Wisconsin Sights

Wisconsin – Wed 8th April

Today we went for a drive down the St Croix which flows into the Mississippi for a nice lunch in a small town called Stockholm (not the one in Sweden !!) with a population of 95 – see pic. The main attraction here was that there was a pie shop that made delicious pie, but when we got there it was closed and the art shop owner next door suggested that we go to a pub opposite them called Gellys, for a good lunch, which we did. While we were there, he came over to say that his sister (who owns the pie shop) had come in and if we wanted, she would bake us a pie!!! We ordered an apple pie. We had a wonderful homemade lunch, looked at a little kitchen shop and then collected our pie. Continued on down the Mississippi a bit further and then crossed over to the Minnesota side for the trip back to River Falls.

River Falls – Thurs 9th April

After a great breakfast at a typical US Diner called Dennys, we headed off to a town called Stillwater. We went to a great viewing site of the river and a paddle boat coming up it. We have seen quite a few Marinas and all the boats get taken out of the water and have a covering over them, much like being shrinkwrapped, for the winter. If they stayed in the water, they would be crushed by the ice which freezes all the rivers & lakes, including the Mississippi.
Dereck and Peter when to play golf and Liz and I went shopping. I needed to buy another suitcase and we found a nice one including another carry bag at JC Pennys. This is a local store, probably similar to our Hub, but a better quality, with a really great selection of everything!! My bag and suitcase are …… yes, you guessed it, purple!! My credit card was declined for some reason and if I had not used it in New York, I would have been concerned. So, we went to a shop called Joannes which is a craft shop and they have a lovely scrapbooking section too!! Found a few things, but again had a problem when coming to pay. Liz and I decided that it was pointless carrying on shopping if my credit card was a problem, so we went home to try and get it sorted out, but they close at 7pm and it was 7:12pm (bearing in mind that we are 7 hours behind SA). Liz had a siesta while I wondered around the garden and then read my book. Once Peter and Dereck got home (Dereck had a great game of golf) we had some cheese and biscuits for a really late lunch and then we headed off to Hudson for a drink at a pub along the river. The pub we found was called Pier 5 and was on a promenade opposite the St Croix river. We had a stunning view and it was really pleasant. I had a very tasty glass of Riesling wine. We had planned on having pizza for supper, but then decided that it was so nice sitting there, that we would have supper there too. We left at about 6pm as it had started getting a bit cold and went home to finish off the apple pie and ice cream and then had an early night so that we could get packed and be up early in the morning for our flight out to San Fransisco via Salt Lake City. We are now 9 hours behind SA.