and a later section of less vital information.
Look below for your choices of lodging, dinner, and some options for which you will pay when you register. When you are ready, follow the link to the "Register and Pay" webpage, where you will be asked if you will stay in the dorms, and whether you want a companion to join us for dinner, in addition to yourself. And many other useful details are below. NOTE: registration is now closed but that website is not: if you want to come at the last minute, please email me or we won't notice that you did!
Driving instructions (includes parking and dorm check-in info!) from Rik for his Minerva collaborators still work this year for MINOS+ people, can be found here.
Maps! Here is an interactive campus map. Here is a Google Map with useful locations in it. Note that the campus map has the helpful note "Firefox may fail to display the map". That's useful. Map to the dinner (the easy way). The shortest and most scenic way is on the google map, for the adventurous.
The docdb entry, and a pdf agenda.
Internet access is best done using "eduroam", which you'll want to test at home before taking on the road. Odds are good that your university supports this: check with your IT people to see if it's not obvious. Once set up, you can go to most universities around the world and just have wireless access, it's great. I was even able to connect at random museums in Britain last fall.
If your university doesn't have it, you can use YourUserName@services.fnal.gov and your FNAL services password on eduroam, once you get here (or to FNAL).
If neither of these work for you, the UMD guest wireless is easy if all you need is http access. However, if you want, say, ssh, let me know (there's a limited number of devices I can register under my account).Sessions will start Monday morning, so most people will want to arrive Sunday afternoon or evening. Sessions will end Thursday afternoon, with enough time that people driving back to Chicago can return that evening, and others can catch the last flights of the evening on Thursday if they want, or pick the early flights Friday morning.
In addition to the choices of lodging and collaboration dinner below, we will collect an additional flat $50 per person which mostly covers lunch and coffee breaks each day plus a few facility expenses. Substantial support for our meeting has been generously provided by the Swenson College of Science and Engineering courtesy of the dean of the college, Dr. Josh Hamilton.
The plenary meeting room will be the "Kirby Rafters" on campus, with two smaller rooms booked nearby for parallel fun. We will have Readytalk connections, but you'd rather be here than offsite, right?
It is an eight hour drive, 500 miles from Chicago, so carpooling is a reasonable option. For people who want to drive but need to break up the trip, Eau Claire is three hours from Duluth and on the other direction Madison is two hours from Chicago and the Dells is (are?) three hours. Chippewa Falls is near Eau Claire, where you can tour the Leinenkugel's brewery or the Chippewa Falls Museum of Industry and Technology (it's Seymour Cray's hometown).
United and Delta offer direct flights service from one of three major hubs: Minneapolis, Detroit, and Chicago O'Hare. Most flights arrive in DLH in the afternoon or evening, and leave in the early or mid-morning.
If you are traveling with a group of three or four and can coordinate well enough, it does work to arrive in Minneapolis, rent a car together, and drive three hours north to Duluth. You save the Duluth premium on each ticket, and many originations have competitive direct flights to Minneapolis. Doesn't pay to do it by yourself, but does in a group.
Rental cars or not? I would say Duluth is very hikeable but not so walkable. If you are staying in the dorms, you can walk to the meeting, and only need to arrange transportation to and from the airport 15 minutes drive away, at worst its a $10 cab ride that you maybe can share. There are several restaurants, some local and some chains, that are within 2km walk from the dorms, or do some carpooling into town.
More rental cars or not? If you are staying in one of the hotels downtown, the situation is mixed. The hotels both offer complimentary shuttle service from the airport, and even to and from UMD (though the Sheraton only has an 8-person van). Truth is that there are plenty of restaurants and the lake within walking distance of these hotels. The only thing I can't figure is how to get to the reception at Glensheen on Wednesday night. But most anything else in town, or a longer walk in the rain, would require a car or a cab. So some of you will want to rent a car, or groups from the same institution will share one, but maybe some of you will be pleased to try to go without.
