It is 7 minutes now past 11 and you're listening to mid-day on the FM news station at Mark's it act like in the Twin Cities today in the program going to be talking about winter time Adventures around this part of the country and with me this morning Star Tribune assistant travel, editor Chris Welsh. Thanks for being a Chris preciate you coming in. Love to be here when you read Chris Welch's stories in the Travel section more often than not you're reading about destinations around the Upper Midwest. In fact Chris. It's my understanding tomorrow's edition of the Star Tribune includes a whole section about winter Adventures things to do in this part of the country this time of year. We'll talk about that in a minute first. I want to get the phone numbers out. However, if you have a question about winter travel and you're listening in the Twin Cities to 276 thousand is a number to call to join our conversation in the Twin Cities. Once again to 276 thousand anywhere else you're listening this morning anywhere else. You can hear the broadcast. You can call toll-free with your winter travel questions the toll free numbers one 800-242-2828Toll-free, once again one 802-422-8281 Chris while waiting for collars to queue up. I want to talk a little bit about what readers might find in Tomorrow's Star Tribune Travel section. You've spent part of your winter adventuring so to speak. Yeah the second week in January spent in Thunder Bay Ontario and environs and I went ice climbing up around Nipigon the man store in the sections about that. It's becoming of that real popular Pastime up there strangely enough for the climbing Frozen waterfalls along the eclipse north or south of Lake Nipigon. There's an incredible number of of waterfalls there and and one man named Sean for Aunt has made a business out of bringing people up there and training them how to climb the cities of walls of ice. How how tall are these waterfalls in Ohio. Are you climbing? The one I climbed a 220 fees and that that's kind of the beginner model.Did the 70 degrees and steepness and it took about an hour to get up at it was it was a little bit harrowing at times. I also meant losing Thunder Bay has a luge club and and that one of the ski areas there for a while had to lose run this year the luge clubs kind of fallen on hard times, but I always wanted to say that I was born to Lose Yourself. I had to at least give it a try and I also went cross-country skiing and at the beginning of March the Nordic International ski championships are going to be in Thunder Bay Chevrolet the biggest winter International sporting event this year. The whole world will be looking at Thunder Bay the best cross-country skiers ski jumpers and Nordic combined athletes will be there. So I got to take a look at their facilities and go over the the track where they guard old hanging the other great. Skiers will be some of the things that you're writing it that you wrote about that.Section tomorrow, these are sort of the big popular Trends in in the travel regardless of whether going somewhere warm or a in a in a cooler climate these Adventure vacations. What what's the what's the interest behind all this? And when did this start becoming popular? Well really for the last I would say I would say five to six years weekend getaways. I become more and more prevalent people are taking more and more short Ford a three-day weekend trips as opposed to a two-week vacation and there's a lot of reasons for that one assist people have more money than they have time and they're just looking for something that they can do on the run one novel Theory. I've heard that find kind of scary is that people are afraid of losing their jobs and all these reorganization so they don't want to leave for two weeks when and let go of their political strings when their friend or supervisor might stab him in the back. So they just want to go for 2 days and get right back into The Fray.Okay, we have somebody on the line right now will take that call if we could your on Minnesota public radio's FM news station with Chris Welch. Good morning. You're not there yet. Okay, I'm sorry for interrupting Chris. I thought we did have somebody that's okay alot of people might say when she's in this part of the country during the winter. You just want to get out of this part of the country go somewhere warm because it's just Frozen cold. Nothing to do. You spend a lot of your time traveling the back roads around here. There is there are many many things to do indeed around the Upper Midwest and people actually are coming into this part of the country from warmer climates during this time of the year. Yeah. It's it's unbelievable especially line the Gunflint Trail and at Boundary Waters area people from New York and Los Angeles are taking a weekend trip in a flying up here getting on a dogsled, you know going like mad through the forest for 2 days now getting on a plane and flying back home and going back to work part of the the travel. I was on in January. I did a lodge to Lodge skiing.Trip on the Gunflint Trail and at the last place. I stayed the Gunflint Lodge, which is really a beautiful place the accent I heard in the dining room or all New York and Boston and that I didn't see any other minnesotans when I was there. I was rather surprised by that but but you can see even in the national press like Men's Journal had an article about the Gunflint Trail skiing in Minnesota Northern Minnesota special. He's getting a lot of attention for its winter time activities. Okay. It's about 13 minutes now past 11 you listening to Saturday. Midday on the FM news station at marks exactly can with me this morning the assistant travel editor from the Star Tribune newspaper Chris Welch, we're talkin about destinations places to go things to see around the Upper Midwest during this time of the year. And now we have plenty of room open on the