…I think that I’ll finally get back to our road trip.
Friday, July 8, was our last day in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The Sandbergs had suggested a couple of places to go when we had supper on Thursday night, so we took them up on one of them and headed to Stillwater, Minnesota, on Friday morning.
This was an absolutely beautiful, charming town. Located on the St. Croix River, the town heads straight up a bluff a few blocks from the river banks. We passed through the town, at first, as we really wanted to find the nearby state park in Taylors Falls, MN, and possibly take a paddleboat on the river or do some sort of other safe water activity.
However, we were thwarted at every turn because Minnesota was still in the middle of its government shutdown. (Remember that?!) Rest areas, state parks, traffic updates from the MDOT…none of these were available during our time in Minnesota. We did find a place that was offering riverboat cruises on the Minnesota side, but we had just missed one and then realized the highlight of the tour was looking at rock formations, as the “falls” part of Taylors Falls had been dammed or something like that many years before.
Really? Fifteen dollars per adult and $9.00 per child to look at rock formations for 80 minutes?
We took a pass and decided to cross the river into St. Croix, Wisconsin, in the hope that something interesting would be open over there. We found a small park on the river and walked from there on a short paved trail to a nearby nature center, where we learned a bit about the wildlife on the St. Croix River.
By this time, everyone was hungry, and we decided to head back to Stillwater, which seemed to be a much more interesting town, for lunch. We ate the Freight House, at the recommendation of the Sandbergs, and then decided to explore the town. We headed straight up the bluff to find the Old Court House.
Before we got there, we discovered an amazing little playground tucked away between some buildings. It was called Teddy Bear Park, and our kids spent an enjoyable 30 minutes or so checking it out. Apparently, a family of some means decided that the town needed something like this and privately funded it. It was very well maintained and had something for kids of all ages and a covered gazebo where parents could sit.
This ended up being the only place that I took pictures all day. I still can’t remember why this was so, but I must have had a good reason at the time!
After the park, we finished our hike up to the Old Court House, where we spent some time looking at a truly barbaric county jail and a neat little exhibit on the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry regiment that served in the Civil War. As the temperatures were miserably hot, we were ready to go by the time we finished up here, so we tried to stay upright while zipping down the bluff and headed out.
Before we headed back to the big city, though, we found another winery to visit! We spent 45 minutes or so tasting some wine and ended up buying six bottles. I’m not sure what our wine total ended up being for this trip, but I think that we came home stocked for awhile!
Then, it was back to Minneapolis, where we had a couple more things we wanted to do before calling it a day. Our first stop was the Hard Rock Café, where Jeff dropped off me and Charlotte so we could dash in and buy a teddy bear for our collection. As this was accomplished rather quickly, we decided to visit one more place out of the MSP Visitors’ Guide, a bookstore called Wild Rumpus.
We ended up having a wild rumpus finding the place. It’s in a neighborhood called Linden Hills, and, apparently, people who live here don’t really want visitors. We literally drove in circles for 45 minutes trying to find the correct road to take us into the neighborhood where the bookstore was. To add to the fun, the battery on Jeff’s phone ran out during this process, which means we had no GPS.
Finally, however, we managed to get in, find a parking space, and get to the store. And it was well worth the trouble!
Wild Rumpus is an independent bookstore that stocks only children’s books. It is quirky and creaky and home to several cats, birds, chinchillas, reptiles, and chickens, the first and last of which roam freely about the store. Charlotte and Elijah loved it here, and each left with a book of choice, paid for out of the dwindling allowance money. It was definitely a unique shopping experience!
By this time, thought, we were hot, cross, and hungry, so we somehow found our way back to the interstate, bought supper to go from a Sonic near our hotel, and spent the remainder of the evening eating and swimming. I would probably not call this day a highlight of our vacation, but it ended up being OK.
Next stop…the Wisconsin Dells, the final destination of our road trip. Finally, we are almost there!
No comments:
Post a Comment