Recommendations Posts

Yellow Bikes Adjacent to Swimming Pools

Photos by Yellow Bike Coffee.

I went to the Hermantown YMCA, which is somehow, I don’t entirely understand how, co-branded with Essentia. It’s an amazing complex, not least of which because it contains, as well, a Yellow Bike Coffeeshop.

Selective Focus: Holiday Pop-ups

The Thanksgiving weekend blizzard wreaked havoc on Small Biz Saturday and some of the Pop-Ups in town, but we have tried to update this list with the rescheduled events.

These are the true “get ’em while you can” offerings, pop-up markets where a wide variety of art, food products, clothing products and more are on display. There are usually snacks, maybe some hot chocolate, and lots of other people milling about, so the atmosphere is a lot more fun that adding things to your online cart.

Some are small, some are huge. Each market has its own vibe, check the websites and event pages for special instructions on parking, hours etc.

Let us know what markets we’ve missed in the comments, or by sending an email.

PDD Gift Guide 2019

Happy ho ho holidays. It’s time once again for the Perfect Duluth Day Gift Guide, a list of nifty gifty things made locally or with a connection to the area. We’ve highlighted 15 items; if you know of others, let us know by dropping us a note or add suggestions in the comments.

Countdown to Halloween: Duluth Paranormal Society

The Duluth Paranormal Society has been featured in the Duluth News Tribune. Most interesting is its research into Sir Benedict’s Tavern on the Lake.

The DNT article includes links to other resources:

Minnesota Paranormal Study Group

Iron Range Paranormal Research

Happy Halloween. 🙂

Countdown to Halloween: Nopeming

Nopeming has a special place in the paranormal of Duluth. The Travel Channel sent a team in 2015, as featured in the link above. The Duluth News Tribune covered its history in a 2017 article.

The Nopeming facility was in use until Nov. 25, 2002. Friends of mine have laughed that rooms and spaces shown on ghost hunting shows holding tormented souls were, in fact, the places they worked as food service workers in high school.

Countdown to Halloween: Twin Ports Paranormal Society

The Twin Ports Paranormal Society will “investigate the paranormal for people in need of help at no charge. Confidentiality will be respected.”

Countdown to Halloween: Lady Ocalat’s Paranormal Investigations

I’ve been to Lady Ocalat’s Emporium once, to buy some fake dove blood for purposes of writing with my new fountain pen. I don’t know entirely the relationship between the tarot reading services and the paranormal investigations, but Lady Ocalat’s website maintains a record of past paranormal activity, bigfoot sightings and UFO sightings.

Countdown to Halloween: International Paranormal Society

Gloria Doescher (left) shows Chris Julien (center) and Adrian Lee a photo of what her thermal imaging camera picked up during one of the vigils at Fairlawn Mansion and Museum in Superior. The three investigated the mansion along with other members of the International Paranormal Society, the first time in more than a dozen years that ghost hunters were allowed into the mansion. (Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram)

The International Paranormal Society has visited Duluth multiple times. One of its visits included time on the SS William A. Irvin, another the mansion at Fairlawn. Adrian Lee, its founder, has a pretty unique gimmick — he talks about working at the intersection of history and paranormal science, spending time in archives to track historical records that help him make sense of the data his heat sensors and ghost boxes find. Triangulation yields truth, apparently.

New Duluth Marketing Campaign

 

PDD Gift Guide 2018

Find something for everyone on your gift-giving list with PDD’s annual curated gift guide. It’s a bit different than most gift guides in that it’s not a list of stores that advertise with PDD — it’s a list of items created in our region, chosen simply because they are nifty.

Barmuda Triangle of West Duluth

Sure, you’ve heard stories of mysterious and unusual disappearances in West Duluth. What exactly happened to old so-and-so last night? Well, there’s a good chance your friend slipped into the Barmuda Triangle.

Summary of Make Canal Park Pop! and 2001: A Space Odyssey

I spent part of Friday at Make Canal Park Pop! and Saturday at 2001: A Space Odyssey. The events felt oddly similar, and my experience of both was disjointed if not entirely cynical.

The Realistic Joneses

I left Panera for the Realistic Joneses at the Zeitgeist while, it seemed to me, a woman was in a tree. I’m not entirely sure about the tree part — I know she was in the woods, alongside the creek behind the parking lot separating the Panera from the Aldi complex, and I know that the police and EMTs were looking upward as one of the pines was shaking. I didn’t see her. I could only hear her voice, sadly crying that people believed that something was wrong with her. I felt a sadness that mirrored hers. There was no way for this story to end which didn’t fulfill her words.  I wished there were a way for people to just turn their backs and let her leave, if that would be what she wanted.

Free Range Trials of Cecilia Ramon and Kathy McTavish

 

“In farming terms, field trials are an opportunity to determine effectiveness of experimental techniques in agriculture.” 

On Sunday I went to the Free Range Trials at the Food Farm in Wrenshall. Free Range Trials is a lab for artistic process and creative experimentation through the exhibition of work by Kathy McTavish and Cecila Ramon. The lab will be open daily between 2 and 5 p.m. through Sept. 3. To learn about Ramon, you can listen to KUMD here.

Ice Cream Delicacy in West Duluth by Denfeld

I tasted T-Icy Roll Ice Cream yesterday at 4602 Grand Ave., next to an old favorite, Zhong Hua.