alexandriacardinals

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and household pets of all ages, welcome to this august (meaning venerable, not time of year) milestone of the blog’s 500th posting.  There were naysayers at its inception predicting it would never crack the 100-post barrier, at least not without a heat shield.  But nevertheless, it is what it is, a blog that began in January 2011, and now after almost three years has averaged, by my Minnesota ‘rithmetic, a new post every other day.  If you haven’t read all 500 postings yet, well you probably had better things to do.  I understand.  Life’s short, dance naked in the street . . . .

It seems somehow appropriate that the 500th posting would be about the ‘U’, a/k/a, the University of Minnesota.  Absent my matriculation there almost five decades ago, I likely wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to retire early and spend the rest of my time writing foolishness about fun things.  Which reminds me . . . the supervisor wants me to go to the doctor for a check-up, because I’m old.  I always felt it strange that I should take up valuable medical staff time when I feel perfectly fine?  Shouldn’t they be tending to the sick and the injured . . . and the uninsured?  I’ll return anon after being poked and prodded . . .

[OK, I passed the physical.  Woo-woo!  But, back to our story.  As you recall from reading the previous post (right?), this was a women’s hockey weekend in the Cities.  After the Alex game in Mound Westonka, we headed to The Commons on the ‘U’ campus.  You may recall this as the old (relatively) Radisson, within two blocks of The Bank, Williams Arena, and Mariucci.  A great location, soon to be served by light rail.  Well my travel agent supervisor got a great deal here (I think I’d stay here anyway rather than a cheaper suburban motel) – so we could just park the car and walk everywhere we wanted to go on Saturday and Sunday.  The Commons did a one-year makeover on the whole hotel, and we found it quite luscious.  As we trend toward our not-so-golden years, the supervisor is developing a real taste for cruise ships and upscale hotels.  🙂 ]

[The supervisor doing the white glove test.]

[Hey, Bruce Olson, how ’bout them oars?  😉  (Bathroom photo)]

[This photo was taken under orders.]

[OK, from the other way.]

[The campus multi-story gymnasium/natatorium was right outside our window . . .]

[As was the McNamara Alumni Center.]

[Nice lobby!  🙂 ]

[Aaahhhh, the reason we were there.  This is the Princeton women’s hockey team.  They were playing the Gophers.  We chatted with their coach, Jeff Kampersal.  He knew Alex – because all hockey coaches know the cities in Minnesota!  Ha!  He had two Minnesotans on the Tigers and said he had coached some of the Gophers in national U-18 events.  BTW, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team was staying here, too – they were playing the Gophers in the opener of the new Big Ten hockey conference.  Our Gophers won all 4 games.]

[Hi, I love opulence!  😉 ]

[The deer “lost” its glasses over the weekend.  Staff said it’s happened before.  😦 ]

[Waiting to go to the last ever Holidazzle parade on the Nicollet Avenue mall.]

[Thank you.  It looks better without the flash.]

[So, the hotel shuttle took us to downtown Minneapolis.  WCCO was televising the parade.]

[We got there just as the parade was starting.]

[The supervisor searches for a prime viewing location for the late arrivers.]

[She found a short concrete wall behind the front row mob for us to stand on.  🙂 ]

[Yo, Pinocchio!]

[Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus . . .  The parade lasts for a half hour, but is held over several nights.  This was its last year.  They’re working on a substitute.]

[After the parade, we met Cam and Karen at Masa Restaurant (Mexican) on the mall.  It’s one of their favorite places, and we liked it.  Then we had our photo taken with Frida!  🙂  Frida, I believe, is Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican artist from the early-to-mid 1900’s.]

[Then we all went to The Commons for an après-dinner whatever . . .]

[Enjoying our “whatevers.”]

[The ‘U’ campus out our morning window.]

[Time for breakfast . . .]

[Waiting for something good!]

[Cam arrived and the three of us commenced our campus walking tour.]

[Ooops, sorry!  First back upstairs for a shot of the Alumni Center.  And, of course, forgot to pay the place a visit.]

[Now we’re on the campus – our mall.  Beautiful in the fall!]

[Cam and the supervisor cross a pedestrian bridge over Washington Avenue.  Our first destination was the Weisman Art Gallery (just to Ruthie’s left in the background).  None of us had been there before.  It was a bit early in the morning, so there was a chill in the air.]

