WAKWIR: The Beginning of Summer's Adventures

Summer Vacation. Ahhhhhhh. Relaxing warm temperatures, no school, and plenty of time to do anything you would please to do. Well, this wasn’t exactly the case with how my summer has gone so far. Relaxing warm temperatures and no school have been accurate, but being able to do whatever I want? Kind of. But also kind of not.

Hello and welcome again to another wonderful writing creation created by me, the WAKWIR himself! Summer has officially arrived and there is already a multitude of tales to be told. From city exploring to plane delays, I would say a lot has happened. But before we dive into the summer, let’s finish up May first, as many things happened in May after my last post.

Up first, school was coming to a final close. I got to go on a field trip with my Biology class to the U of M Crookston Campus, where we did experiments with bacteria and other really cool activities. Band sadly came to a close shortly after the big band concert, in which I proudly had a solo for Jazz Band, and two more performances for graduation and Memorial Day. I also won a Spartus alarm clock/radio/cassette player on the last day of school in History class. As for grades, all A’s and one shameful B that I could have turned into an A if I had been a bit more hard working. But what has happened has happened, so all I can do now is learn from it.

The first weekend after school was busy. Why? Graduation. Since my older brother was graduating, the day after the last day of school we all were getting ready as fast as we could for his grad party. We had friends from the cities (their names were Paul and Carol) and they helped cook and prepare the party which was Sunday, the 29th. So all day Friday, we were finishing cleaning up the garage, cooking food, and collecting roasters and chocolate fountains for the party. Then in the evening, as mentioned before, I played in the band at graduation. And let me tell you, playing Pomp & Circumstance for 5-7 minutes straight on the trombone was a real lip killer.

 

Saturday was more of a party day for us since almost everyone else's grad parties were on that day. We did some more cooking and cleaning in the morning and then we partied all the way till evening. I’m pretty sure I went to seven different grad parties and eight total parties (I went to one party twice). What I thought was pretty funny was that throughout the day, I hopped on three different party trains. My older sister and her friends, my mom, and my dad and little sister.

Sunday was the day of my brother’s grad party. We got up, went to church then made final preparations. Since the party was going to be at my house, we got to set out our new ping pong table, some outside tents and set out my brother's awards in our garage. About 15 minutes before the party was to start, people started to roll in, and then the place was busy with multitudes of people up until about an hour after the grad party was supposed to end. I really liked it, since I got to see my friends, cousins, and even my grandma who came up for the party. After it finally ended, we quickly tore the show down by dusk.

The next day was not as full and hectic, but it did have its busyness. In the morning, I had to get up and dress nicely quickly in time to play in the band for our Memorial Day service. It happened to rain that day (and really hard too) so after we finished playing and everyone got their nice clothes drenched when they headed back to the band room.

After I got back home, I had to start packing my things. Now, you might be wondering: “David, where are you going? Why are you packing your things”? Well, I was about to have one of my best weeks ever. Where? At Paul and Carol’s house in the Twin Cities. That’s why I mentioned them earlier as foreshadowing 😁). I packed my things that morning after the Memorial Day service and then left for the cities with them that afternoon.

I didn’t do much on the car ride there except for eating an entire bag of chives and listening to music. When we got closer to the cities (entering Hennepin County) it started to rain astronomically hard. We had been barely evading a thunderstorm throughout the drive and were hoping to get to their house without much delay, but eventually, it caught up to us and we had to pull over into gas stations many times to wait for the rain to ease up. Oh, and did I mention the tornado watches and warnings?

We eventually got to the house later that evening and ended the evening with a quick house tour, some salad dinner, setting up my room, and watching Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I even caught a Star Wars reference while watching it.

The next day I planned out my week with Paul: Tuesday, one of my friends (I’ll name him Bill for privacy) from the cities would pick me up to go to a trombone lesson, and later go trombone shopping; Wednesday, I would try driving around the Twin Cities area; Thursday, I would go to Orchestra Hall and bike around; Friday I would fly home (on Sunday, my Dad had booked a flight to Thief River Falls).

