Boundary Waters camping trip

We started the trip Friday evening with a light rain, the wind in our face, and just 1 hour of daylight to paddle across 3 lakes and portage our gear across 2 short trails to read our campsite. Not an auspicious beginning, but we didn't let that slow us down.

No Barnhart camping trip would be complete without large fires to relax around. This is a campsite on Gaskin Lake, which is where we spent most of the camping trip.

And the sun did manage to poke through the clouds at some point.

We made a day trip over to Winchell Lake (the next lake over from Gaskin) and found a small creek on a hillside. Climbing up the creek was a little tricky, but we forged a path through the undergrowth...

...and found great rewards in the form of beautiful wigs.

Here Daniel models the latest fashion in men's hair products.

Some rainy days at camp, but fortunately we had a rain tarp to cover our spacious living room.

After the rain comes the beautiful sunsets...

...and the silly faces.

Our last morning in camp was a perfectly sunny day, with mist rising off the water.

David and I spent a lot of time capturing ripples on the still water.

The final picture as we complete our trip. Looking forward to showers, sleeping in comfortable beds, and getting back to our loved ones.

Ghoulish Lisa!

'Twas Tuesday night, before Halloween,

And Lisa was nowhere to be seen!

'Tis concert night at R.P. High;

Who’s to play the piano, asked I?

Why, all I see is a skeleton ghoul,

With painted face and a cute tutu!

What’s that? The ghoul at the piano, I see!

What has he done with my Lisa Marie?

But lo, it’s Lisa, dressed up as a ghoul;

Accompanying the choir, all dressed up too!

Of course, this was the way to be seen,
On this Tuesday night, before Halloween!

Poncho

In looking for photos that would help in my trip east, to find my Mom's roots, I came across a few pictures of the "Bag of Worms," as Dad used to describe Poncho.  I really can't remember much about this horse (how Grandpa Schotts happened to come by it, why he thought I'd want a horse, how long I had it, and what happened to it) but I think the expression in Poncho's eyes says it all!  Date?  I'm thinking the summer of 1972 or 1973.  The field was an empty one, just to the north of the house at the car lot, on Whitehall Rd.

Mr. Boogie Woogie

Mr. Dan Goes to Washington

Some of you may recall last fall that I traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to help out with some research that was being done after the extensive flooding. As a result of those experiences, my classmate Emilie and I ended up coauthoring a poster that was accepted for presentation at the American Psychological Association annual conference in Washington, D.C. So, a couple weekends ago I traveled to Washington, D.C. to present the poster. It was basically summarizing graduate student's experiences from the post-disaster research we had done last fall. The school gives a travel grant to you each year, which I used for this trip. So I basically got a free trip to D.C. Not having been there before, I used to opportunity to travel around the city and enjoy time with friends.






This was taken at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. They are hundreds, if not thousands, of the shoes discarded by Jews as they were unknowingly led to their death in the gas chambers. It was by far the most moving part of the entire museum for me. A sea of shoes.



This is my friend Trevor Olson and I. Trevor is a licensed psychologist who received his Psy.D. from Regent University (a similar program to Wheaton's) and was a classmate of my dissertation chair (Dr. Ward Davis). Trevor and I met out at His Mansion Ministries, which he worked at for four years as a counselor. Trevor and I became fast friends out there and spent much time in conversation and cycling the hills together for exercise. It was great to reconnect with Trevor and soak up D.C. with a good friend.



The White House at night.



This was a subway I traveled in that I just thought looked really cool.





Lincoln Memorial at night and again during the day. He's huge.



A favorite painting I found while visiting the National Gallery. I also visited the National Archives and saw the US Constitutions, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights. Pictures weren't allowed in there.




The National Mall, which contains the Capitol at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other. Situated between them is the Washington Memorial. The size of this place can't really be emphasized. It takes a long time to traverse it from one end to another. Easily a couple miles long.



Got to get up close to the Capitol. It's pretty impressive in person. It also felt a little bit fake, because when you see it in pictures your whole life its a little surreal to be there right in front of it. Sort of like - "is that really where everything happens?"






Washington Memorial


So anyway, there you go mom (and anyone else that cares to see what I've been up to lately). Congratulations to the newest member of the Barnhart/Ziemelis clan, Noah Martin! This little guy is the true man of the hour!

Taking down a giant

It's hard work taking down a giant...

This car loves my garage

This car was a gift to Daniel for graduating from Wheaton.  However, it keeps coming back to my garage.  Maybe he is mistreating it, or maybe it's the gift that keeps on taking.

Vote for Mike for President!!!!

Vote for Mike for President!

I will not screech at campaign rallies!

I will not have bad hair!

I will not lie about my emails!

I will not say bad things about lots of people!

I will be the strong candidate!

Russia will look at me and flee!

Illegal immigrants will be scared to cross the border!

Everyone will lose weight and shape up from my example!

I will exhale after the election!

disclaimer- this picture was picked as my favorite after googling picture of Mike Barnhart since I didn't have a picture handy.

Remember the old days?

Remember when the barnhartblogspot was the place to go for fun and information?  I do, and sometimes I go back to this spot to see if the charm is still there but it isn't there and so I come back to look less and less.  Once in a while a brave soul will post some interesting item and a couple of family members will chance on it and comment.  But gone are the days when this was the happening place on line.  Our blog spot has been replaced by facebook or whatever is the latest fad I would guess.  The blog spot has gone the way of the drive up rootbeer stand where you sit in your car and a waitress hangs your order tray on your window.  Now people want to go to Internet coffee shops and drink coffee, eat fancy sandwiches, and browse on line.  It's OK, things change, I just want to say goodbye to an old blog spot.  I think this post officially makes me an old man.

Autumn has Arrived

In Houghton, it's not really autumn until the maples start changing color.  Or, the first snow - whichever comes first.  This year it was the maples.

Well this wasn't what I expected...

On Sunday night we had a storm quickly roll through Chicago. Amber is back in Phoenix visiting her family, so I decided to take a video to show her the storm. Pretty quickly the storm turned a lot nastier, with the wind picking up more and more and hail starting to come down. There's a little surprise in the video:

Barnharts Blitz New England; Or, A Trip to Visit Daniel in New Hampshire

Before wrapping up my time working at His Mansion Ministries out in New Hampshire, I connived and begged David, Lisa, and Karl into coming out for a visit. As it played out, they were able to make the trip and we had a really great time. What follows is a "pictograph" experience of our trip, in a nutshell. Friday we hung out in Boston together and Saturday drove out to the coast to see the Atlantic Ocean. 

This was a really good seafood dinner we had. It's important to note that the look on my face is not equivalent to the satisfaction that the meal brought. It was my first lobster, and it was exceptionally good. 

David was inexplicably eating boiled eggs throughout the entirety of the trip. 

USS Constitution, a Revolutionary War warship