[The Weisman on the left, the Minneapolis skyline in the distance, and Washington Avenue in the process of being converted to a light rail track.]

[The tour guide pointing out his city (well, he was born there but the facility in which he was born no longer exists so he can’t prove it) from his campus.]

[Cam photos the tour guide.]

[Looking back along Washington Avenue toward our hotel.]

[Hey, idiots at “Travel + Leisure,” does Duke have a campus view like this, does Stanford, does anyone?  Editor’s note:  For some unknown reason, “Travel + Leisure” magazine recently selected the ‘U”s Minneapolis campus as one of the nation’s ugliest.  I think they forgot to consider urban center v. bucolic pastoral features.  To be fair, thebestcolleges.org includes the ‘U’ on its beautiful campuses list.]

[Coffman Memorial Union, a/k/a, the student center]

[The Weisman from Coffman.]

[The mall, with Northrop Auditorium at the far end, from Coffman.]

[Well known campus rodent.]

[Tour guide with said rodent.]

[Oh, I have such fun!]

[Into Coffman . . .]

And out the back door to Part II where will go inside the Weisman and visit more of the campus.

[But earlier in the week, certain people known to be over 60 gathered to pretend they were in the 60’s?]

Then there was Thanksgiving . . .

[The sun rose over beautiful Lake Darling on the holiday morning . . .]

[Visions of sugar plums danced in my head ( . . . wait, that’s next month).]

[And whom amongst us doesn’t like a little champagne with the turkey and mashed potatoes?]

[The supervisor certainly does!  Yup, pomegranate seeds in the champagne.   🙂 ]

[And it was some time between the two previous events that sister Gretch paid a visit to our U.S. Senator.  She said he caught them all by surprise when he entered the room, so she just blurted out, “Hi Al!,” knowing, of course, you should address him as Senator!  😉 ]

[Another beautiful sunrise on Friday morning as we prepared for our road trip . . .]

[We were going to the Cities to catch our Cardinal girls’ team on Friday, and then the Gopher women’s games on Saturday and Sunday.]

[We arrived at Mound Westonka High School in about 2 hours and 10 minutes, none the worse for wear.]

[The arena where the highly-ranked White Hawks play.  This is the team’s 2nd year in a row making this Thanksgiving weekend trip, and we would be playing Orono on Saturday (I seem to recall we played them in reverse order last year).]

[We got there in plenty of time to catch the entire JV game as well.]

[Not a lot of excitement (they’re not used to being up this early) . . .]

[But I believe we just scored!  🙂 ]

[And again!]

[Yup, having a “pick me up” with the goalie.]

[Good period, ladies!]

[Holding on after 2!]

[The White Hawks called a time-out late in the game.  That’s Onna, No. 3, instead of her usual 32?  It took us a while to figure that out.  Sometimes they’re only identifiable by their ponytails.  She had a couple nice end-to-end rushes in the game.]

[Can’t be Kim Kardashian?  She usually hangs around our place!]

[We hung on – empty-netter at the end.  But we pooped out a bit the last half of the game – traveling on tummies full of dressing and pumpkin pie?]

[Good game, good game, good game . . . say, do you guys ever see Kim Kardashian hanging out around here?]

[Then the big girls came out to play.]

[The defensemen play catch.]

[Hanah (11)]

[And here she comes again.]

[Sam (Klimek, 37) and McKenna(28) go in tandem.]

[Kenzie (17) and Sam]

[Sam]

[Captain Taylor (24), beginning a series . . .]

[Love this one.  🙂 ]

[And ending with Little Rev (29).]

[Captain Melissa (6)]

[Nicole (23) – wear that number proud, Nicole, for it once was Michelle Anez’s.]

[Bailey (35), McKenna, and Hanah]

[Little Rev and Taylor]

[Rachel (4) and Mel]

[Mel, Taylor, and Rachel – by coincidence, 3 of the 4 seniors.  😉 ]

[Marisa (25), McKenna, Carly (19) and Kenzie]

[Sam and Little Rev]

[The Cardinals have won the toss and will take the wind in the 1st period.]

[Two (and below) well-known hockey axioms that apply equally as well to life in general.]

