I had an epiphany at the end of a trip to the West Coast earlier this year: Seattle is a lot like the Twin Cities, and Bellingham, Washington, is Duluth’s equivalent. Granted, there are major differences – but hear me out: The population of Seattle and the Twin Cities metros are roughly the same (3.5 million to 3.7 million), both reside on important bodies of water, both have world-famous industries, attractions, sports teams and musicians and both have Democratic mayors (all three actually).

Devil’s Tower with Amy Nelson’s teardrop camper in the foreground. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

As for Bellingham vis-a-vis Duluth, drive two hours north from the larger cities close to the Canadian border and you’ll find two spots again with roughly the same population, also on waterfronts, with a vibrant university population and an outdoorsy, progressive ethos.

I came up with the comparison after an epic 3,500-mile road trip pulling our teardrop camper and our car filled with clothes, furniture and various sporting goods to help move our son from South St. Paul to his new home in Bellingham. We made the trip over 10 days, camping most nights but spending a few days doing touristy things in Seattle, checking out Bellingham and taking a few detours into Wyoming to see some sights we’ve always wanted to visit. It was a lot of long days on the road and hours spent listening to podcasts, but the driving was part of the adventure and the freedom to pull over to a roadside attraction when we wanted also was an appeal. We likely won’t make the drive again anytime soon – direct flights into Seattle are fairly affordable – but for anyone planning a similar trip, here are some recommendations and observations.

A slow start

We got on the road later than we had hoped that first Saturday of our trip in late August after some last-minute packing and a lunch that ran late. Traffic out of the Twin Cities was heavy, too, but we made it to New Salem, North Dakota, in seven hours and had a reservation at a barebones campground that had electrical and water hookups but strangely no bathrooms or showers (only a biffy). No matter, because by the time we arrived, we went straight to sleep under the town’s oversized Salem Sue fiberglass cow statue on the top of the hill.

The Enchanted Highway “Geese in Flight” sculpture near Gladstone, North Dakota. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

The next day, we knew that we would gain an hour as we drove west, so agreed to check out the Enchanted Highway sculptures along the route. These seven quirky, gigantic metal pieces of art are the work of local artist Gary Greff, scattered along a 32-mile route originally intended to draw visitors south from the interstate to his hometown of Regent. The first piece we discovered is titled “Geese in Flight,” near Gladstone, North Dakota. This sculpture holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest scrap metal sculpture and was dazzling as the sun reflected off it and birds flew between the connecting rays. We also visited the “Deer Crossing” sculpture before turning back to the interstate for an hour-long drive to our next stop at the south entrance to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, where we marveled at the gorgeous stripes and striking topography of the Badlands from a scenic overlook. The immense change from the prairie to the Badlands is like discovering a whole new world.

We ventured into charming Medora for some coffee and discovered a storefront/office space dedicated to the upcoming Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, opening nearby on July 4, 2026, to coincide with America’s 250th birthday. A scale model display of the museum and event center shows how the design honors Roosevelt’s deep love for the land and his environmental interests. We may consider attending the grand opening event because it’s sure to be impressive.

Crossing the Continental Divide

Our day ended after a six-hour drive from Medora to Bozeman, Montana, where we met up with our son. We have been to Bozeman multiple times because he attended college at Montana State University, so we knew we wanted some cocktails at our favorite speakeasy, Devil’s Toboggan, and a late dinner inside the charming Field & Stream Lodge, which is themed around the popular outdoor magazine. I learned the magazine title was bought last year by musicians Morgan Wallen and Eric Church, who have added a music festival and the hotel to the brand. If we weren’t already camping, I would have lobbied for a stay at the new lodge. Over the years of visiting our son in Bozeman, we knew short-term rentals are difficult to find and hotel stays are incredibly expensive, especially for popular dates like graduation. Even the campgrounds were $50 or more a night at the end of summer.

