in an experiential storytelling class to uncover and tell the many local stories that have been lost to time. We uncovered so many, in fact, that it should keep me busy for quite some time. We’re even soft-launching a web site to house them this semester.

The big advice I gave students last semester is to get out from behind the computer screens and explore local archives, museums, historic sites, parks, and other spaces that they’d not been before. I think, for this year, I’ll take my own advice. There’s always something out there to write about.

On Looking Out Tacy’s Window

~ Amy Lauters ~ 1 Comment

It probably will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that I enjoy reading the books by Maud Hart Lovelace that feature her childhood self, Betsy Ray.

Lovelace wrote about her childhood in Mankato, Minn., thinly disguised as a community called Deep Valley, and her friendships with two other girls that became lifelong friends. The first book, Betsy-Tacy, shows readers how Betsy met Tacy, the five-year-old across the street from her house, and their epic friendship. The pair could see each other from their bedroom windows, and send messages.

I recently brought my storytelling students to the former homes of Lovelace and Tacy’s true-life counterpart, Frances Kenney. Both homes have been lovingly restored by the Betsy-Tacy Society. While I’ve visited them several times, with this private tour, I finally had a chance to peek out Tacy’s window to see Betsy’s house across the street.

I admit I geeked out a little. I’ve been focusing on experiences and how they can inspire us to be creative, to seek stories, and to tell them. In this instance, I had an opportunity to stand in Tacy’s shoes, peek out her window, and see her best friend’s window across the street. I definitely felt inspired, and I took the picture that represents this post. I found that experience to be immediately applicable to the overall lesson of the class; my glee in the moment could be reflected in the grins of my students.

The Betsy-Tacy houses will open for the season with a party honoring Betsy’s birthday: April 14. While the upstairs portion of the Tacy house is not normally open to the public, the lower floor houses family artifacts and a gift shop, and it’s a gathering place for those looking to tour Betsy’s house across the street. Other sites mentioned in the Betsy-Tacy books can be found all over Mankato, and a handy QR code on Tacy’s front porch will unlock a tour. you can follow on your phone.

On Investigating Lost History

~ Amy Lauters ~ Leave a comment

One of the particular challenges of investigating the past lies in the lack of evidence. This semester, I’m teaching a class in experiential storytelling that focuses on investigating lost stories and local history, and we’re uncovering some really interesting stories.

One of the first steps took us to the Marilyn J. Lass Center for Minnesota Studies on our Minnesota State University, Mankato campus. The archivists there showed students a wide variety of primary source materials, including diaries and personal papers, that form the basis for additional research or storytelling. Students found everything from cookbooks to community histories of soldiers from the first Great War, and each emerged from that session with three great ideas for future stories. Our archivists/librarians also demonstrated several databases available through the campus that provide information, images, and other resources for storytelling.

Our next trip took us to the Blue Earth County Historical Society, which hosts a wide variety of primary source materials that students found inspirational. One student was particularly taken in by a diary of a soldier from Mankato who served in World War II. I can’t wait to see what he does with it.

I, too, have been inspired. The challenge of seeking lost history, as I noted earlier, is a lack of evidence. Period newspapers only cover stories of interest to those who were producing and reading the paper. In some cases, that can lead to total ignorance about some people in the population. Women’s history, black history, indigenous history, and other overlooked history must be gleaned from the “margins”, or the absence of their stories in such public records. As regular readers of this blog know, much of my own research has investigated farm women’s history, in particular. That interest forced me to seek alternate sources, including a single farm woman’s magazine and oral history, to try and uncover their stories in the U.S. Midwest in the 20th century.

Primary sources such as those that start in archives, however, can lead investigators to new pieces of history that have rarely been uncovered. One item I was delighted to discover at the historical society was a meticulously collected series of “social notes” for communities surrounding Mankato, including communities that no longer exist. I plan to dig more deeply into these notes to see if they can shed light on those who lived in such lost communities, and into the character of those communities.

