Friday, March 26, 2010

Why Duluth?

Here is a link to a great movie about Duluth. It's part of the effort to get Google fiber, but it also does a good job of showcasing the attractiveness of the Twin Ports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KsvScO_gTM&feature=autofb

Monday, March 22, 2010

Sunday Google Fiber Fun

March 21,2010 -- Duluth, MN
The Spring membership meeting for the Duluth Yacht Club was held at the Superior Holiday Inn Express on Sunday. Everyone is more than ready for sailing season to start. I told Steve about the liberties I took with a picture of his boat as part of the effort to bring the high speed Google fiber experiment to the Twin Ports. Fortunately he thought my adding crew to his boat and changing the name was great.

After the meeting T and I took the dog down to Park Point for some exercise. There was a yellow lab puppy in the Google Fiber movie scene from yesterday. It was so cute (and very well behaved). We wanted to go home to hug Pax yesterday after filming but it was so late by the time we actually got home that we couldn't get her outside to play very much. Today was a different story. The weather was fantastic and Pax really enjoyed splashing around in Lake Superior. There were lots of people and dogs on the beach so we had Pax on a 25' long check line. She did great retrieving the bumper from the water as long as she could keep her feet on the bottom. She's not so sure about heading into deeper water yet.

PaxAt one point another puppy saw me tossing the bumper and ran over to join in. As Pax ran to greet her she reached the end of the check line. The line happened to be tied to a loop on my jeans and I ended up on my butt half in the water. It had to be pretty funny to watch. After two hours of walking on the beach on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we all went home to crash.

GoogleFest

March 20, 2010 -- Duluth, MN
Saturday we got a chance to be extras in a short movie being produced as part of the bid by Duluth and Superior to attract the Google Fiber for Communities experiment. It was part of the Google Fest celebration/rally that had 700 some people come out to show support for the effort to bring ultra high speed internet infrastructure to the Twin Ports. Check out Twin Ports Google Fiber for more details. It was, for us, 2.5 hours of being part of a crowd at an announcement by Mayor Ness. We both had very sore feet by the end. I don't know how folks do it in regular movies where they might be filming for days. Ouch. Watch for T and I in the movies. . .

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

CZ09

July 21, 2009 -- Boston, MA

We've had a couple of busy days here at CZ09. Yesterday started with the Plenary session where NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenko led off with a pretty comprehensive talk about the challenges and opportunities before us as coastal resource managers. Her theme was "Seas the Day" and really provided a hopeful look toward the future based on the Presidential commitment to coastal management outlined on a recent National ocean policy memorandum. The mood amongst coastal managers here seems a lot more optimistic than it has in recent years and I think that is probably due to some positive signs in the administration about the importance of issues we all care about. I would have liked to hear her at least mention the Great Lakes. The Department of Interior speaker and the EPA speakers did though.

I had two main responsibilities on Monday. First was to moderate a 1.5 hour session with 4 presentations focusing on Ecosystem-based Management approaches on the coasts. Mostly my job in this session was to introduce the speakers, keep them on time and help facilitate the question/answer period. The speakers all did a great job with staying on track and made it pretty easy for me. The second session I moderated was one that Heather Stirratt from NOAA and I organized and dealt with Great Lakes climate change issues and strategies. We had three speakers including Heather, Patrick Doran from the Nature Conservancy and Jim Hurley from Sea Grant. They did a great job laying out some of the context and issues (Heather), conservation approaches (Patrick) and outreach/education examples (Jim). We then had a bit of time to try to have a discussion about opportunities, gaps, needs, etc. Unfortunately the huge room was not very conducive to a dialogue but we did have some good questions, suggestions, and responses between the panel and the audience.

The poster session/ reception in the evening allowed for some great time to catch up with old friends and colleagues and to meet new folks.

Today (Tuesday) is full of concurrent sessions and the challenge is to figure out what not to go to.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Boston's Waterfront

July 19, 2009 -- Boston, MA

On the agenda for today was a whale watching trip out to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Unfortunately when the +/- 50 people signed up for the field trip arrived at Boston Harbor at a bit before 10:00 a.m. we learned that the trip was canceled due to a boat being out of service or something. Argh.

So a group of us Minnesotans rescheduled ourselves on a sunset whale watching trip through the Boaston aquarium at 6:00 p.m. That left a fair bit of time to explore the historic waterfront district and look at sailboats.