One of many nods to penny-farthing bicycles in the west, this one in Wallace, Idaho. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

The next day, we headed out for Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, planning to sleep there for the night on a friend’s recommendation. Seattle is a doable 10-hour drive from Bozeman, but we wanted to see more sights. It was a hot day with some challenging driving through Glacier National Park and past the Continental Divide marker, especially with our camper in tow, so I was grateful to pull into Wallace, Idaho, for a stop. What first looked like a typical dusty small town off the highway’s overpass turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The town of approximately 1,000 people is rich with museums and quirky attractions. First, we made new friends at Wallace Brewing and heard about the area from the bartender.

Then, we had to go find the “Center of the Universe” manhole cover in the middle of the town’s main intersection. The marker came about in 2004 when the mayor announced the town was the universe’s center based on the philosophical concept of probabilism, which states that if something can’t be disproven, it must be true. I intend to use probabilism for future ideas. The town celebrates the designation every year and for its 21st birthday this year, had an extra special festival planned because now “the town can legally drink.” We also explored the very detailed mining museum dedicated to the area’s rich history of silver, lead and zinc mining but were disappointed to discover the Oasis Bordello Museum was closed for the day. That’s right, along with the center of the universe, Wallace also celebrates its history of legalized brothels that allowed prostitution until 1991. We needed to get back on the road but wanted to see more of the area, which we did on our return trip, camping at the Wallace RV Park that has an attached restaurant and brewery. Just an hour away was Coeur D’Alene and its breathtaking, scenic drive of the lake. We captured a beautiful sunset at our campground and settled in for the night.

The Center of the Universe decal in Wallace, Idaho. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

Seeing Seattle

The Seattle skyline from a boat tour. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

The beauty of Coeur D’Alene quickly disappears on the nearly 5-hour drive across eastern Washington to Seattle. At least it was flat. Past Spokane, it started to lightly rain, and I realized we had nearly perfect weather up to that point. After dropping our camper at a generous friend’s house just outside Seattle, we drove into the heart of downtown for a two-night hosted stay at The Maxwell Hotel. The funky boutique hotel is pet-friendly and part of the StayPineapple chain, so there are pineapple-themed details throughout. It’s also a great location to take in many of Seattle’s main sites, and we had a looming view of the Space Needle from our room.

The day ended with a magnificent hosted dinner at Raccolto in West Seattle. Raccolto is the latest restaurant by chef Brian Clevenger, who is also behind popular restaurants Vendemmia and East Anchor Seafood. The amazing breads, pastas and inventive desserts reminded me of some of the best meals I’ve had back home at Dario in Minneapolis and Mucci’s Italian in St. Paul. We ended the night completely satisfied without even enough room for a nightcap at one of the many taverns and dive bars near our hotel.

A sculpture in the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum in Seattle. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

The fifth day of our trip was dedicated to seeing Seattle’s top tourist sights, and it was a full 14-hour extravaganza. We had two CityPass vouchers to use, and could choose five of seven attractions. First up was the most popular and iconic: the Space Needle. From our hotel, we walked about 15 minutes to the landmark in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood for our morning timed entrance. Built for the 1962 World’s Fair, the observation tower feels both retro and futuristic at the same time. The historic photos detailing the construction and engineering of the observation tower offer a sense of how remarkable it is, and the panoramic views of the city and its waterfronts showcase the area’s beauty on all sides.

Speaking of beauty, our second pick was the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit, which is steps from the Space Needle. It features the colorful, immense and intricate glass works of artist Dale Chihuly. I’d say Chihuly’s worldwide works are almost as instantly recognizable as the Space Needle, and pairing the two next to each other is brilliant. Another nearby CityPass choice was designed by another instantly recognizable creator, architect Frank Gehry. Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture’s distinctive, stainless steel facade resembles the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis because Gehry designed both.

Our next CityPass attraction was Seattle’s famous three-building aquarium on the central waterfront, which we explored after an impeccable steak lunch at The Butcher’s Table. Owner Kurt Beecher Dammier told us his Sugar Mountain restaurant group also runs Beecher’s Cheese and is looking to add a location in the Twin Cities area or River Falls, Wis. We also stopped by the Beecher’s Cheese store in Pike Place Market for some samples. Pike Place was hopping, and those famous fish tossers were putting on a show for the many tourists as we roamed the stalls and stopped in for a drink at the enormous Pike Pub.

