Kenosha & Pepin

I did my penance at the water park, now for a little adventure. We loaded up the car, and our resolve, and headed out West to the mighty Mississippi. We took a roadside america detour along the way, and stopped to see Ben Bikin', the world's largest bicyclist, in Sparta. After a good stretch, we climbed back in the car and headed for Kenosha. We went to a lovely park where the river boat tour departed, and checked out the international themed garden (where Ethan saved a poor little frog who couldn't get out of a fountain) prior to boarding the boat. 

The boat ride was fantastic, it was one of two paddle wheels (I think) still operating on the river. There was a swinging bridge that opened for us to pass by, and they noted that there are very few of those still in operation. Ethan loved that you could see the paddle wheel turn inside the boat through a window if you went downstairs. 

By the time the boat docked, we were ready for some lunch, so we went to the drive in. Not the drive thru, it was an old school drive in. Lucky for us they had a few picnic tables. We really didn't want to try navigating food in the tightly packed car. We even got a gallon of their homemade root beer. It was super fun to watch the roller skating waitresses too.

If you think "that's enough for one day," well, then you don't know me at all. In the words of Jonathan it was another death march. We headed to Pepin to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. Barbara and I were robbed of our LHOTP experience in South Dakota, we would not let it happen again. It was great. Ethan told me later, "I thought it was going to be boring, but it was really fun." After exploring the museum, we headed up the street to a little park with some old-school play equipment. It was fantastic, the kids had a great time playing there. 

From there, we drove by Lake Pepin to see what it looked like, and headed back to the Dells. We saw a bald eagle along the river from the car, but I was too slow with the camera. We had a very long drive, so we tried to entertain ourselves with mad libs. Here's a sampling.