Nostalgia

A little birding and lots of  nostalgia today. It was early fall and we had taken the ride down to the Mississippi to see if migrating waterfowl had begun to arrive yet.  It had also been some years since

 The Troutbirders had visited Frontenac State Park and also Villa Maria, Mrs. T’s childhood Catholic boarding  school.  That was the  place where the nuns had taught her to love God and despise liver and onions as well as splitpea soup (two of my favorites).  Come on along and take a look…..

We saw the usually ubiquitous honkers and more that a few ducks but the tundra swans had not arrived yet in their tens of thousands. Frontenac State Park lies on the bluffs, high above the Big River.  Every stop along roads and trails there   yields wonderful views.  Strangely we have never camped here before so we added it to our "bucket list."

 

Villa Maria lies on five hundred beautiful wooded acres in the river valley.  Closed for many years now as a school, it carries on it's service to the church as a retreat and conference center.  Alone, as a young girl, far from her mother, who worked nights in St. Paul,  her memories of the experience are bittersweet....

My own experience at Frontenac was at a summer Methodist Youth Camp right on the river. Think swimming, volleyball, campfires etc.  It was lots of fun and part of growing up. 

 

The chapel looked just as my memory recalled it but the dormitory and cafeteria site had seen far better days. The boat house and other buildings were gone. There was an air of sadness here but also the voices of teenagers running excitedly through my mind.  It was the mid fifties. I was fourteen and the whole world lay before me.....