Some recent geocaching...

I recently downloaded the geocaching.com app to my iPhone.  This gives me the ability to geocache about whenever I want, as long as my battery doesn't die.  Most important realization about caching?  Cliffs and scary terrain don't scare me at all.  Teenagers wandering around in the woods as a pack result in me vacating almost immediately.  Not because I feel like some forest-dwelling perv, although that occurred to me.  But because I don't trust why they're out there, so I don't see the need to be anywhere in their vicinity.

Mr. Geocaching Cowboy is from a trail near my house that I didn't even know existed.  There are a number of lakes in the neighborhood you can't see, and the trail wraps around them.  Some serious work on the bike.

I gave Colin a whole bag full of geocaching dinosaurs and animals tonight.  And at least one soldier.  But I think I still have the cowboy.


I think you can see the cache in this picture if you think about it.  But only because the hiding place broke and it's a little more obvious.  Still took me a few minutes to figure out what I was looking for.


This is a camo style in Call of Duty.  It was very hard to see in the tree.


There was a cache across the street, although I think it had been muggled.  There were so many cars and pedestrians going by that I just couldn't spend much time really looking around.  But this hardware store was pretty cool.  If I had a business (one with a building, that is...well, a building that's not rental property...I mean, not rental property for half a dozen people...who were in a family...you know what the hell I mean), I'd like it to be big enough that it has it's own sculpture park.


Near the high bridge.  Uppertown.  I didn't sit in the chair.  It was REALLY cold despite our recent weather.  It just happened to be between breakfast with Erik at the Day to Day and home.


Klund has the Pearly Gates.  Uppertown has this.  I'm not sure who wins.  Both have a cache nearby.


Cool sculpture in the Uppertown park.  Looks sort of dragonish.


The cache in the Uppertown park. My fingers were numb after getting it open.

Franconia Sculpture Park

On Friday I took a day off to hang with my wife while Eryn was at school. I took a half day off last week so we could go to Devil, but Devil really sucked (reminded me a lot of 70's horror movies and I agree fully with the reviewer who said that if you have a locked room movie, you should never cut the action away from the locked room. I preferred Fermat's Room which is a similar movie, but without the supernatural aspect). Even a full day off is a short day, as Eryn needs to be picked up by about 3 p.m. on Fridays after school, but it was long enough to drive up to Franconia Sculpture Park, find some breakfast, and visit a place near Stillwater to get some discount prairie grass for the back yard. We tried to stop by Nelson's Ice Cream as well, but its hours didn't jive with getting back south of the river by 3 p.m. I went to the Franconia Sculpture Park with Ming and Kyle last year when we went to ride the Gandy Dancer trail, almost to the day and I wanted to revisit it this year as, unlike the Walker, their selection of art almost completely changes annually.

This is where we ate breakfast, Joseph's, just off Highway 36 as you head into Stillwater. The food was great, the waitress pleasant and talkative, the selection of homemade pies extensive (we took home their signature raspberry swirl, which was more like a pie-sized cheese cake), and they have a food challenge. The Paul Bunyan Burger. It looks to be about 2.5 pounds of burger and fries and accouterments. The t-shirt was free until the 25th, but after that it costs $5. I have challenged Ming to eat one, head to head, via Facebook.

As you can tell from the last picture. It was overcast. Not an ideal day for a stroll around a sculpture garden. But it was a better day for us than it was for these artists setting up their sculpture balloon. Because what you can't tell from the picture was that it was incredibly windy. Watch a video or two below and you'll hear it, because the noise of the wind completely overwhelms whomever is speaking.

This is what the sculpture looked like by the time we left.

I'm not sure what this one is called. It might be PART of Montenegro by Zoran Mojsilov. Hard to tell - we couldn't find the sign/plate. There's a nice picture on Flickr (or click the title) of Pooteewheet touching one of the plant things, as well as an interesting close up.

This is where hobbit programmers hang out. 10 Minutes Towards Enlightenment by Steven Kuypers. I like the moat, although given how much water was around it was difficult to tell if it was intentional. There's a computer screen and keyboard at the top of the hill, although they don't actually work.

