Monday, July 19, 2010

Welcome, BlogTrotters, to Minnesota

Land of 10,000 Lakes
The North Star State
The Gopher State
Land of Sky-Blue Waters
The Bread and Butter State

Whatever you call it, I call it HOME.

I was absolutely delighted to receive a comment on my blog last week from Carabee over at BlogTrotting inviting me to give a little tour of my neck of the woods. BlogTrotting is a fun blog where you can visit other exciting places around the world.

I am genuinely thrilled to share with you a few of my favorite things about Minnesota.

I'm a Minnesotan, born and raised.

I grew up in Alexandria, MN. Hop over here for a brief tour of the main street of Alexandria, as I remember it from my teenage years.

Alexandra is the heart of the Central Lakes area, where are plenty of lakes for swimming and fishing.

I've since moved from Alexandria (more than 15 years ago) and now reside in St Paul, our state capital.


But what I really love about living in St Paul is living across the street from the University of St Thomas. Both my husband and I are students at UST, and we love our beautiful campus. We love to walk the grounds and will generally take any visitors we have on a quick tour.

 
The St Thomas Arches are an important part of UST culture. Incoming freshmen walk through the arches to the applause of current students and faculty, welcoming them to their new home. Neither of us started as freshmen, so we didn't get to experience this, but we are looking forward to Commencement when graduating seniors walk back out through the arches and head out into the world. I'm not sure if this will be a part of my graduate commencement ceremony, but it will definitely be a part of Jeff's. We have two more years of school before we head back out into the real world.

I've actually only lived in St Paul for a year and a half. Before that, I always considered myself more of a Minneapolis girl. While St Paul is growing on me, I definitely prefer the downtown of Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis skyline is beautiful!

The skyway system is wonderful!
You can easily stay dry and warm in the rain or snow.

Another thing I love about living in the Twin Cities is all the fun running paths!
I love to run with my little girl, Sallie...
And take walks with my husband.

We've moved a lot around the twin cities.
and in St Paul near Crosby Lake .

I can't forget to mention Como Park Zoo. This is a fun, free zoo. They do accept a suggested donation of $2 for adults and $1 for children. We've gone to this zoo a couple of times .

I could go on and on about this great state! There are so many things I didn't mention like:

and SO. MUCH. MORE!

IMINNESOTA!
No matter where I live, I will always consider MN my home.

Feel free to browse through my blog to discover other random things about me (and occassionally MN, too). If you've visited any of the links in this post, you might have noticed many were from my *other* blog, Dodson Journal. Go ahead and pop over there for even more exciting advertures! I love MN, but I also love to travel and see new things. Mostly these adventures are with my husband, so naturally, they get posted on our family blog.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Minnesota.

Twitter → @EnjoytheCourse
Instagram → enjoyingthecourse
Facebook → EnjoyingtheCourse
Google+ → Enjoying the Course
Pinterest → clarindad

14 comments:

  1. So sweet. MN has a special place in my heart bc my mom grew up there. My grandma and aunts and uncle are still there. This post gave a great overview.

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  2. Aw, you're making me homesick. I {heart} Minnesota too!

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  3. Miss Welcome, thanks for taking my tour and for your sweet comment. Have a great day!

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  4. Lara! I'll always remember you as Lara Crain from Blaine! :-) Love it! Have a great day.

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  5. What a great way to share our beautiful state. Loved the brief tour; so many thing to see and do here.

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  6. Thanks for sharing! It's definitely entices me to go check out MN if I get a chance :0)

    You might have inspired me to spotlight my neck of the woods too! Thanks!

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  7. Minnesota is on the list of places my husband and I hope to visit soon! Thanks for posting and sharing a little bit of your life!

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  8. Treva, I agree! So much I didn't cover. Perhaps another post sometime.

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  9. Duchess,

    Thanks for stopping by. You should definitely come visit MN. There is beauty all. year. round. :-)

    You should definitely spotlight your neck of the woods. How fun! Check out BlogTrotting. They may even feature you, too.

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  10. Chrissy,

    Thanks for stopping by. I hope you and your husband do visit MN sometime.

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  11. I love the arches at UST and how the students go through at the beginning and end of the time there. What a great tradition!

    Great post, Clarinda! Thanks for being a part of BlogTrotting!

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  12. Thanks, CaraBee, for stopping by, and for the opportunity to be featured on BlogTrotting. It was fun.

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  13. I really enjoyed the tour of your area! All the beautiful scenery and neat places to visit. The nature would be the big draw for me. Thank you for sharing your state with us! I had fun reading all the other posts, too!

    Have an awesome day! =)

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  14. Diana, thanks for stopping by! I'm glad you enjoyed my little tour.

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