So Tuesday morning, I got picked up by Bill, had my AWESOME trombone lesson (the instructor’s name was Lauren Husting), and then Bill and I drove to Schmitt Music in Brooklyn Center to try out trombones. And, oh my gosh, I had never seen so many HIGH-quality trombones in one place before nor have I PLAYED so many nice trombones before. I ended up trying trombones for about 2 hours and settled on a Conn 88HTO Trombone. Also a huge shoutout to Keith Hilson, the trombone specialist. He was pretty cool. 

Tuesday evening, Carol and I rode our bikes around a couple lakes in Minneapolis since they were relatively close to where they lived. I was really surprised by how expansive the public park system was. Biking and walking trails everywhere, green space everywhere; I was just really taken back by it all. It was a nice calming evening and a great evening for a nice small bike ride. That night I introduced Paul to Star Wars: The Clone Wars which is one of my favorite TV shows. It was a late night watching the show.

I was quite nervous about Wednesday. I love driving, but driving in the city was going to be a whole new experience. Paul and I picked up a car and away we went. I learned about how the 

The street and avenue system worked in Minneapolis - it’s super efficient and easy - and I went on some big highways to quickly throw myself into the game. I’ve got to say, I really enjoyed it. There’s just something I liked about learning how to drive around other people and how to adapt to every other car and other situations like traffic jams in rush hour and moving over because of car crashes. It was a good experience. I'd give it a 9.5 out of 10.

Later that day after we finished driving, Paul and I decided to go biking around the city. We biked around many lakes, crossed many streets, and even made our way to the Midtown Greenway. We biked through uptown, and even saw the house where my mom used to live when she went to college! It was pretty cool. Now I may have breezed over biking like it was nothing, but in total, we biked about 13 miles by the time we got back home. That night I watched The Music Man for the first time which was a really great movie.

Thursday was a great day. Why? I got to go to Orchestra Hall. That morning, Paul and I walked to a bus stop and very conveniently got a perfect ride downtown for the performance. For more details about the performance, click here: https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/tickets/calendar/2122/vanska-keefe.

I loved it. There was an old lady sitting next to me who talked to me during the intermission. She told me she used to always go to Orchestra Hall to watch her grandson perform there. But then she told me he got burned out from it and stopped going there. I never got her name, but she told me to come back to Orchestra Hall every time I get the chance. The performance itself was amazing and I was pretty sad when it all finished, but like everything, things must come to an end.

After Orchestra Hall, Paul and I walked through downtown Minneapolis to Nicollet Mall where we hopped on the light rail to St. Paul to go take a tour of the Capitol. Yes, that is right, the Minnesota State Capitol, built in 1905 and restored in 2017 and located, nice and snug, in lovely old St. Paul, Minnesota. Descriptions aside, I really liked going there. It was all really quiet and the tour that I took was super informational and exciting. I would give it a 9 out of 10.

Let me take a moment to give my opinion on public transit. I love it. It is efficient, cheap, and extremely easy if you can catch on to the system really quickly (like me). It’s not always the quickest because of all of the stops that it takes, especially light rail which takes a while, but it gets you where you want to go which I think is the most important objective. Overall I would give it a solid 8 out of 10.

 

Although there wasn’t really a plan for Friday, it was still fun. Paul and I decided to just plan things as they went. So we ended up taking public transit to downtown Minneapolis and exploring there. Now, this may all sound pretty vague, but it was really cool for me. I had never really walked around downtown and really experienced the busyness. One of my favorite things that I did there was going to the Foshay tower to explore the museum and observation deck. And once I got up there, wow. Blown away. There’s something about big cities that I just really like. People will tell me, “It’s just a big clump of big buildings,” but I disagree. Every city has its own uniqueness and I think Minneapolis is a great example. Compared with other big cities like Houston or Chicago, they all have their own extreme uniqueness paired along with their similarities, which makes them all super different. I loved looking out the observation deck and seeing the busy city, always moving, always changing, and just admiring it.