[Does anybody have any antacids?]

[In the absence of antacids, hold your stick high in the air and breathe deeply!]

[And away we go!  You will note Micaela (34) is on the front line, as Mari (I believe our 2nd leading scorer so far) took at hit in the previous game and is being held out for the next several.]

[The Cards came out flying despite jet (well, bus) lag and queasy holiday stomachs . . .]

[Hanah’s (11) line came in and kept the White Hawks pinned deep in their zone.]

[Oh, oh, the White Hawks are trying to steal the puck away.]

[With Nicole (23) and Karina (31) on D, we’re still in their end.]

[Mel comes in . . .]

[with Hanna.]

[Hanah needs a blow.]

[Micaela swoops in.]

[Little Rev and Lauren (21)]

[Mel and Micaela]

[Played well, but it’s the big numbers at the top that count.]

[Lauren]

[Still more than holding our own – but the scoreboard does not reflect such.]

[And that’s how it ended.  Even game – they could score, we couldn’t.  Bailey did a good job in goal.  I thought a couple of theirs were kinda flukey where the puck took an odd bounce right to a player in position to score.  Their others were just set up well – either getting uncontested shots coming down the middle or having a weak side player left unattended.  Those are two areas where we really have to tighten up our defense.]

[A couple of end zone shots as we made our departure.  We wanted to get out while it was still light as we had to make our way into downtown Minneapolis – almost impossible from places like this out and around Lake Minnetonka.  And yes, we did make a couple of wrong turns trying to get out of there.]

[We lost also on Saturday to equally high-ranked Orono, 5 – 1.  We figured scoring might be a problem at the start of the year but thought our defense would be better.  Well, it’s a new coaching staff, so we’ll get better.  We can skate with these teams – we just have to . . .]

Up next:  Our weekend at the ‘U’!

[OK, we’re a little small this year.  😉 ]

CARDINALS – 7, Little Falls – 1

But seriously folks, the Super Fans do tend to favor girls’ sports.  Probably some sort of psychological thing we won’t delve into here.  But we’re all in the Medicare fun bunch group meaning we never got to see girls play sports in our day (before the electric light bulb).  Granted, there are those in our age group who do not understand this.  Thus is a pity.

I did decide, however, to check out this game.  It was the season opener and the Cards have a new coaching staff.  And Little Falls has had very good – state tournament good – boys’ hockey teams since before Charles Lindbergh.  Several times they were the obstacle to very good Cardinal teams making state.  This year, however . . . well, the final score doesn’t really indicate how dominant the Cards were.  I was the sole representative from the Super Fans . . . but anymore games like this and I may have friends!

[The JV also did good.  🙂 ]

[“The Voices” try to untangle the tools of the trade.]

[Is something moving under there?]

[Hello, mother ship.  Are you out there?]

[Assistant Coach Jon Crouse, whose resume includes being a former Cardinal, being the guy in charge of sticks . . .]

[Being the son of an Alex, class of ’65er . . .]

[Being a pro shop assistant at the Alex Golf Club, and, probably most importantly, being the guy who often logs in the Fat Boys Walking Club at the ‘Y’ each morning.]

[New Head Coach, Ian Resch . . .]

[Behind the Cardinal bench with “The Competition.”]

[The “colors” were presented by some Squirts.  🙂 ]

[Go, guys!]

[Lookin’ good.  Displayed some nice cross-overs.]

[The Flyers were introduced first.  Of note for the Cardinal fans were the Anez brothers, whose sister Michelle starred for the Cardinals state championship team in ’08.  Here’s Mark (19), a senior forward . . .]

[And Mack (17), a sophomore defenseman.]

[A now your ’13-14 Cards, beginning with Alec Wosepka (8), a junior forward.]

[Matt Resch (9), senior forward]

[Ryan Marciniak (20), junior forward]

[Parker Revering (3), junior defenseman]

[Kevin Finley (16), senior defenseman]

[Sam Goetsch (33), senior goalie]

[The National Anthem]

[Hey, Super Fan!  Did you get my picture?]

[And we’re off with the Cards immediately in the Flyers zone.]

[The Cards are swarming around the goal – and this was pretty much the pattern the whole game.]

[How’d the puck get over there?]