phone lines right now. If you're in the Twin Cities and you have a question for Chris to 276 thousand is a number to dial two two seven six.With your winter travel questions in the metro area anywhere else, you can hear the broadcast. You can call toll-free and one 800-242-2828. Let's go to the phones now into Brad who's in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Good morning. Good morning. It's really far too much as you're talkin about Justin today. I want you to put Thunder Bay on my calendar for the spring or summer has a weekend destination on the motorcycle. Wondering if you could recommend or discuss hotels preferably the Better Properties to Luxe properties. And also give us an idea what the u.s. Canadian exchange rate is doing in terms of affordability and I will hang up and listen. Thank you. Okay. Well we can talk about the Canadian dollar versus the American dollar and in in general just maybe pricing in Canada without mentioning specific properties from my vantage point. I was assumed it's kind of expensive in Canada part of that is offset because the dollar so strong though. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up because that wasAre the things that really blew me away by about being up in Thunder Bay with how inexpensive it is now right. Now. The the US dollar is I think it's $0.70 us is $1 Canadian. So $70 is $100 Canadian. I was standing up a B&B that was 50 + night Canadian, which became 35 a night about his dirt cheap for a really nice place with the with good breakfast. And you know, the right now Canada is a great place to go for your money because it goes a long way that was one nice things charge places to stay up there. There's a lot of them Thunder Bay is got quite a few good b&bs one with a national reputation is called the Unicorn that has one of the finest restaurants in Canada. Unfortunately, it was closed when I was up there. It's closed for the month of January, but it's open again now and and I would I would say that's one of the top of the line places.The other thing you can do is just call the 800 number up there for the tourism division is called Tourism Center Bay and they could give you a complete list of all the options up there to get a sense Chris and more minnesotans and more people maybe from North Dakota and Wisconsin and upper Michigan and are are heading into Canada now because of the exchange rate the way it is actually got a lot of Americans up there are no no, I I was surprised by that and so are the people in Thunder Bay that vest far people haven't really realized what kind of savings that means. It's basically like a 30% discount on everything midnight. That's that's probably an exaggeration but it sure seemed that way to me and people up there were surprised because whenever when the Canadian dollar strong they had South of the Border in a hurry to take advantage of it, but for some reason I think went when when when minnesotans at go up to North Shore there so many nice places to stay there. This ain't why should we cross the border to Thunder Bay? They don't know what's up there, butNot to take anything away from the North Shore at all because there are a lot of great places there thunder Bay's got some really world-class cross country ski, if your cross-country skier. It's got unbelievable trails Great grooming specially for skate style skiers. And right now the the prices to Affordable. Okay, let's go to another call or barbers in St. Paul. Good morning. Good morning. I really didn't have some questions. I had some more comments and we went up on a little mini vacation up north to solve for the opening of the new state park. If I was just beautiful. I've never been that far north before we stayed at Cascade Lodge right on the lake and and we walked up a lot of the river sand and it'll walked out on the folders in the middle always had a great time. But what I wanted to mention was we went in to Thunder Bay and people should keep in mind that Saturday is an hour behind us. So by the time we got into canIt was close to miss the fort Williams tour on the mall to close. I was really disappointed with my first trip to Canada on the country was closed. But other than that, we had a great time and does he have any suggestions where I can go next year? Okay, Chris you take that for up north? Well, I really like the area around Ely and that it has a reputation as being a snowmobilers that paradise which which no doubt it is but there's also some good places to cross country ski up there and beautiful beautiful landscape. It's right on the Boundary Waters and I love being up there in the winter time, even though it's it's bitterly cold. It's it's spectacular country and the wildlife is thick and my wife and I really like it up there. How about winter camping? Chris said you write about winter camping have you done that? I've done it before but I have not done any stories about it. It's something that that that I'veEnjoyed before with my family when I was growing up and in a warm clothes and a good sleeping bag will take you a long way and and I really like sleeping outside even in the winter. It's it's it's a great experience to wake up and see the stars twinkling up above there. And that's something I hope to do in the future. Okay, let's go on the line from a car near Lindstrom apparently, good morning. Even familiar. So, where would you recommend going for some kind of beginning Adventure type things with your kids out States we could do this divide the state up in a different sections and talk about what different sections of the state have to offer. There's a Northshore. There's a Brainerd kind of the North Central Area And Then There Are Places in Southeastern, Minnesota as well.Say that you folks out in the travel at Department over at the Star Tribune sort of look at Minnesota maybe in four or five sections and I definitely if you're