Pike Place Market in Seattle. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

For our final CityPass attraction, we had scheduled a sunset cruise with Argosy Cruises Harbor Tour and joined a friend’s family who now lives in Seattle for the launch out of Pier 55. As a first-time visitor to Seattle, I learned some interesting history and highlights on the cruise, but it was our friend who said she probably gained the most from the tidbits about her new home. After my Fitbit showed I had walked 18,000 steps for the day, I called rideshare to return to the hotel, but my husband and son chose to walk the 2.5 miles back, stopping at a few more of those famous Seattle breweries along the way.

Bellingham’s best

A mural welcoming visitors to Bellingham, Wash. (Courtesy of Amy Nelson)

After a long day as Seattle’s No. 1 tourists, we slept late the next day but knew we only had a 90-mile drive to get to Bellingham. We picked up our camper and were off, driving north out of Seattle but into some heavy sprawl and snarled traffic so it took almost two hours before we arrived at Hotel Leo in downtown Bellingham for a hosted stay. Our son’s new rental didn’t start its lease for a few more days but we were able to move the clothes, furniture and other items packed into our car and his into the garage and walk through the house. That meant that we got to explore Bellingham with him that evening while he stayed at the hotel with us.

We found the area as endearing as we had hoped. Our first stop was Ritual Records, an immense warehouse dedicated to vinyl. I judge cities based on their music scene – which is why I love the Twin Cities so much – and Bellingham delivers. After that, I spent an hour at the NEKO Cat Cafe before dinner at the Penny Farthing restaurant. We had noticed a penny farthing theme along our drive, mainly in Idaho and then again in Seattle. The quirky bikes with their oversized front wheels look impossible to ride but seem to be a popular design element – possibly tapping into the steampunk vibe. From the restaurant, we walked along the waterfront to The Portal, where families and friends were enjoying drinks and dinner from the food trucks, craft beer kiosks and coffee stands all housed in shipping containers.

We continued exploring by walking back toward the downtown area to find a surprising number of breweries for a town its size. College-aged kids and their parents roamed the side streets and filled the eateries and patios several blocks. It felt like a welcoming, buzzy place to be. And while I hadn’t quite made the connection between Washington and Minnesota yet, when we left a few days later to return home, we were confident in our son’s new but somehow familiar next home.

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In the mid-1990s, when his band wasn’t touring, Jeff Nelson would work at local coffee shops. He was, he admits, “just OK” at making coffee, but quickly found a knack for designing the shop’s menu chalkboards.

At first, he just considered the task to be a creative bright spot in an otherwise uninspiring day job. But then he received a call from another cafe wanting him to do their chalkboards. And then another.

“It was kind of like Instagram before there was Instagram, because your portfolio was there for anyone with a low-grade caffeine addiction,” he said. “And word has it that lots of people in food service like coffee.”

At some point in the early 2000s, he said, the scales tipped: The requests he was getting for menu board gigs were keeping him just as busy as the coffee shop job. The decision of which path to pursue “was a no-brainer,” he said.

Now, under the moniker “Jephemera,” Nelson works full-time from a studio in the Lowertown Underground Artists cooperative, a basement space on Prince Street founded by artists like Nelson who formerly had studios in the Jax Building before it was converted to apartments.

Nelson’s handiwork regularly announces what’s new at places like Cooks of Crocus Hill, Subtext Books and The French Hen Cafe. He drew the wall of flavor signs for Grand Ole Creamery’s outpost inside what’s now known as Grand Casino Arena, and this year, he designed signage for the St. Paul Farmers Market’s new indoor space.

His work shows up in other formats, too, from magazine covers to beer cans to building walls, including the floral mural he painted behind Grand Avenue art shop Wet Paint in 2019. For the past couple years, he has created map guides for theater company Wonderlust Productions’ interactive Hidden Herald audio storytelling project.

