30B430 Book 28: Therese Raquin

Ahh yes, book #2 of my trip to MN.

I got this book because it was in Audible's "A-List Collection," a series of books read by celebrities. Therese Raquin, written by Emile Zola in 1867, happened to be read by Kate Winslet. Who is going to say no to that?!

Kate Winslet is an amazing narrator. She does great voices for each of the characters, and keeps you interested. Which is good, because I wasn't totally interested in the book. I was kind of over the characters by the end, because none of them are really likeable. I think I would listen to anything that she reads though.

Here would be my brief synopsis of the book:

When Therese is a young girl, she is brought to live with her aunt, Madame Raquin, because her dad can't take care of her any more. Her aunt has a son, Camille, who is really sick all the time. Madame Raquin shelters and spoils Camille, and basically treats Therese if she is just as sick as Camille, even though she is perfectly healthy. The crazy aunt makes them marry each other, and even though Therese clearly hates her life, she goes along with it. Until she meets Laurent, Camille's artist friend, who at first is basically only interested in Therese because he is broke and can't afford prostitutes anymore. They have an affair. They decide to kill Camille, making it look like an accident. They think they are finally going to be happy together, but after they get married, with Madame Raquin's blessing, good old Camille comes back to haunt them. And they go crazy. And now hate and want to kill each other.

Totally uplifting, right?! At first I felt bad for Therese because her life was pretty horrible, but as the book kept going, she was just as devious as the rest.

I actually just found out that they are making this into a movie, which will be released in December. I may check that out. Apparently Kate Winslet was supposed to be the lead for a long time, and then was eventually replaced by Jessica Biel, who was replaced by Elizabeth Olsen. Guess they wanted someone younger. One of my favorites from Harry Potter, Tom Felton, is playing Camille. And Jessica Lange will be Madame Raquin - she'll do crazy well.

So that was that. Only two more books to go!

Hitting the Pavement

The last time that I ran was 53 days ago. That changed today.

After weeks of hesitation and thinking about running, today I just decided to get out and actually do it. I've missed it. A lot more than I expected, actually. This weekend is the Lakefront Marathon, and although I won't be running it this year, I still have hopes that I'll be able to do it someday. Which meant that it was time to get back out on the road.

Running is one of those things you are not just supposed to quit cold turkey, but that's kind of what I did. I got so overwhelmed by being sick, work, and being injured, that I gave up. I just couldn't make the mental space to try to work through it, and I didn't want to put the time into running if it hurt too much. Not the best recovery strategy, friends.

Today was okay. My feet felt a little wonky for parts of the run, but that was to be expected with so much time off. I think they were sort of in shock, so I took it slow. I am definitely not in my best shape, but I will get back there. This time maybe with a smaller goal.

The saddest part is that I think I just missed the best month of running weather. I suppose I'll take advantage of the cool October temps before the snow starts.

Northern Exposure Part 2: Canadia!

This is the post you all have been waiting for. The day that Canada let me cross the border and that the US begged me to come back. So I did.

Let's talk about the drive up. Northern Minnesota is seriously awesome.  If you thought I was impressed with the leaves in Northern Wisconsin, they don't have anything on Northern Minnesota. Leaves AND Lake Superior. And it is even more fun to look at leaves when you have someone in the car with you to Ooh and Ahh. And agree to pull over on the side of the road to take more pictures.

We stopped not far from the Canadian border in Grand Portage, MN. Grand Portage is part of the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, home to members of the Ojibwe tribe. We decided to check out the National Monument. It was amazing. Seriously loved it. 

Just six miles later, we hit border patrol. Check out this excitment! Officially using the passport.

This is also when I realized I hadn't yet signed my passport. Oops! Did it real fast.

The woman working border patrol asked a whole lot of questions. She seemed skeptical that one would truly want to drive from Duluth to Thunder Bay just for a day trip. Apparently that's "pretty far." We got through her questions, but to my sadness, she did not stamp my passport. Just handed them back. Sad day. We celebrated our border crossing with a little "O Canada." At least, the few lines of the song that we knew.

At this point, we cut off all access to internet, social media, and maps because we now would receive crazy international charges. We kept driving straight through to Thunder Bay, making note of all of the signs where we wanted to stop on our way back south. We were so hungry though, that all we could think about is food. This will become important later.

Our first stop was at a Robin's. We didn't really know anything about this chain, but we were starving and it reminded us of Robin Sparkles. It was just mediocre. As in, I threw half of my sandwich away. But I did have a donut. People in Canada must really like donuts.

After an unsuccessful attempt to find the "touristy" area by following signs, we sat in a Starbucks parking lot to steal their wifi and see if we could find the amethyst cave. Did you know that amethysts are mined in Thunder Bay? What up, birthstone! When we figured out that said cave was another 45 minutes away, we said "no thank you" and instead drove to their retail store in town. We bought nothing - too pricy.

At this point we decided that as a whole, Thunder Bay was meh. Perhaps we didn't really find the good touristy stuff. We more often than not found ourselves in neighborhoods where you could likely buy crystal meth. Not our plan. We decided to trek back closer to the border to our other main goal for the day, Kakabeka Falls. We knew the one thing that would lift our spirits was more nature. Ann and I love some good nature.

But first, we stopped at another pick me up - Tim Horton's! Nothing hits the spot like donuts and coffee.

I loved Tim Hortons. It was everything I expected it to be from HIMYM and more. Okay, maybe not - it didn't have a bathroom...

We were finally back on the road to the Falls. Past the airport, past the cheese farm, and so forth. Around this time we began to notice the holy lack of signage, Batman. Apparently Thunder Bay, Ontario assumes that all tourists come from the south. And that they explore all tourist options one at a time, climbing north up the highway. So out of nowhere, we found ourselves back at the border...not the falls. This is where we began to hate Canada with a fiery passion.

We debated just leaving, but we both really wanted to see the falls. Mainly to redeem our view of our neighbor country to the north. So we popped into the visitor center, to figure out exactly how far that we needed to back track. The woman at the visitor center was quite surprised that we had tried to explore Canada sans map. Perhaps not our best decision. In fact, I believe she said, "what time did you come through? Were we not open?" Fair question. It is safe to say that we have become so dependent on our maps and search features on a smart phone, that we didn't realize it probably wasn't the best idea to just wing it in Canada. Anyway, she showed us how to get back to Kakabeka Falls, and we decided to go.

Kakabeka Falls. Worth it. It is the second biggest waterfall in Canada, after Niagra of course. And let me tell you, totes gorgeous. Breathtaking. The following pictures just do not do it justice.

We were also to find an obligatory souvenir shop near the Falls. Because let me tell you, I was gonna be real angry to return to the states without some maple syrup and some tchotckes. Chris specifically requested tchotckes. $80 Canadian dollars later, and we peaced the heck outta Canada. Sadly, Ann didn't get this awesome hat.

Now that I have been to Thunder Bay, I think I want to try other  parts of Canada. Maybe the larger tourist attractions like Toronto, Vancouver, etc. I will definitely go back to Northern Minnie. The leaves - wowsa.

It's official. #8 is done. No stamp in the passport (I am still cursing the border official for that one). We also decided that this counts as a classic American road trip. One filled with the glorious sounds of Mumford & Sons for several hours.

Oh, and yes, I did intentionally call this post Canadia. Because one of my coworkers tried to convince me that is how it is pronounced there. I did not fall for this trick. But now I will continue to call it that.