a geologist Minnesota has everything it's got such a wide variation of Landscapes that it's that it's great. You look so up on the North Shore, you've got almost mountains than in the southwest. You've got the plane beginning are the end as a really beautiful Wide Open Country and then Southeast is almost like New England at the Rolling Hills and Hardwoods and you know that you have a whole different situation up in the Northwest as far as families go, you know, I think that your only limit is is your only limit are where are what you put on yourself.I've heard really good things about yeah young kids. I'm going cross-country skiing. I think it's something that they can learn easily probably easier than adults and and have a have a great time with the maple log Resort up around Detroit Lakes has a really good reputation for family vacations that I've never been there. If you wanted to the time I let the places to go but I've heard nothing but good things about it from families and fellow journalists who've gone up that way but I think that you could pick almost any Lodge Inn in a kids in the outdoors are even in the winter. It's just a great combination because you can keep them busy with all kinds of activities outside sledding skiing. And yeah, I think it's a great way to take a family vacation. Okay. It's about 21 minutes now past 11, you're listening to mid-day on the FM news station. I marks it act like an with me here. This morning is Criswell.Who is the assistant travel editor for the Star Tribune newspaper? He specializes in areas around the Upper Midwest and this Sunday the Star Tribune Outlaws lays out to a good portion of the Travel section talking about winter Adventures around this part of the country during this time of year in particular around the Thunder Bay Area. We're talking about winter time travel destination send that we have plenty of room on the phone lines right now. If you have a question or a suggestion even to 276 thousand is never a few listening in the Twin Cities metro area to 276 thousand or if I you're outside the Twin Cities anywhere, you can hear the broadcast. You can join our conversation by calling toll-free at one 802-422-8282 toll free number again one 802-422-8281 lot of people are interested in bargain travel whether they're going up north or down south. What is there a time of the winter there to sort of winter travel season, but but off peak winter troutI think you know either early or late. You're probably going to find the best deals. So once you get into to Marcin, even the first couple weeks in April, you're probably going to find some nice packages and and that's something you should comparison shop. I tell people they can really do a lot in advance on the phone in a situation like this by calling three or four different lodges that sound interesting and saying hey, what are you offering the other thing is going midweek saves a ton of money because those people have a hard time filling up those Monday through Fridays. And if you can take the time to do that, you can reap the benefits. I think. Okay. We have a caller on the line. Cynthia is on from Minneapolis. You only FM news station morning who is looking fruit good places toYeah, I think the Minnesota Historical Society sites are all terrific places. What are some of your favorite sites one of them but all of you know here in the Twin Cities, I mean the Ramsey house and the Minnesota Historical Society Museum and then there's Murphy's Landing. Is there a lot of places I haven't even had a chance to visit but they put out a publication that list all the different sites and that would be a great resource for for any family to have and then just you know, you could just look through it and and find out some of the places are seasonal and I have to check that out but that'd be a great resource for anybody who's not familiar with Minnesota and who's interested. I haven't been to a Minnesota Historical Society. Sponsor sites that that isn't wonderful. Thanks for the suggestion that people like to go on vacations where they do.Eventually learn a new thing. Maybe it's ice climbing. Maybe it's cross country skiing folks also interested in learning about maybe some history sometimes 200 parently these sites do very well Split Rock from sample. Obviously. I'm glad she raised that point because that's another great thing with families but a not something that's fun. Even if you don't have kids is when you pick out a place to go for a weekend to take the time to call the head have their Chamber of Commerce or whatever send out all their brochures of all the different places. You might see any of you you could be amazed at what a small town has around it up around International Falls. One of the historical society's sites is the grant Grand Mound. It's the largest prehistoric structure in in the Upper Midwest to Gino giant burial mound and there's a great interpretive Center there where you could spend another three hours with your kids going around the trails learning about what prehistoric life in Minnesota was like and they've got classes and workshops and if you just went to InternationalBalzan and didn't make an effort to learn something. You might never hear about that place. But if you take the time to do a little bit of research, you can find an amazing number of places that are very interesting and informative and not just ones from the Historical Society. But County museums County Parks, and I think that that's that's a real important thing to know Tim says to do a little of do a little research and you'll really benefit from it Chris to recommend any Publications are other than his Star Tribune. I'm sure you would highly recommend your newspaper, but that list for example, if you're going up in the the Brainerd area what kind of Adventure type of elements might be available there wouldn't historical places my