[Where’s the puck?]

[Are the Flyers finally getting it out  of their zone?]

[I don’t know why – in the middle of a boys’ game – I finally decided to take this shot.  That’s either a Freudian slip . . . or a boo-boo!]

[Alec lines one up . . .]

[And let’s it loose.  The poor Flyer goalie was looking at this all night.]

[After much bombardment, the Cards finally scored . . .]

[Aaron Steidl (38), senior defenseman, on a shot from the point.]

[The “red light” district?  The girls don’t get goal judges until the play-offs?  Hmmmm.]

[Let’s go celebrate!!]

[Here we come again!]

[Parker threatens the goalie.]

[Another full-fledged assault.]

[Chris Leary (18), junior forward, unleashes a shot.  At this point, you’re probably recognizing some last names.  Yes, there is a Wosepka, a Leary, a Revering on the girls’ team  – I’m going to take a flyer and say these are brother/sister combinations?  But oddly, and what’s happening to the ole home town, on both teams combined there are only three Olsons and one Johnson?]

[The Flyer goalie makes another stop.]

[Another scrum . . .]

[I’m going oh . . .oh . . . oh!]

[The puck is visible under the goalie.  Get it, get it, get it!]

[Then he laid on it – no goal.]

[Oh, I thought we had one!]

[Focusing a bit here on young Mr. Finley for reasons to be explained in a bit . . .]

[Ryan and Kevin ready for a face-off.]

[Why no, I don’t know Culver’s Flavor-of-the-Day?]

[Alec . . . for Alex.]

[OK, that was cheesey.]

[After the first period, amazingly only 1 to 0.]

[Close enough to the holidays, all the college kids were home.  Here’s last year’s captains with their double mocha frappes with a dash of cinnamon.]

[The 2nd period begins . . .]

[The flow of the game . . .]

[Was exactly the same as the 1st . . .]

[The Cards continued to storm the net . . .]

[Oooops, it’s here somewhere!]

[A lone Flyer attempts to stem the tide . . .]

[But the assault began anew . . .]

[Until the inevitable occurred . . .]

[GOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!]

[Alec scored . . .]

[Then Chris . . . the dam was burst.]

[The celebrations continued . . .]

[Brady Bast (5), senior forward, scored . . .]

[Ryan scored, shorthanded . . .]

[And Noah Hittle (15), sophomore forward, scored his first varsity goal.]

[The refs were plucking a lot of pucks out of the net.]

[It was really so lopsided, I had planned on leaving after the 2nd period.  Then Fat Boy (though he’s of the non-fat variety) Walking Club member Ken showed up after working his way down the line of hockey parents for two periods.]

[So, I hung around a  bit into the 3rd . . .]

[We attacked some more . . .]

[Then we scored again . . .]

[Lukas Bigger (24), junior forward, his first varsity goal.]

[No, goalie, you did as good as you can do.]

[And the Flyers scored a late power-play goal for the final score.  I didn’t get away.  The 3rd period was on running time and I ran into Jenna Finley (yes, Kevin’s mom) on the way out.  She’s the only “hockey mom” I know on the boys’ team.  And that because she is also Rachael’s mom.  Rachael was a center who graduated two years ago and is now a student in education at UMD . . . and she was there as a returning alum, too!  🙂 ]

Needless to say, the Cards looked really good . . . and really fast.  But you can’t tell from one game . . . and the Flyers are down.  As Coach Crouse said, we’ll know more after Tuesday.  If you’re a hockey fan, the Cards host Brainerd in a girl/boy doubleheader that night.  See you there!

[Sunset, last Sunday.  Oh, and before I forget (getting to be my used phrase), I recently noticed that local anomaly of lake icing – I crossed the Darling/Carlos bridge where to the south beautiful Lake Darling was totally iced over while to the north there was not yet a hint of ice on Lake Carlos.  We could have had the anomaly “Weakie” noticed several years ago at the L’Homme Dieu/Carlos bridge where they were fishing in ice houses on L’Homme Dieu and in boats on Carlos.]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, HAPPY HANUKKAH, AND REMEMBER, THERE ARE NOW ONLY 343 SHOPPING DAYS TILL GUY FAWKES DAY (YUP, JUST MISSED IT).

But first . . .

