We were blessed by a visit from Matt's Dad (aka Grandpa Hart) in November. We loved the week that we had with him and will cherish the shared memories for years to come! Matt's parents live in Oregon so we are lucky to see them once a year. We love spending time with Ken & Connie, but it always goes too fast!
One of the first things that Grandpa did after he arrived was to give Will this plaque. Last year there was talk of a "Pretty Boy Club" among the Hart men. I'm not sure how it all started but the idea definitely took off (in Will's mind)! Once we arrived home from vacation (Colorado with the Hart Family), Will emailed all of the Hart women and asked them to vote on who should be president of the "Pretty Boy Club". While the voting was close, Will was the winner. It has become a family joke now. And now this joke will live on forever because it has been engraved and placed on Will's wall!
While the kids had school, Ken helped around the house with a few projects that needed to be done. What a huge blessing to us! The kids were out of school on Veteran's Day (Friday this year) so we planned a weekend getaway to enjoy our time with Grandpa. We drove north along the river to Dubuque, IA. This is the town where Ken was born! How appropriate that he visit Dubuque again - 68 years later, to the day! Veteran's Day is also Ken's birthday! We drove around the city a bit then took a ride on the
Fenelon Place Elevator. The view was breathtaking - 3 states can be seen from this hilltop! Personally, this is something that I've wanted to do since I was a child! Definitely a fun way to start off our weekend!
Maddie wasn't too fond of the elevator...
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| Dead Squirrels in Dubuque! |
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| Okay - maybe not quite so scared now! |
Leaving Dubuque, we crossed over into Wisconsin. We drove through the Dickeyville Grotto then headed toward Potossi. Ken's first homes were Lancaster and Potossi, WI. We drove by the churches where his father was a pastor and tried to locate the home in Lancaster where his parents sold all of their belongings at an auction. They did this in preparation to move to Lebanon to become missionaries (running an orphanage). While we couldn't figure out which house was the right one (Ken was too young at the time to remember), we did enjoy listening to Ken sharing stories from his young years.
While in Potosi, we stopped at our favorite river view point and enjoyed the sunny day!
We admired the Grant County Courthouse and Square while in Lancaster. What a beautiful dome!
From Lancaster, we continued north into Boscobel. We crossed the Wisconsin River then turned East to drive along the river. In my many years of driving around Wisconsin, I've never traveled this route. It was a nice drive - I'm sure it would be beautiful in the summer and fall. It was pretty brown and sparse at this point in the year.
We saw Peak's Farm Market along Hwys 14/60 and knew we had to stop! We didn't have a clue that this place existed but after seeing some fun photo ops along the road, we stopped. Oddly enough, we didn't end up taking pictures with the photo ops! We ended up spending over an hour at this location - petting and feeding lots of animals (prairie dogs, ducks, geese, lots of goats, cow, horse, fish, pigs, llama...I'm sure there were more, I just can't remember)! I think it's safe to say that the animals were used to more visitors and eating more food throughout the day. The day that we visited, there were few visitors and many animals "starving" for attention!
These piglets cracked me up! They were all standing in a corner - lined up in a row. One by one, they would make a break for it and run quickly across the pen. After most of them were back together again, the same scene would play out!
We left Peck's and headed toward the Wisconsin Dell's area...our stop for the night. We drove through Baraboo and the Devil's Lake area. It was getting late in the day (too late to get out for a quick hike) but we loved showing Grandpa one of our favorite areas!
We were successful (the second time around) at finding a letterbox in the Dells. Will captured this shot of the sun disappearing beyond the horizon...
We hid the letterbox then headed for dinner - Buffalo Phils! We didn't know how busy it would be and hoped for a short wait (Friday night, touristy place...). We were shocked - we got right in AND right beside the train line. If you've never eaten at
Buffalo Phil's...it's not about the food but the experience! Check out their website. We were also surprised by their generous offer for Vets (it was Veteran's Day). Any meal and drink - free to Vets. We ended our time by riding the "roller coaster" at Knuckleheads then drove around the Dells - taking in the sights at night. Sadly, most of the seasonal things were already closed for the winter. We headed back to the hotel and swam for a bit, then called it a night. What a fun day!
The next morning, we drove back into the Dells and found another letterbox and snapped a few pictures...
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| Another Paul Bunyan and Babe to add to our collection |
We started heading home (south) - stopping along the way to find a few letterboxes.
We were very thankful to our Google Maps (on our phone) as we navigated our way around Madison - trying our hardest to avoid all the traffic heading to the big football game. It was a bit crazy!
We ended our trip in Rockford - visiting the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens. We were surprised by the amount of color in the gardens. It was a great way to end our time together!
As we were driving home (Rt 2), we enjoyed the beauty of a full moon (Super Moon). We pulled off and hiked the steps at Castle Rock Overlook - mainly in the dusk light. It was a magical, almost haunting, experience that I won't soon forget. The pictures show a bit more light than there was, but it was amazing to see the full moon over the water.
Our time with Grandpa quickly came to an end - too quickly. We visited Whitey's once more for a special treat with Grandpa and then said our goodbyes as the kid's headed back to school and Grandpa headed to the airport. We will miss him (and Grandma)! We look forward to seeing them next summer!
