Did you get to enjoy the fall leaves?

In the fall, I often put my camera in the trunk of my car.  Dale hate's taking a ride with me because it means driving, stopping, driving, stopping as I see something that hits my eye as a good photo.  I love the way these leaves are showing the burnt orange to red colors with the green in the background trees.



Burnt Oranges

Sometimes when the line of focus ends up in the wrong spot, it can create a look similar to a painting.  It might have been a combination between the colors, the time of day and the trees and shrubs on the of the road.  But when I uploaded the photos, I thought wow that is a nice effect.



A picture that looks like a painting

In the last photos I took on this day, the dry taller grass around the rocks on the edge of a hill.  The sun is low in the sky casting deep shadows while lighting the yellowing leaves with extra brightness.



Rich Colors at Sunset

The first photos were taken in South West Minnesota near Morton.  The next group of photos were taken at the Munsinger Gardens in St. Cloud, Minnesota. 


Sugar Maple leaves

Don't you just want to scoop up a bunch of those leaves, take them home and dip them in wax?  Have you ever done that?  I used to do it all the time.  They last for months in the house.  I resisted temptation mostly because my wax was ruined during one of my moves.

Depth of Color

The trees are most colorful when surrounded by contrast.  I love it when dark green is behind a maple leaf.  Below the late fall flower with it's fuchsia is contrasting the light greens and yellows.


A late fall flower blooming in the distance

If you catch the maple leaves on the right day you will get to see every color clustered in a section on the tree.  Some leaves aren't pretty up close because the give an illusion of interesting color in the tree that when you observe it up close, it is brown and curling up.



Every Color Present

But a Maple leaf can have the entire color change rolling across the leaf from the rich dark red, to orange, yellow with a smidge of dark green.  A maple leaf is an excellent study of color for an artist.  So if you want to understand color theory from a master artist, just study God's creation.  It falls into his design for life.


WOW - all the colors on one leaf!

Sioux City Museum - What is unique about the area?

Located at 607 4th Street it is open 6 days a week Tuesday to Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 1-5; admission free.  It shares the uniqueness of Sioux City.

The Corn Palaces from 1887 to 1891, the Peirce Mansion, the Peltier Fire of 1904, the Floyd River Flood of 1953, and the Crash Landing of flight 232, July 19, 1989 were some of the key places and points in history that were a focus of the museum.


Window from the Corn Palace

Corn Palaces built to celebrate the agriculture of the area for five years until disaster hit.
 

Peirce Mansion

The Peirce Mansion was built by a rich real-estate agent that was a significant part of building up the Sioux City area.  After 30 years of success, he planned to move on. With the economy in a recession, he planned a nation wide raffle to sell his house.  The winner turned out to be a "millionaire" and the house legally changed ownership 19 days before the official raffle drawing.

Special Effects give you a front row seat to the fire

The Peltier Fire was just before Christmas. The decorations were toilet paper, paper towel, tissues and other highly combustible materials.  A man was demonstrating a gas powered toy train. A spark flew and started a fire that leveled nearly four blocks of stores and businesses.



Antique Fire truck and gear

The Floyd River Flood after a heavy but not excessive rainfall, everyone went about their day.  Up river, the rain had been significantly heavier.  Mid-day with very little notice a wall of water came down the Floyd River destroying the stock yards and downtown.

The Crash Landing of 232. At the beginning of a time when fire, rescue, and police were working together in preparedness drills, the Sioux City Airport had gone one step further and had a drill that crossed multiple communities and states.  An airport at the corner of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota was the focus of the drill. While the drill was still fresh in people's minds, a plane diverted for an emergency landing and it crashed landed in a nearby cornfield. Many survived because the area was ready for the disaster.

Chicken Pot Pie to Steak & Potatoes

Dinner Salad

I have never ordered this in a restaurant before. But I will try almost anything once.  I must admit I wasn't disappointed.  It was served with a salad.  The waiter asked if I wanted my salad first. I said yes, what else?



