Sept 5 & 6 Turtles, Tiffany and New York Times

Saturday Eve and I wandered into a fabulous Wabasha independent bookshop devoted to local Minnesota/Mississippi history, The Book Cliffscleverly named after the Book Cliffs that stretch for 200 miles between Colorado and Utah.  The owner-manager is Nancy, an anthropologist by training whose heritage is part Ojibwe.  In addition to some great books, she introduced us to her gospel music choir, The Travelin’ Shoes.  We attended a practice session and were blown away by the quality of the performance and original arrangements.  They’ll be performing soon in Menomonee Falls WI at the Lutheran Church; see the link to the left for more about them.  Thanks to Nancy, we also visited the turtle migration route

Turtle Crossing

outside of Wabasha and actually saw some migrating turtles!  

Find the Turtle

Wabasha is a great town, named for the lineage of 3 Wabasha Dakota chieftains.  A local poster quotes George Featherstonhaugh in 1835, commenting on his meeting with Wapasha II: ”dressed in a red coloured garment, he acted and spoke like a person still conscious of possessing some authority“.  But it was disappearing fast, as the whites moved in.  “They had no name for Mississippi, only Wamacrhpodah Tanka, ”Great River“.

Sunday we attended a prayer service at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church, celebrating its 150th this year.  Admiring the magnificent Tiffany stained glass,

Tiffany window, Grace Memorial Church

we were amazed when the acolyte read a sermon by a NY friend and former assistant rector of Ascension Church in NY, J. Barrington Bates!   Today Sunday Sept 6 an incredible article by Kathryn Shattuck was published in the New York Times Arts section, reporting on Eve’s Mississippi enterprise!  Eve, Mac and I later enjoyed a rare restaurant meal, complete with wine and beer, at the Harbor View Cafe in Pepin, WI.  3 stars!