Places and Critters

Welcome to my post for 

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS 

and City Daily Photo 

White Bear Lake, Minnesota

"It is a serious thing to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world." Mary Oliver 

K-9 Officer Smoke, Farmington PD.

Charleston, South Carolina.

"A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image." Joan Didion 

Lake City, Minnesota

"Still, what I want in my life is to be willing, to be dazzled, to cast aside the weight of facts." Mary Oliver

 

Hastings, Minnesota with the Hastings High Bridge.

If you know me or follow my blog you know I'm a fan of quotes so when something pulls me inward, I have the desire to share it.

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear."

Joan Didion (American writer and journalist)

I met an interesting writer David McNally (a member of the Speakers Hall of Fame) and I had the privilege of having him autograph his book for me.

David McNally was a keynote speaker for the Lions International Mid-Winter Convention January 2025.

Remember this, your mission on Earth isn't finished.

Being a (dog) fan, these three pups below are my oldest son's dogs, and he created this Chat GPT photo for me.

Aren't they adorable and busy little chefs too!

Huntsville, Alabama

These next photos are from Mackinac Island, Michigan

Can you see The Round Island Lighthouse off in the distance?

Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant. 

Joan Didion

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live." Joan Didion

You have to pick the places you don't walk away from.

"And that is just the point, how the world, moist and beautiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response. That's the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. "Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?" Mary Oliver

Thank you so much for stopping by and gifting me with your comments! 

Duluth Getaway and Critters Too

Welcome from my recent visit to Duluth, Minnesota and some surrounding areas like Two Harbors, Castle Danger and out and about on Lake Superior.

Posting to 

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS 

and City Daily Photo

"Why meet we on the bridge of time to change one greeting and to part?"

Sir Richard Burton  

"From the towering heights of the Aerial Lift Bridge to the crashing waves of Lake Superior every corner of this city tells a story of nature, resilience and timelessness.

"I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world."

Rainer Maria Rilke

A Lady Ice Blue 

The Duluth "Lakewalk and Boardwalk" is truly worth your walk.

"Only by going alone in silence, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter."

John Muir

The Canal Park Board Walk is another name for this.

I always take a boat ride on Lake Superior. Vista Star, and others in the Vista Fleet.

"One of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands." Sir Richard Burton (19 March 1821 - 20 October 1890 British explorer) 

A few shops downtown.

"We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again."

Katherine May

"Duluth is a place where the industrial grit of shipping ports meets the ethereal serenity of the boreal forest." 

My hotel room looked straight out at Uncle Harvey's Mausoleum.

People say they take vacations, to see the sights, or a getaway from life's daily routines. I agree but there's another entire reason for me to go away, like escaping from our familiar haunts.

New adventures, even on old paths but with new eyes.

"Standing on the shores of Lake Superior, I feel the raw power of nature whispering secrets of the North Shore to my very soul today."

"Doing those deeply unfashionable things, slowing down, letting your spare time expand, getting enough sleep, resting, is a radical act now, but it is essential. This is a crossroads we all know, a moment when you need to shed a skin. If you do, you'll expose all those painful nerve endings and feel so raw that you'll need to take care of yourself for a while. If you don't then that skin will harden around you.

Katherine May

Glensheen, Congdon Mansion in Duluth, Minnesota

The pilot house from the iron ore ship Frontenac is a historic maritime artifact no on display at the Two Harbors Lighthouse in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Yes, you can go inside on the tour!

Just because.

Lunch time!

Two Harbors, Minnesota

Finally, after too many years to count, I've driven or ridden past this restaurant and finally coming home on this trip I stopped, and it truly was worth it. Lazy Bear Grill in Barnum, Minnesota. 

Everything is made from scratch.

Everything and anything it's all out there waiting for our attention. 

Seek and you shall find.

Believe, persist and follow for we shall find the peace we seek.

Thanks for sharing time here and for your comments.

Take good care of you.