(no subject)
It's been awhile since I have had the opportunity to sit down long enough, or the desire, to write about my past few weeks in Minot. Let's just say that it's been almost a month since leaving and besides the time spent at work saving malnourished souls and convincing MDs that TPN is not the new trend in MNT, my time has been spent running, sleeping, and reading. Two weekends back, driving to a nice national park seemed liked a pleasant past time so I spent about 5 hrs jamming to tunes in my car while driving to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, Canada. Riding Mountain National Park was beautiful in the sense that there were lush trees everywhere and a lake that reminded me of an ocean, a pleasant view to a nature-loving gal in the middle of plains with absolutely no water. The evergreen trees smelled wonderful and the poplar trees were really bright yellow in color.
A local, upon arrival, directed me to Clear Lake, the lake mentioned earlier, seeming ocean-esk in size due to the inability to see the other side of the lake and rather large waves crashing down on rocks on white sand. Near the lake is a small art community known for their pottery and hippy like living style of soy ice cream shops, coffee shops, artsy fartsy stores and beach bums lying in the sands at all hours. Simply put, its a place worth visiting and if possible take a bike to enjoy some scenic riding along the lake to some very nice nature spots. For example, it was a 5-mile ride to Katherine Lake, a beautiful lake in the park with a small creek that runs off into a wishing well. The biking roads are amazing too, more like scenic paths through trees and definitely considered "the road less taken" even by the local black bears who happened to stumble across my path (5 ft from me) while riding merrily along, me not the bears.
My Canada experience was full of more beauty and friendliness than I could handle. After spending a day at the International Peace Gardens, with Ringo, and spending the day at the national park, the driving home was accompanied by an amazing show of stars that seems to go on and on. The northern lights can be seen from North Dakota at certain times of the year but this night seemed to be full, covering me like a blanket of stars and galaxies. Respect was given by stopping for about 15 minutes, 2-3 times along the drive home to stretch my legs and admire the stars. Anyone coming to visit must witness this amazing site for themselves just to experience the closest feeling of being in outer space I've ever had.