Minneapolis and Wisconsin Dells

friday, June 30th we left Isaac and Christy and headed through Minneapolis and stopped to see Bethlehem Baptist Church quickly.  We then headed to Pepin, Wisconsin, the site of Laura Ingalls Wilder's birth and the site of Little House in the Big Woods.   We stayed in Wisconsin Dells and saw a bit of the town and riverwalk.  We ate at Mac, a yummy Mac n cheese place and Michael and Jeremiah got to have root beer floats at the root beer museum.

 

Thursday June 29

Thursday, we left South Dakota and headed to stop at Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Lydia and I went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and then we went to Plum Creek and played in the creek where their home was.  We loved seeing where Laura lived and the real Walnut Grove.

We had a wonderful time staying with Isaac and Christy in Sartell, Minnesota. It was so fun to see the church and the Mississippi River that they live near and we got a wonderful meal and breakfast and a packed lunch to go. It was so refreshing to be with them and they were great hosts!  The kids had so much fun together!  This was our first time in Minnesota!

 

Homestead

Before we hit the Badlands, we made a stop at a prairie homestead. We just took some pictures of the house.  Lydia and I love Laura ingalls Wilder and we're hoping to make some stops on our truck East at some of the places she lived.

 

Badlands and Wall Drug Store

Today, we drove to Badlands National Park. 

 We hiked the Notch Trail which did not disappoint us. We had to climb up a ladder walk as well as go on some steep cliffs to a beautiful view.  We also hiked the Door and Window hikes.  The Rock faces for like nothing we've ever seen before. It definitely was stunning. The boys and Lydia loved climbing up all the rocks.  We saw a big horn sheep on one of the rocks. I also loved all the sunflowers that were in bloom.

We then drove to Wall Drug in the town of Walk, SD.  It reminded us of jungle Jim's store in ohio. They had lots of funny different things for kids and lots of gift shops.  Welcome to the Wild West.  We ended the night eating in our hotel with some subs and spent two hours for the kids to swim in the pool.