Adventures Beyond Minnesota
Travel stories and trip reports from outside the North Woods. Real talk, honest reviews, and adventures worth planning around.
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Evanston Folk Festival Review: Cicadas, Coolers, and Trampled by Turtles on Lake Michigan
We drove nine hours from Northern Minnesota to Evanston, Illinois for a weekend of folk music, lakeside vibes, and Trampled by Turtles. Here’s what the Evanston Folk Festival is really like, who should make the trip, and whether I’d do the drive again. (Spoiler: it depends on the lineup.)
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Visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum: A Third Time, and the Hardest Yet
A reflective visit to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, my third time, and the hardest yet. The pools, the roses, the canine heroes, and what it means to stand there as the wife of a first responder.
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NYC In August: What Was Worth It, What Wasn’t, and Where We’d Go Back in a Heartbeat
An honest NYC trip report: a hotel worth forgiving for its bed alone, a Go City Pass that earned its keep, Top of the Rock at midnight, and the one bus tour that finally let me down after two great rides.
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Hiking Hyalite Canyon: Grotto Falls, Palisade Falls, and the Whale Who Watches Over Bridger Bowl
Three trails, two waterfalls, one rare rubber boa, and a whale you absolutely cannot look at on the way to Bridger Bowl. Here’s everything you need to know about hiking Hyalite Canyon and the Middle Cottonwood Trail near Bozeman, Montana.
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All Women, All Paddles, No Lily-Dipping – My Montana Whitewater Rafting Review
It started with a college orientation. Four years ago, I brought my daughter Erica to Bozeman for her first look at Montana State University. Naturally, we celebrated by throwing ourselves into the Gallatin River with Montana Whitewater. Fast forward four years. Erica is now a full-blown Montanan with deep roots in the Bozeman community. She…
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Visiting Sacred Native American Sites: Bear Lodge and the Medicine Wheel
A road trip to two sacred Native American sites, Devil’s Tower and the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, and what we learned about reverence, protocol, and the quiet power of paying attention.