[I’m “assembling” this on Sunday morning, November 24.  I received this from Brother Cam in Mounds View a few minutes ago.  I don’t think he likes it.  He recently came home from two weeks in Ft. Myers.  🙂  And here, it appears beautiful Lake Darling is totally frozen over now.  Not a surprise though – it happens every year.]

[Hang in there . . . we’ll get to the hockey game anon.  But last Saturday marked the 10th anniversary (though we believe the actual anniversary of the annual event is in the 30-somethings) since this photo was taken by one of the attendees.  I still can’t do “this.”  But the regular characters still show up.]

[This is actually from last weekend’s event.  Basketball Dan hosts a myriad of past fellow  ‘U’ alums and academics at St. Thomas to a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner, with all the fixin’s.  🙂 ]

[Continuing our emphasis on food, later in the week enjoying shepherd’s pie, legally obtained for us by fellow gourmand, “Weakie”.]

[OK, we’re still eating . . . the Alex class of ’65 had its now monthly luncheon as a prelude to our upcoming 50th.  Nah, can’t be?????]

[The two Toms were there with a bunch of co-eds!  🙂  (Photo by someone with a smart phone.)]

[The HQ even came up all the way from Minnetonka . . .]

[Then showed our all-time favorite athlete how to take our class photo.  Abby is leaving us soon – fleeing beyond the confines of Minnesota’s comfortable borders.]

[Assistant Coach Ashley Secord-Holmes, courtesy Echo Press.]

Oh, the hockey game on Thursday night . . . our Cards, the successors to the above photoed Ms. Williams, lost a close one to the River Lakes Stars.  Size matters (yes, David won but only because Goliath zigged when he should have zagged).  And experience matters.  The Stars had a decided advantage in each category.  While our Cards got off to good starts in both the 1st and 3rd periods, for most of the game the Stars dictated the play.  They effectively back and fore-checked all game long.  The Cards were always forced to the outside, along the boards, whenever we entered the offensive zone, and we were seldom able to establish a player in the slot for passes or rebounds.  The bigger Stars just roared down center ice against us and always seemed to have someone positioned at the goal.  Looking back, I think the Cards did good to be able to get the game into overtime.  The Stars won shortly into that extra period, on a power play that carried over from the 3rd period, on a shot that appeared to deflect off one of our defender’s skates – goalie Amy Jost really had no play on it.

[We finally ran into new assistant coach, Ashley Secord-Holmes, before the start of the game and had a mini-reunion with her.  🙂  So, as long as I was there, I decided to do my pre-game photography from behind the goal.  It somehow seemed prescient that my first photo was of sophomore McKenna Schroeder (28) because during the game her mom came over and asked the Super Fans if we still wanted to sponsor a Puck Shoot – and, of course, we did.]

Now some videos to give you an idea of what a goalie sees.  The first one is of the initial warm-up and then the serious shooting begins in the second one:

Video 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLnCc1oXHeo

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxlX7JRaIdA

Wasn’t that fun?  Try getting me in a goal!

[A little better look at McKenna.]

[Captain Taylor Ellingson (24)]

[Nicole Bartels (23)]

[Lauren Niska (21) and Kaila Dewanz (7)]

[Kaila]

[Amy Jost (33)]

[We noticed from the first time we saw her with the varsity . . .]

[That Niciole just kind of floats around the ice . . .]

[So, let’s just watch her float . . .]

[Thanks, Nicole.  🙂 ]

[And here’s McKenna again – her mom reminded just look for her white skates.]

[And here’s Hanah (11).]

[Mari Wosepka (18) and one of 10 who have a “2” in their number.  😉 ]

[McKenzie Revering (29), Hanah, and Captain Mel Drown (6)]

[Hanah]

[My goodness, by random shooting we found McKenna again.]

[Nicole]

[Little Rev]

[“The Voices” study their charts . . .]

[Bob notes that there’s ice down there!]

[And we have the opening jump ball with Mari, Taylor, and Mel on the front line.]

[Mari chases into the Stars zone.]

[Taylor keeps it in.]

[Mel says, “I’m open!”]

[Then Hanah’s line entered the fray . . .]

[And she scored!!  42 seconds into the game with an assist from Rachel Drew (4).  Whatta start!]

