Local Tourist -- National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota

On Friday, September 11, the Local Tourist and his Mrs. drove down to Wabasha to visit the National Eagle Center.  There were three birds tethered to a perch which were just a few feet away.  We were told they were tethered for their own safety.  Two were blind in one eye which meant that they would be unable to judge distances and smack into walls if they were to be let go.  The blow might be fatal.  I was assured that the one in front of me was not flying at me, but it happened several times, so I don't know if that was true.  He looked like he knew where he wanted to go.  The tether kept him from getting over the railing.  The third eagle had lost a wing.

The eagle center takes eagles which have been found injured and then rescued.  When they are unable to be rehabilitated to return to the wild, the center cares for them and shows them to the guests.  

One fascinating display showed how many varieties of eagles there are and where in the world they reside.  It looks like there are 40-50 varieties of eagles, most not in North America.

Anyway, here are some photos from Wabasha and the National Eagle Center.

State Fairs, a comparison

We have now been to three state fairs--Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  Here is a review.

The Michigan state fair is held at an Expo center in Novi.  It is what you would expect from a state fair being held in an expo center.  As state fairs go, it is very disappointing.  I doubt we'd have ever gone back if it weren't 10 minutes from our house.  They did have good parking, though.

We had heard the Minnesota state fair is the best in the US.  My assessment has the Minnesota and Wisconsin state fairs as equals.

What Minnesota does better: Wide streets/walking areas.  There were LOTS of people filling the streets throughout the fair, but the width of the streets made walking easy enough.  There were also lots of shade trees throughout the fair grounds.  It was not hard to find relief from direct sunlight.  Very nice!

What Wisconsin does better: Parking.  WAY better than Minnesota.  Maybe seasoned fair-goers would disagree, but as newbies, we found the parking to be lacking and the resultant backed-up traffic to be frustrating. I might also give Wisconsin a slight edge in the buildings and stages.

Next year, we will have to put Iowa's state fair to the test as some claim theirs to be the best in the US.

Minnesota and Wisconsin can hold their heads up high. Both fairs are outstanding. 

Local Tourist -- Minnesota State Fair

The Local Tourist is expanding his definition of " local" to include a larger radius.  That now extends to the Twin Cities.  We went to the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul on Friday, August 28.

Food items consumed: soft drinks (not getting into that soda vs pop debate here) in our souvenir cups, walleye on a stick, chicken shawarma, pork chop on a stick (HAD to; would you skip a cream puff at the Wisconsin state fair?), and fried Snickers on a stick.  Also enjoyed an Octoberfest from Summit Brewing Company. It did not disappoint. 

We saw a few live bands.  Not Quite Brothers from Iowa did a great job.  Started to see Socaholix, but wasn't getting into the Reggae much.

Here are just a few photos.  We did not take many, but chose to enjoy where we were rather than snap photos of it.

Making the move to Lake City, Minnesota

Last weekend, Laura and I made a trip to Lake City, Minnesota to move a trailer-full of items to the parsonage.  This gave us a chance to see the parsonage in person to determine whether or not we should purge ourselves of more household goods.  (I think we should, anyway.)  It also gave us a chance to see the church where I will serve for, God-willing, the remainder of my ministry.  There is more to be shared about St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lake City later, but for now, here are a few photos.

Divine Call to St. John's Lutheran Church of Lake City, MN -- Letter of Acceptance

Here is a letter I read in church after the service on Sunday, April 19.  Commentary on the decision process, etc.... may be featured in a future blogpost.

 

April 19, 2026

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
520 W. Chestnut Street
Lake City, Minnesota 55041-1515

Dear members of St. John’s,

            On March 10, you had called me to serve as the pastor of your congregation.  After a month of conversations with members of both St. John’s and Good Shepherd in Novi and prayerful deliberation, I have decided to accept this Divine Call to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lake City.

            In conjunction with the call to me, you have also called my wife, Laura, to teach 4^th and 5^th grades in your elementary school.  For various reasons, especially that she feels this grade level is outside of her area of ability and interest, she is declining her Call to serve as teacher.

            We are looking forward to our move to Lake City and to meet the saints who are at St. John’s.  I pray that I will be able to serve you faithfully and ask for your continued prayers to aid me in doing that.  We will be in contact with you regarding a timeline for moving and other matters.

            Please keep Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Novi in your prayers as they will make plans to receive their next pastor according to our Lord’s timing and mercy.

            God bless and keep you. 

