Saturday Drive Back in Time

What to do on a beautiful Saturday when your A/C is out? Well, drive to the yarn store of course!

When we went to the Shop Hop in April, we had special ordered a skein of their special handpainted yarn. It took quite awhile to come in, but I serendipitously got a call from them on Thursday saying it was ready. What a great reason to drive over to Lila and Claudine's which happens to be across town. We headed out over there, where we were also presented with a coupon for 15% off, which we of course promptly spent on Noro and some black sparkly yarn destined to be a shawl. When we got back to the car, we decided it was way too hot to drive home, so we started down to Stillwater, which is a small town, on the banks of the Mississippi.

When we got to Stillwater though, we quickly realized everyone else had had the same idea and we never even made it into the parking lot, instead driving back up the hills and over the banks. At this point I decided we should drive south, and check out The Yarn Garage owned by the amazing StevenBe. For some reason, we had never managed to make it down there during operating hours, and it was on our must-do list. Once there we bought more black sparkly yarn, and a couple more shawl patterns (there's a story here, but it'll wait for another time). Of course, since we'd then gone THAT far south, we decided to drive to Lake City which is where lake Pepin is.

Lake City Marina

Plenty of boats on the water

This shot really shows how big the lake is - 40 square miles

I love this little red sailboat

Another big lake shot

Driftwood on the Beach

Lake Pepin is actually part of the Mississippi river, and is naturally formed through sedimentary deposits on the Chippewa river. Lake City, is the birthplace of waterskiing, and is a beautiful little town. But, Wisconsin, holds the bigger claim to fame here, as Pepin Wisconsin is the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the setting of her Little House in the Big Woods.

Lance liked the lake, Ramya was too busy looking for dead fish to eat

The water level is still high from all the spring rains.

Looking across to Minnesota at the bluffs.

What a shock Lake Pepin must have been to a little girl
growing up in The Big Woods. That huge expanse of sky and light
and water!

When I looked at these rocks, I was reminded of how in Big Woods
she talks about picking up pebbles turned by the waves at the lake
and how excited she was by the colors. They really are colored
in all different hues. And I may or may not have picked up some..

Most of the boats are sailboats, but there were a few annoying motorboats out.

I love the LIW books, and have read them all many times. When we lived in Missouri, we visited her home in Mansfield Missouri, and it's been a longstanding goal, to visit the settings of the books. I am literally surrounded by them here, in the Frozen Tundra, with settings to the South, East, and West. I however, have never managed to make it to them due to the horrific weather we experience most of the time. So today, we headed across the lake to Pepin. We had dinner, at the Pickle Factory, there (luckily they serve more than pickles) and combed the shore for a bit before heading out of town. On the way, we passed a sign with information on the area, and it directed us to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Wayside, where there was a cabin on the approximate site of their farm.

The little cabin

I like this shot of the sun setting.

This was a 3 room cabin with a loft. I'm thinking it may have been
a bit bigger than what Laura would have lived in.

Inside is info on Laura, and a picnic table.

We headed home along the river, watching the sunset, basking in the glow of ticking another thing off the list of things we have to do before moving.

This abandoned farm and truck were across the street from the wayside.

And this one just down the road.

This was a working farm still, but the barn has seen better days.

Blurry picture, but do you see the cute little critter? One of 2 we saw on the way.