The class has a great deal more to do. We plan field trips to the Minnesota Treaty Center, as well as other sites related to the Dakota War of 1862, and we plan trips to “lost” Mankato sites such as old Front Street and Victorian homes. Along the way, we work to ask these questions: Whose story is told here? Whose story is missing? Where can that story be found? If it can’t be found, what have we lost?

We’re also investigating memory. Of the stories we find told, who told them? Why? And what compelled the original storyteller to preserve it?

Examining these questions will help us all become better storytellers as we uncover lost stories.

On Leftover Turkey Soup

~ Amy Lauters ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes, I think my husband prefers the leftovers from Thanksgiving to the meal itself.

Sometimes, I don’t blame him.

My favorite post Thanksgiving meal is a slab of perfectly moist roast turkey breast on a fresh, buttered roll. There’s something about that combination that makes me utterly happy. This year, I made a fresh cranberry sauce for the first time, and that hint of tartness with the fresh turkey also made me utterly happy. In fact, we dipped fresh apple and pear slices into the warm sauce as an appetizer this year, and we generally agreed that we’ll have to try that again.

However, the day after Thanksgiving, the “leftover” meal of choice is turkey soup.

This starts by breaking down the leftover turkey carcass from the day before. At this point, the carcass should have been carved away, leaving bones with minimal meat attached. This year, I roasted a turkey breast rather than an entire bird, and it just fit into my 12-quart pot.

For this recipe, you will need:

1 leftover turkey carcass, carefully chilled after carving

Two to three cups of leftover veggie tray vegetables: carrots, celery, and green pepper slices are my favorites.

1 cup of diced yellow onion

Two bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

1 t. dried thyme (more or less to taste)

1/2 t. granulated garlic or equivalent fresh chopped garlic

Leftover roast turkey, 1-2 cups diced

Egg noodles or rice

Put the carcass in the stock pot, and cover with cold water. Set on the stove to bring to a boil over medium heat. Add your chopped veggies and seasonings. Cover, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, back the temperature down to low and simmer for at least two hours. At that point, remove the bones from the stock. Taste. Add two to three bullion cubes to boost the stock if necessary, and salt and pepper to taste. Dice any leftover turkey slices to add to the pot. Bring back to a boil, then add noodles or rice. Cook until the noodles or rice are done, then serve.

It usually yields enough to serve for a couple of meals. We serve one immediately, then I bag the rest in a one-gallon Ziplock freezer bag to transfer straight to the freezer for another meal later.

On the Deep Valley Book Festival

~ Amy Lauters ~ Leave a comment

I have the opportunity tomorrow to discuss historical fiction with a panel at the Deep Valley Book Festival. This virtual event is free, and I recommend it for anyone interested in writing or in engaging with writers and book lovers.

The panels include a talk from keynote speaker and author Cindy Wilson, who will discuss the process of bringing the Hard Winter of 1880-1881 to fiction form in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter. Wilson is the author of The Beautiful Snow.

Other panels will focus on the process of bringing a book to publication, connecting writers to readers, and writing with humor and creativity.

It promises to be the perfect way to stave off early March cabin fever. I really look forward to it. If you want to join us, click the link above to go directly to the schedule and register for the sessions you want to see for free.

On Stir-and-Drop Sugar Cookies

~ Amy Lauters ~ Leave a comment

My favorite sugar cookie is incredibly easy to make. It’s based on a recipe in the original Betty Crocker Cooky Book, and I remember my grandmother making them regularly when I was a child. One thing I like best about it is its reliance on good quality vegetable oil, rather than butter, as a source of fat.

It’s also easily adaptable. Swap out the extracts and stir in different flavorings to get different, and tasty, results. For the batch I made Sunday, I added a tablespoon of sprinkles to the batter to get a confetti look.

