I'm sorry if I worried anyone! We've just been having such a great time we haven't wanted to stop to get online!


Did I mention that on the way to Niagara Falls, we stopped in Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the Women's Rights Movement? We went to the Women's National Hall Of Fame and I got a neat bracelet with a quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our ***th president. It says,
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

I just wanted to write about that before I forgot.

Our next stop was Menomonie, Wisconsin. Menomonie is the birthplace of one of my favorite literary characters, Caddie Woodlawn. Carol Ryrie Brink wrote two young adult novels about her grandmother, Caroline Augusta Woodhouse, and changed her name to Woodlawn. Caddie is a pioneer girl with lots of spirit and bravery and has lots of neat adventures with her family in Old Timey Wisconsin. We went to see where she really lived. That was neat. There is a park dedicated to her with the house that she lived in, or maybe it was a fake house built to look just like it. I forget. But there was a well there and I pumped water just like a pioneer girl. It didn't taste too bad!

On the way out of town we passed a cheese factory. Wisconsin is FAMOUS for their cheese, so we HAD to stop! We tasted lots of different kinds of cheese, including gouda, muenster, three kinds of cheddar, manchego, goats milk cheese and one made with chocolate and nuts in it. We bought a chunk of cheddar and some white cheddar with sage in it. That is a green herb that made it very pretty! I have pictures but those will come later when I get some help.

One thing I had no idea about was how farm land smells! We are driving through the country, where we drive for miles and miles and miles just looking at corn fields and some other crop- my friend thinks it is soy beans- and guess what?

THEY SMELL LIKE POOP!!!!!

Not all of them, but lots of times we have to roll up the windows and put on the air conditioning so we don't smell it. Is it manure? I don't know why they smell like that, since so far there weren't any animals.

Another thing we did in Menomonie was fish! There was a place called Bullfrog Fish Farms that you could go to and they'd give you the fishing poles and everything, and you could buy soda (they call it "pop" here) or ice cream and sit out by the pond and fish. There were ducks swimming around too and they made me nervous because I thought I was going to accidentally hook one with my fishing pole and hook.

The man taught us how to fish and helped us each catch one fish. Then we caught another apiece and went back to the campground and cooked them. This was a very healthful meal, since we also made steamed carrots and sugar snap peas.

On the way to the fish farm, I saw a little bunny running around in the grass next to the highway. I just wanted to pick it up and kiss it! It was so cute. We would be seeing lots more "wildlife", but this was the first.

Oh, right! We stayed TWO nights in Menomonie. The first night was the Fourth of July, and we went to see the local fireworks celebration. I bought a roast chicken at the store and spilled chicken grease all over my new pants. Oh well. At least it wasn't hot.

So that was Menomonie. We liked it a whole lot. Their motto is: Traditional, Yet Progressive. There was even a Food Co-op! We both said we would go back there again.