mom & dad come for a visit.

My parent's came for a little visit this weekend and it was a blast! I think we pretty much covered the entirety of southern Minnesota, along with parts of Iowa and Wisconsin. Here's the run down of what we did... hold on, this one has lots of pictures!

{Friday}

I sent my parents on a tour of the Mayo Clinic while I was at work.
We went to Newt's for lunch (they're famous for their "Jucy Lucy" burger).
Then we ended the evening with Toy Story 3 (which was ridiculously cute!)

{Saturday}
We woke up early and made our way to Harmony, Minnesota (aka, where all the Amish people live). We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at a little place called The Harmony House, went antique shopping, and toured around Amish country.

{we bought homemade granola bars from an amish roadside stand... probably the best granola bar I have ever had... notice the price: 30 cents!}

During our tour through Harmony, we tripped across a purple house that was home to the"goat lady." We had a blast playing with these baby angora goats.

Next on the list is Lanesboro... this quaint little riverside town was so much fun. We explored around the shops for a bit and then rented bikes for the afternoon.

We ended up stopping in a small town (Whalan) for some "world famous pie". I had a slice of the "Elvis Peanut Butter Pie"... incredible!

After our pie adventure, we made our way to Aviary Acres to do a little bird watching,

then drove through Decorah, Iowa and Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

On our way back to Rochester, we tried to find a place to eat in Nodine, but nothing was to be found (ironically... no-dine).

After hours and hours of traveling, we ended up eating at a great restaurant in Rochester called Twigs... best butternut squash ravioli ever.

{Sunday}
We started out the day with a yummy breakfast at Rabbits bakery in Lake City. After a little site seeing, we drove up the Mississippi river through Pepin, Nelson, Wabasha and Redwing.

{me and the parents next to the World's Largest Boot... what a touristy moment}

... we also did some monster searching in Lake Pepin for the notorious Pepie lake monster (is that not the wimpiest lake monster name ever?)

We ended the day with a few hours in Minneapolis/St. Paul. We were able to see the Mall of America, the St. Paul Cathedral, the State capital and LOTS of fireworks {Happy 4th!}






{Monday}
As always, we kicked off our day with breakfast and coffee, this time we went to Dunn Bros.

Then we stopped by a Rochester fave... the world's largest ear of corn (are you noticing a pattern?)

We spent the biggest part of the day kayaking on the Zumbro Falls River... it was gorgeous and SO fun!

We ended the night at a fun little restaurant/pub in Rochester called Whistle Binkies.

In the words of my dad, "We broke the fun meter."

And we did! It was such a blast to have my parents come and see what I'm up to for the summer.

I love hanging out with them... they're off to see the sis in North Carolina now, and I'm back

to work! I love you guys!

{xo. jarah}