1. Set oven to 400 degrees.

2. Whip two eggs in a medium mixing bowl with a fork.

3. Using the same fork, beat in 2/3 cup good quality vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

4. Beat in 3/4 cup granulated sugar.

5. In a separate bowl, mix 2 cups all-purpose flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

6. Stir dry ingredients into wet.

7. Drop by teaspoon onto a parchment-lined baking tray. Press flat, preferably with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are a delicate brown.

On the Straits of Mackinac

~ Amy Lauters ~ Leave a comment

My family and I decided we wanted a beach to visit for our family vacation this summer, and we chose to take the road trip to St. Ignace, Mich., and the beaches of Lakes Huron and Michigan. We also took the ferry across the lake from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island.

Mackinac Island (pronounced Mack-i-naw) offers a unique opportunity to visit a place that is steeped in history and fun. A vacation destination for more than a century, the Island provides the experience of a place with no motorized vehicles. All transportation on the island, except for emergency services, takes place via horse or bicycle.

Two ferry companies take passengers out to the Island from St. Ignace on one side of the Mackinac Bridge and from Mackinaw City on the other side of the Bridge, Shepler’s and Star Line. Our hotel in St. Ignace, Cedar Hill Lodge, offered discounted tickets and shuttle service to Shepler’s, so that’s the ferry we went with. Both companies offer the same services at reasonable prices.

When we arrived, we made our way from the Shepler’s dock down the main street to the Mackinac Island Carriage Tour company, across from the Star Line dock. We wanted to see everything, and the tours are a great place to start, especially if you have some kind of mobility issue. Our driver, Kiki, introduced us all to our horses, Mona and Judy, to start the tour, and provided commentary as she took us on the first leg of the tour from down town, down the historic second street where the original fur traders’ homes can still be seen and visited, and out past the Grand Hotel to the stables and butterfly conservatory. From there, we took the second leg of the tour, behind a team of three hours and a new driver, through the State Park, to Arch Rock and Fort Mackinac.

My six-year-olds loved riding behind the horses, went into raptures over the butterfly conservatory, and ran all over grounds of the fort, which offers daily demonstrations of military life in the 19th century as well as a tea room, children’s play space, and living museum. Its history is connected with Fort Michilimackinac, which originally existed on the mainland in Mackinaw City and now has been largely reconstructed in its original location there. We were all fascinated by the living history the forts represented.

On the island, we walked down the bluff from the Fort to the main street again after lunch in the tea room, and browsed the shops, buying ice cream and fudge to take home. We watched fudgemakers in the windows along main street, dodged bicycles, and took a ferry back to St. Ignace late in the afternoon.

The next day, we drove over the five-mile Mackinac Bridge to visit Mackinaw City and Fort Michilimackinac, and there, we enjoyed leaning about the fort through the costumed presenters, and about its archaeology from the working archaeologists on site. They’re currently digging the site of a fur trader’s home, and they have been for about nine years. The on-site archaeologist said they’ll keep digging until they find nothing else to pull out of the soil, and that the cellars appeared to be used as storage facilities, so there’s lots to find.

As a side note, it’s possible to buy tickets to both forts at one time; I wasn’t sure we were going to make it to the mainland fort so I only purchased Fort Mackinac tickets the day we were there. However, when we did get the opportunity to go to the mainland fort the next day, we were able to pay only the difference between the two kinds of tickets at Michilimackinac, which saved us some money.

Fort Michililmackinac also has a large playground and access to a beach on the Lake Michigan side of the strait, and our girls were able to run off some energy before rain threatened. We headed back across the bridge to find pasties for lunch. We ended up at a St. Ignace staple: Lehto’s Pasties. This storefront has been around for more than fifty years, and it offers outdoor seating. The pasties are twelve ounces, pastry stuffed with steak, potatoes, onion, and rutabaga in a hand pie that’s perfect for lunch. We got three for the four of us, plus beverages, and headed down to the American Legion beach in St. Ignace to eat and collect rocks .

