Not that I was counting, but it's been 132 days since we had a night away from both kids together. We love our children, but this is the longest we constantly been with them ever. I know this is the normal for many people, but we are extremely blessed to have parents that practically beg to take our children. This is something I have never taken for granted and appreciate it even more now. For months we have been talking about when and how to take this step. Case numbers in Minnesota have been trending down and our stress levels have been trending up, so it was time. We dropped the kids off on Thursday night and couldn't contain our excitement as we drove away. Our plan was to grab some dinner at a drive-thru and get a RedBox. Unfortunately, both of those things didn't work out as planned and we went back home a little peeved that our first freedom in months was disappointing.
I had a whole day of activities planned and was excited to get on the road. We headed out at about 7am for Big Woods State Park in southern Minnesota. We were on the trail towards the waterfall by 8:30.
A tree had fallen in from of the falls, so it wasn't quite as picturesque as usual, but it was still very pretty. The water was really cold too, which surprised me.
After the falls, we took a 3 mile hike around the park. I was glad we got there early because the parking lot was packed by the time we left and it was already getting hot and sticky.
Our next stop was in Faribault and was the inspiration to venture south. The State Fair and pretty much every other fair and festival is cancelled this year. Fair food stands are popping up all across the Twin Cities, but one of my favorites is hard to find. Corndogs are a dime a dozen, but pronto pups is where it's at! Lucky for us, an old school Pronto Pup vendor decided to sell from the end of her driveway. We arrived before she was officially supposed to open, but she was already cranking them out. Not only did she have a traditional Pronto Pup, she was also frying SPAM, cheese, and head boiled eggs in the delicious sweet batter. We went for one SPAM and one cheese along with some popcorn for the road.
Our next destination was New Ulm to visit Hermann the German. We've talked about doing this for years. I looked it up online to make sure it was open and accessible. The website said the visitors center was closed due to COVID, but nothing else. Of course when we got there, the entire part was closed to major reconstruction. I was so bummed. We stopped on the side of the road for a quick picture, but that's all we got. I guess we will have to come back again.
We drove over to the Schell's brewery since we had some extra time to burn. The museum was closed and no tours were running, but the tap room was open. We just walked around the grounds a bit before heading towards home.
We made one last stop at Menards in Maple Grove to grab some cheese curds and mini donuts from the fair concession stand set up in their parking lot. We gobbled up the curds, but saved the donuts for the kids. They had a great time with Grandpa and Nana. Our day away wasn't all we had dreamed, but it was a nice change in our current times.
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