Chicken Pot Pie

If I would have known then what I know now!  It was HOT! The time it would have taken to eat the salad would have been perfect to cool the pot pie. 



Chicken Pot Pie slowly eaten

Then after lunch and in memory of a special friend "Blondie" I had a piece of French Silk pie. We used to meet every few months at the Forest Lake Perkins.  One weekend I picked up a whole pie. I was going to surprise her and stop by her place.  She was out of town for the day.  I ate half of the pie myself.

French Silk Pie

If the chicken pot pie wasn't right for you, maybe you would like the steak smothered in mushrooms & onions, sweet potatoes, green beans, and fresh baked rolls with cinnamon butter. Texas Roadhouse serves a good meal but it is a very noisy in there.


Texas Roadhouse steak & sweet potato with green beans

Sioux City Art Museum -kid friendly

Please Touch

The art museum in Sioux City is a modern and welcoming facility, even for kids.  On the first floor is an interactive creative room designed for children with signs that say "Please Touch". 


Showing Your Best!

They have drawing areas, legos, magnetic moveable shape wall, and a corner color shape create with mirrors. If three kids were playing there it would look like a kaleidoscope.



Shapes & Mirrors



Magnificent Moveable Magnets

In the classroom on the second floor they have art times for kids.  Some are regular theme classes while others are one time weekend crafts.  Sunday, October 27th was paint a pumpkin day. I sat to the edge and sketched while the children painted pumpkins.

Pumpkin Painting

Misty Blue curled up under my feet

In order to understand who we are..

...we need to understand where we have come from.  While in Sioux City, I visited the Public Museum.  They have a couple of different areas.  Some area show specific things unique to the area; the corn palace, the flood, the downtown fire, and the crash landing of flight 232. 



Antique Moving Truck

Then they have things that are common for most Americans. Antique furniture, telephones, combes, brushes, clocks, and trunks.  The inovation era.  The museum has been upgraded to have interactive displays with movies that expand on the written plaques. 


Telephone Booth, Telephone switchboard and Antique Telephone

As I walked through the museum, I couldn't help but think that most of the things there could easily represent most of the towns across the USA. 



Sew What?

Notice the picture with the mirror.... it transformed and showed a movie.

Magic Mirror by the attic finds

Antique Truck.  Where is the door?

A TV from this era would not have color. Hmmm.

Palmer's Candy Company - Made in America

Palmer's Candy Shop & Museum

A Sioux City, Iowa company that has a candy shop near historic downtown.  Inside they have a mini-museum with some old pieces of candy making equipment from years ago and a short repetitive movie of how they make several different kinds of candies.   http://www.palmercandy.com/

Antique Candy Mixer

As you walk into the candy store the first thing that you see is a couple of antique candy making machines.  On the other side of the store is a small area that is set up as a museum.  It also has a flat screen TV that shows the updated modern process.  Some of the candies are still done mostly by hand.

Old Fashioned Candy Presses

The rollers seen on the shelves on the wall shows how one piece of equipment can be setup to create several dozen different kinds of candy. They still make the old fashioned candy as well as the new candy.  

Old Fashioned Bulk Candy

Four enormous rectangle tables hold two rows of boxes each.  Every box is a unique candy combination.  Dark or milk chocolate, plain or with nuts are just a few of the choices offered.  I had such a difficult time choosing!   

Boxes & boxes of bulk candy

I chose, dark chocolate malted milk balls, sugar free, traditional, and candy corn taffy, candy corn, candy pumpkins, sugar free "old-fashioned candies, bit-o-honey, bites, two coconut haystacks and about a dozen sugar free chocolate coated caramels and candies. 

A special gift box

No, I didn't buy the traditional pretty box of candy. I bought my own unique mix.  They had a large number of employees that scooped up the candy for the people looking and I walked away with eight small bags of candy as each different price per pound was put in a unique bag.  