might there be to visit there's there's there's a wealth of good travel Publications about the Upper Midwest. If you go to any of the bigger book stores around the Twin Cities or wherever you live and look forThe regional section you'll find books about Minnesota about Wisconsin. There's a couple of great books out that are just about the state parks in Minnesota and Wisconsin outline and there's over 50 state parks in Minnesota and all of them are chosen because of their interesting features and I think that there's plenty of resources available. You just have to take the time to find okay. We going out to Jim who's been waiting in St. Paul Young FM news station. Good morning. When I go up north on the weekends to cross country ski, there's one thing I'd really like is to get away from the sounds of the combustion engine. Is there any place where I can go cross-country skiing where I don't have to deal with the sights and sounds of snowmobiles. Yes indeed there are and and I've had that that same experience myself. I think that the the the Jasper Hill ski area around Ely is one of the the few in that area where there no snowmobiles allowed.And that you won't see any there which is one reason why I liked it a lot. I also along the North Shore where the the landscape makes a little bit more difficult for snowmobiles to get around. Some of the state parks are really good places to go. Nearby here. It's it's a little bit more problematic. I think within the Twin Cities there's there's plenty of places of course, but once you get outside, there's a there's a lot of snowmobile trails everywhere are snowmobilers and people who don't like to snowmobile increasingly meeting with opposition as a sort of a compete for the open space. Yeah. Yeah. I think that from time to time there are flashpoints and you know, I know in voyageurs National Park, which is one of the Minnesota underappreciated Treasures up around International Falls. There's a lot of pressure from snowmobilers to open up more miles of trails. And right now they're 70 miles of snowmobile trails through the park and only 12 miles of ski trails, but there's not a lot of cross-country skiers up there. So it's not like a a battle of people who are there. It's actually there's there's more snowmobile. Send cash country skiers there, but I think it's time goes on there will be more and more of a of a conflict because they really are not that compatible at I have to say that the snowmobile The Thrill is the speed and and you know, definitely hurt your way out there enjoying the nature but on the other hand if your cross-country skier silence is part of the experience in the snowmobile and it certainly take away from that. Okay, 20 mind coming up rather than 20 and 29 minutes past 11, you're listening to mid-day on the FM news station. Chris Welch's here is his Justin travel editor at the Star Tribune newspaper here in the Twin Cities and we're talking about winter time travel destinations around the Upper Midwest and Chris. I don't think we could have picked a more appropriate a to take the topic up the weather forecast for the state of Minnesota today partly to mostly cloudy a chance for light snow in the southwest with a few flurries elsewhere highs today much cooler than it's been in recent days from the single digits in the North. 20 in the Southeast and tonight it's going to be even cooler mostly clear around Minnesota. Very cold Lowe's from 28 below zero in the extreme North to about zero in the far Southwest tonight. Then tomorrow partly sunny in the west mostly sun in the East cool again on Sunday with highs from about Five Below in the far Northeast to the middle of teens in the South. So a good day today to talk about winter travel John is on the line from Eagan. You're on the FM news station. Good morning. Good morning. I had a question about cabin rental. We were we've been looking for Kevin we can rent in the winter. That would be large enough to hold something like for families a larger cabin and we've had a lot of problems finding ones that would be open in the winter. You know of any that especially ones that would be within say 3 hours of the Twin Cities to have a lot of young kids and maybe if you don't know the specific property, once again, is there a resource where you can find maybe private home owners? Who rent out cabins are ya I would I would I would say that I won good place to look would be near Cable Wisconsin, which is another great The Haven for cross-country skiers because of the chequamegon national forest. There. There's an incredible amount of cross country ski trails there and they have a very good tourism operation there in cable if you call up there 800 number again, that's one of my major resources is 800-555-1212. That's the Free Directory need to say. Hey, I need that 800 number for whatever area you're looking for for their tourism Division and and that they'll give you a list of places. I know that there are places that they cater to fit two families in cross-country skiers in the winter now more and more. Area of a check would be around the Detroit Lakes area where Maple log is. I think that they rent cabins and along the Gunflint trail that further north and around Ely to Heather there quite a few places to rent cabins. Okay. Well, I hope that helped you out to 276 thousand is a number to call if you have a question for Chris Welsh about winter travel destinations around the Upper Midwest and you listening in the Twin Cities to 276 thousand in the Twin Cities outside of the Twin Cities. You can call toll free at 1 800-242-2828. If you get a busy signal hang up and try back again in 5 or 10 minutes, maybe we'll be able to get you a question. Nicky's on the line from Bemidji. Good morning. How are you? I'm fine. I'm calling and your former collar. Just the mention does some easy access areas up north that my husband and I