On the Mark: Fun with family is like great background jazz

One of my favorite vintage jazz songs is “All the Things You Are,” Jerome Kern’s 1939 composition with Oscar Hammerstein’s lyrics. It floats down the keyboard: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, G7 — challenging for a piano player. It was on my mind last week while I was exploring our region with our two grandkids, 4-year-old Lou and 2-year-old Mosey, and their parents.

The first afternoon, we climbed all over Cromwell’s Kaleb Anderson playground, four adults trying to keep up with the ecstatic Lou and coaxing Mosey to try the steeper slides. Once school got out, a gaggle of kids arrived with their parents, adding to the fun. One family of Smiths arrived with their seven daughters. It seemed as if they were all dancing, from one structure to another, their laughter a musical backdrop.

The next morning, we ventured to the Cloquet library, stopping by the downtown Pine Knot office to introduce them to the staff and see the art exhibit of Karen Savage-Blue’s work.

Our daughter-in-law, Allison, loved the library’s kids’ collection, dubbing it the best she’s ever seen. While she chose a dozen books, the boys played with other kids building a brilliant large plastic block structure. I found some excellent language tapes to help me refresh my Spanish.

On to the Duluth’s Great Lakes Aquarium. Dedicated mostly to Great Lakes flora and fauna, it is beautifully composed, with sleek water-living creatures swirling around water-loving plants. It’s what my husband Rod calls “eye candy.”

The boys and their elders especially loved the replica of the Great Lakes water system. Lou and Mosey grabbed colorful plastic 8-inch boats and shepherded them through the locks. They closed the upper Sault Sainte-Marie Soo Lock doors to lower their boats from Superior to Huron and Michigan. Several lakes later, they navigated the dramatic series of locks that allows huge ocean-going vessels to avoid Niagara Falls. We had a hard time coaxing them to leave.

It was a blustery day. We decided to walk the pier out to the lighthouse in Canal Park. The waves crashed against the canal walls, spewing spray all over us. Lots of sidestepping, lots of giggling, adults as well as kids. We dried off in the spectacular toy store on the second floor of DeWitt-Seitz, J. Skylark. We spent most of an hour in there, enjoying the array of stuffed animals, the games, books. Each of us carrying something out. Mine was “The Poet” edition of 300 magnetic words for composing poems on the refrigerator.

On another rainy day, we headed for the Children’s Museum. Imagine four adults chasing and playing with two kids. Climbing fun structures, including a small airplane you can sit in and fool with instruments. A mini café with a fully equipped miniature kitchen, where kids can prep and serve a (plastic) meal on a table so low you’ll cramp your legs. A machine that blows air to launch lightweight balls up to the ceiling, challenging your catching skills.

Afterward, we waited restlessly in the foyer of the OMC Smokehouse to indulge in a very delicious smoked and barbecued meat-intensive meal.

The rain continued — no more playground athletics. After a delicious Sunday breakfast at Carlton’s Streetcar Kitchen & Pub, we headed to Duluth’s Depot. While parents and grandparents clamber up and down engine stairs, Mosey and Lou head for the kid-height wooden train replicas that allow them to be the engineers and track maintenance guys. Midday, we took the North Shore Scenic Railroad to Lester River, a narrated trip that delivers a lot of Northland history. I never knew, for instance, that the great fire of 1918 reached all the way to the Lakeview neighborhood on the far northeastern side of Duluth.

On home days, we read books, made music, cooked delicious meals, and visited with neighbors who stopped by. This was the first year David, Allison, Lou and Mosey visited in the fall. Prior summers, they came in early August. Once they began parenting, we deferred Boundary Waters Canoe trips for cabin-vacationing on the Gunflint Trail, taking day trips paddling Clearwater Lake and climbing every hill reasonable for a toddler. Hopefully we’ll not be too old to resume canoe trips when the kids are older. This year, it was fun to explore what our community and nearby towns and cities offer for kids.

“All the Things You Are” keeps running through my head. I’m trying to master it on the piano. It’s a great metaphor for our region, full of variety and surprises. Last summer, we enjoyed McGregor’s Wild Rice Days. If they visit in the spring, we can go birding in the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Run the Tamarack River from Cromwell to Wright in canoes. In winter, ice skate on Island Lake, sled on local hills, and cross country ski in the Fond du Lac State Forest. More than we’ll ever manage, but anticipation is one spice of life.

Ann Markusen is an economist and professor emerita at University of Minnesota. A Pine Knot board member, she lives in Red Clover Township north of Cromwell with her husband, Rod Walli.