This weekend in Watertown was excellent. We hung out with Harlan and Judy, I won money playing blackjack at the casino, we did our usual shopping excursion (which resulted in some camping and garden gear, plus yarn from the Knit Nook), and Matt and I paid visits to Duffy’s and the Harbor, which were chock-full of disastrous bachelorette parties. Awesome.
The most surprising thing to happen to us involved Joy Ranch.
Harlan wanted to show us the progress on the construction, so we drove past it on our tour of the Lake Kampeska area (culminating in a visit to the Prop for beers, of course). He pulled into the ranch so we could see it better, and Judy recognized Bruce, the guy who runs it. He asked if we wanted a ride in the covered wagon. And why not?
He hitched up the horses, who are trained by the Amish in southern Minnesota. (They have awesome mohawks, too.) We climbed into the wagon and were off.
He gave us a tour of the whole ranch, and the place is amazing. The finished complex includes several campsites on the river and a whole ‘town’ with lodging and a dining hall, in addition to the horse ranch. It’s impressive.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still scared of farms. But it was fun to play Little House on the Prairie for an hour, especially because it was completely unexpected.
We stopped at SummerHouse, the garden center associated with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, on the way back into town. They didn’t have too much out yet, but we did pick up some plants for the garden, and cheese made by the University. Who doesn’t want Goldy cheese, really? Afterwards, we ran to Bachmans for the rest of the garden supplies, and got to work. I need to finish planting tonight, and still need to find zucchini and nasturtiums, but our garden is basically ready for the summer. We even had the first salad from it last night!
Next week is the true beginning of summer craziness (starting with the draft party and Memorial Day camping), so I’m hoping to have time to do a lot of stuff around the house this week. Since we have no major plans, that’s a pretty good possibility. We might even go crazy and see a movie!