Traverse De Two Left or How We Went to 25 of the 26 Minnesota Historic Sites

This weekend we planned on hitting up the last few historic sites that aren't in Fargo-Moorhead.

But first Little buddy had his first taste of food. Watermelon.

He's growing up.

Scott has been very busy with work. With Meadow and Theo home he doesn't get much done. I took the kids to a playdate and then over to Oliver Kelley's Farm for the day so he could work.

Meadow and I came here last fall. I wanted to see it in summer when the gardens were growing.

It wasn't very busy so all kids got to help with farm chores. They asked a little boy for a piece of wood and Meadow ran out to find one first.

The next day we took a little day trip to knock off two more Minnesota Historical Society sites. This stop brought us to the W.W. Mayo house in Le Sueur. When the house was built there were only temporary homes and shacks in the area. This house was considered a mansion compared to the others.

You can almost imagine it seeming giant compared to one room cabins.

We once again arrived just in time. The tour guide was nice enough to restart the video.

Our tour guide's "normal" job is a health teacher. His love of history and health made him a great guide for this place.

Most of the furniture in the home are antiques not belonging to the family, except for this piece. After the Mayo's moved away the founder of the Green Giant company also lived here.

We made it to the second story when Theo was over historic buildings.

Theo and I spent a little while downstairs to calm him down.

I ended up missing the second half of the tour.

Another home tour to check off the list.

Theo was hungry, hungry, hungry. Meadow and I went for a walk through Le Sueur.

I wonder if small towns like this will ever see a resurgence. With remote working on the rise I sure hope that these walkable downtowns make a comeback.

I don't think I've ever driven through this town.

I wonder what Mr. Mayo would think of the home's location today.

Our next stop was the Traverse des Souix. With my membership I also get free or discounted entry to other museums. We purposely picked to go to the Traverse des Sioux on this day so we could also do the Nicollet County History Museum together, but the museum is no longer run by the state.

I guess we could've paid. 

We just did the historic trail instead.

Meadow was whiny until we told her she could run through the woods.

Closer to the river it got pretty muddy.

This was the location of the historic meeting place for the Sioux/Dakota people and later the signing place of Traverse des Sioux. This was how the Dakota ended up in Western Minnesota along the Minnesota River.

Meadow then started mumbling, "I hate mud! I like princesses and unicorns and rainbows. Ew yuck squishy mud."

The trails were a bit unkempt.

I guess the surrounding park is kept up by volunteers. This was once a state park. I couldn't find any history of why this was transferred to the county. This site seems so important to Minnesota history.

Meadow was ready to go at this point. 

We took the long way home and saw a carnival in Prior Lake. 

Of course we stopped for a quick ride. 

Back at home meant Big Pancake for dinner.

Later I was at the Minnesota United game with Nate and another one of his friends. Sorry kids.

We had to walk down to our little corner market to get flour for the pancakes. I usually let Meadow pick a treat.

Theo and his watermelon.

The next day brought us to Minnehaha Falls for 25th MNHS site: the Minnehaha Depot. This place is only open for a couple hours on Sundays in the summer.

It would be cool if there was also a train to tour.

It's darling, but going inside doesn't add much to stopping by any other day.

Our quickest location yet.

Meadow and I had some Sebastian Joes. Theo wanted in on the ice cream too.

I had a shoot in the morning before I met the fam. I needed something more filling. I ended up with a fish sandwich from Sea Salt. Wasn't this place going to close? I'm so confused.

It's actually been a few years since we've been over here.

She's always finding rocks to climb.

Then we cooled off in the creek.

Good weekend, Minnesota.