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March 25, 2013

2013 WANDER-ABOUT: DAY 5


OLYMPUS E-P1 PROJECT
... this was our chicago weather ... brisk wind, but not cold enough to require mittens or boots ... considering that in fargo, north dakota, right now it's only 20°f with a wind chill factor below zero and what looks like a foot of snow on the ground, i'd say that we had great weather while we visited the windy city ...

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... we walked over five miles exploring chicago, so yesterday's drive to fargo was a welcome break to our tired legs ...

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... our first stop after chicago was a very, very famous place, where we enjoyed a great breakfast at a local diner ... a nice treat'll be the prize for the first person to identify this location ... hint:  if you can't think of it, wait until tomorrow and try again ...

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... a bit off the route, but well worth the time it took to make a visit ...

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... there were hundreds and hundreds of mustards from all over the world ... i knew there was both yellow and brown mustard, but did you know there's also a variety of black mustard ... difficult to process, the seeds are rarely used ... adrien doesn't eat mustard, but i sampled dozens of different styles ... one tablespoon is 5% of a day's protein requirement, so i suppose you could say i ate healthy ...

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... then it was on to the "mall of america" ... not being much a fan of malls, i expected to be if not actually disappointed at least unimpressed ... needless, to say, i was wrong ... what a fantastic place ... clean, bright, fun ... the only problem, of course, is that i can't even imagine how a "normal" family can afford to visit this place ... this picture shows the center of the mall, what i figure to be only 10% or so of the structure ... 

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... perhaps indicative of the mall's clientele, i'm not sure, here's a store where a little girl (i try not to be sexist, but the name of the place is "the american girl") can bring her doll in for a hair styling, facial, or, if necessary, an appointment with a professional doll doctor ...

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... pure coincidence, but the gps took us to this section of the parking garage ...

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... ten o'clock at night, about an hour outside of fargo, we stopped to visit another important geographic spot ... along the highway a giant surveyor's tripod marks the great divide ... any water on the other side of the structure will eventually end up in the atlantic ocean via the st. lawrence river or streams flowing to the far north, any water falling in the foreground will wind its way down the mississippi to the gulf of mexico ... give adrien a gold star for courage, the wind chill when we took this was well below zero, and she had to carefully negotiate a narrow snowmobile track in order to keep from sinking up to her waist in snow (i won't show the picture, but i didn't do so good) ...

... wish us luck, today we are going to drive across the state of north dakota in sub-freezing windy conditions ... those of you who have driven here know that in this state "drifting snow" has an entirely different meaning than it does elsewhere ...