just found in your area. So we're going to in a couple of weeks and it is 212 km of traffic and groom trails in the Lutsen potty area and they have everything from group. Chan shuttle or ski from Lodge to Lodge or just have a a private little cabin with a sauna and we're really looking forward to it. The rates were probably cheap. That's how I see it a very popular destination to Lutsen top. Diaria the North Shore about a 90 miles up the lake from Duluth or so. It's one of my favorite area Chef I go downhill skiing there and I also love the Cross Country Trails in Superior National Forest. There's some incredible trails with that views are just breathtaking when you get up on top of the hills and specially in the middle of the winter when the superior is, you know, it's bitterly cold and Superior steaming. Sometimes it looks like at the surface of Venus or something. It's Unearthly, what about the development up on the North Shore along 61 up from Duluth. Some people who very much loved the North Shore or upset that certain maybe properties are being built up along the on the shore and that it's becoming overcrowded you find that to be a problem there. Well, you know, I think that that's that's going to be a problem in any place that just beautiful as the North Shore, you know Venture the people discover it and and and the the number of people arriving there takes away from the very things that made it good in the first place and that's kind of the theater no problem of travel. One of the things that I sometimes find troubling about my job is finding a place that's the unspoiled in and not very many people there and then taking well do I really want to write about this because I might not be able to come back here and find the same place and you know, I'd there's no easy answers for that and Northshore is changing will continue to change and I hope that the people up there can balance out the interest of the economy which of course if you live there you want that tourism dollars with the fact that if they let it go too far then they're going to start losing him. Okay. Let's go back to the phones into Don who's in Nisswa. Good morning program, and I wondered if I could ask. Personal information on the Winnipeg area I got in there. In the past and find out a very fascinating and interesting place. I have I love Winnipeg at I I know I had kind of a difficult trip there the first time I went to a friend and I decided to head up there in November a few years back and that would never been there. We just wanted to see what it was like we didn't do any advance preparation. We had a fantastic weekend. There's all kinds of great ethnic restaurants up there interesting culture just just loved it. But then on the way back when we were going through border check in Palma de and the woman they are asked to so what were you doing up there? And we were really tired. Been a long weekend would stayed out late every night and we probably looked a little bit CD and we said we were just up there for fun. And she said just let's see. It's it's November and you went to Winnipeg for fun. You know that just didn't it didn't add up and so and my friend kind of made some smart comments. And so he ended up having to I go through a strip search in and that they took our car apart and now it just didn't seem logical but but I'll tell you I do not go back there in a second even in the dead of winter because I really like it and there's a big Festival coming up have I made me miss speaking so I don't know for sure, but they have a great winter festival and I'm hoping that it hasn't happened yet. But if it hasn't boy that this would be a good time to come up there to see their great ice sculpture carving all kinds of things happen in a little bit about the Winnipeg the train what's it like up there? And also when most people at least I would assume think of Winnipeg they don't think about dining and in different ethnic restaurants in the sort of thing. It's a diverse Community there though. It is a very strong group of the French Community. They're strong and they said that Excellent French French restaurants in the French part of town and I also Ukrainian so there's some good Ukrainian restaurants in something interesting about Canada, which I found you and Thunder Bay to is that the the ethnic Community seem to hold together a little bit better. So when I was up in Thunder Bay going to the the hoito which is a Finnish restaurant The Waitresses speak Finnish in the people sitting there speaking finished and in the Italian shops and on the streets and Thunder Bay people were we're speaking Italian, you know, I still like the sun reading his mother the newspaper. He was translating from English into Italian and that's true in the end in Winnipeg till you're going to hear people speaking French and and Ukrainian and and it's it's fun to be in a place where we're at. That kind of culture hasn't Disintegrated as it has here. And once again if you're eating in a restaurant up in Winnipeg and using the American dollar going to get a bigger plate of food as well. Good morning. Good morning. My husband and I have been hibernating a lot this winter and we were hoping to take a day trip tomorrow and was wondering what you might suggest giving head up North tomorrow really cold tomorrow. What about day trips from the Twin Cities area? And when when people talk about day trips out how long are they interested in driving overall? Would you say well it depends? You know, my my wife and I love to drive and so, you know, maybe hour and a half or two hours each way isn't too much for us, but for other people, you know, maybe that's a little monotonous and so, you know an hour but there's there's lots of really interesting places within an hour of the Twin Cities. One of my favorites is Northfield Which is less than an hour. Just South on 3rd. 5w and there's a