Spurl, by Paul Howe. Sort of disturbing close up. Looks like a really gross scorpion. The rocks are actually cement formed in bags, and you can see the striations if you're standing there. Made me think of the pictures of scorpions with their babies on their backs (ew...ick...).

Three. THREE. Ahahahahahahahaha.... The Count from Sesame Street's favorite piece, Bon Chance by Andrew Macguffie. Like Elmo, he had a duet with Katy Perry that he filmed near here, but it too was axed.

But if they popped a three out of the sculpture, then why is the cut out piece a 5??? Must be the part of the art that makes you really think.

It was a little more interesting from inside.

1994 Oldsmobile Achieva S by Tamsie Ringler. A flattened car made out of concrete, right down to the license plate. Seemed like a cool idea for a playground.

Quaker Cannons by Paul Linden. Are they Quaker because there's no iron, or are they Quaker because they're obviously non-functional as implements of war?

One of several fish by Robert Ressler, such as Gar and Lamphrey and Mudpuppy and Catfish. Pooteewheet and I both thought it would be interesting to have one of these in the back yard.

Pooteewheet on the swing in Bridget Beck's Playstation.

A bit of swinger video. You can see what I mean about the wind.

Me, on Playstation. If it weren't for the rusty metal, or that the birds in the many birdhouses would poo all over, it would be an almost practical playground for kids. It had lots of little nooks with tables and chairs for just hanging out.

Playstation from a distance. Pretty sizable. I think the Walker should move this one to their space. It would complement their bridge.

I believe this was called "Tongues of the Masters".

You can appreciate it more when you're close up.

Johnny Appleseed by Mark di Suvero. I'm not sure why it's Johnny Appleseed. I would have called it Mary Anne.

The Big Game by Kari Reardon. We gave it a quarter because it was so funny. There's a gun and you can pull the trigger, at which point it mocks you about not giving it a quarter and your shooting prowess. At one point it broke into maniacal female laughter. I tried to catch it in the video below and maybe you can catch just a piece of it if you have your volume cranked up enough to hear it above the wind.

Here you go...listen carefully.

Baseline by William Ransom. Reminded me of another piece called Skinscape that's still there (it's basically a concrete patio, so it would be difficult to move), but that's by a different artist, Trevor Nicholas. I'd like to see Tall Brad and Klund play head-to-head on this court.

Trying to show a bit of how wet it was. About 60% of the fields were covered with water. The rest was just soggy.

The ducks liked it very much. Practical art if you're waterfowl, until the house falls on you while you're eating some weeds.

Rocco by Amy Toscani. The strong wind meant it was actually spinning like a giant amusement ride, although you couldn't ride it.

Live spinning action...

Tractor Fin by Kurt Dyrhaug. It was interesting from this angle, but then we passed it again from the back...

...and discovered it had a seat. I think the artist should just have it in his front yard and sit on it so that when people drive by they're incredibly confused about whether it's a real vehicle.

Evening by James Payne. It's like Dexter's shipping container, but without the serial killer paraphernalia. I thought it would be difficult to take a picture, but it turned out very nice. If I had been thinking, I'd have done something like this picture by Dan Anderson on Flickr. Very nice!

Great day trip if you like art and getting out in the Minnesota fall. I wish the colors had been a bit further along in the river valley, so a week or two from now might be optimal.

Cannon Falls I: Anderson Center

Eryn and I went bicycling in Cannon Falls yesterday, among many other things. We hit Little Oscar's on the way to Welch for breakfast, then pedaled toward Red Wing and back from Welch, indulging in picking wild raspberries by the Bald Eagle area (Eryn won't eat raspberries from the store, but she loved picking a few wild ones to eat), and finally, after many rides in Cannon Falls, following one of the trailside signs that indicated there was an attraction nearby.

We were dubious, because there was a little clearing with a bicycle rack, and then a hike into the woods that led up this big series of steps. On our way out much later, a jogger saw us coming out of the woods and doubled back to see what was so interesting. I warned her about the steps, but jogging was working for her (she was 3 miles from the nearest trail entrance I knew of, and she looked good in her jogging outfit - not one of those rail thin joggers), and she thanked us and took off up the steps. Eryn was surprised anyone was willing to jog up stairs that required several rest stops on her part.



