Social Distancing Field Trips Part 2 by BB
~We are not affiliated to the places we visit and are in no way making a commission. These are just destinations we are visiting and enjoying~
Well I just listened to Governor Tim Walz discontinue the Stay Home Order and now put in place to Stay Safe Order. What does this mean? How much should we continue to do or not do? The Covid-19 Pandemic has not changed. Here in Minnesota the spread is definitely slower than in New York but we are so much more spread out which makes a huge difference. But in no way is this over. We now know that it is beginning to affect children more than we thought it would. Ugh this is such a scary time. It’s so hard to know what to do for your family.
With that being said I am planning on continuing these Social Distancing Field Trips because they are fun and good for my family. We are exploring new places and taking time to enjoy places we’ve talked about but never actually gone. I like that life has slowed down enough for us to do this. Usually we are so busy with school, sports, and activities. Now we don’t have our usual demands and we can do these adventures. I want to take advantage of this gift of time while we have it! If you missed Social Distance Field Trips Part 1 please check it out here.
3rd Field Trip
Wabasha and Red Wing-Again I live on the East Side of the Twin Cities so your adventure to this trip may look a little different but this was my FAVORITE trip we took. Wabasha has the National Eagle Center. I have talked about going there with my kids every summer but we never do it. The summer disappears and it’s another thing we haven’t done. Well the National Eagle Center wasn’t open but I thought what the heck we’re going eagle hunting. We drove through Wisconsin down to Wabasha and oh my gosh it was the most beautiful drive ever! I never knew Wisconsin even looked like this. It is truly spectacular!
Now eagles are really special to my family. My dad passed away a little over 3 years ago and eagles became our symbol of him. The first year after he died I literally saw hundreds of eagles. It was crazy! Well my children have jumped on the bandwagon and love eagle scouting and looking for eagle nests.
So as we drove we looked for eagles. We also listened to some YouTube Videos about Wisconsin. Here are a few we listened to Wisconsin for Kids and State Fun Facts, Wisconsin. We also listened to videos about Eagle Facts for Kids and 30 Interesting Facts About Eagles. Remember, I was a teacher and these are field trips so I like to incorporate as much learning as possible! We drove to the National Eagle Center and there is a cute street that goes right along the river. There is also a path that goes in front of the center where we explored and took pictures. We were lucky to have a most beautiful day. The kids brought their scooters and we just did whatever we wanted. We spent about an hour in Wabasha. We saw eagles, boats, statues, and many other things. My kids loved it so much. We decided to head back home the Minnesota side of the river which takes you through Red Wing, MN.
Check out Little Man’s outfit! He has a real opinion! I don’t share his fashion sense, haha. 
These two eagles landed in a tree right in front of us!
Now I have been to Red Wing many times but my kids really haven’t. We picked up lunch. Don’t forget your disinfectant wipes! When we stop we clean all the things that come into our car. Also when we need a potty break we clean our hands when we get out of the car to help protect others and we sanitize before we get back into the car. I just keep a container in my car.
I decided to Google historical landmarks in Red Wing. We found some pretty amazing houses. I actually found a YouTube video that explained cool places in Red Wing. Here is One Video that goes through the entire town and here is one that tell you about Historical Homes. We only did some of the homes, which we loved. I was going to go look at some of the other landmark but took a wrong turn. Oops, we decided we would just keep going and head to Nana’s house. My mother-in-law lives about 25 minutes from Red Wing and is on the way home for us so we figured we’d go visit her. It was a nice break from the car and my kids love seeing their Nana! We will have to go back to Red Wing again someday soon because there is so much more we could do! This was such a fun day for us! We learned tons, saw true beauty, and got to explore new places. The highlight…we saw 32 eagles and 9 eagle nests!!!
4th Field Trip
Franconia Sculpture Garden-Pablo, who is doing the majority of the work on our house suggested we go here. I loved the suggestion! By the way if you know of a place please message me!! So I realized as I got to this place that I’ve seen it before but we didn’t know what it was and had always been a little curious about it. It is up very close to Taylor’s Falls, MN. We go to Fawn Doe Rosa every summer. It’s one of my very favorite things we do, if you haven’t been before it’s a must do.
Well we LOVED Franconia Sculpture Garden! It’s a HUGE sculpture garden and it’s free. Donations are welcomed and deserved. It’s really a diamond in the rough. First let me say the drive is gorgeous! But when you get there I had no idea how big it really was. It just keeps going and going. It was not crowded and we easily kept our distance from other people. They do welcome pets as long as you clean up after them. So of course we brought Rosie and she loved getting out and exploring too.
Franconia and all different kinds of sculptures. They have explanation plaques and we had Bubba read them to us…hello reading lesson. What was really nice is there was so much land to explore and burn energy! The kids were exhausted by the time we were done! I really recommend coming here. And if you need lunch, head into Taylor’s Falls and go to The Drive In Restaurant. They have great food! We go every summer when we go to Fawn Doe Rosa. Usually you can sit outside but when we were there the outside seating was closed. This may be changed with the new Stay Safe order.
We have so loved exploring more of Minnesota and Wisconsin. These trips are helping my family’s mental health and we are learning so much. We also just get to be ourselves. I’m not the teacher and they are not my students. We aren’t stuck at home, we are out exploring. I highly encourage you to go on an adventure near you. If you live in the Twin Cities, MN these trips are worth doing. If you live somewhere else Google cool places near you. You won’t regret it!