really nice Arboretum there on the Carleton College campus, which is a great place. If you are beginning cross-country skier, that's where I learned in and it's a beautiful place in the hardwood forest. And there's also the Jesse James Museum. They're so nice little restaurants. It's a college town. So it's it's Lively that the downtown's Lively there's plenty of good places to eat and I think that's a good quick one New Prague is another one which I have not been too but which fascinates me and I'd like to go there and they've got a really good restaurant there right now Vine restaurant. We've had John Schumacher and midday before actually talking about that place that's going South and Southeast what if you want to go out west, is there a day trip out heading west or Northwest or Northeast ER for a weekend trip and I'll and I'll throw this went out one of my favorite places and in Minnesota is Pipestone. Where's the National Weather National monument in and that's where the The Indians from all over the plans went to gather the special stone. It's only in Minnesota at the only place in the world that exists to make peace pipes with and others have a wonderful National Monument there where you can go through the museum, but that is a longer drive and also in winter time pipes are doesn't have the kind of cross country ski or other kind of winter time activities as some of the other place West Saint Cloud's not a bad little day trip. There's a nice antique stores in Clearwater along the way and I think st. Cloud can be kind of fun is just different. If you want to get out of the cities are plenty of things to see and do there and certainly a popular destination for people around the Twin Cities just out for the day tooling around it would be the st. Croix River Valley going to Taylors Falls that are yep. That's another excellent suggestions to take to get to Taylors Falls from Minneapolis about an hour or 45 minutes or so, maybe about that. Yeah, I guess I don't know somebody. Drive up there and back and tell us next week. All right. Well, I hope that answered your question Betsy. Let's go down to Cynthia. I was listening in Saint Paul the morning. And we're very much interested in snowmobiling someplace sort of clothes by maybe two hour drive would not be too much for us. And well, I've got to confess that I have never gone snowmobiling and it sits high on my list of things to do because so many minnesotans do it and I must confess also that I miss snowmobile critic. So I feel like I need to try it so that I can speak a little bit more from experience about what it's like and so on one place. I do know I've got a friend who who really likes Moose Lake and two snowmobiles there. They are sick large snowmobiling Community there and I would give them a try. I think that maybe some other colors could help us out here. I don't know about where you would go to rent a snowmobile if that's what you need to do. And that would be an inch something interesting for me to find out because eventually I'm going to do this. I'm going to have to That rent one. Yeah, and I'm not sure if there's a Minnesota snowmobilers Association or some sort there is I know me some suggestions about yep, that would be an excellent suggestion will be alright. Well, I hope that helped you out Cynthia will go now to Susan who's in Fridley. Good morning. I was wondering when that was going to come up because this year has not been the best year for skiing. Yeah, I've I've been really disgusted to because normally in the winter I get four or five times a week in and around here. There's just no place to go right in the Twin Cities. It's pretty pretty shabby. You can call the the Minnesota Division of Tourism has a weekly report on snow conditions and I do know that the further north you go the better things are they have gotten some snow up there along the North Shore and my I'm going up to Ely this weekend and I talked to the the guy where I'm going to stay and they've got plenty of snow there too. So, so right now there's some good skiing up north and down here. We're kind of out of luck. I do do I check that number and That should be a help and are there any parts of the state you say up north in general looks pretty good for snow. But are there any parts in Minnesota that this year have served in bucking the trend of that are really been been hit with snow the North Shore. Apparently, he's doing it, right or maybe not at the North Shore is doing great cording to the solution Lodge in the section that tomorrow they've they've gotten 24 in of snow fairly recently all their runs up there on the downhill. There are open and I talk to people on on the North Shore and epitheli within the last week and they've got plenty of snow up there now for skiing. It's not the best not like last winter was but it's okay normally in Minnesota. You don't have to drive looking drive too far to find snow in February, but I guess this year's just a little different yet 16 minutes before 12 noon, you're listening to mid-day on the FM news station in Mark's it act like in the Twin Cities in with me this morning answering your questions about winter travel Adventures around the Upper Midwest is Chris Welsh who's the assistant rap? Editor the Star Tribune newspaper. If you have a question for Chris, you can ask a question like like to 276 thousand. If you're in the Twin Cities to 276 thousand in the metro area anywhere else, you can hear the broadcast toll-free 1-800. 