The Weekend

Aaron and I had a great weekend, we had a bit of a late start due to no planning the night before. I was so wiped after my flight that I didn't even get our things ready for the next day while Aaron was at work. We drove direct down, stopping at a few places along the way. We took the long way home today. These are our pictures from today.

We found a hike in Whitewater State Park and made the big climb up. It was pretty humid and I hadn't switched to shorts yet, so it was hot. The view looked just like the Amazon. Well I haven't actually been to the Amazon, but it is so lush and tropical looking here right now. That is the Whitewater River below us.

We made a stop in Rochester, saw the Mayo Clinic but didn't really go in as it was closed today. Apparently Rochester is known for its huge goose population, so we went to a park we knew we would see some. The park was very unimpressive, at least the part we went to. I think they are having an overpopulation of geese and trying to keep them out of some of the vegetation, it wasn't very pretty. We did find geese however, some with babies and some with teenagers.


Then we drove to Elba to climb their fire lookout tower. Seen here from a distance.


It was 600 steps to the tower, then the 10 or so flights to the top from there.


I found this centipede on the way up.


The tower


From the top


Elba from the top, apparently you can see 280 silos from up there, I counted 20 in a small area.

Going down was way scarier than going up. I don't have a problem with heights really but I understood the saying "Weak in the knees" as we were descending.

Then we stopped in Kellogg to visit LARK toys. They had an impressive collection of old toys on display and quite a few new ones for sale too. I saw 3 cases full of Matryoshka dolls and they also had a wall of them for sale. We rode on the carousel, the animals were all so interesting and beautiful.



Then we drove over the bridge to Wisconsin, just to say we'd been there.


The mighty Mississippi in Wabasha. There was an eagle center here, but it was $6 to get in and closing in 30 minutes. All I really wanted to see was the live eagle, which I saw as we went in to ask about the place.


Then we headed home, Aaron has two tests tomorrow, one at 8 am. So I cooked us a nice dinner tonight and am amusing myself so he can study. I was too tired to take a picture, but I made pepper crusted chicken, new potatoes, corn on the cob, and a light garlic cream sauce with shallots and mushrooms. It was really good. I'll post pictures from the rest of the weekend soon.