Art Shanty Project 2017

Art Shanty Projects 2017 (photo courtesy of Lindsay Cameron)

I might have mentioned this before, but one of my favorite annual events celebrating two of the great stereotypes of Minnesota, our winters and our quirky artistic side, is the Art Shanty Projects. Back in 2014, it was the first adventure that I wrote about for this blog and I continued the tradition with my fiancee this year. Each year sets up a community of immersive shanties on the ice of a metro area lake – White Bear Lake for the past several lakes – always a new and unique  experience to explore, though some favorites remain beloved standards.

Dance Shanty! (photo courtesy of Lindsay Cameron

View of the Shanty’s from the top of the Welcome Shanty, with Lindsay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year, unseasonably warm temperatures beached the shanty’s on our visit, but this year we got to explore it on the ice. This year’s unseasonable temperatures, though, made it a bit of a slippery affair, the warmth having melted a layer that subsequently refrozen when conditions dropped under freezing. Lindsay still hasn’t mastered the art of walking on ice yet, but we shuffled our way from ice shanty to ice shanty, taking in the interesting and inspired interactive activities. Dancing in the Dance Shanty, making our voices known in the Justice Shack (very topical), and time traveling with the Sci-Fi Book Club’s spaceship shanty, among others. I particularly liked the Vehicle of Expression, which gives you a chance to warm up in a converted bus and contribute some writing to notebooks from various genres, along with a storytime. With some colder weather this week (and maybe snow?) this weekend is the last chance to check out the artwork before next winter, though the chillier temps have not come in time to keep the shanties on the ice, so this weekend they will be on the shore of the lake at White Bear Lake County Park.

Slippery ice (photo courtesy of Lindsay Cameron)

 

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Tryorama: Grown Up Club

Back in January, Lindsay and I attended a really fun monthly event in Minneapolis, the latest activity organized by the Grown Up Club.  Really a genius idea, the people behind Grown Up Club have been putting together fun, nostalgic things to do hoping to “inject fun and adventure back into adult life” since 2013. That’s definitely a sentiment I can get behind! Obviously… I don’t need much excuse to indulge in youthful shenanigans in spite of that slowly creeping maturity that one is forced to take on after a certain age, and it seems that I am far from alone, there!

How had I not heard of them before Lindsay signed us up for their latest awesome extracurricular, Tryorama: A Diorama Fair for Grown Ups? I recall making dioramas (dinosaur centered) in my own elementary school experience, so it was really fun to get into this with the full command of adult faculties! The theme for this one was fascinating in particular, creating a vision of “American Lyfe: 50 Years in the Future.” What good can come of the horrifying present we find ourselves in? Will the year 2067 be a desperate hellscape or a technological wonderland. Will we even still be around? It was up to the participants of the fair to express their hopes and fears of the future in a 3d display, as well as vie for the coveted prize ribbon of Empress o’ Effort (or at least the title of Official Trier?). Not to mention the $100 prize or the complimentary tickets to the Minnesota Zoo’s adult night for the winners. The competition was on.

Our completed diorama! 

 

Lindsay and I pooled our talents and built a Library of the Future to describe what the library will be like in half a century. Of course, in my professional opinion the profession will be more important than ever in guiding a lost public through the vast seas of information, especially when private interests make it more difficult to access this info, but as can be seen, we took it to some new places, too! After much cutting, gluing, and scribbling, we got it all together and lugged it on the bus to Minneapolis!   

 

Held at Sisyphus Brewing, a cozy little brewery near Dunwoody (and a short walk from my old stomping grounds near Loring Park), the tap room was soon filled with all manner of elaborate dioramas and cool set ups. Along with Sisyphus’ rich and delicious beers, the participants were free to scope out the competition, play shuffleboard, and color awesome extreme coloring pages just like when you’re parents dropped you off at one of those kids care places when they went to see a movie. Except with beer!

Photo from Grown Up Club

In the end, in spite of some really fierce competition, our diorama got third place, which came with a prize of two free beers! Hey, at least it was something! The next Grown Up Club event sounds fun, too! On Tuesday, February 28th, they will be hosting The Singles Exchange, “Offline Online Dating via Proxy,” at Bauhaus Brewlabs in Northeast Minneapolis. Here, participants will prepare a powerpoint presentation on one of their single friends, being sure to point out their prospective dater’s strengths and weaknesses. The subject is banned from attending. In any case, watching such a display sounds fun, though neither Lindsay or I know any single searchers we could spotlight, but maybe you do?

Lindsay shows off our winnings! 

Personal Favorites of 2016

Well, it’s past the third anniversary of my blog chronicling the fun activities I’ve found to experience Twin Cities over the past few years, and the one year anniversary of Lindsay joining me on these explorations, so I thought I would take the time to review a few of my favorite adventures of the past year. Only a little more than a month after New Years, but whatever! I’m raring to go to share my thoughts on fun things to do for Twin Citians for the next awful year of 2017, have to find something to take our minds off how the world is falling apart, after all.

Getting my first tattoo last January, with the colors added in March, was definitely one of the highlights of last year. Now, we just need to get a tattoo for Lindsay!

Over the summer, Lindsay and I found plenty of local state parks not far from the cities to go camping for a lovely weekend of hiking, canoeing, and enjoying the outdoors. Well, at least during the summer, our attempt to go camping in October turned out to be a little bit too cold. Also, watch out for those mosquitoes and deer ticks!

Enjoying a summer weekend on the St. Croix, Interstate State Park

In late July, we had a great time riding vintage buses throughout the streets of Minneapolis sampling some of the city’s crop of craft beers and learning a little about the history of public transportation in the metro. I thought that the Hennepin History Museum and Minnesota Transportation Museum’s Bus and Beer History tour of Minneapolis was one of the most fun, educational, and enjoyable experiences from last year. I’d recommend checking out any of their tours.

Twin Cities Lines

The trip Lindsay and I took across state lines to Wisconsin last August on my family’s traditional vacation area of Door County on the Lake Michigan coast was the most romantic and wonderful time of 2016, ending with Lindsay and I getting engaged!

A great end to the year was the Bell Museum Garage Sale last November, celebrating the last days of the University of Minnesota’s awesome natural history museum at its Minneapolis location before it hops over to the St. Paul campus this year. Looking forward to it! I also enjoyed being able to post one of my few prompt blog entries!

Lindsay and crafting our new ornaments at the last Night at the Bell Museum, back in Decemeber

After looking over the past year, I’m looking forward to all the new things we’ll experience in the coming year! The temperature is already beginning to signal the coming of the Minnesota spring!