[I think it dribbled in here.]

[The supervisor jumped up to applaud the goal and partly obstructed my shot.  But that’s just showing good enthusiasm! 😉 ]

[I’m gonna go tell my coach!]

[And my teammates!]

[And we’re back down in the Stars end again with Micaela Swenson (34).]

[And McKenna and Sam Klimek (37)]

[Now that we’re all here together . . .]

[We’re still keeping up good pressure early in the game.]

[Hey , we got a player in front of the net.  Get her the puck!  🙂 ]

[Mels says, “Gimme that puck!”]

[The Wunderkinds, Lauren and Little Rev.]

[Mari has pressure . . .]

[Then is joined by friends.]

[Little Rev’s keeping an eye on things.]

[Mel’s operating 1-on-3 in the slot.]

The Stars started turning the tide later in the 1st period, they scored a tying goal, and then got another late to take a 2 – 1 lead.  The 2nd period was scoreless with the Stars again having the slight edge in play . . .

[With an early burst in the 3rd period, Nicole scored on a power play . . .]

[Tying the game!]

[Mel entered the net . . . we were hoping the puck would!  😉 ]

[Kaila swoops in . . .]

[Go, Kaila!]

[But despite help from lots of her friends . . .]

[We still didn’t score.  Hanah looks toward the bench for advice.]

[Take five!]

[Pedal to the metal, ladies!]

Despite the loss the Cards are still off to a terrific 4 – 1 start.  Oh, and the JV won by shut out and are looking better each game.  They really dominated in the 3rd period.

And now it’s time to go to where the Wild Things are:

[The supervisor feeds squirrels at this time of year . . .]

[The varmints are so brazen they come up on the decks and knock on the doors!]

[They were up paying a visit on Friday.  So, I ate an apple and put the core just outside the door . . .]

[They came back up, found it immediately, and hopped up on the railing for some fine dining.]

[Then the supervisor said the eagles were in our lakeside trees . . . you can see one fuzzily in the distance as our squirrel sat frozen.]

[There was another squirrel in the tree just below this one.  Neither of them moved again until the eagles were gone . . .]

[Uh-oh, is squirrel on the menu?]

[The eagle I had the better shot at (fewer branches in the way) would never give me a profile.]

Then we went to a place where even Wilder Things were:

[To where people who were alive in the 60’s were!  Dressed in garb they believe represented the attire of the day (for hippies), they gathered on the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination as participants in the development of “The 60’s: Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll” curricula for the adult education program.]

[Part of the strategy was to consume vast quantities of the popular hors d’oeuvres of the day, to include, in no particular order: cheese fondue, cheese out of a can on Ritz crackers topped by black olives, deviled eggs, salmon ball and crackers, chips and onion dip, Bugles, assorted nuts, and, of course, Boone’s Farm beverages . . .]

[So, Saturday couldn’t come soon enough . . .]

[First to the ‘Y’ for the morning walk . . .]

[Then driving by Lake Cowdry on the way home.  It’s beginning to look a lot like winter.]

[Then it was on to the winery where Josie Nelson would save the day.  Here she is under the scrutiny of a young neighbor . . . and fan!]

[We had to chuckle when patrons would go up to buy her CD and/or get an autograph . . . in the middle of her set!!  There were lots of folks there for the first two hours – mostly groups of women.  We figured the men folk were either hunting or home watching the Gophers (biggest crowd ever at “The Bank” along with the coldest weather in the stadium’s 5-year history).]

[Help, Mom!?   When the crowds left, it was about as quiet as it ever gets in there.  I took the opportunity to take four videos of Josie.]

“Temporary Love”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ludnes5t51U

“Ring of Fire”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiM17qWy_14

“The Way I Am”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbGuYThcSS4

“Baloons”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X61BtwNCTVA

We’ll conclude this by coming to the end.

[Cross country coach, Mark Nelsen, is retiring after having been the program’s only coach.  He started in 1980, and when the Hasz sisters (on the left) placed 1st and 2nd in the state meet this year, they and Mark were joined by two runners from his very first team.  Cool! Photo from the Echo.]

[And finally, those famous November sunrises (this one on the 5th) . . .]

[Over beautiful Lake Darling . . .]

[Aloha!]