Speaking of maps: When Nelson isn’t working on client projects, he creates extraordinarily detailed maps — but not of places that exist in real life. They’re mostly not even places at all: One, “The Glorious Island of Cheese,” imagines every ‘country’ on a fictional island as a variety of cheese with ‘cities’ marked as suggested pairings. Other maps break down the famed 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper soda and visually organize favorite albums from artists like Weezer, They Might Be Giants and Tom Waits.

In college, he said, he’d format his class notes as maps.

“It’s a way of cataloguing taxonomical information in a visual kind of way,” he said. “Everything’s kind of a taxonomy when you get down to it. You have a big body of knowledge and you drill it down to the smaller parts.”

Nelson, in his classic cheekily self-deprecating way, denies he’s an artist. No, he says: He’s an illustrator. Or maybe, in a way, a translator.

“I really only have, like, three really good original ideas a year,” he joked. “I really love working with other people who have something they need to get out there in a visual way. It’s a ton of fun to work with people who have something they care a lot about and to be able to put that into a visual medium.”

But, as the name “Jephemera” implies, the work he creates for businesses around town is ephemeral. It’s meant to be temporary. When it’s time to roll out new specials, Nelson’s work disappears beneath a fresh coat of black paint.

“It’s really freeing to work in a medium that’s not meant to be forever,” he said. “It’s fun to be part of that madness. If people want to change things up completely, we change it up completely. People are much more willing to play around when it’s a medium like a chalkboard.”

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When Minnesota launches its taxpayer-funded paid family and medical leave program on Jan. 1, it will be the 13th state to offer such benefits — and one of only a few that has built its system from the ground up in the past decade.

Greg Norfleet, the chief architect of the program at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, has said he is confident that the new benefits system — one of the most significant new benefit programs in state history — will work as intended on “day one,” though ambitious new state systems have encountered problems as they’ve launched in the past.

Minnesota’s vehicle licensing and title system, MNLARS, was plagued by software issues when it started in 2018. MNsure, the state’s health insurance marketplace, had significant delays due to software issues when it opened for applications in 2013.

Minnesota’s new system appears on track to start on time, and it’s already accepting early applications for parental bonding leave. Though, it’s yet to be seen if claim projections will align with costs.

Other states have had successful paid leave launches, although some have had problems in recent years.

For instance, Maryland passed paid leave in 2022. Its 2025 launch date was delayed two years to 2027 due to issues with costs and organization. Taxes would start in 2027, and payments would be available beginning in 2028 under the current plan.

Washington program’s financial woes

Washington state’s paid leave program has been operating since 2020, but has been plagued by staffing shortages, benefit payment delays and financial troubles.

In September, a state actuarial report found the program could face a $346 million deficit by 2029 and a nearly $1 billion deficit by 2030 under the current tax rate limits.

That comes after the state transferred $200 million to the paid leave fund in 2023 when the account for the program risked running out of money. The extra cash stabilized things and allowed the state to lower the tax to fund it, but didn’t resolve long-term issues.

Currently, the tax rate for Washington’s program is 0.92%. It’ll increase to 1.13% at the start of next year, and is expected to grow until it reaches a maximum of 1.2% in 2027. Once it reaches that projected ceiling, the program will struggle to remain solvent without extra state funding as claims will outpace premiums, according to the report.

Minnesota’s program

Minnesota’s paid leave program will be funded by a new 0.88% payroll tax on most employers. It will be split between employers and employees.

Employers can choose to cover the entire cost of the benefit, but most can charge employees up to about half the amount: 0.44%.

Asked if Minnesota’s program might face a similar fate to Washington’s, Norfleet said Minnesota has the advantage of being the 13th to launch the benefit.

“We know a lot more about the demand for these types of programs than we did even five years ago,” said Norfleet, who developed a similar program for Massachusetts, the eighth state to do so. “We’re starting higher than some other states have started, which I think does give us more financial stability over the longer term.”

Claims outpaced premiums

When Washington started collecting taxes in 2019, a year ahead of its program launch, the premium rate was at 0.4%. That gave the state around $467 million to fund the program at the beginning. But paid leave proved popular and claims quickly outpaced taxpayer premiums.

