Grandparents Day at AJ's Preschool and an Art Tour or Two...

On the first of October, AJ's school had Grandparents Day. Since my mom and I were headed out on Friday to do an Art Tour that weekend she was the only one to come. She did puzzles with AJ, saw his classroom and had milk and breakfast treats in the cafeteria together.


My mom and I then headed to Menomonie and then south to Pepin, Stockholm and Maiden Rock. The artists open their studios to show off their wares and demonstrate their talents. We stayed in Pepin at the cat pee motel that dropped our reservation for Saturday night- their fault and since everything in the area was full or a small fortune- we found ourselves in Wabasha, MN for Saturday night. The cat pee motel didn't offer any discount or what not (or much help finding a new place to stay) but they sent me a Christmas card with a gift certificate for a free night in 2011. Yeah, like I want to stay there again. We ate in Pepin at The Pickle Factory on Friday night. It was casual, bar type place with good food and a nice view. We got to about 5 galleries on Friday.

On Saturday we were up and ready to hit the galleries and get the stink of cat pee off us! We were up a little early though! We stopped at a diner-esque spot in Pepin where the waitresses wore the most adorable aprons. And served some AWESOME biscuits! We also stopped for some caramel apples at a farm that were delish (although we enjoyed them after dinner that night). Stockholm and Maiden Rock are artist magnets! We saw (and bought) some really cool art. There was A LOT of pottery, one of my faves. My favorite was a shop in Stockholm called Abode. The below funky stoneware sculptures were done by John Turula and I believe his partner in art, Margy Jean Balwierz.




After driving the beautiful hills and along the lake in Southwestern WI to visit the many galleries we headed to our new motel in Wabasha. It had a toilet sized for a preschooler but the beds were ultra comfy. We went out to find a decent place to eat and stumbled upon a fantastic place called Vinifera Vine & Dine. Yummy!! The next morning on our way back north we went to a few art studios (homes, really) in Osseo, Augusta and Fairchild. It paled in comparison to the tour in Stockholm.

We did come across the Dells Mill in Augusta. Beautiful, isn't it?

On our way out of that area, we were lost kinda and ended up on a road we thought might take us in the right direction. It did and it took us right by my Uncle Ron and Aunt Kathi's house! They were out working in the yard when we surprised them. We stayed to chat awhile which was very nice. After that unexpected visit we were homeward bound.