We eventually had to go back to the house, pack, and head to the airport. We took a Lyft to the airport, and after some heartfelt goodbyes, I was on my own in the airport. I also really liked that. It was fun to see adults look at little old me galavant myself through the airport. There was even an adult who asked me how to go through security. Since I’ve flown many times before, it was easy for me to explain. I made my way to the gate, B16, and then I sat and waited. 

Only to be told my flight was canceled.

Yep. After an awesome full week in Minneapolis, I GOT TO STAY ANOTHER DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Was it annoying the flight was canceled? Yes, very much so. I would have to miss a grad party I really wanted to go to. But staying in the cities for another day was also really appealing. After some frantic communication (calling my parents, and both Paul and Carol), I was able to get back to Paul and Carol’s house that evening. And yes, we watched more Clone Wars. It was great.

Not as great as the next day, though. Carol had to catch a flight at one o'clock, and since my newly rescheduled flight was at two, both Carol and I took another Lyft to the airport to catch our flights. Navigating the airport was again easy, but once I got to my gate, still B16, I was told that the flight was delayed until four in the afternoon. Annoying? Yeah, but I could deal with that. As the time inched closer to four, we received another update that the flight was delayed until 7pm. I was starting to grow impatient, but some deep breaths and watching two Star Wars movies really calmed me down. The flight was then delayed again till seven-thirty, but thankfully, it was the last one. The plane arrived, and I was finally able to fly home.

The problem with the plane (as I recall) was that the original plane’s landing gear wouldn't go up, so they had to fly that original plane to Denver since Denver Air was headquartered there, swap in a new functioning plane, fly it to Thief River Falls for another planned flight, and then to Minneapolis. In total, I had been in the airport that day for about 8 hours.

All in all, I really enjoyed my trip to the cities. I made it back home late Saturday night and then spent the next week not doing much. (And I mean it, too.) But Thursday had its own adventures involving a teensy, weensy kitty cat kitten. But that is a story for next week; this post is great in length already.

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday, and have a very nice day. :)

David

AKA WAKWIR

Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence

Delighting the fair city of Minneapolis

On This Day

Historic Highlights (credits)

2010 - Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup for the first time

The 19th association football world cup was opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. The winner of this historic edition was Spain.

1959 - Christopher Cockerell first presents the hovercraft

The amphibious air-cushion vehicle first crossed the English Channel just weeks after Cockerell first demonstrated his prototype, the SR.N1. The scheduled “flights” between Dover (U.K.) and Calais (France) were discontinued in 2000.

1955 - More than 80 people die in the Le Mans car race disaster

In one of history's worst car racing accidents, Pierre Levegh's Mercedes crashed into a crowd of spectators and burst into flames.

1938 - China launches the 1938 Yellow River flood

In what Steven Dutch, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, called “the world's largest act of environmental warfare in history”, the Chinese government created the flood to halt invading Japanese forces.

1817 - The first predecessor of the bicycle is demonstrated

Using his revolutionary Laufmaschine, also known as Draisine, a two-wheeler without pedals, German inventor Karl Drais completed a 14 km test run in less than an hour, presenting a viable alternative to transportation by horse.

Happy Birthday to You!🎶 

1956 - Joe Montana, American football player

1948 - Gerald "Jerry" Koster, Kim's dad

1933 - Gene Wilder, American actor

1910 - Jacques Cousteau, French biologist, author, inventor, co-developed the aqua-lung

1864 - Richard Strauss, German composer, conductor

1572 - Ben Jonson, English writer

Remembering You

1979 - John Wayne, American actor, director, producer

1974 - Julius Evola, Italian philosopher

1936 - Robert E. Howard, American author

1934 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist

1859 - Klemens von Metternich, German/Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire

Get outdoors for some sunny adventures and make it a great Saturday. 

Kim