Category Archives: random trippers

Walnut Grove 40th Pageant

So, for our anniversary, Josh decided to surprise me with a random nerdy outing. Unfortunately for him, I talked him into giving me a hint and I accidentally figured out what the surprise was. Whoops! Due to my bookwormish tendencies since I was a child, we were heading to Walnut Grove, MN to see the annual pageant that is performed in honor of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It’s a bit of a drive, and made for a late night as it is performed outside and doesn’t start until 9pm, but it ended up being a really fun day since we both appreciate a bit of cheese, but also history, and we of course both took plenty of pictures to share with everyone.

So, the first place on our list was at someone’s house. It was quiet and we weren’t sure if parking there would lead to us being tied up and hidden in a barn or an actual sod house. Turns out they actually have recreated sod houses (very few if any original sod houses remain).

It was extremely hot out, but we made the most of it. It was actually not that hot inside the sod houses, and the main one was surprisingly nice. Apparently at one point the owners actually let people sleep overnight as a fun B&B.

Lap of luxury.

Cozy, but not awful… it stays nicely cool in the summer and I imagine it warms up well in the winter months much as I imagined when reading the books. Granted, we got a more realistic look at what most sod houses started out as with dirt floors and without plastered walls.

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More on our crazy busy weekend!

This past week was full of spontaneous decisions and last minute changes. We knew it was going to be hot and come Saturday morning the kids were already getting antsy. So, I figured we could stay at home all day or we could find something free to do indoors. We had all day, so on a whim we decided to drive 2 hours to see the new Spam Museum. Its Minnesota… how can you not love Spam? It’s interactive with a fun kids play area, so we really couldn’t lose. Until we went to buy Spam in the gift shop and Enzo wouldn’t stop touching and grabbing things and when I asked him to hand over what he had he did the dreaded wide open scream that all parents dread when shopping. So it was just me and Phoebe maneuvering the stroller while I tried to keep her from grabbing things and an oh-so friendly employee followed us around, probably worried that we were going to cause more trouble. Anyhoo, it was fun, but I think they’re still working on filling in some blanks. Also, because Josh was wearing his Spam shirt, we got freebies, which Phoebe pretty much ate all of.

While we were on our way to Austin, MN, we drove by the RAD Zoo and decided since we already out this way we might as well stop there too, so we made our way there next. They have a large variety of reptiles and amphibians, though the main draw is their massive alligator Big Al who is 12 feet long. It felt a tad over-priced, but it can’t be cheap feeding all of those animals. We didn’t stay very long mostly because there was no AC in this giant warehouse-like building and it was around 90 degrees outside. The kids seemed to like the turtles best… personally I liked the lizards.

Both kids were tuckered on the way home and watched a movie while we headed home. Amazingly we were scheduled to arrive home right at dinner time, which rarely happens when we’re being so impromptu.