Wisconsin & Minnesota

We stayed state-side this year for our vacation & decided to focus on the upper mid-west area.  States that none of us had visited yet.

So on Saturday the 20th we got up early & headed to the airport.  After two easy, short flights we landed in Des Moines, Iowa.

Yup-Iowa.  Check off another state for us all.

Luggage in hand, and rental car obtained we headed out of the city and grabbed some lunch on the way to our first destination: 

Yup-the Spam Museum.

It is a thing and it had all kinds of people milling about inside.

We enjoyed checking out all the displays on the history, and the worldwide popularity of Spam,

and all three boys enjoyed the samples of various types of Spam that came out while we were walking around.

From there, we drove another hour north to spend the night in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

Check off another state for us all.

And some cheese curds.

The next morning we packed up the rental, enjoyed the cool morning air, and headed north along the Great River Road to our next destination.

The scenic byway followed the Mississippi river along the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota and is beautiful.  Added bonus, we saw a couple of bald eagles too.

Then as we were all starting to talk about lunch, we approached the small town of Stockholm, Wisconsin (population 78).  We slowed down to roll through the village & I noticed a cafe with several cars and a large banner about having the best pie in the area.....

So yes, naturally we had to stop.

The cafe had several meat pie/poutine options for lunch, and we all ordered different pies to sample:

Yes, Stockholm, Wisconsin knows its pies.

Absolutely delicious. 

Then we drove a couple more hours to our next destination:

Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Wisconsin.

Crex is a giant (30,000 acres) wildlife area that is known for all kinds of birding, and large variety of mammals & reptiles.  Timber wolves are present & we were excited to see what we could spot.

In terms of hiking, we knew there were limited actual trails available but stopped at the welcome center to get more info and hike a trail nearby.

Our helpful & chatty volunteer cautioned us about going off any trail-you will be covered in ticks-was his exact phrase.  So we decided to stick to the trail nearby before driving into the preserve.

The trail was beautiful & wound past a small pond before turning into a grove of trees, and running next to a meadow.

And plenty of birds were out chatting away & darting around.

And also plenty of massive horseflies.

So many.

Kevin and Keenan took off at a super brisk pace back to the safety of the car while Kieran and I were trying to spot a hawk.  After a couple minutes of trying to swat away the aggressive flies, I gave up and ran for the car as well.  While we waited for Kieran the flies kept pelting the car, and Kevin found two ticks on his leg.

Kieran also gave up on spotting the hawk and joined us in the car, and we all decided that walking around in the refuge would probably be very minimal.

We headed onto the loop road with the aggressive flies still hitting the windows to see beautiful views like this:

                                         
Trumpeter swans with babies, and all kinds of birds.

Sandhill cranes popping their heads up in the reeds looking a bit like a dinosaur.

Bald eagles with babies in the nest.

Deer splashing through the wetlands, turtles, and so many birds.

After we finished our loop we checked in at our hotel in the nearby village of Siren, Wisconsin.

We walked to dinner (more cheese curds please), walked back to the hotel, and relaxed for the evening with some World Cup soccer.

Until 10pm when the tornado siren went off.

We had a few confused minutes (since there was no rain or storms nearby), then Kevin did a google search and realized the town does a weekly check of the siren after a horrible tornado destroyed most of the town several years ago.

Yikes.

The following morning we loaded back up and headed to the refuge for another drive of the loop road.

The weather was beautiful and horsefly free.

Was great to drive, stop and look for wildlife, and listen to the birds with the windows down.

Just lovely.

Then we headed west for our next destination.

Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

Check for another state.

After unloading our bags we headed out for a lakeside walk.

And to check out the Dambo troll near our hotel.

The lake is huge, beautiful water, and chilly.

We had a great dinner with lakeside views, more World Cup soccer, and laundry done.

Beautiful day.