This past weekend*, my mother-in-law and her husband visited from New Jersey. John and I were somewhat at a loss as to how we were going to entertain them. In the back of my mind, I knew we could always go to a museum, but I felt like doing something outdoors, especially since we were experiencing unseasonable warmth, coupled with sunshine. I’m not even sure how the idea made it through my brain’s thick gray matter, but there it was—the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota, down river on the Mississippi.
When my mother, sister, and I took our October trip to Lake Pepin, Wabasha was on my long list of towns to visit, but neither my sis nor my mother were much interested in seeing eagles. I don’t think my in-laws would otherwise have been much interested either, but it seemed like a perfect kid-centric outing.
I drove the little boys. We listened to Bill Cosby’s I Began Life as a Child all the way to Wabasha, and all the way back to St. Paul, the boys laughing at the same jokes each time. The first half of the drive was pretty lackluster, the scenery dominated by endless expanses of farmland. I reminisced about the countless times I traveled to Red Wing in the 90s for St. Martin’s Press. Not once on those twenty-one trips did I ever venture beyond the St. James Hotel, which housed Red Wing Books—a travesty I corrected with promises for many returns.
Immediately outside of Red Wing, still on Highway 61 (the Great River Road), the bluffs that line the river appeared. Simon imagined that the limestone hills, with their rugged faces, were sleeping giants, as in the Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles series, and that when they awoke, the giants would fight. Soon, we reached frozen Lake Pepin, an obvious widening in the Mississippi River. Two eagles, the first we would see that day, flew just over the tree line.
In Wabasha, we took Highway 60 across the river to Nelson, Wisconsin, where, without a street address, we found the Original Nelson Cheese Factory because Nelson is just that small. Located in a former creamery, the Nelson Cheese Factory, which no longer makes cheese, boasts a deli with a large cheese selection (including fresh cheese curds and string cheese), sausages, and imported crackers and cookies. Or, you can eat in, ordering food from a menu that features hot and cold sandwiches, soups and salads, and pizzas.
After filling our bellies with sandwiches and ice cream cones and shopping for souvenirs (spicy lamb sticks, lamb summer sausage, and skinny string cheese), we crossed the river again, through the Mississippi River Wildlife Refuge, back to Wabasha.
The National Eagle Center (NEC) sits right on the river. Prow windows cover a two-story expanse and allow grand views to nesting areas (above), where we saw—with the naked eye—a number of eagles in trees. Binoculars and telescopes gave us sharper focus on the magnificent birds. The NEC has three resident eagles (very top photo), each with damaged wings, which now are part of the center’s educational programs.
I look forward to spending more time around Lake Pepin, and I know we’ll make repeat visits to the National Eagle Center.
*Important note: the Wednesday field trip doesn’t need to have been taken on Wednesday, merely reported then, which I did not make clear in my introductory note.
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