Skip to main content

Traverse De Two Left or How We Went to 25 of the 26 Minnesota Historic Sites

This weekend we planned on hitting up the last few historic sites that aren't in Fargo-Moorhead.

But first Little buddy had his first taste of food. Watermelon.

He's growing up.

Scott has been very busy with work. With Meadow and Theo home he doesn't get much done. I took the kids to a playdate and then over to Oliver Kelley's Farm for the day so he could work.

Meadow and I came here last fall. I wanted to see it in summer when the gardens were growing.


It wasn't very busy so all kids got to help with farm chores. They asked a little boy for a piece of wood and Meadow ran out to find one first.


The next day we took a little day trip to knock off two more Minnesota Historical Society sites. This stop brought us to the W.W. Mayo house in Le Sueur. When the house was built there were only temporary homes and shacks in the area. This house was considered a mansion compared to the others.

You can almost imagine it seeming giant compared to one room cabins.

We once again arrived just in time. The tour guide was nice enough to restart the video.


Our tour guide's "normal" job is a health teacher. His love of history and health made him a great guide for this place.

Most of the furniture in the home are antiques not belonging to the family, except for this piece. After the Mayo's moved away the founder of the Green Giant company also lived here.

We made it to the second story when Theo was over historic buildings.

Theo and I spent a little while downstairs to calm him down.

I ended up missing the second half of the tour.

Another home tour to check off the list.

Theo was hungry, hungry, hungry. Meadow and I went for a walk through Le Sueur.

I wonder if small towns like this will ever see a resurgence. With remote working on the rise I sure hope that these walkable downtowns make a comeback.

I don't think I've ever driven through this town.

I wonder what Mr. Mayo would think of the home's location today.

Our next stop was the Traverse des Souix. With my membership I also get free or discounted entry to other museums. We purposely picked to go to the Traverse des Sioux on this day so we could also do the Nicollet County History Museum together, but the museum is no longer run by the state.

I guess we could've paid. 

We just did the historic trail instead.

Meadow was whiny until we told her she could run through the woods.

Closer to the river it got pretty muddy.

This was the location of the historic meeting place for the Sioux/Dakota people and later the signing place of Traverse des Sioux. This was how the Dakota ended up in Western Minnesota along the Minnesota River.

Meadow then started mumbling, "I hate mud! I like princesses and unicorns and rainbows. Ew yuck squishy mud."


The trails were a bit unkempt.

I guess the surrounding park is kept up by volunteers. This was once a state park. I couldn't find any history of why this was transferred to the county. This site seems so important to Minnesota history.

Meadow was ready to go at this point. 

We took the long way home and saw a carnival in Prior Lake. 

Of course we stopped for a quick ride. 

Back at home meant Big Pancake for dinner.

Later I was at the Minnesota United game with Nate and another one of his friends. Sorry kids.

We had to walk down to our little corner market to get flour for the pancakes. I usually let Meadow pick a treat.

Theo and his watermelon.

The next day brought us to Minnehaha Falls for 25th MNHS site: the Minnehaha Depot. This place is only open for a couple hours on Sundays in the summer.

It would be cool if there was also a train to tour.

It's darling, but going inside doesn't add much to stopping by any other day.

Our quickest location yet.

Meadow and I had some Sebastian Joes. Theo wanted in on the ice cream too.

I had a shoot in the morning before I met the fam. I needed something more filling. I ended up with a fish sandwich from Sea Salt. Wasn't this place going to close? I'm so confused.

It's actually been a few years since we've been over here.

She's always finding rocks to climb.

Then we cooled off in the creek.

Good weekend, Minnesota.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hike Trip with the Kids to Nerstrand State Park

Meadow and I had so much fun hiking and geocaching last weekend, we decided to do it again. I was busy photographing for a project in Lake City. Our state park pass expires at the end of the month so we decided on Nerstrand State Park. A short drive from Minneapolis I'd always wanted to go.  I love that they had this natural playground. First we wanted to see the waterfall. Little hiker. The waterfall was a lot smaller than I expected but it was open for free play. I let the kids play for awhile. Then we found another area to play. Mr Independent had to hike back himself. That's my stubborn little guy. We took a lunch break before geocaching.  Meadow didn't believe me she had smoothie on her face. Theo either. We finished our day by hiking almost the whole park to find the cache. Too bad Scott couldn't have joined us. 

Chelsea and the Boys Visit Minneapolis

  I told Chelsea earlier this year she was the only one who hasn't seen our house yet. She said she would visit this summer. She texted me earlier this week asking when she could come. Looking at our calendar I said, this weekend or the weekend after Labor Day.  When they arrived Theo gave her a tour of our house.  I told her we had plans to go blueberry picking and she agreed to go along too. They had never gone before.  Hoo, boy. Was I glad that I got out of blueberry picking this year. I spent the day painting back at home. I don't know why, but I do enjoy berry picking.  Afterwards we picked up food from the co-op and had lunch in Stillwater.  Then we went swimming at the St Croix River Boom Site.  We parked our towels right next to the natural spring that flows into the river.  Blake... The sunny skies soon turned to clouds and then it started raining. The kids just kept on playing.  I couldn't believe they were still out in Stillwater. Then we went over to Teddy Bear

Mama Theo Day and the Boring House

We brought home the tag along from the cottage to use at home as Theo is finally big enough to use it. I wasn't sure if it would fit with my rack but it does! He was a big fan and loved it.  Maybe, just maybe he'll learn to ride a bike this summer. After hogging our bed it was time to wake up the sleepy bear for our last Mama Theo day.  .  We biked over to Lake Harriet for breakfast. I had always wanted to try Bread and Pickle for breakfast. My breakfast burrito was so filling and Theo loved his parfait.  After breakfast we played at the playground with all the other toddlers. I started to get sad knowing that I no longer have any young children in my life. Before I know it Theo will be off at school. We had plans to spend the day at the beach but we were basically the only ones there and there were algae warnings posted.  We tried Bde Maka Ska but the water there was even worse. To the wading pool it is.  Still hates getting his face wet.  Afterwards we went home for lunch, r