Duluth ( a little delayed)

Surprisingly cool, both figuratively and literally. I've been missing the cold weather while living down here in Mississippi. I really missed the snow and have been feeling that parts of the country/world that don't get any snow at all (beyond the occasional dusting) are deprived.

Duluth was a nippy 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and cooler at night which really felt great and the city itself is beautiful. It's right on Lake Superior and takes full advantage of that with a great 'Lake Walk' path that goes a few miles in either direction from the great hotel (Fitger's Inn) we were being put up in.

Lake Walk looking in one direction from outside our hotel. We walked down this path to get to our dinner restaurant the first night.
Lake Walk looking in the other direction

The workshop I was invited to really did spoil us a bit with fantastic restaurants every night, a much nicer hotel than I usually get to stay in, and all of us were given lake view rooms. These pics we're taken from my hotel room cuz I scored the corner east facing room and had to be up early every morning for the workshop.

The first day I got this weird 2-sun effect because of the glass reflection
The second morning, I was able to get this
cool, huh?

I was too tired to knit during the whole trip, except on the planes, but I have to say spending 3 days in a workshop discussing methods for detecting ecological thresholds with a group of ecologists and quantitative people like myself was a really good time. Yep, I know just saying that makes me a nerd, but after months of telecommuting, sharing ideas in person is such a nice change. Some of the discussions have really inspired some new ideas for my research....now if I can just keep my motivation up. ;-}

The EPA lab where we were meeting was also right on the lake and I got some neat pics from there as well:
Overall, I loved Duluth. If you have a chance to visit, definitely go. I think the residents don't want too many people to move there and overpopulate the area, but they're very friendly to visitors.

PS While I was away, Mark's 12 year old Saturn broke and he had to jerry rig a repair until he could get a part he needed. He was driving around with it looking like this inside:
If you look closely below the displaced stick shift, you can see the zip-tie he used to keep the shifter functional until the part arrived. It's fixed now, but we are definitely in the market for a new car.