This weekend my girls are at a church retreat. I suspect that they have a great time. Since they were not allowed to bring any electronics, I don't know for sure but why wouldn't they have a great time. They have many opportunities to worship and pray, they get to spend time with their friends and they get to serve the community and the weather is just wonderful. Though I must admit that I am a little surprised how much I am used to the fact that I can, usually, reach them any time on their cells. My mom used to make sure that I have enough coins to make a phone call from the public phone booth ;-)
Well, since the girls have a good time, I thought it is the perfect opportunity for some mom and son time!
Yesterday we went to the movies, a rare treat. I usually don't spend so much money so frivolous but since it was just the two of us and we caught a movie at a time when it is half price, we enjoyed ourselves. Though we did not get the overpriced popcorn and soda. We went to watch "Dolphin Tales". It is a wonderful movie, based on a true story. It is very engaging and Jeremy sat at the edge of his seat at time in suspense. It is really family friendly and clean. It is the kind of movie that sort of stays with you. We even looked up the "Winter" website. After the movie we went to Subway and got a sub and a cookie, that was as much as the popcorn was supposed to cost, but it filled us much more and I think it was a little more nutritious. When we got home we cleaned the house a little and my "little" guy fell asleep on the couch :)
While he was sleeping, I was booking our boat tour at Taylors Falls today. When we got up, we had a nice breakfast and Jeremy was very eager to help with chores and got them done very fast. I packed out picnic basket and made sandwiches and we left for the Harvest Fest in Stillwater. I didn't think that it would be as popular as it turned out to be. We got stuck in traffic for much, much longer than I had anticipated and so we could only drive through Stillwater downtown, but we are thinking that we will return soon, when there is not so much going on. It is such a lovely town, I am really looking forward to walking through it soon. Here are some pictures from the drive to Stillwater and some pictures from the downtown Stillwater......
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| He is watching a movie and listening over the headphones, so I could listen to a cd ..... |
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| I took this picture from the car, while stuck in traffic. Aren't those colors just beautiful? | | |
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| Downtown Stillwater..... |
It took us a good 45 minutes to make through Stillwater and vicinity, so we ran out of time to go to the Harvest Fest. I don't even know where we would have found a parking space anyway.....
However, this is the scenic route and it was a wonderful one hour drive to Taylors Falls. There were so many beautiful houses and farms on the way, I was looking forward to taking the same way back.
When we arrived at Taylors Falls, I wasn't sure exactly where to park, so I took the first available spot I found, which was right in front of the oldest existing public school house in Minnesota - at least thats what the sign said. Kind of ironic, right?
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| This in at the community center, where they had a ceremony that had something to do with mural behind Jeremy |
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| Here now, is the said public school house............ |
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| Jeremy took this picture, because he thought it was cool that is says "Old Jail Bed and Breakfast", there were many ideas he told me of how the name could have come about :) |
After that we got back into the car and drove up a rather steep hill. I can't walk so much these days, I guess I should see a doctor about the pain in the heel, I am guessing it is the Achilles tendon. Since it is hurting again I figured I better don't walk too much... Anyway, just up the hill we found the Folsom House. I just really, really like old houses and if I could I would want to live in one of the really old houses. They have so much character. Don't you wonder sometimes what you would hear if the walls could talk? I didn't take any pictures from the inside of the house, since I wasn't sure that that was allowed. For members of the Minnesota Historical Society, the admission is free :) We learned about Mr. Folsom and his wife, Mary and their children. We also learned about Minnesota history and saw pictures of logs blocking the rivers. At that point Jeremy remembered that we read "Paddle to the Sea" last year. Paddle get stuck in a logging camp on a river for a few days, though I think that was closer to Duluth.... anyway, he remembered the book. Living books are the way to go......
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| a not so good picture of the Folsom House. It looks much prettier if you really see it .... |
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After this visit we got hungry and wanted to sit down somewhere to eat lunch. Since the parking lot was not so inviting, we decided to find a better place. So we got into the car and started to drive. I thought it might be a good idea to look where we had to go to catch our boat ride, so I programmed the gps and off we went. Thank you God for prompting me to do that. I didn't know that it would take me 30 min to get stuck in traffic and waiting for a parking spot. Finally we found one, we had only 15 min. left. That was not quite how I envisioned our picnic, but at least we were not late for the boat tour. So we just opened the trunk and sat down and ate and drank, took some snacks and water and walked to the boat. Lo and behold, what do you think we encountered there? Yep, another line to stand in and wait..... While Jeremy held our spot in the line, I went to get our tickets, which I had bought the night before online. When I came back to the line, Jeremy was almost already on the boat. Unfortunately we too far in the back to get a seat on the boat. That wasn't so bad though, we were standing at the back of the boat outside and could still enjoy the beautiful view. I would like to share it with you....
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| We are leaving the dock |
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| the tree trunk wedged into the little cave was just kind of cool :) |
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| St Croix River, though we didn't see the cross..... |
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| On the way back. The rays coming through the clouds was really neat..... |
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| Even though the captain explained all the faces and such, we failed to recognize them in the rock formations. Maybe we just need a little more imagination ..... |
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| this was by the parking lot, isn't that just a beautiful color? As much as I dread the winter, the fall is a most beautiful time! |
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We drove the scenic route home again. This time with much less traffic. We ate our left over sandwiches and snacks, watched Mythbusters and now my little guy is asleep. The fan is running, so it will be cooler tonight, which means I can sleep better than last night. I hope you enjoyed our little trip and maybe it encouraged you to do something fun and blog about it as well :)
