To borrow a title from the creators of Wallace & Gromit… It was TWO grand days out, actually…a short weekend getaway to kick off summer. My sweetie and I drove north to his home state of Minnesota to visit some of his peeps and take in a few sites. The weather could not have been more pleasant. We started in Lake City, birthplace of waterskiing, them moved on to Red Wing to do some antiquing. We had a picnic lunch along the river…

Then headed up Barn Bluff, on an occassionally steep and sometimes treacherous trail…

However, the views from the top made it worth the trek…


Some of the beauty we took in on our way to the top…

We moved on to Stillwater, where we spent the night…first seeking out a beach and some caves along the St. Croix River that were used by the local breweries for storage back in the day…sorry, no good shot of the caves…but some more lovely North Country nature…


In the morning we started out before the shops opened so we sought out a few of the City parks. Stillwater has some of the most impressive public parks I have ever seen. Washington Square had at least five of these lovely iron and wood gazebos…

We spent a little more time shopping before we headed to have lunch with family and then head south again. Here are a few lovely photos of light and textures that caught my eye…a brick and ivy facade in Stillwater…

at a train depot in Red Wing…

I hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day weekend as well and did something to honor our heroes and welcome summer…