Skip to main content

Blake Goes to Mayowood (and MOA)

I finally talked Blake into coming down to visit us. Really he just wanted to take advantage of my Minnesota Historical Society Membership. Only most sites don't open until after Memorial Day.

Along our trip to Appalachian country we picked up a cast iron stock pot for Blake for his birthday.

For breakfast I made ricotta pear toast.

Before we could head to Rochester we needed to get to a seedling sale in the neighborhood.

I gave Blake a few options on where we could go this weekend. While the Mayowood Mansion wasn't part of my membership it won out on places we wanted to go.

When we got here, we were confused as to where we should go. Was the mansion closed?

We almost went into a private residence. It wasn't very clear where to go.

Perhaps we should just go where the row of luxury automobiles are.

On our tour I embarrassed Brooke and Blake by asking questions and pointing out that some chandeliers were totally out place. Maybe I shouldn't go on mansion tours with these two.

Yea. Scott was that guy on the tour. 

On the other hand, they are not embarrassed by taking a photo in front of some dead rich persons house.

No photos were allowed inside so outside would have to do. We always get a photo by the front door.

Actually, embarrassing.


The grounds were pretty palatial.

Too bad it was so rainy.

We decided to eat lunch somewhere that wasn't some chain in suburban sprawl Rochester and settled on the Grand Rounds Brew Pub. A bar crawl was going on, which meant we had to wait for a while, but it ended up being worth it.

I went with a Ruben, yum.

The waitress thought my ribs were too small. So, she made me up another order. Nice!

Lately Meadow prefers boxed mac and cheese only. Real mac and cheese is "too cheesy".

She didn't eat anything.

Me:"Mmmm...ribs." Blake: "What a pig."

Meadow noticed we were near the "American Mall" and we asked Blake if he wanted to check out Nickelodeon Universe. He was super excited.


We had to see Lego Land first.

Meadow's awfully picky about what rides she'll go on. This swing is not one of them.

The Bubble Guppie ride is the best deal for the money.

I tried riding next to Meadow, but some ride operator told me the unnecessary seat belts have to be worn. I was not going to fit it. Nope, not ever.


Even Blake got to enjoy a ride.

Whenever Meadow wants a drink from the bubbler and can't reach, this is how I help her. Apparently Scott didn't know we did this.

Before heading home Meadow noticed the Disney Store.

She wanted to try on all the overpriced dresses.

We then went home and watched some animated movie.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Smoky Weekend at the Cottage and a Stop at Ladysmith's Northland Mardi Gras

This summer we decided to go to the cottage any weekend we had nothing else going on. This week, due to fires in the Boundary Waters and Canada, the air quality was pretty terrible. We debated if we should still go, but it looked like it would clear up by Saturday. So we took the chance. And by terrible, we mean the worst air quality we'd ever seen. Along the way we decided to stop at John and Heidi's Happy Daze . We've passed this place probably 100 times. It was about time to stop by. I ordered the prime rib sandwich special.  Yummy. The sandwich that is. Everybody's food was really good, but Brooke's was the star of the show.  I want to get back here asap. Now if only this pesky smoke would go away.

To Chippewa Falls for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair

I saw that the Northern Wisconsin State Fair was happening and we didn't have anything else planned. We booked a campsite at Lake Wissota State Park and we were on our way.  We hadn't been to a county fair yet and this seemed like it might be even better. We set up camp first in case we would be back late. This was a good excuse for a quick camping trip. Plus we'd never been to Lake Wissota State Park before or Chippewa Falls, really. Since 1897 Chippewa Falls has been hosting the Northern Wisconsin State Fair. More of a super-regional county fair, Wisconsin’s other state fair started as a way for folks up north to avoid the grueling, long haul down to Milwaukee County. Our first stop was to fill up our big jug of lemonade. I think this is the 4th year of this big jug. Brooke brings a couple of our old lemonade jugs with just in case. Then you get the refill price.

Our Wedding

Brooke and I aren't traditionalists. We didn't want to sit through a half-hour ceremony, but we also didn't think eloping was the answer. One thing that we did do was spend the night before the wedding in separate houses.   Even though Scott came with me to pick out my dress I still didn't want him to see me before the wedding. I had to keep one tradition. I woke up early to meet Brooke's dad at the Theodore Wirth Picnic Pavilion, only to find out that he was meeting me a couple hours later. I ended up getting most of the decorations over to the venue with my dad, sister and Dennis.  Scott had texted me in the morning, "I'm supposed to merry your dad right now right?". I was like, merry my dad? What he meant to type, but autocorrect corrected for him was meet.  Since Brooke came over to the venue to help, I spent most of the rest of the day with Blake, Colin and Olger. We ate some Pair of Dice Pizza and...