The harbor front was bustling with activity after the moening started to wear on a bit. It was not easy to find anything to eat until after 11:00 a.m. but after that the place started to come alive. The boat traffic in the shipping channel went from busy to crazy busy. There were lots of sail boats and powerboats and a few mega yachts. The Harbor Walk was great, following the very edge of the old piers and wharves for the most part. There were lots of neat old buildings that have been redeveloped into very high end condos and a nice variety of public spaces mixed in. The boat slips looked mighty tight and I watched one big powerboat take about 15 minutes and several dozen attempts to snug itself into the little space where it was trying desperately to tie up.

I was off on my own after CJL and DG headed back to check out the aquarium and I meandered my way through Boston's North End for a while. I ended up at America's oldest restaurant, the Union Oyster House for a late lunch/early supper of 1/2 doz. oysters and a bowl of "chaadaa" (known as chowder in MN). Both were very tasty. There were a bunch of street performers in the open air market and I got pulled into a show put on by Jason Escape. I can now say that I've put someone into a straight jacket, wrapped him him ropes and hoisted him feet first 20 feet into the air. I hadn't had that on my lifetime to do list until now, but after today I can check it off.

I also saw Paul Revere's statue and The Old North Church, break dancers, guys doing remarkable percussion music on 5 gallon buckets and old metal pots, and scary clown/mimes.

The whale cruise took us out to see humpbacks on the Stellwagen Bank. We saw many spouts and got a few fairly close looks at a trio of whales feeding together.

The sunset was pretty amazing too.

Arrival in Boston

July 18, 2009 -- Boston MA
My Flight left Duluth at 6:30 Central Time and with a brief stop over in Detroit, got into Boston’s Logan Airport at about noon Eastern time. By 1:30 CJL and I were checked into the room and ready to explore a bit. Since this was the only day I expect any substantial free time, we took a cab to the Museum of Fine Arts. Just as were were about to go in the door, a guy came up to us and gave us free tickets for admission. There was some sort of event there today and he either had some extras or didn’t need his. Whatever the reason, it saved us $17 each for admission. Since the place closes at 5:00, I was glad we didn’t have to pay the admission price.

Once inside we learned that the Japanese Arms and Armor exhibit is no longer on display due to some major construction underway. That seemed disappointing at first, but we discovered that the far eastern art they still have on display is more than enough to fill a few hours. There were at least a couple of pieces that I recognized from my recently purchased used textbook on the history of eastern art. That was cool. Some very cool, very old stone sculptures from that part of the world, a smallish sword display that focused mainly on tsuba (hand guards), a recreated room from a Buddhist temple with some very large statues, and much more. There was lots more, (including an exhibit on the architecture and furniture of Greene and Greene) but we didn’t, have the time to see it all before the place closed up for the day.
From the Museum we walked to an Irish pub (the Lir). CJL had Sam Adams Summer brew and the shepherds pie. I had a couple Smithwicks and the Cork fish and chips. The beer and food was very welcome by this point (you may have caught that we skipped lunch in favor of maximizing our time at the museum). The fish and chips were okay but on the plus side there was plenty of food to make up for missing lunch.
After that it was about a 1.1 mile walk back to the hotel according to CJL’s Blackberry/GPS unit. There I discovered it is almost $11 per day for internet access from the room. Ouch!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Sons and Shooting Stars

1 December, 2008 -- Duluth, MN

Eldest Son was home for Turkey Day this past weekend. That was something to be thankful for. He and I got an unexpected gift along the long dark stretch of Hwy 210 somewhere between McGreggor (where his ride left him at the DQ) and Aitkin. The brightest shooting star I've ever seen went streaking across the sky in front of us, leaving a neon rainbow tail as it flamed through the atmosphere. It was ten times brighter than any shooting star I've ever seen before. Youngest Son, sitting in the back seat saw the sky light up but didn't see the color show unfortunately.

Here is a "Did you know?": The rock falling through the sky is called a meteoroid. The trail of light is a meteor. If a piece of the rock survives to reach the earth, that is a meteorite.

We picked up Youngest Son's ski gear from Continental Ski Shop last week. He should now be all ready for hitting the slopes. Skiing is not exactly a low entry cost sport, but we split the cost of the skis, bindings, boots, and helmet so it wasn't quite as bad a financial jolt as it otherwise would have been. I hope he enjoys it for quite some time. Now, where is all that snow?

