Bemidji, Minnesota, is the “first city on the Mississippi”. It seems to be filled with fresh-faced, bright-eyed, friendly people. It’s a fairly good barometer of a place when the vast majority of its citizens from kids to oldsters look you in the eye, smile and say hello. It’s an artsy community of about 13,000 people, with sculpture on the downtown street corners and several columns of exhibits and performances in the small local newspaper. The winters are long and hard here – with temps as low as 60 below (yikes!!!) and less than 8 hours of daylight at times. So, people are out everywhere in this fine weather we are having now on roller blades, bicycles, walking, running, canoeing or just strolling the shore of Lake Bemidji. Giant statues of Paul Bunyan and his sidekick, Babe the Blue Ox have been watching over the lakeshore since 1937, and a huge statue of Chief Bemidji is just down the street a ways.