Visiting Carleton and St Olaf's Colleges

Dear Diary,

My final  day in Northfield and I visited the two colleges in town.  Elaine's husband is dean of libraries at Carleton College and I was enchanted by the sculpture of "Toff" the cat who was Carleton's mascot for 14 years before his death in 2011.

"Toff was a rescue kitten from Kansas who came to live in Northfield and soon claimed the college as his territory.  An incorrigible character, he finagled his way into every building on campus, sat in on classes, visited the president, crashed a Board of Trustees reception, spent the night in various dorms with students, and occasionally set off the library motion alarm in the middle of the night (Campus Security loved him.)"


There is also Oscar the penguin (extra photo) who was brought back from an expedition to the South Pole in the 1920's.  I added him to Toff's table which is set up to celebrate his birthday on April 1st.  You can see Toff's sculpture in an extra as well with Elaine and Brad.


The chapel at St. Olaf's was spectacular and we also visited the Observatory at Carleton.  Soon, I head to Minneapolis for a night at the airport before my very early morning flight home.  I will just ahead of the snow storm heading to Maine Friday night...sigh.  Back to reality!