little house trip part 3

after breakfast at the hotel, we hit the road toward walnut grove. stopped outside of Rochester for frozen custard then again just wast to go to oxbow park zoo - a native species zoo. we had met people at the fair showing raptors from there. the kids really enjoyed it - cougars, wolves, bison, skunks, prarie dogs, etc. we stopped on the road for a late lunch at erbert and gerberts which appeared to be almost exactly like a jimmy john's. we made it to our hotel to east of walnut grove in time for a swim in the swamp like pool. we then headed to walnut grove for dinner at the community center and then on to the pagent, which even matt seemed to sort of enjoy. 

next day we had breakfast at hotel, checked out and headed into the walnut grove . went out to the dugout site at plum creek, beautiful little creek, very near. the museum in walnut grove was fantastic, all kinds of hands on things for the kids. there was a decent amount of focus on the tv show, which I know little about. then onto the park where matt mini golfed, the kids made crafts and kaitlyn competed in the laura look alike contest. she did great, but thankfully didn't make the finals, so we were able to head out to dreamer on time. it was near to drive through the towns talked about in the books ( Volga, Tracy, brookings, etc). we also listened to the books while we drove. checked into hotel in desert got sandwiches at subway and headed to the happy golden years pageant.  that included a wagon ride and another place for matt to spend money!