Category: To Occupy my Time

We returned to Sara and Shawn’s house via my first time driving on a six-lane freeway. (Thank you Portland planners, who have helped me avoid doing that on a regular basis.)  We caught Shawn up on our adventures over dinner and took one last walk to the river.  Here are some final river views.

(S&S.  I can’t tell which photo is the one that would be totally worth it when you saw it.  I’ve got a guess, but just because it’s the best one of the bunch.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe this one?

 

Thanks to Sara & Shawn for being such excellent hosts.  I had a wonderful vacation.
(Houses & Homes!)

It’s actually called Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store, but I think my name is better. Interestingly, they have no web site.  And only take cash.  And, if this blog post is to be believed, they have no phone number.   But do they need these things, when they are the world’s largest candy store in Minnesota?  I guess not.  Because how can you drive by this and not stop?

Huge parking lot indicates that it probably gets a little crazy on weekends.

What’s a tourist stop without homemade fudge?

We were initially amused by the reference to the Big Lebowski.

Sara wondered if someone changes the date every day.

They have the largest collection of soda.  Just look at all of these varieties! (They also had good varieties too. I was just intrigued by the gross factor.)

 

Candy as far as the eye can see.  They also had a ton of jigsaw puzzles.

Sara tried the TARDIS.

“I’m sure they don’t make candy cigarettes anymore,” said I, right before we found the candy cigarettes.

Rebranded as “candy sticks” for Marvel Heroes, but we know what they are.

We were happy to discover the Idaho Spud bars.  And that people had been buying them.

You can also have house-made apple pies and strudel.  These hand-made signs killed me.

 

As did this gentleman, who, if that blog post above is to be believed, is the father of the owner.

On your way out you could open your soda with this great period bottle opener.

Having taken in some Mankato sites, we headed north to Minneapolis.  However, we were sidetracked by this lovely specimen in Minnesota Square Park and pulled off of the highway to take a closer look.  The park’s website refers to this as a Pavilion.

Fabulous ceiling.

Really good vistas.

Multi-levels.

Great structure explored, we detoured through the playground on the way back to the car.

 

After a lackluster lunch at a mostly-empty restaurant where a patron constantly eavesdropped on our conversation (which we texted back and forth about so she couldn’t hear us discussing her) Sara and I headed to Minneopa State Park.  The waterfall was mentioned in Carney’s House Party, one of the Deep Valley novels and it sounded pretty, so I put it on the list.

After paying our fee (the poor park ranger in the visitor’s station was frustrated at the people who kept driving in and not paying their fee.  He was waiting for his compatriot to return from town so he could go down and write tickets for all the shirkers) we parked and headed toward the falls. Unfortunately, a woman with a camera was a bit in front of us and staked out the best place to take pictures of the upper falls.  She then took 4000 pictures.  We waited.  Not very patiently.

Multiple self-portraits ensued.

 

We took pictures not exactly from the angle we wanted.

We took timer photos.

We took pictures of the lower falls from above.  And still she was clicking away.  We gave up and moved on.

This talks about the water quality of the falls depending on what’s going on.  Because of the big rain two nights before, we had a bit of mud happening.

Lower falls and bridge.

We walked down to the lower level and then back up.  This kind of rock is easily to scratch into.  This means that the falls are always moving as the rock are worn away by the water.

Back for another look at the upper falls.

The lady had finally finished her in-depth photo session.  Here’s the shot!

Creek running into falls.

Tib’s house!  Isn’t it pretty?  Those who have seen the illustrations in the book might be wondering where the tower is.  But there was never any tower.  Lois Lenski “borrowed” a tower from other houses in the neighborhood.

Sara and I especially loved the glass porch doors.  We thought of opening a B&B with a tea house.  Wouldn’t it be lovely?

Just across from Tib’s house is the site of the school Betsy & Tacy attended.  This is not the school building they attended, though.

Here’s an example of a fabulous tower like the one Lois Lenski borrowed.

I adored this mid-century.

This poor house is undergoing some hard times.

We stopped at Lincoln Park, which looks nothing like it did in Maud’s day,

I’m noticing that Minnesota loves a historical sign.  Most are quite long.

Here is a new fountain, to replace the previous one, blown over in a storm.  It now makes the sign (which says, “no traces of the soldiers’ memorial remains) incorrect.

The rest of the park.

 

A few parting shots:

The Betsy and Tacy signs.

 

Sara and I take simultaneous pictures standing on the hitching blocks.

The road up the big hill.  Which ends now, instead of continuing up the big hill.

Sara waiting for me to set up the timer shot on the bench.

 

Alas, this is the best of the timer-shot bunch.  “Up” is not a good angle.

The view from the bench. The white house on the corner is Tacy’s house.

One last look at Tacy’s house.