242-2828 we go now to Francois who's on the line from Ontonagon Michigan and I pronounce that absolutely wrong friend. So I apologize more. I think you pronounce both of my name and the name of the place. We are here about 350 miles from Porcupine Mountains and the Keweenaw Am I have not been to the U P, but I've read a lot about it and heard from my friends about it, and it's at the top of my list for next Winter's day reporting trip. I'd like to head up to the U P and see some of your trails and it's apparently just wonderful country up there and Friends ride. That train is very similar to Arch rain in Minnesota on the North Shore. Is it not most of the beaches near a sand beaches and the hills are very gentle, so it's nice cross country skiing and you got to lose run in Marquette. And so that's another reason for me to go because for some reason I'm obsessed with losing and how's the snow up there this year. Thanks for your call. We appreciate it. Suzanne is on the line now and she's in St. Paul. Good morning on the FM news station. Okay City family oriented. We have a small daughter and would like to go cross-country skiing and things like that but want to be in a place where there the other family is doing the same kind of thing with young children. Well, my my sources that continually Point me back to Maple log Lodge at which I don't have the number here for but that is a a favorite family destination. But I would again stay at almost any of the places up on the North Shore or around Ely that cater to cross country. Ski families would have a situation that would be good for a family road at most places offer lessons. You don't know how long the Gunflint Trail there's a lot of largest there and they all offer lessons and activities for kids at the another Golden Eagle Lodge app on the Gunflint Trail has it even has a naturalist on staff who put on programs for kids educational programs and so on so there again, it's it it's a case. Where do your research, you know call up those should I pick a couple places that sound interesting like Ela or at the Gunflint or any place on the North Shore call their tourism Association Get all their brochures and then they call up there lodges and find out specifically what they have. That would do that would make them good for kids. And and I think that you can you can pretty much near your choices down that way and Chris are certainly a lot of resorts that specialize in catering to families including meals, for example in the in the price of a lodging there some special packages. You can find a boy that extra half hour working the phone might cost you $5, but it will probably save you a lot more than that and make your weekend or however long you're planning on staying a lot better already 12 minutes now before 12 noon, Minnesota Public Radio to FM news stations. Listen to Saturday. Midday. George is out of line now from Alexandria. Good morning. Dimension of Alexandria and maybe I missed it. What did you want to mention about Alexander dumb? Call Kensington Delta Town Andes Tower Hills is a lot of cross country ski trails to keep them very well, you know all that tall, but the facility is wonderful. Quad chairs or bad that mean it's a good facility and plus you get the runestone. They're just the key to the Norwegian Heritage FB Wright Maryville does the stone it is really a stone it is to the actual store work into it. You know what she has a lot of historical value if people don't know about that this there's the Kensington runestone is something that was found by farmer and maybe our listener can correct me on this bed. Around the turn of the century that just reported to have Viking Nordic language carved into it and that it's proof that the Vikings were here. You know long before Christopher Columbus Greystar Shores. I know it sounds like Alexander, for example, traditionally been big summertime destinations to go up to the cabin for the week in August. A lot of these towns Chris redirecting. They're at their efforts to now to ensure that people don't forget about them during the winter right there. There's a there's a ton of money out there quote for all these people are trying to get out and enjoy the winter. And now they're people are finally learning that that winter is it is a lot of fun and I think that you can find places in almost every part of the state now, you know more and more of the southwest corner and should get that that's the open Prairie and it's windy and still snow doesn't stayed very well and and I don't think that they're really developing the cross country skiing to the extent that the other parts of the state are because they don't have the the great environment for it. But that's part that I would plug right now for people playing in the spring and summer trips Southwest Minnesota spectacularly beautiful, and it's I completely under-appreciated part of the state at the next that area and I'll ride along the border from Pipestone South and then just over the Border Sisseton South Dakota. One of my favorite places just about 3 hours away from here some spectacular landscape, but it's a lot of things to see and do out there. Okay. I'm calling about winter vacationing in Minneapolis. Particularly for families. There is so much to do with it between the children's theater the Mall of America, of course. all the skating rinks around town skiing right in town some funny things games, etc. Etc. But I have to tell you about what happens when I talk to my North Dakota friends where I was born and raised. We live in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis and our friends in North Dakota and I presume around in about have the impression that we live in this den of crime when we do finally persuade them to come to our house. I cannot believe that our neighborhood is as quiet as any neighborhood in mini up in North Dakota. and I think probably families are people, you know, you can come the guys go to the Timberwolves others can go to the Guthrie whatever combination and and I we've got an excellent. Let me know. We've got a f coming up in in two weeks. I believe I travel sections going to focus on what we're calling in town getaways really things within 90 minutes are the Twin Cities and and that we asked readers to tell us what are your