We are back from our trip. We drove to the Christine Center, out in the country. Lynn has been there many times but it was only my 2nd time. The place was a Catholic retreat center run by nuns but now it is generally spiritual but not specific to any religion. I don't consider myself a follower or any particular religion but I respect the power, the history and the place of religion in life.
The drive from there to the city of LaCrosse on the western edge of Wisconsin was surprisingly hilly and the roads twisted and turned in genuine switchbacks, something we are not used to. Lynn used to be faculty member at UW-LaCrosse and had her own apartment there for a while. I continued teaching at Point, about 120 miles away. After a while, we gave up that arrangement and she resigned to live in Point, too.
Moving back to Point meant we needed to find a house. Our son-in-law has a construction background and built our current house, which we have now lived in longer than either Lynn or I have ever lived in one place anywhere else.
We saw some old sights and ate at a fine restaurant right on the Mississippi River. The LaCrosse waterfront park is quite scenic and always makes me think of the painting by Seurat "Sunday in the Park". There are paddleboats that tour the wide areas of the river and bigger, more powerful ones that travel from New Orleans right on up with LaCrosse as one of the stops along the way.
The next day, we drove north along the River Road, first along the Minnesota side of the river and then we crossed to the Wisconsin side. We stopped in Alma, Wisconsin and in Stockholm, Wisconsin. We looked at art, and had coffee and ice cream. We picnicked in a state park on the river, using the excellent leftovers from The Four Sisters restaurant in LaCrosse.
We stayed last night in Red Wing, Minnesota, a town we have stayed in before. The Corp of Engineers was having a special meeting in town and took up many of the rooms available. The Corps is very important to all the towns, businesses and properties in the flood plain that gets hit one way or another each spring with snow melt. We did find a room and ate in a local restaurant last night.
We had satisfied our desire for new sights and drove home. Nice trip and gorgeous weather. Lynn likes to set our Apple and Google Maps to avoid highways. We did the whole trip with minimal interstate driving and lovely back roads and farms.
