Anniversary Trip Number 5

We left for Wisconsin on Sunday the 15th. We made pretty good time, even with breaking down in Montana. But we were back on the road the next day and made it to Rice Lake on Wednesday tired, but safe.

We spent a few days with family and went to a Flach family reunion. Then the following Sunday we left for Lake Superior where we stayed for two nights for our actual anniversary.

J.D. in the big tree at great grandpa and grandma's

Driving great grandpa's tractor

The Flach family

Aaron, Mom, Sandi, Josh, Me and J.D.

Great Grandpa and Grandma

We were expecting a more "coastal" feel for the towns we visited along Lake Superior and were a little disappointed. However, we loved walking along the shore of the lake at dusk looking for rocks and enjoying the beautiful sunsets.












We looked in stores for a picture frame that said "Lake Superior" on it, and everyone looked at us like we were crazy for asking such a thing. Finally we found one at a Hallmark store (of all places, not a tourist store). It doesn't go along with the rest of the picture frames we have, but beggars can't be choosers. *In case you are wondering about the picture frames, every place that we go for our anniversary we get a picture frame as a souvenir*




Tuesday we started for home, but we headed down to Pepin, Wisconsin first. I wanted to see the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I wasn't disappointed in the least (even though the cabin was a replica).

The cabin where Laura was born and wrote about in Little House in the Big Woods

Our next stop was De Smet, South Dakota (even though it was out of our way). We got to see the Ingalls homestead on the prairie, the town where they survived the long winter (along with the store sites that their stores were located), Almonzo and Laura's homestead where they lived after the got married until their house burned down, and the graves of Charles, Caroline, Mary, Carrie and Grace and the son of Almonzo and Laura.

Ingalls homestead on the prairie

Almonzo and Laura's homestead (it burnt down, but if you look
closely, you can see an indentation in the ground where the house once stood)

Charles Ingalls grave

Seeing all of this really made her life more real to me than just reading her books.

We also stopped by Wall Drug for a few minutes to stretch our legs. J.D. really had fun playing in the water fountain.

J.D. playing in the fountain

Me and J.D. in a wagon

Then from there we went to Mount Rushmore. We also wanted to see Crazy Horse, but that was an extra $20 to go see, and we were running low on money. Josh enjoyed seeing Mount Rushmore since we were within the area, but like he said, we wouldn't make a trip out there just to see it.

We finally arrived home Saturday late afternoon. It feels so good to be home!