Wisconsin Pizza Farm

 Nelson, WI

Stone Barn Pizza

Back when we were thinking about moving to Minneapolis, Donna was researching things and reading the local newspaper and found out about Pizza Farms.  A Pizza Farm is a normal farm that sells pizzas during the summer made from local ingredients.  These pizza farms come in all ranges from rustic where you eat pizza on your own chair or blanket with your own utensils and pack out your own trash to more fancy where it actually feels like a restaurant.  Stone Barn Pizza is on the fancier end.  You park in a grass field, walk up to a barn and place your order and then sit at one of their picnic tables, or tables in the barn or out in the field and wait for a very friendly person to bring you your pizza or pizzas and beverages.  

The entrance just off a nicely paved county road was obvious.

You can see our van and Donna getting Francis out of the car off in the distance.

This particular pizza farm will be open until late October weather permitting.

Donna and I had already decided on which pizzas we would get.

The staff was incredibly friendly and efficient.  I had some questions about the beers and they brought the bottles over for me to inspect.  There are also beers on tap.

They have merch too.

Francis loves his bed but prefers sun so we moved him to the sun shortly after this photo was taken.

We sat down with our New Glarus Beers that are only available in Wisconsin.

I got the New Glarus Octoberfest beer on tap.

We sat on their beautiful patio in the shade and waited for our pizzas.

We ordered a Greek with locally raised Lamb, sweet onions, artichoke hearts, feta cheese and olives with an olive oil base.  It was very good but not as good as...

The Supreme with Italian Sausage, pepperoni, sweet onions, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, and green olives with a red sauce and mozzarella and provolone cheese.  This pizza was fantastic!

Somebody wanted a lot of toppings so they took a square from the center.

Francis could not contain himself.  Look at his little nails digging into my thigh.

The grounds were beautiful and everyone there seemed to be having a great time on this lovely Sunday.

We knew that each pizza was made for 2 or 3 people but we didn't drive almost 2 hours to not have leftovers.

We also saved room for ice cream from Madison WI.  Donna got the most colorful one and it was delicious.

We took our ice creams for a hike and showed them some birds and insects.  We saw some beautiful butterflies.

The farm's herb garden was looking good.

Donna found the goat feeder and had quarters on hand thanks to our pinball habit.

Ross, the white goat, got excited when he heard the goat feeder getting fed a quarter.

And went to the fence to meet Donna.

I had to stay 10 feet away because I was with Francis so this is the best I could do.  Norman, the black goat, activated as Donna approached with the goat food.

Donna ended up buying a few handfuls of goat feed so everyone could have some.

We ended up picking up 3 new counties in light purple.  We drove almost 200 miles round trip and we picked up a lot of new highway miles.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Minne Golf, check it out.  We played free mini golf downtown.

Minne Golf

 Minneapolis, MN

It might look like I crashed into Donna with a golf cart but it's not a real golf cart.

Free Mini Golf!

Today we walked down Nicolette Plaza to play some free miniature golf or mini golf or Minne Golf.  The Dayton Project is where Dayton's used to be.  Now it's a series of open vendors like doughnut shops and coffee shops and closed stalls.  There is a big open area with nothing in it so they opened up a miniature golf course and you can play it for free so we did!  It was 9 super cute holes.

Donna is perfecting her approach.

On the first hole you stuff your ball into the hole at the top of the Foshay Tower (a downtown landmark).

This is the Spoonbridge and Cherry hole.  The Spoonbridge and Cherry art installation is in the Sculpture Garden and iconic.

The Skyway hole was pretty fun.  We will explore more of the Skyway here when the weather gets colder.

It's One, Two, Three Strikes your out and obviously I'm not a golfer.

This is two holes.  One hole 8 you follow the Mississippi River and then you go over the bridge for hole 9.

It was a fun course and it was even more fun because it was free.  Donna beat me by two strokes. 

That's it for today.  If you missed, The Best Fair in the US - Part 3 The Rides, check it out.

The Best Fair in the US - Part 3 The Rides

 St. Paul, MN

Donna and I made it into the local newspaper during our fair visit

We Rode Some Rides

The other day we went to the Minnesota State Fair and did so much we had to break it into 3 parts.  You can see the other two parts here and here.  Now normally I am not a fair ride rider.  They are usually too expensive, too rickety, and not my kind of fun BUT the Minnesota State Fair, in addition to carnival rides, has permanent rides that have been on the property for years and years.  These are the rides I gravitate towards.  

When we first arrived we saw The Haunted.  We chose not to experience this because it wasn't a ride, it was a walk through, but it is a very popular attraction for some of the locals.  The Haunted House is a privately owned attraction that is only open a small part of the year and employs about 90 temporary employees yearly.  

Is it The Haunted House or The Haunted Mansion?

The first real ride we rode on was Ye Old Mill.  It's a permanent attraction and is a water flume ride. We were expecting a sort of old school dark ride and what we got was a lot less!   I guess we would have had different expectations if we had known it had been around since 1915.  It is known as the "Original Tunnel of Love" by some.  

The couple in front of us was getting ready to "Make Out" on Ye Old Mill.

After paying our $5 each, we were loaded into a boat.

We were both surprised how rapidly the boat moved.  Apparently fixes were made so the boats wouldn't get "Swamped" and block the ride.

The ride was basically long stretches of pitch black areas that were very disorienting mixed in with brief views of weird displays.  I just barely managed to snap this shot.

At the end of the ride we were underwhelmed but kind of glad we rode it. 

If you aren't planning on visiting The Minnesota State Fair and want some spoilers you can watch this video.

Our 2nd and only other ride was The SkyGlider.  This is one of 2 Gondola style rides.  This one is more of a chairlift ride.  It was $6 and gave good views of the fairgrounds.  We were both surprised at how long the ride was.  

Waiting in the fairly short line for the SkyGlider

Apparently throwing underwear off of the SkyGlider is an old tradition that they are trying to end. 

While we were riding The SkyGlider it began to rain.  We were just about done anyway.  By the time we got to the car it was raining pretty hard and we were glad we got to the fair really early.  It was a great day and we would go again.

That's it for today.  If you missed, The Best Fair in the US - Part 2 Photos of Us, check it out.