dontcha know

So I went to Minnesota with my mom and sisters last month for a ladies' weekend getaway. Almost everyone we met in Minnesota asked us, "So... why Minnesota?" (Probably an especially peculiar destination when you consider that we all live in locales that are arguably more exotic than Minnesota?) That goes for everyone that I told about our trip beforehand too. I know—it's confusing.

Anyway, there is a series of books beloved by the Terrill women—the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace—that takes place in Minnesota, and we had sort of jokingly said once upon at time that we should go one year to the Betsy-Tacy convention that is also held in Minnesota, and then Eliza was like, "well why don't we just go to Minnesota?" So Eliza was awesome and figured out logistics and made some calls to the right people and suddenly we were all going to Minnesota and going on home tours and some people (I won't name names) were crying tears of joy/excitement upon driving up to Betsy's house on Hill Street in Mankato and it was like OH MY GOSH WE ARE FINALLY HERE. I'm serious when I say that these were very important books in our house. If you want to be a believer, you can borrow them from me sometime, as well as the very rare Betsy-Tacy Companion.

Here are some pictures of the BT sites in Minneapolis and Mankato—I did a really bad job documenting because everyone in the car had a camera phone and a real camera and after a while I just left the photographing up to them.

Thoughtfully observing the commemorative rock placed on the site of the Hart (Ray) home in Minneapolis

Walking through the cute Lowry Hill East neighborhood of Minneapolis with our tour guide—amazing Victorian houses and so many friendly people. Everyone was really nice to us as we lingered outside their pretty homes.

In front of Maud and Delos' (Betsy and Joe's) first apartment after getting married

Bick's (Tacy's) house in Mankato!

Bick's house and Maud's (Betsy's) across the street are designated "literary landmarks"—apparently there are only a handful of these across the US.

Our funny tour guide in Mankato (this was taken inside Betsy's Hill Street house!). Suffice it to say, after an hour of listening to her "Minnesota nice," our group could only talk in Minnesota accents for the rest of the trip.

The other part of the trip involved a mini-pilgrimage to Walnut Grove for the Little House fans in our midst. I confess, I read these books once as a kid and I really liked them but I am not as well versed in all things Ingall as my sisters and mom are. It was also really cold and windy (those pioneers were not exaggerating about how fast those brushfires probably spread) and I was feeling especially uncomfortable and pregnant that day, and hungry because there is literally one restaurant in Walnut Grove, so I wasn't as into touring around that day. It was a funny little town and an even funnier little "museum," if you can really call it that. But we got this picture, which made the whole trip worth it for me:

Till next time, Minnesota!