After a little research, we discovered that boards could be rented at the Lebanon Hills Park in Eagan, MN.
Instructional video watched! Board rental located! Family excitement high! We were ready to go!
Lebanon Hills is a beautiful park with a great beach!
Our excitement continued to mount...until we saw the area of the lake one enters for stand up paddle boarding and other boating activities.
Do you see all of that, that there in the water? The weeds, the algae? The beach area is well cleared of the gunk. The other areas of the lake, not so much.
Seeing how all we had done was watch an instructional video so the likelihood of our falling into the very weedy areas of the lake was high, not to mention we would have to walk into all of those weeds to get on the paddle boards, the family was thinking twice about stand up paddle boarding. We chose to canoe instead. Good fun. No yucky weeds!! Most importantly, we still worked up a good appetite. Very necessary to the next leg of our adventure!
We were going for pizza!
We weren't after just any old pizza mind you. We were headed for the "Norwegian Valley"/Nelson Wisconsin to eat Stone Barn pizza.
Is a couple of hours to long to drive for pizza?
Not if you break up the drive by stopping to shop for antiques! One of my favorite pastimes! -woohoo-
Fun stuff!
At least I thought it was fun until I turned a corner and found these.
Mcdonalds' character glasses?
Carebears?
How can these things of my childhood already be in antique stores??
Shopping for antiques is no longer a favorite pastime! -BAH-
We may have cut the antique shopping portion of our adventure short.
Nelson Wisconsin is quite a distance to travel for pizza, but I read about the Stone Barn pizza in Midwest living magazine some time ago and have wanted to visit ever since, and we were looking for some new adventures for our staycation, so to Nelson Wisconsin it was!
The scenery made the drive a delight!
Most of the drive was a delight anyway. There was a moment when we began to realize we were really in the middle of nowhere! Panic may have begun to set in a little. The family began to ask if the pizza place was real. They wondered what we would do if it wasn't there, what if it had closed. -Ahhh-
Thankfully it was only moments later that we saw Stone Barn farm. I wasn't worried. Not much anyway. -whew!-
What a hidden gem!
The barn was built in 1896 and collapsed in the 1980s.
Instead of completely demolishing what remained of the old barn, the current owners chose to salvage what they could and built a wood-fired brick oven pizzeria of sorts on the site.
The supreme pizza seemed to be the most popular.
We opted for a margherita and a pepperoni.
The pizza was DELICIOUS!!
Stone Barn has indoor as well as outdoor seating. We enjoyed the most amazing views while we sat outside waiting for our pizzas.
Little ones kept themselves busy running up and down the little hill next to the barn.
I don't think there is anything sweeter than a little girl in a little tutu skirt! -awww-
Everyone had to get a photo standing in the tall corn. I have no idea why, but everyone did it. Yep, us too.
Though I was reluctant, I did venture into the Stone Barn farm antique store.
You have noooo idea how glad I was that they didn't carry any toys from my childhood!!
I highly recommend Stone Barn Pizza if you're ever in the "Norwegian Valley" area of Wisconsin. Click here to check out their website.
All in all we had an excellent week of adventures!
Thanks for reading about our staycation.
Now...back to real life. -ho hum-
Christine
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