Around 113,000 people claimed the Washington paid leave benefit in 2020, costing the state around $613 million. By 2023, the number of claims grew to more than 210,000, and the cost doubled to nearly $1.5 billion.

After the Washington Legislature provided the program additional funds, payments and premiums continued to grow. In the 2025 fiscal year, 240,000 claimed the benefit, costing the state around $2 billion — $300 million more than the previous year.

Growth is stabilizing in the program, according to the state’s Department of Employment Security, but deficits still loom. Washington had a population of 7.7 million in 2020 and 8.1 million in 2025. Minnesota, meanwhile, has a population of 5.8 million, up from 5.7 million in 2020.

Washington’s program has a staff of 318 as of 2025, according to a recent legislative report. Meanwhile, Minnesota hired around 300 earlier this year and plans to have a staff of around 400 new state employees for its program.

Why officials say Minnesota’s program will be different

Minnesota’s paid leave launch is different from Washington’s in a few ways. First, there was no payroll tax in the year before the 2026 launch. Instead, the program is seeded by $668 million from the historic $17.5 billion state budget surplus in 2023.

Secondly, the standard premium rate for Minnesota’s program is more than twice what Washington’s was in its earliest years. The starting rate in Minnesota will be a 0.88% payroll tax shared between employers and employees.

Minnesota officials estimate that nearly 132,000 people will apply for the benefit in the first year, and that the state will collect around $1.6 billion to fund it.

The initial estimated tax rate grew from the earlier projection of 0.7% when the Legislature passed the program in 2023. Last year, the House passed a bill boosting collections by about $312 million after a new actuarial analysis found 0.88% would be the most effective initial rate to fund paid leave.

The maximum rate allowed under current law will be 1.1% — down from the original 1.2% when paid leave was first passed in 2023. House Republicans were able to reduce the overall maximum rate by 0.1% as part of a budget deal with the DFL-controlled Senate and Gov. Tim Walz earlier this year.

Groups like the National Federation of Independent Business warned of growing premiums before the program was enacted two years ago.

An early test

One component of Minnesota’s paid leave program is already operating in a sort of “beta” test phase. DEED is currently taking applications for parental bonding leave with certain employers. That early benefit access could expand to a broader group in the coming weeks, according to state officials.

Part of the reason for this is to test a small part of the system before it goes live, but also to help alleviate a large number of parents applying for birth-related benefits at the beginning of the first year, something Norfleet said is referred to as the “baby bump” in paid leave circles.

That’s because if a parent had a child in 2025, they are eligible for benefits in 2026 up until the child’s first birthday. With early access to applications, Norfleet said he hopes DEED can process around 5,000 leave applications before the rest of the program goes live on Jan. 1.

Past the paid leave pilot testing, DEED has held more than 300 public engagement sessions with employers across the state to help them prepare.

Minnesota Chamber’s concerns

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has pointed to issues other states, such as Washington, have faced that may be warning signs for Minnesota’s program.

Lauryn Schothorst, who handles workplace issues for the group, said they’ve discussed problems like program rollout and call center staffing with the state.

“DEED is very well aware of our concerns based on experiences in other states like Oregon and Washington,” Schothorst said in a statement. “DEED has said loud and clear that they are also tracking these cautionary tales and have been preemptively working to prevent them. We’ll have to see.”

Their primary concern, however, is the effect new rules and regulations will have on businesses across the state. Schothorst said some of the biggest troubles for businesses will be revising benefits packages and employees on extended leave during workforce shortages.

How it works

Starting in 2026, most Minnesota employers will be required to offer employees 12 weeks of family leave and 12 weeks of medical leave. Annual time off will be capped at 20 weeks.

Events like having a child, a serious illness or caring for a sick family member are eligible for coverage. Supporting a family member called to active duty in the military, responding to personal safety issues and bonding with a child also qualify.

The amount of money workers will qualify for under paid leave will depend on their wages.