Low cost option is to stay in the UMD dorms. Linens, shared bathrooms, and the beds have mattresses, really! (Rik checked). Cost is $42 per night for single occupancy, and you pay and reserve when you register. Breakfast is available in the food court near to the meeting rooms. Nothing stunning about that. Next closest breakfast or coffee shop is 1km away, if that is helpful for you making your choice, but we will have coffee service at the meeting. If two people want to reduce the costs even more by sharing a room, reserve and pay for one (and each of you pay for breakfast if desired) but let me know separately who is sharing it so I let the housing people know.
Block of rooms reserved at the Sheraton in Duluth at the $106/night standard GSA government rate. This weblink will take you directly to booking one of these rooms at the Sheraton booking webpage (this link is not to register for the meeting, only for booking a room at the Sheraton). This hotel is in a pleasant part of downtown with several good restaurants nearby, and a modest stroll from the Lakewalk and Canal Park area: the latter having even more restaurants and Duluth-themed shopping. The reserved rate is lower than what you'll find for many hotels in town, June is the high-tourist season. Breakfast is not included, but complementary shuttle service from the airport and to and from UMD is available for guests.
A few rooms at the four-star Fitgers Inn at a rate of $225. Telephone this hotel to make your own arrangements at the pre-arranged meeting/UMD rate. This rate is higher than the GSA hotel limit, so many of you will find it out of the question, but is a great rate for this hotel, and might appeal to one or two of you. Its 0.5 km from the Sheraton, again with good restaurants nearby, and is on the Lakewalk. Breakfast is not included, but complementary shuttle service from the airport and to and from UMD is available for guests.
Reserve your hotel room by 8 May, or dorm room by 15 May, after which the blocks will be released. And the rooms probably will evaporate, because it's tourist season.
You are welcome to make your own arrangements if you have special requirements, but because its the high-tourist season, you will probably not find a better rate without being at the outskirts of town. If you are traveling with family and want a kitchenette or something, there are some lodges, condos, or vacation-rental type places along the north shore between Two Harbors and Duluth, a few in town, and some along Minnesota Point, plus one or two reasonable extended-stay suites chains that cater to business folks but are unfortunately up by the mall up on the hill. Oh, and the one with a waterpark, my kids give that one a thumbs up. You are welcome to ask for more information, and we can even ask if some of them offer a "UMD" rate.
Monday 1 June visit to the Blue Heron. The Large Lakes Observatory people have been very helpful with our CHIPs deployment efforts, and offered to show us around their research vessel. It's docked at the Army Corps of Engineers dock on Park Point, 15-30m from campus, just on the far side of the historic lift bridge. Here are directions. They're leaving for a research cruise early Tuesday morning, but will have most of the pre-trip chaos sorted by 5pm Monday. Figure leaving campus around 4:30, visiting the ship for something less than an hour, and heading to the bonfire back at campus starting at 6:30.
Monday 1 June welcome bonfire: at the Bagley Classroom which is walking distance from the dorms, and was designed by a noted regional architect. Marshmallows, chips, root beer, that kind of thing. You might recall our meeting is approaching the solstice. Sunset at 9pm but twilight through 10pm.
Wednesday 3 June collaboration dinner: at the Glensheen Mansion, the historic Congdon Estate, on Lake Superior. This will cost $55 per person, not including the cash bar. When you register, you can pay for yourself and optionally for a companion. It will include a tour of the mansion and some history of Duluth. If the weather is suitable, we'll be on the lawn, overlooking the lake, otherwise inside the mansion
Lunch will be delivered to the room where we hold our sessions.
If you have read the above and decided what arrangements suit you best, you are ready to register and pay. The website makes you think you are registering for a continuing education course, a bit silly, but you're in the right place, so just go with it. (If you went to Snowmass2013 in Minneapolis, the silliness will look familiar.) Register as a guest and it will work. You will pay the $50 meeting fee (including lunches and coffee), and then you will certainly see the next line and choose the collaboration dinner and optionally a companion dinner ($55 each, a quantity box will open). Then choose the dorm ($42/night) or make hotel arrangements separately.
Click Here to register now
Lunch each day is included in the meeting fees and will be had in the meeting room and/or the outdoor patio downstairs.
A few nice (and separately a few super-cheap) restaurants are within 2km walk or easy drive from the dorms, and several good (and some bad) pizza joints will deliver. This includes local joints as well as some national chains.