In Christ,

Pastor Thomas E. Schroeder

Graduation weekend

This past weekend, we managed to have two of our children graduate from college.  Nathanael officially graduated from Concordia in Ann Arbor on Sunday, May 19.  Nathanael chose not to walk in the graduation ceremonies (despite Laura's questioning), but he has completed all that needed to be done for the diploma.  We are proud of him, and we are looking forward to see where he will working and what he will be doing.  He has some ideas, but no definitive plans at the moment.

And while we would have made efforts to get to Nathanael's graduation ceremonies in Ann Arbor, we were not terribly broken up about not having to drive through the night from New Ulm, Minnesota to Ann Arbor, Michigan to be at both graduations.

On Saturday, May 18, the whole family managed to be in attendance for Faith's graduation from Martin Luther College, as well as the Call service where Faith was assigned to be a teacher in a Lutheran school.  Faith graduated with a double major, meaning she was eligible to be assigned to any grades from K-12.  Faith's preference was for high school, and she was even recommended for the high school level.  Needless to say, we were all surprised when Faith was assigned to teach science to grades 5-8 at Mt. Lebanon Lutheran School in Milwaukee.  And of course, she will also be coaching.

Faith's Divine Call is certainly different than what was expected, and it is taking some time to wrap her mind around what all of this entails.  But different means different.  We cannot assess it as either good or bad until she experiences the staff, the students, the school, the work, living in Milwaukee, etc...  Early phone calls by Faith to the people at Mt. Lebanon have indicated that different will be good.  And if we believe the Holy Spirit is at work in his Church, then we also believe God thinks it is good that Faith will be serving at Mt. Lebanon.  We are proud of what she has accomplished in the past, and we are looking forward to what her future will be.

Here are some photos from the weekend.

The graduates, Nathanael and Faith.

Grandma & Grandpa Schmidt came to congratulate Faith in New Ulm.

In the Chapel of the Christ.

This photo shows two people who are agonizing over Faith's assignment.  Faith was hopeful that she might return to her alma mater, Michigan Lutheran Seminary, as a tutor.  (MLS did not get any new female tutors assigned to it.)  Philip, who will be a senior at MLS next year, was praying fervently that Faith would not be assigned to be a tutor while he is still there.  Both had strong reactions to the announcement of Faith's assignment--Faith was surprised; Philip was relieved.

Vacation 2018 -- Arizona & Utah, part 5

The title of this final entry is mislabeled a bit.  We did not spend any time in either Arizona or Utah, but since that has been the title of this journey (and its main focus), I will keep the title here. 

We were in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin before our final drive to Michigan.  We had rolled into South Dakota on Saturday, June 16, and made a quick trip to Custer State Park to see the bison herd.  Then we went to Crazy Horse Monument at night to see the light show.  Instead, we saw low cloud cover in the rain.

We returned to our Custer KOA campsite for a cool, rainy night.  This was a far cry from the weather in Phoenix and Utah.  On Sunday, we got up and knew we had to make tracks.  We took down our wet camper and went to see Mt. Rushmore.  Peter had been wanting to see this since Kindergarten.  The "wow" factor was pretty low since the rain and clouds dominated our view.  We took pictures right after we had gotten there--which was a good thing since the clouds covered it shortly afterwards.  It was also very chilly (50 degrees or so), so we joined all the other tourists in the gift shop.  Peter's long-deliberated choice of a souvenir was a stuffed bison.  He named it "Jim" after Jim Halpert from The Office.

Our stay at Mt. Rushmore was brief, which was just as well since we had a lot of driving to do to get to Minnesota.  We began the drive through the Black Hills to get to I-90 near Rapid City.  Since it was so wet, we had skipped breakfast at the campground and promised to take the kids out to eat at some restaurant.  It was also Fathers' Day, so we ended up having to wait about an hour for seating.  Nevertheless, hunger must be satisfied, so we waited it out.  It also improved our moods.

From there, we drove all day Sunday across South Dakota and into Minnesota.  We got to New Ulm and drove to Flandrau State Park to set up the camper in the dark.  I was happy to get the camper up since it had been wet when we took it down.  As it turned out, we had rain all night in New Ulm, so drying out would have to wait.

We moved Faith into her apartment on Monday, June 18.  Philip had requested a walking tour of the Martin Luther College campus since he has intentions to be a pastor.  We visited the Chapel of the Christ and later took a trip to the Campus Store.  We had hoped to take a Schells Brewery tour, but we did laundry instead.  Oh yes, we know how to entertain our children!  We went to church at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Monday night, and talked to our kids about how Laura and I went there together when Laura was at Dr. Martin Luther College and I came to visit her.  Some stories we tell just to prove that we are old. 