Someone who earns less than 50% of the state’s average weekly wage, according to the state Labor Department, would get 90% of their normal pay.

A worker earning more than 50% of the state’s average weekly wage would get 66%. Those earning double the weekly average pay would receive 55% of their regular wage.

A person earning Minnesota’s annual average salary of $71,300 would get $1,075.72 a week in payments from the leave program. DEED has calculators that provide estimates of premiums and weekly payments on its website.

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St. Paul PD’s first AI policy: How is it being used and what’s next?

Artificial intelligence is upon us, and just as other historical breakthrough technologies have proved, it is not a matter of how it will accommodate us but how we must accommodate it.

Education, finance, law, transportation and energy are all sectors that are being dramatically transformed by AI, and medicine will be no exception. What will the AI automation of health care mean for patients?

With more diagnostic power available to patients than ever before, they will have more agency than they could have imagined. The AI transformation of medicine likely will sharpen diagnoses, streamline treatments and improve patient outcomes. Convenience will be the coin of the realm; many doctors’ appointments and emergency room visits will become unnecessary. The long era of sitting quietly while the doctor pronounces what ails us and what to do about it is ending.

Unfortunately, the future may not be as promising for physicians. The machines will soon out-doctor the doctors: AI will diagnose better and more quickly, and robotics will perform procedures more efficiently (the next generation of robotic surgery will need minimal human supervision). Physicians, especially the less experienced, are likely to overrely on machine AI in the pursuit of efficiency and speed. Doctors could become drone workers to the queen bee of AI. If that happens, what point is there in training new physicians? It is a notoriously cost-inefficient process.

But it doesn’t mean physicians can be completely eliminated, if for no other reason than AI “hallucinations” — the misleading results that machine learning occasionally generates. The diagnosis or treatment that AI suggests could be completely wrong, and the machine will not realize its error. Amr Awadallah, chief executive of an AI startup, told The New York Times, “Despite our best efforts, (AI systems) will always hallucinate. That will never go away.” Infallible machines turn out to be fallible. So there will have to be a physician somewhere in the equation to monitor the process.

But the biggest risk of AI in medicine will be cybersecurity. Of course, you will be assured that your information is secure. But it won’t be, because there is no such thing as total security. Electronic medical records were once touted as secure, but whole hospital systems have been taken down and held for ransom by malefactors. Given the national interconnection of medical databases, an AI agent could in theory take down the medical systems of the entire country.

Between hallucinations and hacking, there will have to be a role for physicians. The brilliant family physician and medical blogger Dr. Buzz Hollander once described the importance of the physician in the era of AI, “The internet has been a godsend for medicine; it has democratized medical knowledge away from the medical center libraries and academic journals and put it in everyone’s hands, at a faster pace than ever before. However, there is no device capable of reasoning through complex medical problems less prone to hacking, malware and corruption than the brain of a physician. No large scale attacks can be made on this form of intelligence.”

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The government, insurers, the health care industry, Big Science and Big Pharma will welcome, and eventually demand, that medicine be turned over to AI. The speed, efficiency and, of course, the profits will be too hard to pass up, risks be damned. Everyone in charge of health care will come to the same conclusion — the tremendous upside of having AI in charge of health care is worth the foreseeable risks. But, of course, not all risks are foreseeable, and those that are will be borne primarily by patients.

The AI revolution will be of immense benefit, but at the same time, it also will demand that all of us — patients and physicians — be aware of its shortcomings and potential pitfalls. Patients are the nexus between responsible health care and a dangerous technologic tsunami. They must make their desires known, the sooner the better, especially if they want the human contact that physicians, nurses and therapists provide. High tech should be tempered with high touch.

The author Avi Jorisch, who wrote a treatise on technology, “Thou Shalt Innovate,” observed, “Like every true revolution, it will begin within us — with the ancient, ever-new realization that technology is a mirror. What it reflects depends entirely on who we choose to be.”

Dr. Cory Franklin is a retired intensive care physician and the author of“The COVID Diaries 2020-2024: Anatomy of a Contagion as It Happened.” He wrote this column for the Chicago Tribune.