Red Wing, MN

Addison, admiring the Mississippi River. Ok, she probably doesn't know what she's looking at yet, but she still looks beautiful and was happy to be out and about.


View upriver.....towards the town of Red Wing, of the Mississippi.


Down the river, we saw several boats go by while we watched and played.


A view of some of the pumpkins waiting for their turn to be weighed. This was an official weigh-off, as they called it. There were many rules like the pumpkin could have no holes in it and the vine had to be all the way cut off. They used trucks with trailers to bring them in....and a pulley system to get them moved around.

Parker and Addison by one of the giant pumpkins!


Weighing one of the pumpkins...I think this one was 856 pounds.

A GIANT pumpkin! Can you read the sign? It was 1502 pounds! This one stunk, like it was rotting from the inside, none of the others smelled at all though.


Parker pointing at the barge on the river, he was pulling 3 of those things. I don't know what they are called, I missed river education.

Look at us! In front of the river, with the barge floating by.


Addison in her swing, She giggled every time it swung forward, she loved it.


Addison looking at the flowers, in a touch and smell garden by the cool playground we found.


View of Red Wing, MN from the bluff. Imagine what it will look like when the leaves are all red and yellow.

This past weekend we decided to go to a small town (16,000 population) nearby, well about 45 minutes away. We went to see the leaves that are supposed to be turning and to see some giant pumpkins being weighed. We had a wonderful trip. We first went to the visitor's center, so we would know what was going on in town and hopefully get some good directions. We then went to the park where the pumpkins were being weighed. It was right on the Mississippi River. The side of the river we were on was Minnesota, the other side was Wisconsin. We watched boats in the river, both recreational ones and work ones...like barges, etc. We found a really cool playground at one of the parks we went to, it had a great view and lots of playground stuff that was perfect for Parker. Addison even sat in a swing! We the ate lunch and went and had some ice cream at a little local store on one of the downtown main streets. The ice cream was very yummy! Our last stop was a trip up the bluff, to have a big view of Red Wing....beautiful. Things we didn't get to see in Red Wing, were all the leaves changing, we came too early I guess, so hopefully we can make another trip before it's too late. I was really looking forward to that. We also didn't see the giant Red Wing shoe that is there.....has us waiting in suspense!