Day 26: July 10, 2025 Rochester, Minnesota

We woke up to a drizzly rainy morning. Patti’s mom gave us towels and we were able to go out in the rain and clean some of the gravel road dust off the car from yesterday. 

After a nice lunch of leftovers, Patti and Dick went off to downtown Rochester. So many things to see in this medical destination city  (The World Famous Mayo Clinic) are under construction right now. So it was a bit of a challenge to find parking, but finally we did. 

We walked down the street and Patti had to take her picture with the downtown Rochester big graphic sign. What fun. We also saw the huge bronze doors of the Plummer Bldg which was one of the early Mayo Clinic buildings.

Where we were going was to the Mayo Clinic, Mayo Building. There we spent some time in the Heritage Museum where we learned  more about the Mayo Brothers and the original hospital that started right around the time of the Civil War. It was done with the assistance of some Roman Catholic nuns, who promised they would build the hospital and provide nursing if the doctors may would staff it providing the medical care. The doctors were at first skeptical because Rochester was a small town, not close to any large cities. But the head of the sisters felt strongly that it would be successful. Another version of if you build it, they will come. This proved to be true.

There are many interesting things in the museum, including a focus on how the Mayo brothers loved ships, as well as automobiles and road trips. Mayo has had a strong relationship with many US presidents. The museum was well done and quite interesting. 

But the main event that we were there for was the tour of the Mayo Clinic art collection. We had a very fine former clinic employee, Sarah, who spent about an hour and a half walking us through a whole variety of beautiful art, much of which should probably be in a museum. Sarah was especially interested in the stories behind the artwork, which fit our interests well.

The collection had all kinds of pieces ranging from ancient Roman mosaics to more modern prints of Andy Warhol. A centerpiece was one of the beautiful chandeliers done by Seattle artist Dale Chihuly. We have seen his blown glass in many places, including at his museum in Seattle. There was also a large bronze, naked man statue entitled “Man and Freedom”.   Dick quickly identified that we had seen work by the same sculptor, Ivan Mestrovic, when we were in Split, Croatia several years ago.

One of the more interesting sculptures that we saw was entitled  Shamrock, created by Harry Bertoia. This was created out of braised copper and it had the interesting quality of picking up sounds and vibrations, and making the metal leaves of the plant vibrate. This was one of the pieces of art that was really encouraged that people should touch it. Quite intriguing.

And then there was a stunning larger-than-life bronze statue done by Rodin. There was an interesting story about the statue and about how a male doctor ended up, convincing a benefactor to donate this wonderful statue to the collection.

It was very clear that there was so much more wonderful art throughout extensive Mayo Clinic complexes, but we got a great taste 

Then, we left downtown Rochester and went and picked up our niece, Maria. She’s home from college for the summer and we were so glad to have a chance to see her and have a nice dinner together. It was fun to catch up on her adventures and everything that she has been doing since we last saw her. She was excited to paint the basement rooms of the family house.

Then, the three of us plus Patti‘s mom Joan went off to watch Maria‘s brother, Isaac, play some really high-level pickleball. Patti and Dick and Joan had never seen pickleball  played before and were appreciative of Maria and Isaac‘s help in understanding the rules and scoring. Isaac has really been enjoying playing a lot of pickleball as well as volleyball both while he was in college and since he’s graduated as an engineer. We had a nice cheering section for Isaac and his partner who won all their matches. Pickleball is a fun combination of tennis and ping-pong, with a little bit of badminton thrown in. The ball looks like a yellow tennis ball, but is indeed a wiffle ball of hard plastic They use a paddle similar to a large ping-pong paddle. We all had a great time watching and cheering Isaac on.

For a day that started out dreary, there were a lot of really fun parts of it. It ended up in the sunshine.