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, and our only regret is we couldn’t stay longer.

If you go: Make sure to check out everything you’d like to see in advance and budget accordingly. While nothing was unreasonably priced, everything did cost something. The ferry and the carriage tour were the most expensive parts of the trip, but they were utterly worth it. Also, pay attention to COVID restrictions; we masked up at indoor spaces for safety’s sake.

On visiting Green Bay, Wis.

~ Amy Lauters ~ Leave a comment

Most people think of the Green bay Packers when they think of Green Bay, Wis. But not everything in Titletown has to do with the Packers. I recently took my young children there for a long weekend visit with family, and we found plenty of things to do that didn’t have anything to do with football.

That said, if you are a football fan, you’ll want to visit the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. I’ve been there a few times now, and I’ve been to a game at Lambeau Field, as well, several years ago. Green Bay is probably best known for its affiliation with the Packers, and as a lifelong Packer fan, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. However, families who aren’t into football will enjoy the Zoo and Bay Beach. While we didn’t go this time, my cousins tell me the Children’s Museum and the Wildlife Sanctuary also are a lot of fun.

Our first day in Green Bay, we went to the NEW Zoo and Adventure Park. The Zoo still requires masks for some exhibits, such as feeding the giraffes, but everything is open to air and many folks didn’t bother with masks outside of those specified areas. We started our day there in the farm area, which features some animals for petting. While feeding stations were closed, we were able to see, talk to, and enjoy several different farm animals, including sheep and alpacas. We walked the loop there, and came back to an entrance that took us past African lions and up into the park proper. We waited in line to feed the giraffes, masked up, and then waited some more when our giraffe decided she wanted a drink of water between feedings.

We saw many different animals as we wandered through the rest of the zoo, and the children with us really liked trying to stretch their arms out to match the painted wingspans of the many birds featured there. The Zoo has big signs with the wings painted to be outstretched, and we spent some time trying to see how long our arms are in comparison. The oldest child with us, Clare, had a “wingspan” the same size as a snowy owl. I almost had the wingspan of an American bald eagle.

After a stop for a reasonably priced lunch in the center of the zoo and a walk around the Northwoods loop to see the moose, we finished our stay with an extended viewing of the penguins and a trip through the gift shop.

On Day Two, we went to a place that remains a perennial favorite of the locals: Bay Beach Amusement Park.

Bay Beach offers rides, concessions, and a very nice playground, all set right next to the bay of Green Bay. While the day we went was hot, the breeze off the water made the shady spots tolerable, and quick access to snow cones and water made it possible for us to stay for longer than we originally intended. The park boasts several different rides for people of all ages, and it includes a substantial selection of just-for-kids rides that C and A adored. The park, which is run by City of Green Bay, offers tickets for rides priced at 25 cents each; each ride is between one and four tickets. The children’s rides each took one ticket. We were able to ride all of the rides twice–and our favorites three times–at that price.

We also enjoyed a train ride by the bay, and we had lunch in the pavilion, which is a beautiful building, once a dance hall still pressed into service for receptions and events, that houses an air-conditioned dining area. We ate excellent cheeseburgers on bakery buns and shared cheese fries to go with our bottled water, and spent less than $15 for the three of us to eat. Frankly, I’ve gotten used to higher-priced concessions in the Twin Cities that don’t taste as good as these did, and I was very impressed with the quality of food and service.

We also spent some time in the excellent playground attached to the park, which was, thankfully, shaded.

It was a great weekend away, and the first we’ve had since our last trip to Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri in March, 2020. We’re looking forward to exploring more this summer. Stay well, everyone.

If you go, plan ahead. While everything seems to be open again this summer, some sites are requiring advanced reservations and tickets to ensure a contactless form of crowd control. This wasn’t the case at Bay Beach, but the Zoo required advanced tickets. Double-check the web site of the place you plan to visit in advance to see what their restrictions are for a smooth experience.