On the 16th of this month, Brycie and I took (almost all of) our kids to do some sight-seeing in town. We started by visiting the Octagon House, in Hudson, Wisconsin. I had visited this historic site once before, but it had been a while. Brycie said she’d never been there, despite living in Hudson for a long time, so I figured we should fix that.

I am sorry to say I almost didn’t take any pictures, but it was fascinating to learn about (be reminded of?) the interesting ways people lived in the 19th Century. For example, did you know hair art was a thing? People collected their hair in little specially-made containers, then, when they had enough, they’d twist and loop and braid it and make art.

I did take one picture, right as we were leaving. I thought this was pretty cool:

Then, after one of the kids ditched us to go to work, the rest of us carried on to Taylor’s Falls, Minnesota. We lunched at a 50s-style diner, then walked up a steep hill to the Folsom House. Like the Octagon House, this is an historic home from the 19th century. Unlike the Octagon House, the Folsom House is one of the Minnesota Historical Society’s twenty-six sites. I told the docent of my goal of visiting all 26 sites, and she then told me that three sites are closing indefinitely starting on September first. The three are nowhere near each other, and a bit tough to get to on short notice, but I am going to try my best to get to at least one of them by month’s end.

Again, no photos. Oops.

Again, we were told about and shown examples of hair art. So…that made for an interesting day.