Monday, October 27, 2008

Back from the Gulf

October 27, 2008 -- Two Harbors, MN

Returning home from the Gulf Coast on Friday was quite a trip. Thinking about the time and distances involved, I am amazed that it is all so easy. Still, it was a long day. We left the hotel about 7 a.m., drove through the Gulf Shores area to Pensacola, returned the rental van, and made it to the airport for my 9 o'clock conference call, only a few minutes late. Then is was a wait in the airport for our 11:30 departure. We boarded on time but sat on the plane for a good 40 minutes before takeoff. We landed in Memphis with 10 min. to make our connecting flight. Sprinted through the airport wearing my laptop backpack. Then waited another 30 minutes before that plane was ready to go. Arrived in Minneapolis/St. Paul airport at around 4:00 p.m. thanks to an unusual tailwind. Picked up the car from the ramp and drove back to Duluth. Made it home by 8:00 p.m.

Thursday was the last day of the CSO meeting and the group approved (in concept) a draft of a bill for reauthorizing the Coastal Zone Management Act. We'll have to wait and see how far and how fast that goes given the political and economic climates, but it seemed important to try to be proactive on suggesting changes that could make for better coastal management in the future.

In the afternoon, after the meeting let out, my boss and I hopped in the rental and went to check out Gulf Shores, Fort Morgan and the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.

First we stopped for lunch at Big O's Seafood Grill (for fried flounder, beet greens and steamed cabbage) before heading out to the shore. It was pouring rain and very windy so we didn't get a chance to get out and explore much. I was glad that were appeared to be visiting in the off season. Not too much activity going on right now but it sure looks like the place would be a crazy, people-packed circus during the busy season. The number of condos for rent and 10 to 20-story hotel/condo complexes right smack on the beach was amazing.

We also made a return visit to the Weeks Bay National Estuary Research Reserve. After a couple minutes on the boardwalk from their visitors center we were soaked and gave up the idea of walking and headed back to the hotel.

We ended up at Old Bay Steamer restaurant for dinner where the Thursday special was a pound of shrimp (Royal red shrimp) and a pitcher of beer for $16. Couldn't beat that. I also had a bowl of gumbo. Good stuff.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Gulf Coast Explorations

October 23, 2008 -- Point Clear Alabama.

Yesterday we spent only a little time indoors talking about Maryland's efforts to address impacts of climate change and regional ocean governance reports from each of the regions. Then it was off on a whirlwind field tour of coastal resources in Alabama and Mississippi. Our first stop was 5 Rivers - Alabama's Delta Resource Center. It is a brand new facility on the water where Mobile Bay starts to feel more like a riverine wetland or estuary. It is the 2nd largest river delta complex in the lower 48 states.

I took a bunch of pictures of 5 Rivers and other sites we visited today. I'll upload them as soon as I can.

We had a nice box lunch at 5 Rivers and some time to explore the museum and theater as well as spend some time watching the river flow by and looking for wildlife. There were not too many critters around, but we did see some HUGE web spinning spiders, egrets, Great Blue Herons, Royal Terns, and Laughing Gulls.

As we traveled by bus into Mississippi we heard about rebuilding of bridges and other structures damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Ivan. There was a lot of damage here and along the way we saw evidence of many houses that were destroyed and not rebuilt. In one area they told us of relatively reasonably valued houses having tax rates of $2000/yr and insurance of $6000/yr.

Our next stop was the Grand Bay National Estuary Research Reserve. We drove through pine savanna habitat and did a turn around in what looked like a cool salt marsh area where they have a small boat launch facility. We stopped to talk to the reserve manager and look at the new building they have under construction. It is a 16,000 square foot building that will have two classrooms, labs, and offices. They are planning to receive a LEED Gold certification on the building.

We made our way to Biloxi MS to look at redevelopment issues along the coast after hurricanes destroyed the floating casinos along the shore. The new casinos are huge structures, built on shore within 800 feet of the water's edge. Shrimp boats still have a few places to dock here though and the Maritime and Seafood Museum operates the charter Oyster Schooners here. We got to sail aboard the Glenn L. Swetman, a 50 foot, 21 ton wooden schooner built in 1989. Unfortunately, it started to rain a bit when we got on board and the sail was cut a bit short.

After the sail we were treated to a wonderful meal of seafood by the staff of the Mississippi coastal program at the museum site on a pier out in the bay. It was great.