Museum Pieces

I enjoyed visiting this candy store with it's mini-museum.  But then I could watch the shoe "how it's made" on the History channel for yours.  My brain still asks "why?" and "How'd they do that?"

More leftovers????

Japanese Steakhouse, Volcano

Yes, I decided to hunker down for the weekend. So tonight the meal was at the Japanese steakhouse. Where they cook the meal on the grill in front of you.



Seafood Udon

I planned more leftovers.  I ordered Crunchy Sushi, Seafood Udon, and Steak Stir Fry.  The Stir Fry is served with a Japanese clear broth soup and a small Japanese salad.



Stir Fry before the meat

I ate the soup, the salad, about half of the udon, a bit of the stir fry and all the sushi. My leftovers are half of the udon and two-thirds of the stir fry. They added both soba noodles and fried rice.



Stir Fry after the meat was added



Crunchy Sushi

Now on a different subject, I got back to the hotel tonight and as I got out of my car I noticed a van with its dome light turned on. I put into my short term memory the make/model and plate number.  As I walked into the lobby, I saw a man and his son. I knew right away. I immediately said, "Sir, do you own a ______"
"Yes" he said patting the keys in his pocket.
"Your dome light is on."
After I put my leftovers in the fridge, I went to the pool just to see if there were a lot of kids swimming.  The family with the dome light was in there.  We chatted for a while. Come to find out they are related to some of the kids I went to high school with, she works in my home town and he works for 3M in a different town.
Sing with me, "It's a small world after all, it's a small, small world."

Planning for leftovers

I went to Olive Garden for supper. I like their food.  But one serving is like a serving and a half and I am so tempted to over-eat.  Today, I decided to plan for leftovers. 

I ordered bruschetta for an appetizer and seafood alfredo with wheat noodles for the main coarse.  They always put enough salad and bread sticks on the table for plenty of leftovers.



A meal worthy of leftovers!

I stopped eating before I was full. The waiter packed up the leftovers in several small containers.  He was very conscience about making sure the food was seperated enough for later.  The bread fromthe bruschetta in one container; the mix was in another, the salad in a third, and the fourth contained leftover seafood alfredo.  Then I had dessert!



Miniature Chocolate Mousse

They have a buy one take one home (meal) for $12.99 a piece. But that is a crock. They only have 4 choices and they weren't as good as my choices.

Munsinger Garden Rocks

In the area around St. Cloud there is a lot of granite and decorative rocks.  So it is only natural that Munsinger Gardens would have many of these rocks incorporated into their gardens. 


The Elf's Recliner

 When I first saw the rock above I thought, "that sort of looks like a recliner."  I appreciate the thick section of the pinkish color diagonally going through the stone that within itself is a combination of greys.


Muscle Man

 Worn by weather the "Muscle Man" rock looks like a distorted man leaning against the rock in an odd pose.  The muscles in his right arm protruding large while his skinny little waste seems unnaturally thin.  His right leg up on a rock as if it is a show of strength.


Clam Shells Flintstone Style

 Weathered in a different way, many of the rocks in this collection were worn in a way that almost looks like a clam shell from The Flintstones. 


Rocks to Edge the stairwell

This granite stairway was lined with a variety of rocks.  Although a very good idea the application of the idea wasn't done well.  That is on this side anyways.  There were at least three stair cases that came down this mini-mound of flowers.  It was cool to look at and a bit challenging to walk down.


Hen and Chicks hiding in the rock

This was my favorite rock.  That was because someone saw the potential and most likely added a small amount of dirt to the debris that the rock was collecting.  Then they placed a flower in it called "Hen and Chicks"  One flower is usually bigger (the hen) and the shoots it sends out throughout the season (the chicks).  To add to the classic charm, two small leaves that have dropped off a nearby tree and landed behind the hen and chicks in this rock.


Close up of Hen and Chicks