The rest of the road trip...

We've made it home to Ohio after a long road trip home! We stopped for two nights in Mankato, Minnesota, where Sarah and I were able to have a girls' morning together. We went to see the childhood homes of the real-life Betsy and Tacy, characters from Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books. Sarah finished reading the first four books (elementary school days at the turn of the century in small-town Minnesota) this summer and I have been reading the six older high school and adult Betsy novels - all of them wonderful! We had a nice tour of the homes by ourselves and stopped to see the grave site of Maud Hart Lovelace. Sarah was amazed to see other people at the homes (some from California) and someone stopping at her grave site - she didn't think so many people knew about the beloved books!!

Another quick stop we made on the road was in a small Minnesota town boasting a "Wheels of the Prairie" museum. While we didn't see the museum, Jack had spotted the "choo choo" from the road, so we had to stop and let him get a close-up view of a real life steam engine! He was amazed.

Then, he crashed in the car. This trip was one of the first ever for him to fall asleep each day in his car seat!

We also stopped for lunch at a park, where Jake and Sarah were able to be goofy and play on the playground with Jack.

It is good to be back home in Ohio, but we sure did enjoy our two weeks of seeing family and beautiful sights!