Back to Lake City

I hurried through yesterday's post as I was just exhausted at the end of the day. So I will recap it now at a more leisurely pace. Leisurely IS my pace these days after all...

We drove up through Zumbro Falls. Yesterday was the first day that highway 63 was open all the way to Lake City. The devastation was obvious in Z.F. and I didn't think it was appropriate to take any photos. There were piles of debris all over the place and portable toilets in front of just about every building I could see from the highway. I believe the sanitary system is non-functional. Devastating.

When we arrived in Lake City, we had lunch at Rabbit Bakery. I'd wanted to eat there for quite a while.

 It's located just across from the marina.



There were 5 sandwiches on the menu: roast beef with cabbage (I think), chicken salad with chili peppers and feta (this is what I had), eggplant parmesan, Swedish meatball with horseradish mayo and one that escapes me. It comes with a side and the three choices were: German potato salad, red cabbage (dad has this and it was delicious--we all tried it) and squash and bacon soup (Ada and I had this and it was also very good).

We then wandered around downtown a little bit since the day was so beautiful. We dropped in the natural foods' store.

I thought this chalkboard outside an attorney's office was fun.

Stopped in a couple of antiques stores.

When we got back to the car by Rabbit Bakery, who should I find but Kathryn and Kirk!! They were cycling around Lake Pepin (about 70 miles). So we chatted with them for a few minutes.

After leaving Lake City, we headed south on 61 and stopped at Pepin Heights orchard. I got some "almost perfect" Honeycrisp apples for $1.52 a pound. They sure look good to me (especially compared to $3.29 for perfect ones).

We then continued south on 61. The drive was beautiful.

We stopped at Lark Toys to see the hand-carved carousel and toy collection.

Saw this book in the window in the gift shop. It would have been interesting to see the INSIDE!!

Like I said in yesterday's post, I tried on all these fun hats in the other shop inside. Fun.



Rooster



Hamburger




Fuzzy glasses



Chicken

Hot dog

Chef

Witch



So ... which one is most "me"?? Some would argue, and rightly so, the witch. But I came home with ... the chef's hat. I'll have fun with it.

An anecdote from Thursday's ride. Those Japanese lady beetles or whatever they are (they look like lady bugs and have a very distinctive smell) are really thick and they were hitting me in the face during the ride. Well, one of them went right into my mouth and way back toward my throat. Needless to say, a choking/coughing/hacking/spitting episode ensued. I don't know if I eventually managed to expell the thing or if I swallowed it. Yuck. BTW: they taste about the same way they smell. Yuck.

More tomorrow. Sweet dreams.