Monday, September 4, 2017 - Twin Cities - Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Lebanon Hills Regional Park is a Dakota County Park in Eagan and is really a gem found among the south of the river suburbs.  There are a chain of over a dozen lakes and over 19 miles of hiking and nature trails.  They also rent kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards at the Visitor Center and there are clearly marked paths to portage between the lakes.  The park is just beautiful and has so much to offer.  Plus admission is free!

When we lived in the Twin Cities, I can remember many a morning renting a canoe or kayak when they first opened and counting turtles sunning themselves on the logs.  I thought we used to see around 40 turtles on a typical summer morning.

This morning we were one of the first out and had the lakes to ourselves for the first couple of hours.  We only counted two turtles but made up for it in amazing birds.  We saw five green herons, 2 great white egrets, 1 great blue heron, a bald eagle, a cedar waxwing, a belted kingfisher, and a few others we couldn't identify.

The weather was gorgeous.  The sun was shining and the temperatures started in the mid to upper 60s and when we left the park around 12:30 p.m., it was in the low to mid 70s.

This was our steepest portage.

After a great morning we headed back to the hotel and decided to park for the rest of the day.  For lunch we walked over to Leann Chin and for supper we walked over to the Green Mill again.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017 - Twin Cities - Eagles and Locks and Dams

With plans to stop at our favorite chocolate store which doesn't open until 10:00 a.m., that left us with a leisurely morning to sleep in and enjoy breakfast which for my husband included leftover deep dish pizza from last night's dinner at the Green Mill.

We tried to stop at BitterSweet on our way out but they didn't open until noon, so we didn't bother waiting for Abdallah Candies to open and just started our trek home.  We had planned to take the more scenic route through La Crosse and so when I pulled up a map to pick our route, I noticed the Great River Road added very little time.  Since we were going to travel through Wabasha, my husband suggested stopping at the National Eagle Center which is a really neat center.

Donald, a golden eagle

Was'aka, a bald eagle from Jacksonville, FL
(southern eagles are a bit smaller since they don't need to build up reserves for a cold winter)

In Wabasha, we crossed over into Wisconsin and continued the Great River Road on the Wisconsin side.  On the way, there were 3 locks and dams just off the road.

At Lock and Dam #4 in Alma, WI, we saw two bald eagles in a tree sitting together (see the last picture).  The pool formed by Lock and Dam #4 is the longest in river miles (44.1 miles) with the largest water area of all the pools in the St. Paul District.  Lake Pepin is part of that pool.

Lock & Dam # 5A didn't have as great of a view and the lock was on the other side of the river but there was a cool underpass to get to it.

Lock & Dam #6 was my favorite since we got to watch several boats go through the lock.

We had an incredible lunch in La Crosse at Burger Fusion Company at the Valley View Mall.  You could build your own burger and they even had a gluten free bun.

Then it was finally time to head home and face reality.  We arrived home at about 5:50 p.m.  The computer calculated our gas mileage at 29.1 mpg for the last 283 mile tank which was amazing for the Mustang, especially considering it is 670 horsepower.  We did set the cruise at 70 mph and didn't need air conditioning as the temperatures were fairly cool.

Overall, we drove 771.1 miles and the computer calculated 25.8 mpg.  We hand calculated the mpg to be 24.1 mpg.

Friday, August 11, 2017 - Ladies' Weekend - Dubuque, IA

This weekend was our third annual "ladies' weekend", previously known as "girls' weekend" until my Dad kept reminding us that my young niece was a girl and should go with us.

This year we decided to head to one of my favorite cities, Dubuque, IA.  My Mom and Sister picked me up at work at 2:00 p.m. and we headed out with a winery in mind as our first stop.

We visited Fisher King Winery in Verona, WI.  I was really enjoying tasting their wines until they brought out their blueberry wine.  Needless to say, I was shocked to see its' bright blue color (similar to blue koolaid).  When I asked what gave it its' color, the gentleman meekly stated dye.  Who would put dye in wine???  That said, I did walk out with a bottle of their Perfection (port stye wine) and their Heat Wave Chardonnay.

We then went in search of Bauer-Kearns Winery which supposedly is at the foot of the M outside of Platteville.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find the winery.  We found the address but it just looked like a residence and there was no sign.  An owner of one of the next wineries we visited, mentioned that the owners of Bauer-Kearns are trying to sell, are not very into the winery, and are often not open even during their open hours.

We grabbed some fast food and then headed to our final winery of the night in Potosi, WI.  It is called Whispering Bluffs Winery across the street from Potosi Brewery where live music was playing in their Beer Garden.  The owner was friendly and she had some good wines.  I walked out of there with two bottles of the Chickadee Cranberry (one we drank later that night) and two bottles of the Indigo Bunting blueberry wine.  (This blueberry wine was normal wine colored and quite tasty.)  There was also some amazing artwork for sale in her shop.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Dubuque Hotel & Conference Center which was pretty nice.  It was pretty full though and the huge pool are was a big draw and so always filled with lots of people and kids.