We bid farewell to Faith on Tuesday, June 19.  Then we drove to Wisconsin, planning to stay in Sheboygan with my parents.  Blow out #4 happened on I-90/I-94 just south of Tomah, WI.  This wsa the worst of the blow outs because it took place on the driver's side.  The freeway was three lanes wide, and the traffic never stopped coming.  I pulled over as far as possible and put a little angle on the camper to give myself a little (emphasis on little) shelter from the on-coming traffic.  Eventually, I just took the attitude, "Well, if I die, I die.  I can't think of traffic if I actually want to get this camper tire changed."  God blessed our efforts.  No one was killed, and we got back on the road.  We dropped off Caleb to see someone in Manitowoc, and then made it to Sheboygan about 8 PM or so.  (Caleb was dropped off later.)  We also got to pop up the camper so that it could finally dry out after several rainy days and nights.

Our stay in Sbeboygan was brief.  We left the next morning, ready to get settled back home.  The last day of the trip, Wednesday, June 20, was pretty uneventful (thankfully!).  We got back home in the evening and decided most of our unpacking and settling could take place the next day.  We thanked God for our travels and that we got back safely.  Whatever glitches we had faced amounted to inconvenience, but they were never a threat to life or limb.

Of course, reviewing these photos makes me want to go on vacation again.  Shrug.

Below are photos from the last leg of the trip.

This is the best view we could get of Mt. Rushmore before the clouds came in to hide everything. 
At least the gift shop was nice.

Peter and hsi new friend, Jim. (Caleb also got one and named him Dwight.)

Philip by the Luther statue at Martin Luther College.

Faith's new apartment.

Saying Good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder

Traveling with the Schroeders -- New Ulm, Minnesota

This past weekend, we took a trip to New Ulm, Minnesota (where else would you want to be in January?) to Martin Luther College.  It was Parents' Weekend, and we had never made it to one.  This would be the last Parents' Weekend Faith would be eligible for, so we made the 13 hour trek to the prairie.  All things considered, it was pretty temperate for New Ulm in January -- in the 20's Fahrenheit, not 20 below!

We were able to catch two games over the weekend.  On Friday, we saw a 85-63 loss to U-M Morris.  You can check out the stats of that game here.  The loss did not come as a surprise since Morris is 2nd in the conference.  Still, MLC was hoping for a better outing than they got.

On Saturday, MLC righted the ship, jumping out to an early, commanding lead and cruising to a convincing 71-45 win over Crown College.  Faith had a better game against Morris though.  Against Crown, she ended up collecting too many fouls to remain as aggressive as she likes.  In addition, the large lead against Crown allowed the coach to make sure that all players got to play a good deal, which was nice for Parents' Weekend.  You can see the stats for that game here.

This will likely be the last time that we get to see Faith play live.  It has been a lot of fun to watch her all these years.  She has sure worked hard at the game, and I suspect that hard work and dedication will be passed on through coaching in the years to come.

Some photos from the weekend.

Winter Getaway ... to Minnesota

The Local Tourist hit the road this weekend.

I have seen Faith play a number of games online, but not live, since she has been in college.  This weekend, I got to make the trip to see her live.  As a bonus, my parents decided to join me on the trip.

First, I had stopped in St. Joseph, Michigan to take some photos of the ice-encrusted lighthouse there.  In the past when I was traveling with other family members, I did not try the patience of other travelers.  This time, driving solo, I decided to stop.  As it turns out, I also ended up stopping in Michigan City, Indiana and grabbed some photos there.  The stop in Michigan City was a matter of taking one exit too early, but once I got that close to the lake, I had to check out their lighthouse too.  Photos below.

Although it looks like the one in St. Joseph, MI,
this lighthouse is actually in Michigan City, IN.

We got to New Ulm and got to see Faith play against Crown College.

Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder got to see Faith and Nathanael at MLC.

Martin Luther College won, 69-48.  (At least I'm pretty sure that was the final; they took the score off REALLY fast.)  Tomorrow, MLC plays U of Minn--Morris.  I was told that should be a tougher game.  Finally, the world of texting allowed me to find out Philip's St. Peter's team won and that MLS beat rival Ithaca.  Photos of some of Faith's game below.