Visit to Red Wing

After picking up our new van in Iowa, we headed to Red Wing, Minnesota, to spend a few days with Todd’s uncle & aunt — Roy & Leslie. Their beautiful home is perched high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. We enjoyed an evening meal of ribs, sweet corn on the cob and other delights outside on their back deck, amidst their lovely gardens. The weather was perfect and the company even better. We only wish their 15-year-old dog Dante and Koda had gotten along. Understandably, Dante didn’t like some upstart, alpha female invading his territory, and well, Koda doesn’t need a reason to act the bully. So we kept them apart for the most part.

The day after we arrived, we were thoroughly entertained by an afternoon out on Roy and Leslie’s pontoon boat. We did our best to photograph some of the dozens of bald eagles we saw, and the heron and even the turtles sunning themselves near shore.

Koda loved her first boat ride, especially when we were going fast. It was such a blast!

The next day Todd, Roy and Koda hiked up the Barn Bluff overlooking Red Wing. For dinner we crossed the river into Wisconsin and had delicious meals from the Harbor View Cafe in Pepin — picnic style, outdoors, of course. My sisters would appreciate that Pepin is famous for being the home of writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

While in Minnesota, we learned that the Sturgis motorcycle rally had NOT been cancelled, and we were headed in the direction of potentially 250K bikers in South Dakota. Of course we knew we’d stay away from Sturgis, itself, but vowed that if it got too crazy, we would alter plans and head south.

 
We can’t thank Roy and Leslie enough for their wonderful hospitality and for making us feel so comfortable in their home.