With startlingly few exceptions, my favorite resaturants are an easy walk from the Sheraton and Fitgers. A few more are an easy drive, and one fancy (for Duluth) restaurant is a 30 minute drive up the shore.
Working from a list Rik started last year, here are more details on restaurants.
Dorm people can choose breakfast in the campus dining hall, but all alternatives are bring your own or that same ~1 km walk from the dorm, which you may or may not find so convenient in the morning. Hotel people have several reasonable options. The morning coffee service includes something like half-bagel or half-cinnamon roll per person, for people with really light breakfast and second breakfast needs.
Plan for a range of weather from low 60s to low 80s, chance of thunderstorms, all within the same week. Overnight in the low 50s to low 60s. The weather depends very strongly on a convolution of the direction of the wind, and how far from the still-cold Lake Superior you are. You can amuse yourself with the forcast the week before, it will say the same thing I just said, prepare for both. The dorms and university are further from the lake than the Sheraton/Fitgers/Downtown/Lakewalk area by just enough distance and altitude to matter.
On the bright side, the historically latest date with a measureable snow was June 2, so there's that. And Duluth is a very nice sunrise town (twilight 4:30am, sunrise at 5:15am), if a morning workout biking or running along the lakewalk suits you. Even if you are in the dorms, you are at the edge of a couple large natural areas and trail networks for hiking or cross country running.
We're Outdoor Magazine's top rated place to live if you're an outdoorsy sort. The Soudan Lab was Popular Science's #1 Nerd Roadtrip, so (re)visiting your detector is another option for before or after the meeting: it's about 1.5 hours north of Duluth.
Some suggestions from Rik, who is a far more wholesome and outdoorsy sort than I am: hiking to Carlton and Britton Peaks (then lunch/dinner at or near Gooseberry Park), All-day trip canoe from Sawbill Outfitters with one or two portages, paved-trail biking 30 miles round trip from Gooseberry to near Tofte and back, trail/mountain biking at one or two places TBD.
For even more detail, and for the suggestions I didn't mention, go to this document, put together by Rik for Minerva last year (as was most of the hospitality-oriented info here!). Most activities are between 1/4 and 3 hours from your hotel door. I've outlined the variety of things you can do, if you are able to devote vacation time and stay an extra one or a few days. Walk or bike or kayak along the shore. Canoe in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Mountain Bike trails courtesy of COGGS. Hike the Superior Hiking Trail. Fishing. Birding, maybe, but snowy owls have already migrated north to the arctic for the summer, you might prefer to tune in to local Laura Erickson's show "For the Birds" at 7:30am and 8:30am CT weekdays or subscribe to her podcast, no kidding. Rock Climbing at Section 13. Kayak to the sea caves in the Apostle Islands. By the way, Lake Superior is too cold to be in without a wetsuit, unless you are responding to a dare, so I dare ya. Pleasant drive up the north shore, stopping at scenic state parks, camping or staying at hotels or lodges or B&Bs, or consider Bayfield and Madeline Island. Could even try multi-day wilderness style canoeing or hiking, but might benefit from early planning and getting a permit.
To get a flavor of the town, find the blogsite perfectduluthday.com . There is always interesting live music available toward the end of the week in the summer. And Duluth is a good beer town, for what its worth: several tap rooms at brewerys (Lake Superior and Bent Paddle jump to mind immediately, with the Thirsty Pagan over in Superior being my favorite beer-and-pizza-and-music place). My loving wife got me a Duluth Brewery Tour for Christmas, was great! And the college-level "Northwoods League" summer baseball team, the Duluth Huskies, has games in town early in the week. There is a casino near the Sheraton, you can see the penalty for not understanding statistics. Dive bar hopping in Superior, Wisconsin. I wasn't kidding about the wolves, or occasionally bears.
This web page is optimized for viewing with the Lynx browser, and is typeset using whatever default font your browser chose. Contact your vendor to complain about the typeface or strange odors. Any opinions or errors are the responsibility of the author, or the aether, and not the University of Minnesota nor the Linux distribution hosting the web server. Also, thanks to Rik Gran, whose planning for last year's Minerva meeting (and most of this web page) I've blatently repurposed for this year's MINOS meeting.