La Crosse, WI Part I

Pamela is a bridesmaid for a wedding in Wisconsin.  At first she was going to travel to the wedding on her own, but the more she thought about it, the more she wanted me to come along.  She was very excited to get a fantastic deal with the airline and I was able to get the days off work and get a sub for my classes.

We arrived by plane on Thursday.  After having a large amount of difficulty getting our rental car that we had prepaid for we finally cancelled the reservation and made a new one.  The drive was very pretty and it was fun to see so many Native American names as we drove, it made me think of our years in Pinon a little.  We got to the hotel in Onalaska much later than planned and went to bed fairly quickly.

Yesterday we decided to check out La Crosse.  Pamela asked me to get a lot of foliage photos for her students.

The first place we went was Grandad Bluff.  This is an important historical site because it is the first place where a Christian worship service took place in the area, it was conducted by missionaries, non-LDS.  It was a very beautiful place from which we could see the entire area and beyond.

Afterward we decided that we had enough time to visit Riverside Park.  We drove down and immediately understood the meaning behind the name.  At this park we were able to walk right up to the mighty Mississippi.

There were also several statues in the park.  A group of children looking at a river boat, a bald eagle, and Hiawatha.  The Hiawatha statue is a little controversial since he did not live in this area but the local tribe supports the statue and so it remains.