Day 24 and 25: July 8 and 9, 2025 Rochester, Minnesota to Harmony, Minnesota and back

July 8 was a quieter day. Dick did a family Zoom call and spent some time on the computer. Patti was able to take her Mom, Joan, to a memorial service for one of the last of the old time neighbors who was in our neighborhood when we moved here in 1969. It was so nice to see his wife as well as the grown kids and grandkids. Patti babysat for them when she was in elementary ischool. Lots of fond memories with that family.

Back at home, Dick made one of his famous pots of hambone split pea soup. It was delicious. Then naps all the way around. 

On the 9th, first thing in the morning Dick climbed down into a window well to pull up a stray tree sapling. Then He dug up several shrubs that were dead.  He and Patti then did some further trimming. The yard is looking good with some needed TLC.

Then it was time for Dick and Patti to do a little outing to Harmony, Minnesota. The town calls themselves “the biggest small town in southeast Minnesota.”They also have the largest Amish community in Minnesota. 

Patti and Dick had a  look around the town and ate huge nacho lunch at a local restaurant.  They strolled up and down Main Street reading the very well done historical signs talking about the history of the town.

The main event was a private tour of the area with a guide. He rode along  in our car and took us throughout the area visiting farms and businesses and answering lots of questions. We so enjoyed our farm visits when we were in northeastern Ohio visiting an Amish community that we wanted to see what southern Minnesota had.

There were a lot of beautiful opportunities. This community requested no photos that included people, but we were able to enjoy ourselves and take some photos of the buggies and some of the home interiors and their farms. We also were able to talk with a number of Amish women who were running their farms and businesses. A very nice day.

We found out some interesting facts: there are a half million Amish people in the US ; and the number of people practicing the Amish religion has expanded 40% in the last 20 years, primarily due to the number of children they have, generally over six children in each family. Several of the farm-based businesses we visited were women owned, mostly because their husbands had died. The Amish in this area moved into Minnesota in the mid 1970's from places like Ohio, because the cost of farm land here was much less expensive. Our tour guide had been doing these tours for 20 years and knew not only the adults, but all of the children on the farms by name and age. In this area, Amish members are not allowed to have stores on town, but sold their goods from farms in the countryside. The basic premise for the Amish  was they want to be in the world, but not of the world. It was a fine tour, with just our guide and the two of us.

We then had some amazing ice cream. That place also sold "Lefse chips" in flavors like cool ranch and bbq. Didn’t buy some but wow!

Dinner back in Rochester was as mom’s famous tatter-tot hot dish. We don’t get the chance to eat that in California.  We are tired but pleased at this lovely day.

Day 23: July 7, 2025 Rochester MN, Cannon Falls MN and back

A nice sunny morning. Dick mowed Patti’s mom’s lawn. He thinks it has been 7 years since he mowed grass, but still remembers how. Patti helped with some of the clean up and picking upsticks and rocks. The yard looks good.

Dick did some work on the internet and on our blog.  This takes quite a bit of time, but is very relaxing and satisfying work for him to do while we travel.

Patti was pleased to be picked up by her dear friend, Ann, from the Twin Cities. They drove to Cannon Falls where they had a tasty lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant.

Then, they had a lovely walk along the river on the Cannon Valley Trail. It was shady and filled with trees along the trail. An added bonus was the black raspberries were starting to get ripe. They had to stop and pick handfuls of them. Delicious!

Back home and then Patti, Dick and Joan went to Joan’s favorite restaurant: Grandma’s Kitchen. Good old fashioned comfort food.  With a name like GRandma’s it has to be good. Yummy.

A laid back evening. All enjoyed the air conditioning after the heat outside.

Patti and Dick went for a walk and stopped to watch a  little league baseball game. There was a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement to the players. When somebody asked “what’s the score?” one of the moms replied “a lot to one team not very many to the other.” This appeared to be accurate.  It seems they stopped counting at about 21 to 3.  The walk had to be cut short because of the mosquitos.  We forget about how dusk in Minnesota means the mosquitoes are out in full force.  Something rarely have to deal with them back home. We stopped by the bench dedicated to Patti's father.  Then it was time to work on the photos before off to bed bed.