Bonding over Weird Stuff

My daughter goes back to college in a couple weeks, so I suggested we spend some time together today. I asked her what she wanted to do. She replied that she wanted to drive around to see weird Minnesota stuff, like maybe the world's biggest ball of twine or the largest prairie chicken statue.

I told her that we COULD go see the biggest ball of twine, if she wanted to drive an hour and a half to Darwin, MN, to see a giant twine ball inside of a glass gazebo. Because that is really all it is. I was willing. But she thought maybe we should see the prairie chicken instead.

So I dug out this book I have called "Weird Minnesota" (Yes, I own that book. Don't judge. I bought it when I needed to find where the two story outhouse was. And no, it wasn't worth the trip.)

Anyhoo, we both agreed that the giant prairie chicken statute was scary looking. Though it would've made a good 'ugly scary bird attacks human' photo op. So that was a pass. I flipped through the pages. "Hey, what about this?, I asked, as I handed her the picture of two cars standing on end in a corn field. I had always wanted to stop and check out the Franconia sculpture garden. It's on the way to Taylor's Falls, so I'd seen some of the objects scattered in the field from the road before. I'd never stopped, because A) I wasn't sure if it was just someones garbage that was too big to haul to the dump and B) I didn't have time because my previous plans to Taylor's Falls involved hiking, or boating along the St. Croix, and that seemed a little more exciting than looking at weird stuff in a corn field.

But today that would be the whole point. So off we went. It was a beautiful day, and an enjoyable ride. Amanda played music that we both tried to sing along to, sometimes with comedic effect. And we stopped to buy local cheese, 'cause we were in cheese country, on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and it's sort of a prerequisite.

I have to say, it totally lived up to my expectations. It was weird. I kinda liked it.  Plus it was a gorgeous day, not too hot, with plenty of open skies and cornfields around us. All-in-all, not a shabby way to spend some time together.

I'll leave you with a bunch of photos from our day trip. They probably could use some explanation, but I'm not going to do that. Mostly because I couldn't tell you what they mean. Good luck.