June 7
Travel from Minneopa State Park to Interstate State Park
Our first stop was at a fun spot John found while researching: Sibley Farm Park. It is a playground and petting zoo set amongst larger park grounds with picnic shelters and open space. Our kids are starting to get a bit big for playgrounds but they still loved this stop, especially checking out the animals.
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| Sibley Farm Park |
For the next waterfall of the trip, we found ourselves in the city of Minneapolis at Minnehaha Falls. The area has the typical city park vibe with bike & surrey rentals, a pavilion with a restaurant and ice cream shop, and public facilities. The falls can be viewed from the top at ground level or you can climb the stairs down to base-level.
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| Minnehaha Falls |
By time we arrived at Franconia Sculpture Gardens it was, once again, in the 90s. This seemed like an interesting place but it offered almost no shade, so we didn't explore very much before we headed back to the AC of the RV.
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| Franconia Sculpture Gardens |
We settled in at Interstate State Park Campground for the first 2-night stay of the road trip. We explored a little and made hot dogs over the campfire and, of course, more s'mores for dessert (we had s'mores and/or toasted marshmallows every night of the trip).
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| exploring Interstate State Park Campground |
As we were sweating that evening, John pulled up the weather and we noticed it was hotter in Minnesota than it was back home in Illinois.. or even than it was at the moment in Orlando, Florida! We happened to be traveling during a record-breaking heat wave in Minnesota that had temps soaring 20-30 degrees above the normal average temps for the region.