northern lights | Elsewhere or bust, καιρός

We took our annual “run back to South Dakota over the 4th” trip this year and it was a little different because we ended up having a very large family gathering too.

We were staying up in the hills near deadwood / lead and had a fabulous time. The most amazing things:

A giant solar flair, an M-class and strong X1.3, whatever that means, hit the earth and showed us beautiful, but faint, northern lights. This is my first time seeing northern lights in South Dakota!
The galactic core of the Milkyway was out!!! I don’t see the Milkyway any more since I live in a large urban area, and, the Rapid City area has grown enough such that it’s not easy to see the Milkyway in town anymore. It was definitely a treat! One of the photos of the northern lights has part of the Milkyway; it was a rare treat to see both and not have clouds, the moon, city lights, and whatever else ruining the view.
It’s still wet enough to grow wild rose, wild raspberries, serviceberries, and other neat fruits / plants in the wild. I don’t recall seeing a lot of this growing up in the hills and it’s definitely a treat whenever I get to see them.
We had an unobstructed view of the fireworks over the Homestake open cut pit. It was super neat to see!

All in all, it was another fantastic trip :). Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

[Show slideshow]

We had an incredibly beautiful fall. Like, this is probably the most amazing fall I’ve had in Minnesota. It reminded me a lot of fall in the black hills. Here is why:

– complete lack of wind

– lower humidity

– no rain

– stayed warm

Minnesota is a very windy place. The fall color season is usually pretty short because the wind usually rips the leaves off the trees in short order. One of the photos has a boat driving up the Mississippi on a completely still day – it is a very rare day for there to be zero waves / ripples in the Mississippi.

Minnesota is a very cold place. We have had years with a hard frost starting in early October and all the leaves, regardless of color, turn brown and fall off the trees.

Minnesota is a stupidly humid place. All these freaking lakes make it very humid which means the cold is really cold unless a person is wearing moisture blocking clothes / gear.

It was awesome driving around the cities with my windows down around November 20th, the warm weather had been incredible.

Alas, it couldn’t keep up. Frost and snow have started and true late fall / early winter has started.

I made sure to enjoy as much of the beautiful weather as possible. It was wild to see our raspberries fruiting until mid-November, our clematis flowering until early / mid November, and our grapes mature / fruit so late into the year. I’m not complaining, it was beautiful and delicious :).

This year we also had the most amazing northern lights I’ve seen. The northern lights were so bright we could see them from our driveway in the core / center of the twin cities metro. It was truly stunning.

Outside of the weather, we enjoyed a lot of fun fall activities like cider making and a Day of the Dead celebration. Fall events are the best events – the celebrations and traditions different cultures have made for the fall are absolutely the best because of the color, the sounds, the smells, and, the tastes. The twin cities is a fabulous place to experience allllllll the different traditions often for free or very low cost.

All in all, it was an amazing fall. I hope our falls continue to be so beautiful. It made Minnesota be that much more tolerable 🙂

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

[Show slideshow]