Grandpoppy Minnesota History Weekend

Scott's dad had talked about coming up for the State Fair. That didn't end up working out so he said he would come in September. The day after we returned from Wisconsin he was here.

We thought we would take him to Taylor's Falls for the day. When we reached the town we were already hungry for lunch. We stopped at The Drive-In.

 We don't really know any other options in town, so it's kind of our default option.

Although the pizzeria and malt shoppe looked good.

We had plans to go to the Folsom House, but it wasn't quite open yet so we walked around the darling neighborhood of Angel Hill. Apparently you have to paint your house white to live here.

There was one house that had a yellow hue, but everything else stuck to white.

Then we got a solo tour of the house.

My dad loves old houses and asked a few questions to our tour guide. The guide was super well-informed. He knew so many little details about the house that our tour went a little long.

For being a lumber barron and store owner he kept his house very modest. 

This lamp would be white when turned off, when you turn it on images show up. When the lamp was originally lit with a candle the flickering light would give the apperence of movement in the picture.


The home stayed in the family for 100 years. All of the items in the house are original.


This hutch was one of the oldest pieces of furniture. They took this from out east by wagon.

Of course Brooke needed her standard portrait in front of a historic house.

I'm going to make an awesome book someday.

Then we checked out nearby Interstate State Park. We had been on the Wisconsin side and have stopped here, but only stayed briefly. I like the trails on the Wisconsin side better, but the glacial potholes were a lot bigger over here.

This place was perfect for our rock climbing girl.

Of course grandpoppy was a bit nervous about Meadow hiking near the steep cliffs.

We hiked the whole way from pothole park to the camp ground and then back via the old railroad trail.

We only missed the Sandstone Trail. I actually want to come back and do that.

After our hike we were hungry for ice cream. Instead of our usual stop at Nelson's we went back to the General Scoop in Marine on St Croix, now called Mia's?

I think that's the new name. Can't find it anywhere online. It's still called the General Scoop on Google.

The new owners have switched it over to the Chocolate Shoppe ice cream. That seems like a good move.

You know we had a good day when Meadow falls asleep in the car.

On the way back from our adventure I finally got a new camera to replace my D800, which unceremoniously died in Blake's swamp. Thank god for business insurance.

We haven't been to the farmers market a ton this year, but we thought my dad might enjoy it. Plus we needed to go grocery shopping after being out of town for nearly a week, the week prior.

I'm loving the rainbow of tomatoes available now.

We didn't get any since we have some growing at home, but we picked up a few bags full of seasonal produce.

Even though we got her the mermaid from here last year she still loves to stop and look at all these toys.

My pops picked up some apples. He'd never had SweeTango before. I hope my mom enjoyed them too.

Next we headed over to Fort Snelling. Despite all the historical sites we've visited this year we still have only seen half.

The round tower is one of the oldest standing structures in Minnesota. In the 1930's this was used as someone's home.

Much of the structure was recreated a few decades ago apart from the round tower and a few other buildings.

12 men had to share one room which meant two men to a bed.

Colonel Snelling's home was actually pretty neat. I kind of like the simplicity of the pre-victorian homes we've visited lately. This home is one of four buildings that still exist today. Honestly it was hard to tell what was original and what wasn't.

The colonel had quite the kitchen for it's time.

They could bake breads right at Snelling's house. Well, his servants did.

The site today still grows corn that would have been grown when the original gardens were here. I always assumed the colored corn was eaten like today's corn on the cob, but it was actually dried and ground for corn meal.

So pretty.

After the Fort we didn't do much of anything. Grandpoppy headed home the next morning since we all sleep in too late for him. I hope we can visit my parents in Cudahy soon.