Wabasha

I love it when I'm on spring break, and Pat sends a text that he's going to take a day off work to do something fun with the kids and I. We decided it was time to take a road trip to Wabasha to the Eagle Center. We've been wanting to go for the last few years, but always shy away because of the drive (near 2 hours), and the fact that Henry needed to be home for a nap. Well, he's at a point where he does fine without a nap here and there, so we decided to go for it.

 

Right when we walked into the center, there was a room with three eagles perched. No glass, and only a few feet away, it was very cool to see them so close up. They do a program there with a presenter teaching us more about the eagles, and bringing one out for us to watch get fed. The presenter was very knowledgeable and entertaining too.

 

Then we walked around the exhibit area a bit, including checking out this eagle next. Olivia promptly laid on the picture of eggs in the nest and pretended to use her nose to turn the eggs like we just learned about.

One neat display had you squeeze a bar as tight as you could to measure your pounds per square inch strength. Henry got 10, and Pat was around 40. An eagle's strength is 400 psi for one talon! They have four talons! No wonder we learned it's possible for an eagle to take down a deer!

Outside the center I was hoping to spot more eagles, but we had better luck seeing them in the sky while we were driving. There is one in this picture, right at the top of the trees at the center.

The eagle center alone was cool, but difficult to justify such a long drive. I was thankful Pat had a coworker that lived in Wabasha and was able to point us to a couple other must-see places. We had lunch at Nelson's Creamery. A creamery that no longer makes their own cheese, but had all kinds of homemade products like meats, cheeses, beer, wine, and other treats for sale. We all enjoyed their ruben sandwiches in their rustic dining area, and ice cream on their patio.

Finally, we went to Lark Toys. It's a HUGE toy store, with plenty of opportunities to play with toys throughout the store. They make some of their own hand-made wooden toys. They also made a carousel with hand-carved animals. They were so creative and intricate! Very impressive! We certainly could have spent more time there.

The kids did super on the drive, with Olivia helping Henry with his alphabet flash cards on the drive there, and watching Frozen on the way home. I was thankful for this opportunity, to branch out and do something new, and spend quality time as a family.