Friday I did not get a chance to blog because Travalon and I
took the day off and drove to Prairie du Chien, then up the river to La Crosse,
and then over to Rochester to visit Ma and Pa Hat. It was not a lovely day
weather-wise, but the trees were beautiful with their fall foliage. The day had
become a bit nicer by the time we arrived, so we went for a hike at a local
park which is a bit of forest right in town. The next day Ma Hat made blueberry
pancakes and hazelnut coffee for breakfast, then Travalon gave my parents a
Christmas present: five little bears that play Christmas songs on the
xylophone. They turn and look at each other while playing and know an enormous
number of songs. I should have made a video to post on this blog but of course
didn’t think of that until just now. Anyway, Ma and Pa Hat were very pleased
with the bears. All four of us went to a family-owned lapidary and jewelry
store to see if they could clean off my great-great-grandmother’s wedding
necklace, so that I can wear it for my own wedding. While they were cleaning
it, Travalon and I looked at men’s wedding bands, and he found one he liked, so
I got it for him. (We had to special order it because his ring size is so
large.) Then we all went to Kinney Creek Brewery for some beer and pizza, and
then we started to take a walk by the Zumbro River, but the day had become
gloomy with drizzle and even something like tiny hail, so we drove around town,
giving Travalon the tour. We saw some of my old schools, the Plummer House, and
the city’s war memorial. After that my brother visited for a short time, and
then we went to Hu Hot for dinner because my nephew works there. He escaped
from the back, where he was doing dishes, to say hello briefly. As Travalon and
I were leaving to head home, he said to Ma Hat, “I’m glad that you like the
bears,” and she said, “I don’t really follow sports, at least not football.
Sometimes I watch tennis, and maybe a little golf.” So Travalon and I had a
good laugh about that on the ride home, as we listened to Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs.
And that was our trip to Rochester. I’ll let Travalon add anything I may have
forgotten.
Famous Hat
1 comment:
You and I got quite a pumpkin fix on this trip, having both a pumpkin spice shake and pumpkin/salted caramel concrete mixer ( drove 5 miles out of our way in Sparta for it) from Culvers, and a couple of pumpkin spice lattes.The drive along hwy. 60 from Spring Green to Prarie du Chein along the Wisconsin River with all the rolling hills and fall foliage is also worth mentioning as it was very beautiful, especially around Muscoda, Wauzeka, and Boscobel We also explored some historic small towns along the Mississippi such as DeSoto and Lynxville WI, and Dresbach and Dakota MN. Two things in La Crosse are on our near future bucket list: a visit to the Guadalupe Shrine, which I have never seen, and a return to this bar restaurant we ate at once which has iced coffee with Baileys, rum and toffee liquer- yum !
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