favorite places to beat the winter blahs and and some of them were with it within the Twin Cities tomorrow obvious choices like the conservatory in St. Paul the mega mall, we had every grade school school child in Maple Grove tell us they like to go to the maple to the mega mall to beat the blues but there's a lot of places just within an hour or so as we were talking about before that are that are great places to get away from The Twin Cities burger for a little better. Go back to the phones Dennis is in North Branch. Good morning on the FM news station going to be all Publications or something. There is one out. That's Minnesota's called Minnesota snowmobiling and it's available at Barnes & Noble that list of upcoming events are there 12 or 13 for this weekend is going to 12 or 13 for next weekend. I noticed in their calendar of events also want to mention for cross country skiing. We were just up to the voyageurs National Park area and went to candlelight skiing at the East East Falls at the voyageurs National Park entrance and you go across the skin of the Ice Road has what is called to the capital of a plant cell under some excellent Trails over there the they have enough snow and their groomed we also went on the air. Rivertrail, which is 5 miles east of 53 and that had excellent to groom to a lot of length and beginners trails and intermediate trails in that area. I went on the trails at at voyageurs them on this trip. I was on the last time there was when I was there the snow is pretty thin but it was a nice Trail. Although I did find it annoying that. Even when I was as far back as I could get on these Trails, I could still hear the whine of snowmobiles and death. I kind of took a little bit away from it. Thanks for those tips. Tennis preciate it Genies in Ely. Good morning. Hello. I think we have Genie. Maybe maybe not we do not have Jenny will try to get the genie in a minute if we can find her. Do we have anybody on the line right now? We do have somebody okay, it's Genie. I'm sorry, Virginia on the FM news station. Thanks for waiting. Good morning. The person who called in and wanted information on where to find information on what's going on in Minnesota what to do. We have found the Minnesota Department of Tourism a wealth of information and we stopped at the rest stop areas Thompson kill and caressed are two that we go to quite a bit whenever we're traveling and most of the information that we found on things to do and see in Minnesota in this area we've got in there we haven't had to go to a bookstore not that I'm knocking book stores, but there's a wealth of free information from the Minnesota Department of Tourism right at the rest stop, and I'm so happy to hear Chris. You're coming to Ely at the great weekend. Okay. Well Chris and I suppose you can use that one 800-555-1212 information over to get your 800 number for the Department of Tourism. I feel I feel kind of bad that I didn't bring that number in there because I should just mention that off the top. She's absolutely right and getting that Minnesota Explorer. They put out each season. It's like a newspaper that the truth Department put that has lots of ideas about the festival and things to keep your trips around. That's another great resource that I use at work when I'm looking at what cities to to highlight in the Travel section each week. What if you want to go south of not very far south, maybe the Iowa or something are there some destinations in in that area that you're familiar with? Okay. Oh, this is one of my favorite and this is a real quirky 1 West Bend Iowa The Grotto of redemption and add it is it is one of the weirdest places I've ever been to but I am definitely going to go back there. It should I think about a three and a half hour drive from here. And during the I believe it began in the twenties this priest became inspired. He was Ill. He asked Mary to save him she did apparently and he had promised that he would build a giant Grotto in Iowa and he did he did he did it in a huge way it is this incredible pile of of apparently millions of dollars worth of different types of Agate and rocks cemented together that this this one man cemented together and then he convinced people to help him. They dug a big lake and they raised money and brought Italian marble statuary and this is just big glob of glittering Stone out next to a cornfield and they've got tours of it and fundraising and that it's a used to be a huge tourism attraction in the fifties and early sixties and it still when I was there last spring there were Gsms been four hundred people. They're Milling around looking at this thing and going through all these little caves with these mysterious religious icons in a minute. It's unbelievable. I that I like that 144 going south even in the winter. I think that's that be a fun destination and the name of that again The Grotto of redemption The Grotto of redemption and we're in West Bend Iowa. And where is West Bend? It is in the northwest corner of the state. Okay. Well Chris Welsh. Thanks so much for coming in today and sharing your information and expertise on that you gain from what I think sounds like one of the funder jobs that a person could have writing about Travel and Adventure. Appreciate you being here this morning. You're welcome. And I hope I was helpful to somebody travel editor at the Star Tribune newspaper the guest this Saturday on midday. Thanks for being an answering all the questions in the program for Kitty Isley. Today was John Gordon. Thanks to John and 210. Michael directors Clifford Bentley and Jeff Conrad. Thanks to those of you who listened to and especially with those of you who called in with questions, and I hope we're able to help you out and marks. It act like midday on Saturday is supported by the oriental rug company celebrating its 10th anniversary year at 50th and Bryant in Minneapolis.