At the top, we found Anderson Center, a sculpture garden, as advertised. But it wasn't just a few sculptures nestled away in the woods by some crazy guy, which is what I was expecting. Instead there was a huge field with a variety of species of trees and a whole series of sculptures. Eryn was particularly happy to find the sculptures after our climb to the top of the river bluff as she has almost as much of a thing for sculpture gardens as I do.


The Anderson Center is an artist retreat and display area near Red Wing. This is the complex. The tower is called Tower View. I recommend the history page for the center, which states that Alexander Pierce Anderson is famous as the inventor of puffed rice, "The Anderson Puffed Rice Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quaker Oats, was set up in 1901 and continued until 1941. Alex worked from a laboratory in Chicago and puffed rice was introduced publicly in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair. "

I don't know why there's a giant rubba duck on a trailer. It must be for artistic purposes yet to be enacted.


Jaime Barber's Snark Tank. I think it should be called Viagra Spider. It reminds me of the Maman Giant Spider sculpture at the Tate.


Andrew MacGuffie's "When It Rains". I'm not sure I get it, but Eryn thought it was cool you could see up inside it. She was pretty sure the piece overhead was a bird. I think it catches rain and then rains on the sculpture separately.


Zoran Mojsilov's "Moby Dick". This was neat to see, because Eryn and I had been talking about Moby Dick a few times recently, so she knew it was supposed to be a whale from a book. However, I don't think she made the connection between the weasel in Ice Age 3 and Moby Dick today, so it hasn't been a perfect education.


My Bilbao by Andrew MacGuffie. Bilbao is a city in Basque Spain, so I'm not sure what that has to do with this sculpture. I thought for a moment he meant billabong, as in a small lake, and that it was a metaphor for a place to get away. But obviously not. Bilbao is known for giant flower dogs and, hey!, the Guggenheim Spider. I sense a theme.


The GREAT A'TUIN, cheyls galactica! He carries all of Discworld on his back! What the f*** happened to the elephants? The statue's actual title is "Keya Tanka Lucie", which has no hits on Google, so I don't know what it means.


Michael Bigger's Honda Blue. Only amusing because I'm currently working with a server called Honda at work. Now I will picture this statue every time I have to work with it. If I had physical access, I'd put a picture of the sculpture on the side of it.


Eryn near Sam Spiczka's "Birth of a Martyr". An interesting piece. I'm not even sure it needed the base, but it does add to it.


It's much more photogenic close up.


Untitled by John Turula and Russ Vogt. Eryn and I had this conversation.
Eryn: "What's it called?"
Me: "It doesn't have a name, it's untitled."
Eryn: "But that's a name."
You know where it goes from there. I was a little worried she was yanking my chain just to have some fun. It's not like that behavior has been thoroughly role modeled.


A close up of Untitled. The pink ceramic pieces looked like two hands on opposite ends of an arm covered in blood. I'm not sure if that was the intent, but it drew both Eryn's and my's attention.


This sun dial had a plaque that talked about the solar system nearby and how far apart things were. I wasn't entirely sure why. Later, on the trip back to Welch, Eryn and I found a stone on the side of the trail (so about 7 miles from this sun dial) that said "Neptune". I suspect there are stones about as far away as the planets should be from this sun dial if it were the solar system, but I can't find verification of the fact on line.


Standing Time by James Borden. This sculpture is kinetic. If you push that weight it will make everything slowly start to turn. Eryn's cup of tea.


And pretty when viewed as a looming tower.


This sculpture was supposed to make you feel the pressure of the walls.


"A Chair for Copernicus" by Andrew MacGuffie. I felt it was good karma to put Eryn in a chair meant for Copernicus. Because of his brains, not because of his treatment by the Catholic church.


Eryn sitting on Peter Lundberg's Kamas. Which is a town in Utah, or a set of pointy martial arts weapons.


From further afield, in case you want to see the whole thing.


And one more. This was before we started taking pictures of the nameplates so we could identify the sculpture in our digital pictures which, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the greatest benefits of a digital camera. Eryn looks happy, but she was annoyed with the deerflies. They kept dive bombing us, only to lose acquisition when we walked through trees. If they were Gold Five Squadron and we were the Death Star, they'd have failed miserably.